Spice World

What Sarah said:

We should watch Spice World! It seems like an odd suggestion but I am interested to know what you think of it, especially in comparison to Josie and the Pussycats. I think there are many similarities between both movies which makes me wonder if Spice World was an influence on Josie and the Pussycats. I find both have used engaging ways of storytelling that is more clever than most movies of the same genre. Without saying too much more and influence your watching experience too much, I think it is still a fun watch even 27 years after it was released, but then I was a Spice Girls fan… Maybe that makes a difference.

Mike’s verdict:

I was quite skeptical of Sarah’s claims about this film. The wounds left by the Great Beckham Massacre of 2022 are still very fresh – indeed I fear they may never fully heal. And the fact that I had lived nearly three decades without even once considering watching Spice World should be a strong indication of my expectations as we settled in to watch. But the contention that there could be a link between Spice World (no, not that one) and Josie and the Pussycats, was intriguing to say the least. 

There is unfortunately no review for me to link to, but Josie… is high on my list of all-time favourite movies. Definitely in the top five; probably in the top two. It is one of a handful of DVDs that are still on the dusty shelf below the TV and a fairly terrible quality vinyl pressing of the soundtrack gets regular airtime. I even have a t-shirt which only those in-the-know would recognize. So if there really were similarities, then I wanted to see them. 

And I did see them! Spice World has very similar themes and, zoomed-out, its plot has structural overlaps with Josie… too. Both films feature an all-girl music group, a cast of shady characters around them, a mystery the girls need to solve, all-around zany antics, and lots of fun music. The films exist within a “bands in amusing situations” genre; one that arguably also includes movies like A Hard Day’s Night and The Blues Brothers too. But of course the focus on all-girl music acts certainly narrows the genre considerably.

Even so, there are some fairly significant differences between the two films. While Josie… is a straight-on critique of pop music being used as cover for commercialism, Spice World is an outright celebration of that same commercialism. Both films absolutely poke fun at the music industry, but only one of them wants the audience to think about what it’s being sold. The Spice Girls want you to feel bad for them – the music industry is taking advantage of them and it’s all just so exhausting. But Josie… wants you to know that you are being taken advantage of too. This difference has a notable affect on the scale of the drama that the groups have to deal with. Aside from some completely nonsensical and unnecessary aliens, the Spice Girls mainly just battle the kind of evil that will only ever affect… well, the Spice Girls. On the other hand, much like the comics and the original TV series, Josie, Valery, and Mel fight back against the diabolical (and admittedly hyperbolic) schemes of larger-than life villains.

To its credit, Spice World managed to pull in some fantastic cameos: Bob Geldof, Elvis Costello, Stephen Fry, Bob Hoskins, Elton John, Hugh Laurie, Roger Moore, George Wendt, Michael Barrymore, Jonathan Ross, and even Meat Loaf as their tour bus driver! For the most part they each do a good job, and it’s clear they all participated in the spirt of the movie – there are no serious acting roles, it’s all just a lot of fun. And the movie really is fun – if you don’t try too hard to make sense of it.

Unfortunately, the plot of Spice World is a complete mess. A monkey banging on a typewriter for 20 minutes could do a better job of filling in the story framework with details. I did appreciate the bigger-on-the-inside Tardis tour bus, and that the girls seem to have been told to speak as Britishly as possible. But the meandering story was hard to be invested in, and it wasn’t helped by the fact there were simply too many bad guys to keep track of. There’s a reason why despite having many arch-villains in his universe, James Bond only has to deal with one at a time.

There are a few unfortunate casting choices too. Mark McKinney is used as come kind of discount Matt Affleck / Ben Damon, and as a result his character doesn’t even live up to its meager potential. On the other hand, the talents of Alan Cumming are completed wasted. Despite doing an admirable job, he was given lackluster character. Thankfully, Cumming would be given the opportunity to shine only four years later – in Josie and the Pussycats. 

Overall, Spice World is terrible. But it’s the kind of terrible that you expect from a movie about the Spice Girls, and it doesn’t try to be anything more than an hour and 30 minutes of inoffensive amusement. Viewed in that light, it’s fine. 

As for the suggestion that Spice World may have had some influence on Josie…, that seems like a stretch. Surely the writers, directors, producers, and everyone else involved would likely have been aware of Spice World as an example of what terrible story-writing looks like. However, Josie and the Pussycats (the film) much more strongly reflects the story-writing and themes of the original comics and TV series – both of which existed for decades before the Spice Girls started making music. In fact, Josie and her bandmates were foiling evil plots before the oldest Spice Girl was even born. It seems much more likely that Spice World took Josie and the Pussycats as inspiration. The Spice Girls themselves may even have watched the cartoon as children.

Spice World is light-hearted and silly – like the Spice Girls were. And while you get the feeling that the Spice Girls probably had too much input, it was their film so why not?

7/10