History Film / JosieAndThePussyCats

[[quoteright:300:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/Josie_and_the_Pussycats_film_poster.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:300:''[[TitleThemeTune "...long tails and ears for hats..."]]'']]

''Josie and the Pussycats'' is a 2001 film adapted from [[Comicbook/JosieAndThePussycats the comic of the same name]], starring Creator/RachaelLeighCook, Creator/RosarioDawson and Creator/TaraReid. It is about the titular all-female rock band getting the deal of a lifetime after struggling as an indie band -- a record deal with [=MegaRecords=], one of the largest music labels in the world.

Within a week, the band has skyrocketed to the top of the charts, and a legion of {{squee}}ing fans is following their every move. Unfortunately, there was some fine print in the contract that they should've read before they signed... you know, some stuff about having [[SubliminalAdvertising subliminal messages]] put in your music to sell stuff, and "dying tragically" in a plane crash or from an overdose if you [[HeKnowsTooMuch find out]] and resist. That sort of thing.

There was a ''huge'' legal brawl with Creator/ArchieComics over them getting residuals and/or royalties from the movie. In the end, the film was a BoxOfficeBomb, and its failure [[StarDerailingRole did lasting damage]] to Rachael Leigh Cook's film career[[note]](she's been relegated to DirectToVideo and {{Made For TV Movie}}s ever since)[[/note]]. In spite of all this, it has become something of a cult hit on VHS and DVD.

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!!This film provides examples of:

