Many years since 5 20-somethings took the world by storm with messages of “Girl Power” and irrepressible pop hits, Spice Ladies are extra related than ever. Given this, it appeared solely proper to revisit one of many wackiest chapters within the group’s (and cinema) historical past: Spice World, the film that took Spice Ladies from the charts and onto the silver display screen.
Half musical, half satire, and all savvy advertising and marketing, Spice World nonetheless baffles and delights a long time after its launch. For those who have been fortunate sufficient the catch a doubleheader of the X-Recordsdata film and Spice World (each embrace alien encounters), it’s the latter that would depart you scratching your head.
Throughout filming, Spice Ladies have been already effectively on their approach to turning into the bestselling woman group of all time and have been engaged on Spiceworld, the follow-up to their debut album, which was launched shortly earlier than the movie premiered within the UK on December 15, 1997.
Spice World options Mel B (Scary Spice), Mel C (Sporty Spice), Emma Bunton (Child Spice), Geri Halliwell (Ginger Spice), and Victoria Beckham (Posh Spice) as excessive variations of their assigned personas and seeks to each have fun and skewer the trimmings of the pop star life.
Critically panned however universally cherished, Spice World grossed over $100 million worldwide and earned cult standing; it’s now an everyday fixture at midnight film screenings and nostalgic theater runs. So board the double-decker Spice Bus and let Meat Loaf take the wheel as we reassess this cult basic.
Take heed to the very best of Spice Ladies on Apple Music and Spotify.
Stunning cameos
Spice World boasted extra veteran UK actors than any BAFTA awards. Some performed outstanding roles whereas others have been blink-and-you-miss-them turns, or appeared for a sight gag. With an countless parade of well-known cameos, you possibly can make a random bingo card and win earlier than the credit roll. Richard E Grant performs the ladies’ supervisor, Alan Cumming is a documentarian who follows the group round and Meat Loaf is their trusty tour driver. (When the plumbing on the bus goes south, he professes, “I love these girls and I would do anything for them, but I won’t do that.”)
And that’s not even counting the villains. James Bond himself, Roger Moore, performs a really Bond-inspired villain with a pet pig, whereas Barry Humphries (aka Dame Edna Everage) performs a Every day Mail-type newspaper proprietor who’s out to smash the ladies’ reputations.
Directed by Bob Spiers, who famously oversaw the comedy establishment Completely Fabulous, it’s no shock that Ab Fab alum Jennifer Saunders additionally makes an look, together with Stephen Fry, Hugh Laurie, Bob Geldof, Jonathan Ross, Jools Holland, Bob Hoskins, Elton John, and even Elvis Costello as a barman, such was the Spice Ladies’ star energy.
Meta-narratives
Spice World is extremely self-referential and was the proper excuse for the ladies to poke enjoyable at their very own “Spice” personas whereas acknowledging how limiting they have been. “Blah blah blah, girl power, feminism, d’you know what I mean?” says Mel B as she wears Ginger’s signature uniform.
As a result of movie-within-a-movie premise, a lot of Spice World options screenwriters pitching totally different movie plots for the ladies to star in, every extra outlandish than the final. Boot camp? Verify. Alien encounter? Yep. The identical type of spitballing that’s satirized within the movie was clearly the tactic the filmmakers embraced themselves.
Embrace of camp
Spice World meets all of the qualifying elements of a camp. It’s so unhealthy it’s good, however makes an trustworthy effort to be a fully-fledged movie. Written by Kim Fuller, brother to Spice Ladies’ supervisor and pop music impresario and actuality TV architect Simon Fuller, the plot didn’t have to make sense. (In spite of everything, you don’t watch Xanadu for a lesson in Greek mythology, you watch it for Olivia Newton-John on curler skates.) Spice World isn’t a lot a story movie, then, as it’s a automobile for infectious pop anthems and the 5 charismatic ladies behind them. Years later, Fuller would go on to present the world with one other musical movie: From Justin To Kelly.
Impeccable style
Vogue was an integral a part of the Spice Ladies bundle and if there’s one factor that Spice World received proper, it’s the costumes. From Mel C’s Adidas tracksuits to Geri’s platform go-go boots and Posh’s little Gucci gown, Spice World cemented the ladies’ signature uniforms but additionally allow them to play dress-up on a big scale. “This was not a normal movie in the sense that you have a story you tell with costumes, it was more like a fashion showcase,” mentioned the movie’s costume designer Kate Carin, in an interview with InStyle journal.
In a single scene the ladies abandon a clichéd photoshoot and stage one among their very own, dressing up as movie and music icons, from Bob Marley to Diana Ross, whereas one other scene options hunky back-up dancers who flip round to disclose assless chaps – a lot to the shock to each mum or dad within the viewers.
Each state of affairs is basically an excuse to decorate the ladies in ridiculous outfits. They go full Non-public Benjamin at one level, clad in various interpretations of camouflage throughout a boot-camp scene, and, later, they channel Barbarella because the Spice Drive 5. Membership children, drag queens, and glossy fits: Spice World is a time capsule of 90s style at its peak.
It’s nonetheless topical
The fashions and references are all 90s, however a lot of Spice World feels extremely topical immediately, which explains why the film doesn’t really feel dated. As a 90s tackle The Beatles’ groundbreaking film A Laborious Day’s Evening, Spice World additionally captures the extent of maniacal fandom each teams impressed, and the setbacks of pop stardom. From exploitative work schedules to tabloid rags desperately attempting to take them down, Spice Ladies combat villains which might be each cartoonish and all too actual.
1998 noticed the rise of aggressive paparazzi feeding the brand new 24/7 gossip information cycle whereas the final vestiges of privateness have been already being eroded away. Whereas “Girl Power” definitely wasn’t a radicalized type of feminism, the movie’s themes of self-empowerment and friendship are nonetheless related immediately.
At its core, Spice World is an unabashed, cinematic love letter to the facility of pop music and serves as a reminder of how Spice Ladies grew to become a cultural phenomenon that spiced up the world.
Take heed to the very best of Spice Ladies on Apple Music and Spotify.
