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- This article is about Universal Studios' 2001 Josie and the Pussycats film. For other uses, please see Josie and the Pussycats.
Josie and the Pussycats is a 2001 comedy film released by Universal Pictures and Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, and starred Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, Rosario Dawson, Parker Posey, and Alan Cumming. It is based upon the Archie comic of the same name, which had been adapted into a Saturday morning cartoon by Hanna-Barbera in 1970.
Plot
Wyatt Frame (Cumming) is a record excutive, working for record label MegaRecords. The label, headed by the trendy and scheming Fiona (Posey) pumps out pop bands and, through an arrangement with the United States government, gets teens to buy their records and follow "a new trend every week" by putting subliminal messages under the music. A fill-in-the-blank phrase of the film is "Orange is the new pink". The US government's motive is building a robust economy from "wads" of free cash teens earn from babysitting and minimum wage jobs. When a member of Wyatt's wildly successful boy band, Du Jour, uncovers one such subliminal message and, with innocent concern, asks him about it aboard Du Jour’s private jet, Wyatt parachutes out with the pilot, leaving the plane to crash.
He lands just outside the town of Riverdale, in which he meets Josie (Leigh Cook), Melody (Reid), and Valerie (Dawson), members of the financially struggling band The Pussycats. He offers them a lucrative record deal, and they are flown off to Hollywood where they are renamed Josie and the Pussycats. All is going well, until Valerie gets angry that the focus of the band is not on them as a whole, but only Josie (who somehow does not notice this shift). Melody, too simple or uncaring to notice the attention Josie receives, uses her uncanny behavioral perception and becomes suspicious of Fiona and Wyatt.
Because of these suspicions, an attempt is made to kill Valerie and Melody. Meanwhile, Josie is brainwashed by subliminal messages to try to push her into a solo career. Josie soon realizes that the music has subliminal messages, and with Val and Mel, go to the studio to investigate, where their suspicions are confirmed. They are caught by Wyatt. With a giant pay-per-view concert upcoming, whereby Fiona and Wyatt can unleash their biggest subliminal message scheme yet, Josie is forced to perform on stage, or else Mel and Val will meet their certain doom. This leads to a fight scene where the members of DuJour, who were thought to be dead, appear just in time to help the Pussycats. In the end Wyatt and Fiona are arrested by the government for crimes against the youth of America. The subliminal music program is scrapped (it was near termination anyway) and the government begins to use movies instead.
Josie, Valerie, and Melody go on to perform the concert (minus the subliminal messages). For the first time, the audience is able to judge the band on its merits, rather than be subliminally persuaded to like the band. The audience roars its approval as the film comes to a close.
Trivia
- In line with its theme of subliminal advertising, the inordinate degree of product placement in the movie constitutes a running joke. Almost every scene features a mention or appearance of one or more famous brands, including the likes of Motorola, Starbucks, Pizza Hut, Cartoon Network, and more. None of the advertisement was paid promotion by the represented brands, it was inserted voluntarily by the filmmakers.
- Russ Leatherman, the creator and voice of Mr. Moviefone, is the voice of the subliminal messages. As Fiona says, "That's Mr. Moviefone. He does all our subliminal messages."
- Josie and the Pussycats are based in Midvale in the comics, not Riverdale (home town of Archie and the gang) as portrayed in the movie.
- Alan M. is actually a big and muscular guy in the comics, yet he appears slimmer in the movie.
- The singing voice of Josie was recorded by Kay Hanley. Songs for the film were written by Adam Duritz of Counting Crows, Adam Schlesinger of Fountains of Wayne and Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds, who also makes a cameo in the film.
- The film grossed $14,300,000 at the US box office, resulting in a loss.
- The MPAA gave Josie and the Pussycats a PG-13 rating, "for language and mild sensuality". Archie Comics was not happy at the rating, and went so far as to post two disclaimers on its website: "Heh, Josie, PG 13 -- say it isn't so!! What's up with that?!?" and "Astonished Alan M. exclaims, 'PG-13 -- Not My Cats!' (written from the perspective of Josie character Alan M.) . When Universal released the film on video, it, at Archie Comics' request, had a PG-rated "family friendly" edit of the film released alongside the theatrical version. The differences between the two are minor, consisting of dialogue changes (to remove harsher PG-13 level language) and a few double entendres (both in the dialogue and on screen) revolving around the word "pussy".
- Donald Faison, Seth Green, and Breckin Meyer give uncredited cameos as the members of the band Du Jour. Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds also makes an uncredited cameo, appearing as "the Chief", supposedly the lost third member of the '70s group Captain & Tennille. Carson Daly, Aries Spears, and Eugene Levy also make uncredited appearances in the film, playing themselves.
External links
2001 films | Teen comedy films | Films based on Archie Comics | Teen films
"Josie and the Pussycats (film)"