Josie and the Pussycats is a 2001 film adapted from the comic of the same name, starring Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson and Tara Reid. 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 squeeing 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 subliminal messages put in your music to sell stuff, and "dying tragically" in a plane crash or from an overdose if you find out and resist. That sort of thing.
There was a huge legal brawl with Archie Comics over them getting residuals and/or royalties from the movie. In the end, the film was a Box Office Bomb, and its failure did lasting damage to Rachael Leigh Cook's film careernote . In spite of all this, it has become something of a cult hit on VHS and DVD.
This film provides examples of:
- Adapted Out: 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).
- Alpha Bitch: The unnamed ringleader of the Girl Posse 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.
- An Aesop... or several dozen: "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."
- And Your Little Dog, Too!: The Metallica fans even beat up DuJour's monkey!
- Art Shift: During the short where Eugene Levy explains how the mass brainwashing works, it shifts into 2D animation to demonstrate.
- As Himself: MTV VJs Carson Daly and Aries Spears make a brief appearance where they try to kill Melody and Valerie on a fake Total Request Live set. The scene becomes funnier if you know that, at the time the film was made, Carson was dating Tara Reid. Eugene Levy also hosts the instructional video describing why Subliminal Advertising 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 DuJour.
- Been There, Shaped History: 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 Behind the Music to explain the cover stories further.
- Creator Cameo: Director Harry Elfont is Lex, Wyatt's pilot who ditched DuJour's plane early in the movie, and is later seen piloting the jet taking Josie and crew to New York.
- Cult Soundtrack: The soundtrack to the film, an affectionate pastiche of Power Pop, Pop Punk, and Boy Band tropes, is nowadays arguably more famous than the film itself.
- Cut-and-Paste Suburb: Josie lives in one of these, though her house is painted much differently and appears to not have an actual driveway. Almost everyone there appears to have the same brown Ford Explorer.
- Deconstructive Parody: Not only of itself, but most notably of the entire music industry.
- Elaborate Underground Base: 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.
- Fanservice Car Wash: The girls' first hit on the Billboard chart is "Three Small Words", which has an accompanying music video that shows them lathering up a nice car on a soundstage.
- Invisible Parents: 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.
- Large Ham: Parker Posey and Alan Cumming are practically dueling for this title, explicitly so in the scene where they duel evil laughs.
- Live-Action Adaptation: Of the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon series, which is the Animated Adaptation of the teen comic book title.
- The Load: Alexandra, who doesn't do anything but tag along with her brother for unclear reasons; see Mythology Gag below for her response. Josie ends up recruiting her to help after the Plot-Mandated Friendship Failure for lack of any other options.
- Logo Joke: Depending on the region, the Universal globe turns into a tongue piercing on a screaming fan, or the MGM lion turns into said fan.
- Music Is Politics: 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 caught in a plane or car crash, have your friends kidnapped, etc. And then, they'll make a Behind the Music documentary telling their version of your downfall.
- Mythology Gag:
- Alex asks why his sister is even with them. She says it's because she was 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 Product Placement is for the Sega Dreamcast (at the time Sega's mascot had a long-running comic from Archie) and Cartoon Network (which aired reruns of the 1970s cartoon).
- Oblivious to Love: Alan M.
- Pair the Spares: Alexandra with DuJour's lead singer Les.
- Product Placement: Parodied by way of cranking it up to eleven. This blog
that keeps track of this trope in different films and series counts 109 instances of product placement in this single movie. It turns out to be a major plot point because, as also (partly) explained in Subliminal Advertising 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. - Reunion Revenge: While no Class Reunion 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 that kind of revenge.
- Rock is Authentic, Pop is Shallow: The entire film is a Take That! 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 Josie and the Pussycats version everyone is familiar with is bubblegum pop through and through.
- Ruder and Cruder: 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 Archie Comics.
- She Knows Too Much: Fiona and Wyatt do this to DuJour 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.
- Shout-Out:
- To Romy and Michele's High School Reunion, which also starred Alan Cumming. Here, when his character sees the girls who once hated Josie, Melody, and Valerie now worshiping them, he remarks that most people have to wait ten years for that kind of revenge.
- "Barrymore, Diaz & Liu to play Pussycats in Josie Movie!"
- Wyatt and Fiona both attended "Huntington High School", the same school from the filmmakers' previous movie, Can't Hardly Wait.
- DuJour's pet monkey is named Dr. Zaius.
- Wyatt's codephrases are shoutouts to classic songs - "take the chevy to the levy" from Don McLean's American Pie and "smells like teen spirit" from the Nirvana song of the same name.
- Subliminal Advertising: The record company is putting subliminal messages into music in order to sell consumer products.
- For example, in the scene where Fiona explains the goal of MegaRecords, the message "Can't Hardly Wait 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 "This movie is brilliant" and "Are you thinking disposable?"
- The movie itself does this with one scene, where the words "Josie and the Pussycats 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
- Take That, Audience!: 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.
- Token Romance: Alan M. and Josie really do seem tacked onto the movie as an afterthought. It may all be part of the parody, though.
- Vehicular Kidnapping: After discovering a cynical girl in the record store that seems immune to MegaRecords' brainwashing, Wyatt none-too-subtly intones "smells like 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 unwilling test subject for the headphones to be used during Josie's concert to brainwash the audience.
- Wimp Fight: Josie and Fiona's fight at the end descends into this, the two of them harmlessly slapping at each other and squealing.
