Raw Spice: The Unofficial Story of the Making of the Spice Girls (DVD)

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By this point, it really felt like a lot of the footage included in the program was just filler and nothing more. There are clips of Mel B on the phone ordering takeout and the girls sitting on the couch eating their pizza, a handful of girl talk chats that go absolutely nowhere, and way too much time is spent on the girls rehearsing songs.

After nearly two years of training, the group is taken to show off their stuff to some of the key players in the music business. At the meeting, Geri approached music publisher Marc Fox expressing her concerns with the way things were going. She didn't like how everything was moving along so slowly and they still didn't have any sort of contracts. The encounter impressed Fox, so he took the girls to a few labels and eventually they ditched Herbert settling on Virgin Records in 1996.

This is when it dawned on me what this release was all about. It wasn't to tell the story of the Spice Girls at all, especially since it only contains about maybe ten minutes of useful information and the rest is pure garbage. The sole purpose was so a very bitter Herbert could tell the world that it was he who discovered the Spice Girls, and swindle the consumer by cashing in on this "unofficial" release. It just goes to show how low some of these people will go. I certainly wouldn't be shouting from the rooftops that I discovered the Spice Girls, but through my idiocy of not having any contracts, let them slip through my fingers.

Video:
The video for "Raw Spice" is presented in a standard fullscreen aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The more recent interview segments have a rather dull appearance with slightly faded colors. The rest of the clips have been recorded by older handheld technology from nearly fifteen years ago, so the amateurish photography really shows. The camerawork is shaky at times and the video often has a yellowish tinge to it, so I'd say that it's about as raw as you can get.

Audio:
The audio fared a bit better than the video, although not by much. The Dolby Digital Stereo track isn't bad for the interviews, but the sound recorded by the personal video cameras is tinny and sometimes I couldn't quite make out what the young ladies were saying to each other.

Extras:
Although it isn't separately defined as a special feature, there is over twenty minutes of bonus rehearsal and other home movie footage if you didn't get enough of it in the actual documentary. Most of it features the girls practicing "Take Me Away" yet again, and really there's only so much one can take of that kind of trivial and boring nonsense. After about five long minutes I was really hoping that someone would come and take me away...

There is also a series of autoplay trailers: "My So-Called Life: The Complete Series," "Heart: Dreamboat Annie - Live," and "The Dick Cavett Show: Rock Icons."

The Final Cut:
I've never been so infuriated with a DVD in my life. Diehard fans will probably salvage some enjoyment out of seeing the Spice Girls before they were international sensations, but to me, this DVD scrapes the bottom of the barrel and uses the "Spice Girls" name for a very shady purpose. Personally, I'd be ashamed of myself if I was Chris Herbert.