This movie was a brilliant gem in 2001 and, like all gems, it remains unblemished in 2021, unchanged by the two decades in between. Janssen refused to recast Holloway and threatened to walk away from the project. Fabulous hair! The Pussycats befriend Professor Isaac Belfour, a scientist who invented an invented an invisibility formula. Musical numbers and chase sequences set to newly recorded songs were featured in this spin-off series as with the original. Josie and the gang are captured by Merla and her Amazon warriors on a planet where the women rule and the men are their slaves. Josie and the gang encounter a race of giants on a planet that has developed a fluid capable of extinguishing the Sun completely and their leader, Orco plans to use their spaceship as a means of delivering the extinguisher. This version of the series launched the characters into outer space; the opening credits sequence shows the group taking a promotional photo at the launch site of a new spaceship and a jealous Alexandra elbowing the cast aside in order to steal the spotlight from Josie yet again. While in Bombay, the gang mistakenly enters the lair of a sinister organization called the Secret Six, which plans to replace an Indian leader with one of their number with the use of a potion that can manipulate a person's facial structure. Murray later co-starred in the Riverdale spin-off Katy Keene starting in 2020 as an adult Josie, with Lucien Laviscount as Alexander and Camille Hyde as Alexandra. On this day 20 years ago, we were blessed with one of the funniest, smartest, coolest, most jerkin', most underrated films of all time — that's right, we're talking about Josie … Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space also added the character of Bleep, a pet-sized fluffy alien adopted by Melody, who was the only one who could understand the creature's language (he only says "Bleep" repeatedly) and numerous other alien animals encountered. It is up to the gang to hitchhike to the Laser's hideout in the Grand Canyon and foil his plans. A Josie in Outer Space episode, "Warrior Women of Amazonia", was featured in a clip/episode collection of Hanna-Barbera on VHS, released in the UK. Songs: "Inside, Outside, Upside Down" (excerpt), "It's Alright With Me". [8] The Valerie character was the first black female character on a regular Saturday morning cartoon series. During their tours are always involved in strange mysteries. Co-written and directed by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, the duo also behind the 1998 teen classic Can’t Hardly Wait, the live-action film stars Cook as Josie, … Lie! She is the lead vocalist and plays guitar. The antagonist was always a diabolical mad scientist, spy, or criminal who wanted to take over the world using some high-tech device. Both programs, as of March 3, 2014, are in the library of Boomerang (Turner Broadcasting's archive cartoon channel). An African-American mystery-solving musician, she was a direct parody of the Josie and the Pussycats character Valerie Brown.[19]. The Josie and the Pussycats recordings were produced by La La Productions, run by Danny Janssen and Bobby Young (a pseudonym for Bob Engemann of The Lettermen vocal group). "Long Tails and Ears for Hats: The Story of Josie and The Pussy Cats". While skiing in the Alps, the gang ends up in the clutches of a baron calling himself Dr. Midas, who plans to destroy the world's entire supply of gold unless half of it is given to him. This time the gang adventures are in outer space. ', Watch: Cheryl Ladd on Risky Charlie's Angels Casting – 'What Maniac Would Try and Replace Farrah Fawcett? Hanna-Barbera wanted Janssen to recast Holloway, because they had decided to portray "Josie and the Pussycats" as an all-white trio and had altered Valerie, who had been conceived as black and was already appearing as such in Archie Comics' revamped Josie and the Pussycats comic book, to make her white. A bucktoothed squirrel is the James Bond of the rodent world. The 16 episodes of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space were re-run for the 1973–1974 season until January 26, 1974, when CBS cancelled it and ordered no more new Josie episodes from Hanna-Barbera. While in Mexico, nuclear capsules are slipped into Melody's bass drum during a fuel stop. Pussycats featured an all-girl pop music band that toured the world with their entourage, getting mixed up in strange adventures, spy capers, and mysteries. Cheryl Ladd on Risky Controversial Charlie's Angels Casting: 'What Maniac Would Try and Replace Farrah Fawcett? Holloway was the primary lead vocalist on "Roadrunner" which also features verses sung by Kathleen Dougherty and Cheryl Ladd. Melody innocently buys new shoes in Holland, unaware that