The live film version of
Preteen fashion market targeted
the hit '70s cartoon strays
in its message but still dazzles
Josie and the Pussycats
PG-13 /
Showing at Dole Cannery, Enchanted Lake, Kahala, Kapolei, Koolau, Mililani, Pearlridge West, Pearl Highlands, Restaurant Row
By Scott Vogel The fact that Josie and the Pussycats is not today considered among the top bands of the 1970s is one of the great tragedies of contemporary music. To what is their obscurity attributable? Experts disagree. On the one hand, Josie, Melody and Valerie were ahead of their time, pushing the envelope in ways a benighted public couldn't then accept. They were an all-girl group, of course, but the Pussycats weren't some Berry Gordy brainchild. They were real rock 'n' roll women -- living from hotel room to hotel room, traveling the road alone, with only a guitar, drum set and tambourine for company.
Star-BulletinAnd then there's the matter of Valerie, a black girl who, with every shake of her tambourine, forced a reluctant Saturday-morning America to confront the realities of racial division, not to mention the healing power of bubble gum pop. Needless to say, the Pussycats were not without their detractors, a narrow-minded cadre that couldn't decide what it hated more -- the band's implicit interracial message or its skimpy, leotard cat suits.
But the dazzling versatility of Josie et al. -- their ability to create tuneful pop while fighting crime -- engendered a great deal of resentment within the rock community. Given that, it was just a matter of time before the Pussycats faded into the dustbin of music history, where they might have remained without the good people at Universal Pictures.
"Josie and the Pussycats," the live-action bio-pic, aims to buffet the band's posthumous reputation, luxuriating in every detail of this most improbable rags-to-riches tale.
It's all here: the Pussycats' humble beginnings as a pick-up band at the Riverdale bowling alley, their unlikely discovery by an agent at Mega Records (Alan Cumming), Josie's on-again-off-again romance with roadie Alan M. (Gabriel Mann), the crime-fighting, and of course the requisite you-messed-with-the-wrong-pussy martial arts climax.
As for the film's performances, there is a curiously tentative quality here that can only be ascribed to the pressure to satisfy the Pussycats' legion of fans. As Josie, Rachael Leigh Cook was particularly colorless, capturing the winsome innocence of the bandleader but not her grit. Rosario Dawson made a most attractive Valerie, yet the actress seemed to forget that Val was more than a tambourine player -- she was the brains behind the band. (Giving her a guitar is not a suitable substitute.) On the plus side, Dawson perfectly communicated the strain of living in Josie's shadow.Most successful, however, was Tara Reid as the deceptively bubble-headed Melody. A perfect combination of ditzy and determined, Reid ("American Pie") once again amazed us with her instinctive feel for the motivations of cartoon characters, and she walked away with the picture. Mind that you don't get typecast, Tara!
Less authentic is the script, which for some reason grafts an anti-consumerist, anti-corporate message onto the action, with unhappy results. Even as they begin their conquest of the pop landscape, Josie and the gang notice something odd about their fans. They seem to be nothing but brainless automatons who slavishly rely on television and advertising for a sense of self.
Vapid and conformist, the kids parrot buzz phrases like "blue is the new pink" or "Gatorade is the new Snapple," inhabiting a world -- and a film -- of which every inch is covered in garish advertisements.
Eventually the Pussycats de-robotize their fans, of course, but not before uncovering the source of the brainwashing, a vast conspiracy that turns out to involve everyone from record executives to government agents, Mr. Moviephone and Carson Daly.
And Universal -- which, in sending-up the film's product placements -- hopes to appear outraged by the barely-fictional world it created.
True, there's something horrifying about shower curtains adorned with McDonald's arches and airplane cabins splashed with ads for Bounce. But it's nothing that's going to prevent us from buying hamburgers or fabric softener. Which of course is the point.
Music sets the tone for girls' fashion trends. While actual teen-agers are already twentysomething wannabes, it's the "tweens" -- girls who aren't quite teens yet -- who may style themselves after Britney Spears, Christina Aguilera and Mandy Moore, songstresses-turned-sirens with low-slung hiphuggers and halters. ‘Josie’ taps into
By Samantha Critchell
preteen frenzy for
music and fashion
Associated PressThe latest hopeful to target the tween fashion market: "Josie and the Pussycats," the new live-action movie about those old cartoon rock 'n' rollers.
The movie's costumes reflect what's hot in the stores, and it's accompanied by its own line of "Josie"-branded clothes, from shoes to swimsuits.
"Girls of this age ... what rules their live is music," says Annemarie Iverson, editor in chief of YM magazine. "Music is of the moment, especially now when there are a lot of young stars."
The Pussycats -- played by Rachael Leigh Cook, Rosario Dawson and Tara Reid -- wear tight second skins of dark denim, beaded tank tops and high heels, a racy wardrobe for a bunch of middle schoolers.
But the costume designer, Leesa Evans, says, "This is not so much about trying to be sexy. It was about what they felt good in."
Evans, now at work on the live-action "Scooby-Doo" in Australia, says she thought hard about what girls would come away with from seeing "Josie."
"I felt a huge responsibility. The subtle message is that the girls (in the movie) had fun with the clothes but they didn't have to follow the hottest trends."
She hopes they will set them. While headbands adorned with animal-print ears might not land on every tween's head, asymmetrical tops and low-rider jeans with extreme oversized legs are likely to catch on, Evans predicts.
Halters, flower prints, denim, preppy styles of the early 1980s and hiphuggers are all trendy with the tween crowd, reports YM's Iverson.
And nothing makes clothes trendy faster than the seal of approval from kids with baby-sitting money in their pockets.
"These girls are instantly reflective of trends. I don't know if they start them or if they take them from music videos or what, but trends trickle up and trickle down from them very quickly," says Iverson.
Designer Betsey Johnson recognizes the market power of tween girls -- whether they're spending their own money or their parents'.
"Five-year-olds want to look like their 12-year-old sisters," says Johnson. "Teens and young twentysomethings look great, and little girls want to do the same -- and do it faster."
Johnson makes matching outfits for 8- to 14-year-olds and their moms. For the pint-size versions, the necklines are raised and the skirts are lowered. "It's age appropriate with an edge," says Kim Hingley, Betsey Johnson's vice president of sales.
Age-appropriateness isn't easy to define. Tweens often are caught between youthful experimentation and looks that parents may find too sexy.
"You can't dictate an exact age when to allow your daughter to wear what," says Iverson. "As soon as girls have an interest, there should be a respectful conversation (with parents) about clothes and the signs they might give off."
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