Movies | Music | Pop Culture | 90s
7 Things You Didn't Know About 'Spice World'
In the mid-to-late 90s, it was impossible to go anywhere without hearing or seeing something related to the Spice Girls. The five-piece all-girl group made a huge stamp on the world of pop music, thanks to their undeniably catchy hits and their "Girl Power!" message that found a massive audience not just in their native England, but worldwide!
Best of all, they each had very different looks and personalities, meaning everyone had a favorite! I was personally all about Baby, but they were all pretty great.
To capitalize on the group's massive success and upcoming second album, they partnered up with Columbia Pictures for the musical comedy Spice World in 1997. The movie was a massive hit worldwide and still has thousands of fans to this day, but I'm willing to bet there's some things about it you didn't notice as a kid. Let's take a look!
1) It has a ton of celebrity cameos you probably missed
There's the obvious ones, like how the girls meet up with Elton John (who is friends with them in real life and even invited them to perform in a TV special of his in 1997). However, did you know that their bus driver, Dennis, is played by none other than Meat Loaf?
Or that the judge in one of the fantasy sequences is Stephen Fry?
Or that James Bond himself, Sir Roger Moore, is the girls' Chief, who speaks almost entirely in spy lingo?
2) It was supposed to have even more celebrity cameos
Gary Oldman wanted to be in the movie since his sons were huge fans of the Spice Girls, but couldn't due to scheduling issues.
Jason Isaacs, who you probably know best as Lucius Malfoy from the Harry Potter movies, had an appearance that was ultimately cut from the movie.
The movie's producers even had plans to have then-Prime Minister Tony Blair appear in the movie, though apparently it never panned out.
3) Some references had to be edited out due to real-world deaths
The original cut of the movie had references to both Princess Diana and Gianni Versace, who were both alive during filming. However, these references were removed during editing because of their deaths.
Click to the next page for even more surprising trivia about Spice World!
4) It has a Pulp Fiction reference
Pulp Fiction, for those who don't know, is director Quentin Tarantino's 1994 masterpiece that rekindled John Travolta's career, further established Samuel L. Jackson as an acting tour de force, and is one of the most beloved films of all time. Oh, and it has a LOT of swearing, violence, drug use, and sexual situations.
Kind of weird fodder for a reference in a movie mostly aimed towards kids, but none the less, it's in there. One of the ideas pitched within the movie for a movie starring the girls, "Spice Force Five," is a reference to "Fox Force Five," a TV pilot Uma Thurman's Pulp Fiction character, Mia Wallace, supposedly starred in that ultimately went nowhere.
5) It also references The Beatles
The Fab Four produced a number of movies themselves, with A Hard Day's Night providing a massive influence on Spice World and other musical comedies starring real-life musicians.
Spice World directly references them too! Its tagline in most of its advertising was "You say you want a revolution?", a direct reference to The Beatles song "Revolution."
6) Reactions to the movie were... mixed
Spice World had, at the time, the highest opening gross of any movie ever released on Super Bowl weekend, taking in over $10 Million at the US box office alone. Girl power was clearly a big hit with audiences!
Critics, on the other hand, were less than kind to the movie despite its obvious silliness. Roger Ebert listed it on his list of his "Most Hated" movies, while Golden Raspberry (AKA The Razzies, an award ceremony for the worst movies of the year) founder John Wilson listed it on his list of "The 100 Most Enjoyably Bad Movies Ever Made." The Razzies would also award "Worst Actress" to all five members of the Spice Girls. Ouch.
7) You can go see the Spice Girls' bus from the movie
The Union Jack-adorned bus was put on permanent display at Island Harbour Marina on the Isle of Wight, England back in July 2014!
Did you love Spice World when it came out?