The Spice Girls were a global phenomenon in the late 1990s. After auditioning to be in the band, the group was officially formed in 1994. Two years after training and becoming the friends we still see today, the girls released their first song Wannabe in July of 1996. Many of their first songs, like Say you’ll be there, Stop and Spice up your life, can also be heard in their movie Spice World. The movie first premiered in December of 1997 in the UK and was later released in January 1998 in the US. The movie was not well received by the industry with critics saying that the movie was not up to par with what they had in mind. Some even said that the Spice Girls were not talented. However, my opinion differs. Of course it would: I love the Spice Girls, but I hope to take a neutral approach. Spice World is a movie that ridicules the girls’ characters: Emma dressing up and having her part of the bus loaded with children’s toys to portray how she’s “Baby Spice” and Victoria’s lit up runway and French-door styled mirror presents her as “Posh Spice”. Throughout the movie they continue to make such references. We all know that the girls do not look and act like this, but when you’re forced to play that role for so long, that is all the public can see of you, and they think that is who you are. They mention this many times throughout the movie. In one scene, the girls are on the bus when the radio plays a rerun of their interview. The girls request to turn it off as they are fed up with the stereotypes they face. Later, they go on to ask each other how people can think that the roles they play in the band are how they behave all the time. They continue this conversation into a photoshoot where they decide to dress up as different pop culture characters as well as each other. The movie not only mocks the stereotypes the girls face but also delves into more serious topics with a lighthearted feel; nevertheless, the movie itself was written as a comedy. People taking it too seriously is proving the whole point of the movie wrong. And the girls are not what they are portrayed to be. I feel like we all understand that the bus jumping the bridge was a toy mockup.
In conclusion, Spice World is a great movie. And while it may not be everyone’s cup of tea, it holds up in entertainment and nostalgia. People who take this movie too seriously, prove everything the movie criticized.