they contain a message for a spy sent to stop the faceless Master Mind, a master of disguise. The gang's hot air balloon in Miami is set loose and ends up on the island of Dr. Strangemoon, a mad scientist who plans to launch missiles that will devastate the Earth's atmosphere. When the Shadow discovers that the gang has the box, he and his henchmen embark on an around-the-world chase to steal it from them. Loosely based on the legend of King Midas. Like Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Josie and the Pussycats was originally broadcast with a laugh track. Josie was the one who came up with the idea of The Pussycats encounter two aliens, who attempt to convince Josie and the gang into helping them against a dragon that is menacing them. Josie & The Pussycats follows the adventures of a rock & roll band that comes across all sorts of adventures along the way. Ladd sang lead on "Inside, Outside, Upside-Down", "Dream Maker", "I Wanna Make You Happy", "The Time To Love", "I Love You Too Much", "Lie! The film is poorly constructed with a bland, boring script, a terrible choice of actors and stupid. Songs: "Dreaming" (excerpt), "Inside, Outside, Upside Down". The gang's plane, heading for Puerto Rico, makes an emergency landing in a Caribbean jungle inhabited by dinosaurs and bipedal apes, all of which are under the control of a mad scientist named Dr. Madro, who can change humans into animals. Every episode centered on the Pussycats encountering a strange new world, where they would encounter and often be captured by various alien races before escaping and attempting to return to Earth. To celebrate the iconic film's 20th anniversary, the Fall Out Boy bassist revealed how the movie influenced the band's 2007 hit “Thnks Fr Th Mmrs." Title: The participants of an unusual car race compete around America. [11], Both Josie and the Pussycats and Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space are available on the Boomerang and HBO Max streaming services, with the latter featuring the series in remastered HD copies. The Ant Hill Mob has to protect Penelope Pitstop from a murderous lawyer who is after her inheritance. This update features a new version of the origin of the band, where struggling musician Josie joins up with her roommate Melody and Valerie, a veterinarian's assistant, to start the Pussycats, despite the jealousy of Josie's former best friend Alexandra. During the 1968-69 television season, the first Archie-based Saturday morning cartoon, The Archie Show, was a huge success, not only in the ratings on CBS, but also on the Billboard charts: The Archies' song "Sugar, Sugar" hit the #1 spot on the Billboard charts in September 1969, becoming the number one song of the year. Songs: "Every Beat of My Heart" (excerpt), "Clock on the Wall". Valerie bears an uncanny resemblance to an abducted Arabian princess and thus becomes involved in a plan to catch her kidnapper, a hypnotist known as the Evil Eye. [2] Reruns of the original series alternated between CBS, ABC, and NBC from 1974 through 1976. The 2004–2007 Comedy Central animated TV series Drawn Together featured a character named Foxxy Love. The film received mixed … Josie and the Pussycats was a critical and box office disappointment when it hit theaters in April 2001, but has since grown its audience and become a cult … Portrayed as a sweet, attractive, and level-headed teenage girl, Josie is usually the stable center in the middle of the chaos surrounding her band and her friends. Dick Dastardly leads a fighter plane group to try ineffectualy to stop a carrier pigeon. Use the HTML below. [12][13] Warner Archive released the HD versions of Josie and the Pussycats on Blu-ray on November 3, 2020,[14] and Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space on April 13, 2021. Was this review helpful to you? Songs: "Together" (excerpt), "Inside, Outside, Upside Down". The Serpent, a mad toy maker, pursues the gang in order to obtain the coin, which is the key to his plans for the conquest of Asia. After the initial 1971 run of the original 16 … T wenty years have come and gone since the release of Josie and the Pussycats, a comedic film spun off the popular Archie Comics. 