Mamma Mia! – The Movie

Initially, I was quite excited about this film, I’ve enjoyed performances of the show on stage both locally and internationally and I have been known to rave about how great ‘the’ movie is going to be.

I even had my taste buds whetted when I saw a trailer about the film, it looked quite good and seemed like it could be highly entertaining.

Then came Ryan Cameron’s post to ABBMAIL and subsequent posting on the website about the forthcoming film, his experiences in on how he got to eventually see the film as well his feelings about the experience he went through.

I quite eagerly read it and was totally engrossed in what Ryan was trying to say as well as what he was going through with the experience of being one of the few seeing the preview. Then, something happened, and I got interrupted about half way through.

Ever had one of those dampers that seriously affect your outlook on something? Well I guess that happened to me that day.

After that, Ryan’s original post about the preview stayed in my in-box for a number of days, in fact weeks, before I actually went back to it to re-read it from start to finish. Once again, Ryan’s post managed to capture my attention until the part where I’d initially been distracted, which incidentally is just before the part that Benny’s cameo appearance is written about. I naturally skimmed over the rest, sorry Ryan, to see about any other ABBA member’s appearance in the film. Of course I did read about Björn’s appearance in the movie, and to be very honest, and in Ryan’s favour, I did go back a few day’s later and re-read his whole experience of the screening Mamma Mia! – The Movie first hand, it was great and I appreciated Ryan’s efforts like a lot of ABBA fans should.

But, I was extremely pissed off.

Why? This Mamma Mia! thing is starting to get blown out of proportion and I don’t care what I may have written in previous columns, this whole Mamma Mia! thing is just getting too close to the ABBA thing.

The Mamma Mia! thing is Björn and Benny and some other shareholders, which as we know Frida is one of them, even if it is a minority one. But, the constant publicity refers to the movie as Mamma Mia! the ABBA film or the ABBA musical. It’s no longer the musical based on the songs of ABBA.

They may have written the music, and not all of it quite frankly during ABBA’s recording career, but what about the two ‘chicks’ who put those two men and some of their compatriots where they are today?

The one had to buy shares into the Mamma Mia! enterprise, the other one has not and yet we wonder why she rarely show’s up at a Mamma Mia! performance.

The damn musical that is apparently set to take the world’s movie houses by storm and make ABBA fans tittivate again through the movie, has one key factor missing, Agnetha Fältskog. There is always so much speculation about why Agnetha is never at a Mamma Mia! premiere, and if she is why did the ABBA members not sit together during the performance and why did she not attend the 5th Anniversary celebrations in London in 2004 and so the list of questions as to Agnetha’s lack of support for Mamma Mia! go on. Yet, how many times have we been told this is not the story of ABBA, these songs are no longer ABBA songs, and they are now Mamma Mia! songs! In my eyes, Agnetha Faltskog, is quite right with her actions in not supporting the show.

Don’t forget though, it’s not ABBA despite Mamma Mia being one of ABBA’s biggest and well loved hits and what do the public remember the most about it? Agnetha and Frida. So, I hope the public don’t think they’re going to see ABBA in any format in the Mamma Mia! movie other than the two cameo appearances by Björn and Benny and seeing that the ABBA name is being heavily relied on to help with the promotion of the film, I would have thought both Agnetha and Frida would have been offered a cameo appearance as well whether they were a party to the making of the film or not.

It’s all very sad really, Björn and Benny have written off ABBA as such where this musical is concerned, yet they seem to have forgotten what helped make ABBA, it was also Agnetha and Frida. ABBA as a group were four people, so why they use ABBA to promote Mamma Mia! and its spin-offs when they’re not all involved amazes me.

And then there are the other spin-offs milking the ABBA train again. The forthcoming re-issues of the Gold series of cd’s and the 1994 box set of Thank You For The Music to co-incide with the release of the movie. Mamma Mia! is not ABBA but it’s okay to use ABBA as a tool to market the film and get the masses into the theatres. It’s almost like ABBA as a name and force in the industry is needed to put bums in the seats in movie houses!

I really hope that Björn and Benny eat their words and admit that they are ABBA songs, and they always will be ABBA songs, I mean, if they’re still adamant they’re not and are now Mamma Mia! songs, why are ABBA compilations being re-released to co-incide with the Mamma Mia! The Movie?

It’s all just clever marketing to make sure their product gets promoted, let’s face it in the 1970’s we had “ABBA – The Album” then “ABBA - The Movie”, in 1999 we got “Mamma Mia! – The Musical” and in 2008 we now await the release of “Mamma Mia! - The Movie”, it’s the same product but with a different name.

All I know is, it’s upon us, literally. A few weeks to go and we’re going to be exposed to it.

Hysteria? I dunno, none of us do.
 

Neil