%%* AmbiguouslyGay: Du Jour's "Backdoor Lover" song.
* AdaptedOut: No other Archie Comics characters appear, though weirdly the Pussycats' hometown is Riverdale (as opposed to the comics, where they lived in the nearby town of Midvale).
* AlphaBitch: The unnamed ringleader of the GirlPosse who harasses Josie, Melody and Valerie early in the film, only to show up as (likely brainwashed) fans later on. Alexandra isn't this, however, since she apparently has no friends other than her brother and only makes the catty remarks out of jealousy.
* AnAesop... [[SpoofAesop or several dozen]]: "[[LampshadeHanging So, what's the moral of the story here]]? Freaks should date other freaks?" "No, I think the moral of the story here is you should be happy with who you are. This whole time we've been spending all this money on expensive clothes trying to impress people, it never made ''me'' happy. No... no, oh my gosh, happiness is on the inside. I'm not ''this'', I'm not what I wear. ''I'm not what I wear!'' You should think about this."
* AndYourLittleDogToo: The Metallica fans even beat up Du Jour's ''monkey''!
* ArtShift: During the short where Eugene Levy explains how the mass brainwashing works, it shifts into 2D animation to demonstrate.
* AsHimself: Creator/{{MTV}} [=VJs=] Carson Daly and Aries Spears make a brief appearance where they try to kill Melody and Valerie on a fake ''TRL'' set. The scene becomes funnier if you know that, at the time the film was made, [[RealitySubtext Carson was dating Tara Reid]]. [[Film/AmericanPie Eugene Levy]] also hosts the instructional video describing why SubliminalAdvertising is so important to the economy, and MTV News anchor Serena Altschul makes an appearance. ''Entertainment Tonight'' reporter Jann Carl also appears at the beginning interviewing Du Jour.
* AsideGlance: Upon 'discovering' the Pussycats, Wyatt gives one of the smuggest [[AsideGlance Aside Glances]] in cinematic history.
* BandageMummy: [[spoiler:Du Jour shows up at the end having survived the plane crash... albeit horribly, horribly injured. Though it wasn't the crash that caused the injuries, they landed the plane safely.... in the parking lot of a Music/{{Metallica}} concert. The lead singer is the only one not in a full body cast, and that was only because he knew the lyrics to Metallica's "Enter Sandman". When they attempt to stop Fiona's plot, they can barely move and one of them gets knocked over.]]
* BeautifulAllAlong: Inverted. [[spoiler:The diva-ish record executive Fiona turns out to be Lisa Snyder, a nerdy girl with buck teeth who speaks with a lisp, and tries to put subliminal messages into her label's music to get everybody to like her. Meanwhile, Wyatt Frame, the suave Brit, turns out to be "White-Ass Wally," an albino American with a beer gut -- and one of Fiona/Lisa's former classmates. They cover up their looks using makeup, veneers and fake accents.]]
* BeenThereShapedHistory: Fiona implies that the countless musical acts who've retired, died or left their bands are cover stories for the musicians finding out about the conspiracy and then being killed or otherwise taken care of to prevent them from spreading the truth; they even created ''Series/BehindTheMusic'' to explain the cover stories further.
* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:Du Jour, previously thought to be dead in a plane crash]], at the end. Subverted since, given they're badly injured, they can't really do anything, though their arrival does distract Fiona and Wyatt long enough to give Josie an opportunity to free Mel and Val.
* BoyBand: Du Jour is a parody of boy bands.
* {{Brainwashed}}: The evil executives use SubliminalSeduction to brainwash Josie and turn her into a bitchy diva.
%%* ConcertKiss
* ButNotTooBlack: Valerie is a dark-skinned black girl in the original comic and animated television series. Here, she is portrayed by the light-skinned Afro-Latina actress Rosario Dawson.
* CoolLoser: The Pussycats at the beginning of the film. Yes, that's right. Rachael Leigh Cook, Creator/RosarioDawson and Tara Reid are presented as ''unpopular''. Gotta love Hollywood.
* CorruptCorporateExecutive: Fiona.
* CreatorCameo: Director Harry Elfont is Lex, Wyatt's pilot who ditched Du Jour's plane early in the movie, and is later seen piloting the jet taking Josie and crew to New York.
* CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass: Melody unexpectedly turns out to be an amazing martial artist.
* CultSoundtrack: The soundtrack to the film, an affectionate pastiche of PowerPop, PopPunk, and BoyBand tropes, is nowadays arguably more famous than the film itself.
* CutAndPasteSuburb: Josie lives in one of these, though her house is painted much differently and appears to not have an actual driveway. [[EveryoneDrivesAFord Almost everyone there appears to have the same brown Ford Explorer.]]
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: After Josie asks the others they think Wyatt's offer of a record deal is a "little off", Melody, apparently accurately, noted the way he folded his ''napkin'' as an indicator of how lonely he is.
** She also notes that she got a chill up her spine when interacting with Fiona, and her perception is completely true.
* DeconstructiveParody: Not only of itself, but most notably of the entire music industry.
* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: Du Jour's hit single, "Backdoor Lover".
* ElaborateUndergroundBase: Megarecords has one to determine all the latest trends and handle all the product placement. It's accessed when Fiona hits hidden buttons in her zen garden, causing her entire office to somehow travel down like an elevator.
* EvilDiva: Fiona. Subverted in that she doesn't actually make or perform the music, but is rather the CEO of a record company. The band is also unwittingly turned into these as a result of her actions.