'Josie and the Pussycats' is a pop music group. Alexander is turned into a chicken and then an ape, while Sebastian the cat is turned into a bulldog! The Pussycats land on the planet Arcobia, where they try to help expose the corrupt Prime Minister Rulo as the true thief of a device that is very important to the planet. than the original Josie comic book, is remembered for its music, the girls' leopard print leotards (replete with "long tails and ears for hats," as the theme song states), and for featuring Valerie as the first regularly appearing female black character in a Saturday morning cartoon show. Can Josie and the Pussycats stop them? (1970–1972). Essentially then, Josie was the group leader but Valerie and Melody provided the trio with its singing voices. The Pussycats are in New York City for a recording session. Can the Pussycats figure out who is the true menace before it is too late? Song: "(Hey) Did You Have Yourself a Day?". Lie!" In preparation for the upcoming cartoon series, Hanna-Barbera began working on putting together a real-life Josie and the Pussycats girl group, who would provide the singing voices of the girls in the cartoons and also record an album of songs to be used both as radio singles and in the TV series. The animated version of Josie was an amalgam of plot devices, villain types, settings, moods, and tones from other Hanna-Barbera shows such as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, Jonny Quest, Space Ghost, and Shazzan. Finding themselves lost in space aboard a spaceship, the Pussycats land on the planetoid Zelc and encounter a creature named Bleep. This is weird! Get a sneak peek of the new version of this page. On a water planet, the Pussycats' ship is hijacked by locals intent on conquering Earth with a water-controlling device. For the uninitiated, Josie and the Pussycats is not just a satirical rock movie about the greatest band to ever play the Riverdale bowling alley rising to superstardom, it’s also a film playfully pointing out the very real dangers of corporate greed and powerful media industries manipulating the masses into conformity and capitalism. Josie and the Pussycats Top Cat is the leader of a group of alley cats, always trying to cheat someone. Josie and the Pussycats shouldn't need it. 'Josie and the Pussycats' is a pop music group. When the henchmen for a power-mad nuclear engineer called the Scorpion snatch the drum, the gang rush to recover the instrument and become entangled in the Scorpion's scheme to rule the world with his weather control device. Songs: "Dream Maker" (excerpt), "Roadrunner". Several episodes of Speed Buggy, a later Hanna-Barbera show, had similar plots to some Josie and the Pussycats episodes, specifically the two Josie and the Pussycats episodes "A Greenthumb is Not a Goldfinger" ("Island of the Giant Plants" in Speed Buggy) and "X Marks the Spot" ("Out of Sight" in Speed Buggy), and the Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space episode "Warrior Women of Amazonia" ("The Hidden Valley of Amazonia" in Speed Buggy). Directed and co-written by Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan, the film is loosely based on the Archie Comics series and the Hanna-Barbera cartoon of the same name. Catchy tunes! The show, more similar to Hanna-Barbera's successful Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! In 1972, the show was re-conceptualized as Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space, 16 episodes of which aired on CBS during the 1972–73 season and were rerun the following season until January 1974. Filmed entirely in Vancouver, Canada, the film features Rachael Leigh Cook, Tara Reid, and Rosario Dawson as the Pussycats, with Alan Cumming, Parker Posey, Gabriel Mann, Paulo Costanzo, and Missi Pylein supporting roles. Their ruler, Throg, plans an attack on Earth; can Josie and her friends can stop him? Can the Pussycats save the queen from the robot's clutches? According to Valerie, the original members met and befriended each other while working at Power Records, where they used to practice together. Songs: "It's All Right With Me" (excerpt), "Hand Clapping Song". They held a talent search to find three girls who would match the three girls in the comic book in both looks and singing ability; early plans, which did not come to fruition, called for a live-action Pussycats segment at the end of each episode. A VHS videocassette of Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space containing three episodes was issued by Worldvision Home Video in 1983. In 1976, Rand McNally published a children's book based on the Josie and the Pussycats TV show, Hanna-Barbera's Josie and the Pussycats: The Bag Factory Detour. Keep track of everything you watch; tell your friends. View production, box office, & company info. Each episode found the Pussycats and crew en route to perform a gig or record a song in some exotic location where, somehow, often due to something Alexandra did, they became mixed up in an adventure. Which Alan also dig's Josie. Josie and the gang quickly find themselves unwilling participants in a circus run by the frog-men of Kalex. Animation studio Hanna-Barbera Productions wanted to duplicate the success their competitors Filmation were having with The Archie Show. and "Dreaming". A second