Throwback Thursday: Josie and the Pussycats

If you didn’t notice earlier this week, the first Jem and the Holograms movie trailer was released. Naturally, the Internet responded with a collective sigh and dismissed the movie not only as a pale imitation to its source material but a copy (cat) to the first rock band in comics: Josie and the Pussycats.

The Josie and the Pussycats movie, which brought the iconic Archie Comics band to life was a fine example of parodying early aughts pop culture. From the Carson Daly cameo (who dated Melody actress Tara Reid at the time) to the fashion, to, of course, current boys bands who were nothing but corporate shills. This  completely self-aware movie made light of the music industry’s power over youths and enabled frivolous consumerism among them. The Jem trailer does seem to take a few notes from the Josie movie, such as the band’s jealously towards the lead singer, and the themes on friendship and sisterhood. And while the Jem movie does take a few liberties with the story, it’s hard to top the fun musical romp that is Josie.

Released in 2001, Josie and the Pussycats starred Rachel Leigh Cook as the titular Josie, Tara Reid as Melody, and Rosario Dawson as Valerie. While Valerie originally played the tambourine in the cartoons and comics, (Valerie was also the first regularly appearing black female character on an animated program),  here she’s updated with a bass. Definitely makes for a more contemporary sound, no? At the start of the movie, they’re a struggling rock trio trying to make it. The movie open on Pussycats performing at a bowling alley (the opening track is “3 Small Words”) and discussing the struggles of a starving artist.

But their fortunes change pretty quickly when Wyatt Frame (Alan Cumming), who has to quickly replace his boy band, Du Jour, that just died in a plane crash. After intense coaxing from Frame, The Pussycats sign with MegaRecords, ran by Fiona (the delightful Parker Posey) and are whisked to New York for a whirlwind of a makeover and rechristening: Josie and the Pussycats. Josie’s new front-and-center status is initially uncomfortable for Melody and Valerie, but they are reassured that the renaming is just a bit of harmless branding ideology. The thing is though, MegaRecords uses subliminal messaging in all of their talent’s music subconsciously sway teens into buying things. There’s even a video message from Eugene Levy explaining how the government has been doing it for decades.

Under MegaRecords, the girls see their single (“Pretend to be Nice“) rapidly climb the charts after just a few months. But the situation becomes very clear for Valerie, as she suspects that both Wyatt and Fiona are scheming something. Aware of Valerie’s suspicions, Fiona sends both Valerie and Melody away while she brainwashes Josie into thinking that her bandmates are holding her back. What ensues are cameos by Carson Daly and a fake Carson Daly (played by Aries Spears), along with a fourth wall-breaking wink as Melody bashes the real Carson in the head and says she would never date a guy like him, after both Dalys try to kill the Pussycats.

Back in MegaRecords HQ, the band regroups as Valerie and Melody try to tell Josie that Wyatt and Fiona tried to kill them, but Josie being heavily brainwashed refuses to listen to them until Valerie exposes the hidden messages in the song Josie was listening to. They take the audio to a mixing board and their fears are confirmed as they can hear what Fiona and Wyatt had tried to implant into her, but at the moment, are discovered by Fiona and held hostage. With Josie by herself, she succumbs to the hypnotic messages and with MegaRecords holding a massive pay-per-view for Josie’s new solo single, and it looks to be the biggest audience they’ve ever had at one time. One tiny thing stops the production…

Du Jour is alive and back.

See, when the plane crashed, the boys were able to land right into a Metallica concert’s mosh pit. The Metallica fans totally beat them senseless, but the band managed to eventually reach safety. Du Jour and the Pussycats go after Wyatt and Fiona to destroy the brainwashing machine. The only twist–the machine isn’t delivering a corporate message, but how everybody should love Fiona. Fiona then breaks down and confesses how she once had a speech impediment and was unpopular. This causes Wyatt to make a confession of his own: he went to high school with Fiona and has loved her from afar for a long time, since he knew what it was like being an outcast. Wyatt takes off his wig and reveals his real accent and he reminisces about being an albino, and how he changed his identity after high school. Then, the government agents that have been working with Fiona arrest her and Wyatt as scapegoats for the conspiracy. 

Even with the mass hysteria, the girls put on the concert as a band. It’s a bit nerve racking as this is the first time they’ve performed without the aid of the subliminal messages so they’re unsure how the audience will perceive them. The audience explodes with applause for the band as the movie ends.

When the movie came out, it made $14M compared to the almost $40M budget and is considered as one of the bigger bombs of the year. It found a better life in home video and has a cult following of sorts. You’ve probably guessed that Cook didn’t sing the songs here, and that’s because Letters to Cleo’s own Kay Hanley did the vocal work. Here’s the thing, too, despite the film’s then critical failure, the soundtrack actually was certified gold. There’s been a few retro reviews in recent years that have taken away some of the film’s original shortcomings and actually praises it for its sly look at consumerism and music that is strictly manufactured for the sake of just to be sold with no creative spirit behind it.

Josie and the Pussycats might not have been hot at any awards shows that year (Teen Choice Awards excluded), but it lives on as a fan-favorite. Characters like Josie’s love interest Alan M and sassy Alexandra and cat Sebastian make the cut and even add to the movie’s self-awareness. The music still holds up, and it’s a great power-pop album from beginning to end. Even the Du Jour songs are hysterical, but still catchy at the same time. So who knows, maybe the Jem film could become a cult classic, but hopefully it goes down Josie self-aware route instead of say, Spice World.

Readers, were you a fan of the movie then or did it take you a few years to discover this film? Let us know!

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