EXPLORING ‘ SPICE WORLD’
After 20 years, a recap of the meta moments
It’s been two decades since our bland existences became zestier when five of the most famous British pop stars in the universe made their big- screen debuts.
That’s right, we are celebrating 20 years of spice being added to the lives of every boy and every girl on the anniversary of “Spice World,” which premiered on Dec. 26, 1997, in the U. K. before hitting American shores on Jan. 23, 1998.
To mark this girl- powered occasion, we took the liberty of rewatching that beloved but critically panned flick about the Spice Girls and their double- decker tour bus. And we realized that the film was packed with many more pop- culture references and meta moments than we realized at the time.
Here are four ways the movie made insider jokes that likely went over the heads of young fans.
1. Bond references abound
If the opening sequence featuring the Spice Girls’ silhouettes wasn’t an obvious enough 007 call- out, Roger Moore’s cameo is. The seven- time James Bond actor, who died this May, plays one of the greatest characters in the 90- minute film. His “Chief,” a Bond villain parody, strokes a pig and speaks in unintelligible riddles, like: “Remember the headless chicken can only know where he’s been. He cannot see where he’s going.”
There are plenty of additional nods to Britain’s favorite spy, including a dress- up montage sequence with Victoria, aka Posh Spice, aka Mrs. Beckham, wearing a Pussy Galore costume.
2. Meat Loaf is in this film
Yes, the singer Meat Loaf plays the girls’ tour bus driver, Dennis. In his most memorable moment, Dennis explains he will not fix the toilets on the bus. “I love these girls, and I would do anything for them, but I won’t do that,” he says, in a not- so- subtle play on his famous single “I’d Do Anything For Love ( But I Won’t Do That).”
There are a few more famous men who have quick cameos: Elton John, Elvis Costello, Stephen Fry and Hugh Laurie.
3. The entire movie is about making the movie that we’re watching
Here’s the basic premise: Mel B., Mel C., Emma, Victoria and Geri are about to do their first major live show. However, the singers are so widely adored that a paper finds them too boring to write about. So a publisher hires a spy to get dirt on the girls so they can sell more tabloids.
There’s a chase scene, the band’s friend goes into labor and there’s an arbitrary alien visit.
One of the failed movie pitches: The ladies would be a super- spy team called “Spice Force Five,” much like Fox Force Five in “Pulp Fiction.”
Ultimately, we wind up watching the successfully pitched Spice Girls film. Think “Adaptation,” but a moronic musical ripoff of The Beatles’ “A Hard Day’s Night” with a reference to the “bomb on the bus” plot of “Speed.”
4. The Girls make fun of their Spice personas
In “Spice World,” the Girls made a few self- aware jokes about the iconic nicknames that describe their one- dimensional public personas.
Most notably, there’s a moment in the film where Emma B realizes that she’s “always going to be seen as Baby Spice, the sweet and innocent one,” says the singer who was 21 when the movie came out. “Even when I’m 30,” she realizes, horrified. Bunton is now 41. Before that, the girls goof on each other when they swap clothes in the dress- up montage sequence.
Scary Spice in Ginger Spice’s clothes says, “Blah blah blah, girl power, feminism, d’you know what I mean?” Posh in Baby’s pigtails tells the camera, “My mommy is my best friend.” Sporty in Posh’s LBD sticks her nose up and says, “I’m just too posh.”
The pop stars are also aware of how the end of their film is ultimately disappointing. In a post- credit scene, Ginger talks directly to the movie audience.
“It’s the sad anti- climax,” she says. “It’s all over. Back to reality.” Baby addresses those watching on video: “Was there nothing on the telly then?”