video cassette, Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space Volume 2, was released in 1985. Josie and the Pussycats made a final appearance as animated characters in a guest shot on the September 22, 1973, episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "The Haunted Showboat". You must be a registered user to use the IMDb rating plugin. Contrary to her usual comic relief role, Alexandria uses the anti-gravity ray gun to save her friends from the Master Mind. ), they decided to go to the source and contacted Archie Comics about possibly adapting one of their remaining properties into a show similar to The Archie Show. Loosely based on Mission Impossible. In 2016, Josie and the Pussycats was rebooted as a comic book. The ship containing the Pussycats lands on the planet Kalex. After a failed attempt at developing a teenage-music-band show of their own called Mysteries Five (which eventually became Scooby-Doo, Where are You! Produced for Saturday morning television by Hanna-Barbera Productions, 16 episodes of Josie and the Pussycats aired on CBS during the 1970–71 television season and were rerun during the 1971–72 season.[1]. Despite never having been in the spaceship before, Val seems to know how to pilot it. In the mid-1980s, both series, along with a number of other 1970s Hanna-Barbera cartoons, were on board USA Network's Cartoon Express; they would next appear on Cartoon Network in 1992, where all 32 episodes were run in the same time slot. Hanley provides the voice of Josie (played by Rachael Leigh Cook) on the Pussycats' … Josie And The Pussycats In Outer Space was a spin off from the Original Josie And the Pussycats cartoon. Of the songs that were broadcast, Patrice Holloway sang lead on the series' theme song, "You've Come A Long Way, Baby", "Voodoo", "It's All Right With Me", "The Handclapping Song", "Stop, Look And Listen", "Clock On The Wall" and "Every Beat Of My Heart". In the band, she plays tambourines. Other characters included their cowardly manager Alexander Cabot III, his conniving sister Alexandra, her cat Sebastian, and muscular roadie Alan. [7] After interviewing over 500 finalists, settled upon casting Kathleen Dougherty (Cathy Dougher) as Josie, Cherie Moor (later known as Cheryl Ladd) as Melody, and Patrice Holloway as Valerie. "Josie and the Pussycats" directors hadn't written music before collaborating on songs for the film. Songs: "I Wanna Make You Happy" (excerpt), "You've Come a Long Way, Baby". On September 9,1972 the show revised its story line and became "Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space". The show premiered that same day as another successful Hanna-Barbera show,who was also imprompted a sequel based on Scooby Doo titled "The New Scooby Doo Movies",on CBS' Saturday Morning schedule for the 1972-1973 season. The answer is simple -- it's totally awesome. While in Paris, the gang is entrusted with a mysterious black box by an agent and are told to protect it from a mysterious criminal called the Shadow. The Pussycats' sheet music, meanwhile, ends up in the clutches of a mad criminal called the Laser, who is determined to get his hands on the plans that the gang now have. Cartoon Network and Boomerang, however, have aired the show in its original broadcast format with the laugh track intact. Exotic adventures! Josie and the Pussycats is an awful mess of a film. Janssen presented the newly formed band to William Hanna and Joseph Barbera to finalize the production deal. On top of everything else, Alexandra pursues Alan endlessly. That same year, the characters were adapted into a live action film. A short-haired redhead, Josie is the leader and co-founder of the Pussycats. However, Alexandra is jerked inside along with the rest of them and accidentally triggers the launch sequence, sending them and the ship into deep space. The story is a simple one: Following the sudden plane crash of the world’s most famous boy band, DuJour, a record-label exec named Wyatt Frame (Alan Cumming) chances upon the Pussycats and promises them stardom. Magilla Gorilla is a gorilla who spends his time languishing in the front display window of Melvin Peebles' pet shop, eating bananas and being a drain on the businessman's finances. The feature film Josie and the Pussycats celebrated its 20th anniversary last week, leaving some asking, "Why after all this time is a massive box-office flop now so fondly remembered?" At the same time, Josie is kidnapped by an alien named Karnak, a deposed ruler who is intent on reconquering the populace of Zelc. Will our heroes end up collecting Social Security at age 25? Loosely based on The Invisible Man. The show's theme song, titled "Josie and the Pussycats", was written by Hoyt Curtin, William Hanna (under the