* EvilIsPetty: All of the conspiracy, million of dollars of technology, and nearly getting the girls killed, and the endgame plan... [[spoiler:is to get people to think how cool Fiona is.]] Just... wow.
%%* EvilLaugh
* FakeNationality: Both out- and InUniverse: [[spoiler:Alan Cumming's character turns out to be an American. In other words, you've got a Scottish man [[FakeAmerican playing an American]] who's [[FakeBrit pretending to be English]].]] That sound you just heard was [[YourHeadASplode your head exploding]].
* ForTheEvulz: For no apparent reason, Wyatt seems to be deliberately degrading and trivializing Valerie from the very start; he leaves her on the side of the street when their car starts, delivers only two invitations to the party instead of three, etc. There seems to be no actual ''goal'' here, since he is not trying to force her out of the band or split up the friendship (at least, not until later, when [[HeKnowsTooMuch she starts asking questions]]). It really seems like he is torturing her [[ForTheEvulz just to see her squirm]]. On the DVD commentary, they say it's because [[NobodyLovesTheBassist she's the bass player]]. In addition, he's trying to force the Pussycats into ''his'' vision of the band (Josie as the FaceOfTheBand, with Valerie and Melody as backup). The reason he isn't grinding down Mel too is because she's [[TheDitz obviously going to be far less trouble]]. On a more sinister level, he might even be deliberately laying future seeds of conflict to keep the Pussycats too distracted with infighting to stumble across the truth like Du Jour did.
%% * GettingCrapPastThe Radar: Due to overwhelming and persistent misuse, GCPTR is on-page examples only until 01 June 2021. If you are reading this in the future, please check the trope page to make sure your example fits the current definition.
* GlamourFailure: Occurs twice with [[spoiler:Fiona when her veneers start slipping out of place, causing her to start lisping]]. The first time it happens, [[spoiler:she's able to quickly fix it and claim that it was just food stuck in her teeth]], while the second time, [[spoiler:it marks her VillainousBreakdown]].
* HiddenDepths: Most of the members of Du Jour seem to have these: DJ's apparently into meditation, while Marco named his monkey Dr. Zaius (after a character from ''Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes''). [[spoiler: Les only survived the group's mass beatdown by the Metallica fans thanks to knowing the lyrics to "Enter Sandman" by heart.]]
* HotterAndSexier: Their outfits are just a tad hotter than one-piece swimsuits and leopard tights.
* InvisibleParents: No parents in sight for any of the band members. It seems the girls are out of high school at least, but it's not clear if the house they're seen living in at the beginning is in fact theirs or not.
* LargeHam: Creator/ParkerPosey and Creator/AlanCumming are practically ''dueling'' for this title, explicitly so in the scene where they ''duel'' evil laughs.
* LiveActionAdaptation: Of the Creator/HannaBarbera Saturday morning cartoon series, which is the AnimatedAdaptation of the teen comic book title.
* TheLoad: Alexandra, who doesn't do anything but tag along with her brother for unclear reasons; see below for her response. Josie ends up recruiting her to help after the PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure for lack of any other options.
* LogoJoke: Depending on the region, the Universal globe turns into a tongue piercing on a screaming fan, or the MGM lion turns into said fan.
%%* MassHypnosis
* MeaningfulName: Du Jour, the band of the day.
* MusicIsPolitics: The movie in general parodies this -- not willing to go along with brainwashing America's youth, or at least discover the hidden subliminal messages in your music? You'll be [[MakeItLookLikeAnAccident caught in a plane or car crash]], have your friends kidnapped, etc.
* MythologyGag: Alex asks why his sister is even with them. She says it's because she was [[LeaningOnTheFourthWall in the comics]].
** The top of the billboard with the Pussycats on it in Times Square has Josie atop it, written in the same font as the pre-Pussycats Josie comics.
** Some of the ProductPlacement is for the UsefulNotes/SegaDreamcast (at the time [[Franchise/SonicTheHedgehog Sega's mascot]] had a [[ComicBook/SonicTheHedgehogArchieComics long-running comic from Archie]]) and Creator/CartoonNetwork (which aired reruns of the 1970s cartoon).
* NotQuiteDead: [[spoiler:Du Jour. They managed to safely land the plane after Wyatt and the pilot jumped out and left them for dead... only they landed it in the parking lot of a Music/{{Metallica}} [[OhCrap concert]].]]
-->"I thank God every day that I knew the lyrics to 'Enter Sandman'."
* ObliviousToLove: Alan M.
* OohMeAccentsSlipping: [[http://www.archiecomics.com/characters/josie/josie.html Midvale]] [[WhereTheHellIsSpringfield is in the Upper Midwest.]] How do we know? Because Rachael Leigh Cook's Minnes''oo''ta accent keeps slipping through.
* OnlyOneName: Fiona doesn't seem to have a last name. [[spoiler:Technically it's Snyder, but her alias seems to lack one.]]
* OnlySaneMan: As the opening scene would indicate, Les seems to be the only member of Du Jour who has his head on straight, given his lack of fighting with the other three. [[spoiler: This is exemplified by being the only band member to avoid being put in a body cast by the Metallica fans.]]
* PairTheSpares: Alexandra with [[spoiler:Du Jour's lead singer Les]].
* PlotMandatedFriendshipFailure: An EnforcedTrope, to [[spoiler:keep the Pussycats from catching on like Du Jour did to the mass-brainwashing scheme.]]
* ProductPlacement: Parodied by way of cranking it UpToEleven.
