A Rockin Ride Down Memory Lane, Or Josie & The PussyCats In "Memory Melody Mix-Up"

Today: We’re recapping Josie & The Pussycats adventure “Memory Melody Mix-Up”… in 10 Panels Or Less™.

Tomorrow: We’ll use this story summary as a springboard into a discussion on new approaches to discovering unique requirements that lead to better products.

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Key plotpoints are pictured below. You have been warned!
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Josie & The Pussycats are all-girl rock band who travel the world, playing gigs (like The Archies) and solving mysteries (like Scooby-Doo). In “Memory Melody Mix-Up”, the gang meets Professor Layton…

… who has invented a formula for an impregnable force field. A formula lusted after by the high-flying, dirigible-piloting fiend known as The Hawk who wants to be the “undisputed ruler of the skies”.

Fortunately, Layton also has a device which can transfer the formula to the mind of another person. Val volunteers to hide the formula in her brain. But Melody mixes up the “transfer dome” with a seashell– so Val hears the ocean and Melody gets the formula burned into her brain. Before they can fix things, the Hawk attacks.

The gang escapes but Hawk captures Layton. The formula has been destroyed but a “truth mist” forces Layton to reveal Melody’s involvement and the barrette he gave her with a tracking device embedded within.

The Hawk’s goons find the gang–and grab Melody.

Thinking quickly, Val creates a makeshift bow-and-arrow set that distracts the goons and helps the gang escape to a TV studio lot. They ditch the tracking device–but the goons are in hot pursuit.

The gang dresses Melody up as a child and … put her on a nationally-televised kid show. Which isn’t the best idea. Because the goons catch the show playing in a department store window, and come charging down to the studio.

The goons capture the gang and take them aboard the Hawk’s dirigible. Melody is taken to the Hawk…

… while the other kids, in true James Bond fashion, are left dangling in a cage suspended over a volcano. With the help of Alexandra’s cat Sebastian, the gang escapes.

As the Josie & The Pussycats song, Road Runner, plays in the background, the goons chase the gang–until–finally–the kids outwit the bad guys, capture the Hawk and his men, and free Professor Layton.

Melody gives up the formula. Alexandra tries to make Josie look bad, and garner Alan’s favor, by out-hulaing her. But she ends up all wet because of a “crabby” dance partner hidden in her hula skirt.

THE END