pseudonym "Denby Williams") and Joseph Barbera (under the pseudonym "Joseph Roland"). The gang run afoul of a modern-day descendant of Captain Nemo while on their way to a musical gig on Pago Pago Island. ", "Scrolling VRV: A Guide to the Voltron of Animation and Independent Streaming Services", "Every TV Series Streaming on HBO Max at Launch", https://www.blu-ray.com/movies/Josie-and-the-Pussycats-The-Complete-Series-Blu-ray/207485/, https://geekvibesnation.com/warner-archive-announces-blu-ray-releases-for-thundarr-the-barbarian-and-more-josie-and-the-pussycats/, https://www.deepdiscount.com/josie-and-the-pussycats-in-outer-space-the-complete-series/883929736867, https://www.amazon.com/Josie-Pussycats-Complete-Pussycat/dp/B06Y3F2SZW/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=Josie+and+the+Pussycats%3A+The+Complete+Series&qid=1602333685&sr=8-1, "Riverdale Spinoff Katy Keene Casts Two Josie and the Pussycats Characters", Josie and the Pussycats (the music group put together in conjunction with the show), http://lpintop.tripod.com/oldiesconnection/id17.html, Archie Comics' Josie and the Pussycats homepage, Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDb): Josie and the Pussycats, Big Cartoon DataBase (BCDb): Josie and the Pussycats In Outer Space, List of Sabrina the Teenage Witch Books, CDs and DVDs, Children's programming on CBS in the 1970s, Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines, The New Adventures of Mighty Mouse and Heckle & Jeckle, Animation in the United States in the television era, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Josie_and_the_Pussycats_(TV_series)&oldid=1018691580, 1970s American animated television series, American children's animated comedy television series, American children's animated musical television series, American children's animated space adventure television series, Animated television series about teenagers, Television series about fictional musicians, TV.com template with ID different from Wikidata, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License, Valerie Brown (voiced by Barbara Pariot/sung by, Villain: Dr. Greenthumb, Amazonian headhunters, Villain: Prime Minister Rulo, the Canyonians, Villain: Thurgu the Terrible, Varan and Rugol. Josie & The Pussycats follows the adventures of a rock & roll band that comes across all sorts of adventures along the way. In 2001, Cartoon Network began airing a Josie and the Pussycats short called "Musical Evolution" that featured the Pussycats performing their theme song through the various eras of popular music, including pop, disco, punk, Kiss-like heavy metal, country, and techno. It seems that the Pussycats have actually got the big gig when the gang is invited by an eccentric Countess to play a private performance on her secluded Mediterranean island, where they discover too late that the invitation was a ruse to obtain young test subjects for her rapid aging mist. After freeing themselves from captivity, the boys find their escape complicated by the fact that Merla has brainwashed the girls into joining her man-hating forces. https://hanna-barbera.fandom.com/wiki/Josie_and_the_Pussy_Cats Thanks to Alexandra's scheming, the gang, thinking that they are headed to Nashville for a gig, end up in the Amazon jungle, where they encounter an evil botanist named Dr. Greenthumb, his man-eating plants, and a tribe of headhunters. From Wings to Parasite, here's a look back at all of the Best Picture Oscar winners in the history of the ceremony. While on a relaxing gig in Hawaii, the gang is pursued by a criminal known as the Hawk when confidential information is transferred from a tape recorder to Melody's memory. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Josie and the Pussycats, Super Yaki has released a new collection of merch celebrating the cult classic, which hit theaters in April 2001. Charles, Don (March 2003). Harry Elfont and Deborah Kaplan ended up cowriting several of the movie's signature songs. [15][16], Josie and the Pussycats was named the 100th best animated series by entertainment website IGN, which referred to Josie as an amusing show for the way in which it combined elements from The Archie Show and Scooby-Doo.[18]. Over the Amazon, the companions become part of a cargo drop on Dr. Greenthumb's supply zone. The days are gone, the fond memories linger and flushed out in a GREAT way with the release of cartoon series such as Josie and the Pussycats … The original soundtrack to Deborah Kaplan and Harry Elfont's live-action, big-screen adaptation of Archie Comics' Josie & the Pussycats brings together the talents of, among others, Jane Wiedlin of the Go-Go's, Letters to Cleo's Kay Hanley, and the production team of Babyface and his wife, Tracey Edmonds.