** It turns out to be a major plot point because, as also (partly) explained in SubliminalAdvertising below, the United States government has conspired with the music industry to add subliminal messages as backing tracks to pop music in order to brainwash teenagers into buying consumer products (and other things, like how "there's no such place as Area 51"), hence the over-the-top array of Product Placement throughout the film.
* ReunionRevenge: While no ClassReunion is featured in the film, when the girls who usually mocked Josie and her friends started worshiping them, Wyatt told them most people had to wait 10 years for [[ActorAllusion that kind]] [[Film/RomyAndMichelesHighSchoolReunion of revenge]].
* RockIsAuthenticPopIsShallow: The entire film is a TakeThat towards the music industry and manufactured pop music (and it some cases, ''itself''); the struggling Pussycats band gets the record deal of the lifetime but they have their music laden with subliminal messages and commercials. Ironic considering that the ''WesternAnimation/JosieAndThePussycats'' version everyone is familiar with is bubblegum pop through and through.
%%* RockTrio
* RuderAndCruder: ''Josie and the Pussycats'' is cruder than the source material, with jokes relating to the word "pussy" heard in the film. It's a sharp turn from the comic, which was an all-ages title from ''Creator/ArchieComics''.
* SheFu: Melody surprises everybody during the climactic fight scene.
* [[HeKnowsTooMuch She Knows Too Much]]: Fiona and Wyatt do this to Du Jour and prepare to do this to the Pussycats. When Fiona explains the mass-brainwashing scheme to her tour group she states that the industry has been doing this for years -- they even created ''Behind the Music'' to explain the cover stories.
* ShoutOut:
** To ''Film/RomyAndMichelesHighSchoolReunion'', which also starred Creator/AlanCumming.
** "''[[Film/CharliesAngels2000 Barrymore, Diaz & Liu]] to play Pussycats in Josie Movie!''"
** [[spoiler:Wyatt]] and [[spoiler:Fiona]] both attended "Huntington High School", the same school from the filmmakers' previous movie, ''Film/CantHardlyWait''.
** Du Jour's pet monkey is named [[Franchise/PlanetOfTheApes Dr. Zaius]].
%%* StealthParody
* SubliminalAdvertising: The record company is putting subliminal messages into music in order to sell consumer products.
** For example, in the scene where Fiona explains [[EvilPlan the goal]] of [=MegaRecords=], the message "''Film/CantHardlyWait'' was under-rated" scrolls by, superimposed in the foreground. Both this film and ''Can't Hardly Wait'' were written and directed by Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont. Other messages include "[[BreakingTheFourthWall This movie is brilliant]]" and "Are you thinking disposable?"
** The movie itself does this with one scene, where the words "''Josie and the Pussycats'' [[ShamelessSelfPromoter is the best movie ever]]!" are quickly flashed up on the screen and read out by Mr. Moviefone, with the words "Join the Army" in smaller print below.[[note]]That example is really more [[WesternAnimation/TheSimpsons superliminal]] rather than subliminal. Creator/RogerEbert took the film to task for calling the hidden messages "subliminal" when they are in fact subaural.[[/note]]
* TakeThatAudience: You know, it takes real guts to make a film where the ''whole freakin' plot'' is about how your audience is full of brainwashed idiots who are incapable of thinking for themselves.
* TakeOurWordForIt: We never actually ''see'' [[spoiler:Du Jour getting their asses kicked at the Metallica concert]], but judging by the full-body casts that they're wearing (except for the guy who knew the words to "Enter Sandman" -- and even he's pretty messed up), we can only guess what happened.
* TokenRomance: Alan M. and Josie really do seem tacked onto the movie as an afterthought. It may all be part of the parody, though.
* VerbalBackpedaling: Became an OverlyLongGag with Fiona.
* VehicularKidnapping: After discovering a cynical girl in the record store that seems immune to Mega Records' brainwashing, Wyatt none too subtly intones "[[Music/{{Nirvana}} Smells like]] [[WaxingLyrical teen spirit]]" into his jacket sleeve. Moments later, an overhead door flies open, the cynical girl gets grabbed by nameless mooks and tossed into a waiting van, and is then driven away. She's later seen as an uwilling test subject for the headphones to be used during Josie's concert to brainwash the audience.
* WaxingLyrical: Wyatt's code phrases are lines from famous songs:
** "Take the chevy to the levee" is a line from "{{Music/AmericanPie}}" by {{Music/DonMcLean}}.
** "Smells like teen spirit" is the title of {{Music/Nirvana}}'s best known song.
* WeakWilled: While all of the Pussycats (and everyone else exposed) falls for the subliminal messages very easily, Melody goes the extra mile. After a few seconds exposure:
-->'''Melody:''' I want a Big Mac!\\
'''Valerie:''' But, Mel, you're a vegetarian.\\
'''Melody:''' I know, but suddenly I want one!
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* GirlNextDoorTurnedSuperstar: Josie McCoy is the lead singer and guitarist of Josie and the Pussycats, a local band in Midvale. She lives in meager house at the end of a cul-de-sac, and plays gigs for a pittance. One of her detractors notes, "Oh look: [Josie] held a concert, and nobody came." By happenstance, the Pussycats catch the attention of Wyatt Frame, who signs them on to Mega Records. This company propels the Pussycats to #1 on the Billboard chart, though this is done by subliminal suggestion added as a track in their album.

* RealityEnsues: [[spoiler:Du Jour shows up at the end having survived the plane crash... albeit horribly, horribly injured. Though it wasn't the crash that caused the injuries, they landed the plane safely.... in the parking lot of a Music/{{Metallica}} concert. The lead singer is the only one not in a full body cast, and that was only because he knew the lyrics to Metallica's "Enter Sandman". When they attempt to stop Fiona's plot, they can barely move and one of them gets knocked over.]]