Stars: Rachael Leigh Cook, Alan Cumming, Tara Reid, Rosario Dawson, Tom Butler

Director: Deborah Kaplan

Summary: A group of friends are determined to make it big in the world of music and when their band is discovered by manager Wyatt Frame they are soon shot to stardom. However, Frame has a sinister plan to control America's youth through the band's music...

Josie (Rachel Leigh Cook), Melody (Tara Reid), and Val (Rosario Dawson) are the Pussycats, a struggling rock band hoping for success in the fast-paced music world. Their dreams seem to be coming true when a record producer (Alan Cumming) suddenly signs them up to become the newest number one band in the country, without even listening to their music. Before they can think twice, the girls are made over, given glamorous clothing, and besieged by hordes of trend-worshipping fans, but soon Josie and the gang begin to realize that their music is part of an evil scheme run by MegaRecords executive Fiona (Parker Posey) to control the world by planting subliminal messages in the music of prepackaged, manufactured pop groups. When the Pussycats learn the truth, Fiona will do anything to keep them from getting in the way of her ultimate plan. JOSIE AND THE PUSSYCATS roars into the new millennium with a dead-on satire of the modern culture of pop music and merchandising (including the fictional group Du Jour, an hilarious parody of boy bands). Simultaneously, JOSIE presents a trio of bubbly but tough female heroes who sound as good as they look, with songs produced by Kenneth "Babyface" Edmonds. The film is a live action interpretation of the comic book from Archie Comics that became a popular animated television series in the 1980s.

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Shrewdly concocted by codirectors Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, Josie and the Pussycatsis a wildly comedic update of the Archie comic book (and early 1970s cartoon show). "Oh my God, I'm a trend pimp!" cries rocker Josie McCoy (Rachel Leigh Cook) when she discovers that she and her best friends Melody (Tara Reid) and Val (Rosario Dawson)--collectively known as the Pussycats--have been recruited in a plot to brainwash America's youth into a frenzy of mindless consumerism. Unbeknown to the Pussycats, subliminal messages in their chart-topping hit "Pretend to Be Nice" are forcing kids to follow the latest prefab trends as if their lives depended on it. Josie's going to be the "Next Big Thing", and to her manager (Alan Cumming) and Megarecords mogul Fiona (Parker Posey), the other Pussycats are expendable baggage in their scheme to dictate the cool quotient of teenagers everywhere. Blatant product placements dominate virtually every colourful scene as Josie and the Pussycatsgamely embraces the cultural blight it claims to criticise, but this isn't Hollywood hypocrisy. In this deliriously entertaining assault on pop-cultural flotsam, with its disposable boy-band (aptly named "Du Jour") and cross-product marketing ploys that perpetuate blind conformity among gullible teens, Elfont and Kaplan wilfully bite the hand that feeds them, and they're having loads of fun while advocating independent opinion. Cook and her pals are more honestly sexy than Britney Spears, and they make genuinely catchy music (although Cook's vocals were dubbed). It's pure fluff, but Josie and the Pussycatswas conceived in such high spirits that it's hard to imagine how it could be improved. Even the obligatory end-credit outtakes are utterly irresistible. --Jeff Shannon, Amazon.com

On the DVD: Some nicely designed and colourful menus lead you to the extras. The obligatory "Behind the Scenes" is a lot more than just an extended promo with footage of the Pussycats learning their instruments and playing them live on stage. Strangely enough though, there's not one mention throughout of the characters' comic book and cartoon origins. There are a few pointless deleted scenes and the usual production notes plus the video for Josie and the Pussycats' single "Three Small Words" (good enough to play on MTV!) and two hilarious music videos from the movie's fictitious boy band DuJour. --Jon Weir

Aspect Ratio:	1.85 Wide Screen, 16:9 Anamorphic Wide Screen
Main Language:	English
Region:	Region 2
Special Features:	Featurette Backstage Pass, Music Video 3 Small Words, Dujour Music Video Backdoor Lover And Around the World, Deleted Scenes, Original Theatrical Trailer
Subtitles:	Danish, English, Finnish, Norwegian, Swedish
Year:	2001
Release Date:	December 17, 2001
Runtime:	94 minutes
Certification:
Catalogue Number:	22453 D V D
Keywords:	Comedy, General, Wide, Screen, Josie, Pussycats
Genre:	Comedy