Scooby-Doo (2002)
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Scooby-Doo (also known as Scooby-Doo: The Movie) is a 2002 American comedy horror mystery film. Based on the long-running Hanna-Barbera cartoon series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the film was directed by Raja Gosnell, written by James Gunn and stars Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard and Rowan Atkinson. It is the first installment in the Scooby-Doo live-action film series.
It received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics, but later gained a cult following from fans of the show. It was filmed on Queensland, Australia and Warner Roadshow Studios, and later after the film released, the roller-coaster named Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster was opened at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast in Queensland, Australia; the ride was later upgraded as Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster: Next Generation with a new ride storyline, new themes (still based on the 2002 film) and new special effects in December 2018.
A sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, was released on March 26, 2004, while a fully computer-animated reboot to the live-action film series, Scoob!, was released on May 15, 2020 and became the first installment of the Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe with the characters of Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, Captain Caveman and Dick Dastardly as the main villain.
Plot
Zoinks! Two years after a clash of egos forced Mystery Inc. to close its doors, Scooby-Doo and his clever crime-solving cohorts Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Velma (Linda Cardellini) are individually summoned to Spooky Island to investigate a series of paranormal incidents at the ultra-hip Spring Break hot spot.
"Zoinks!" Qualities
- The main problem with this movie is that it has a poor grasp of the source material, with the movie being unable to decide whether if it wants to be a satire or homage to the source material, resulting in a cluttered, unfocused plot that misses the ideas of the original series and what made it work. Although, it should be noted it was meant to be more-or-less a satire, but was forced to make a bunch of changes.
- The film even makes it seem like Daphne gets kidnapped all the time, even though she rarely gets kidnapped that much in any of the prior shows, though she did have a tendency to wander into traps.
- Daphne's outfit is wrong. She never wore go-go boots in the cartoon, except in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo! (although they still don't suit her).
- The film (at least the beginning) is a rehash of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, as both films start off with the gang unmasking a suspect, then splitting up, reuniting years later, and then being invited into an island by the island's owner and the owner's partner, on which they encounter monsters that are not merely people in costumes. The differences here being the owner and his partner are men instead of women, and the island is out in the ocean rather than off the coast of Louisiana. Also, in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the gang had reunited for Daphne's birthday when they are invited to the island. Here, they are all invited individually, and find themselves reunited once on the island.
- There are pointless romantic subplots given to Shaggy and Velma that contribute nothing to the film nor do the characters themselves actually do anything that actually helps the gang either.
- The main characters come across as unlikeable throughout the film and barely act like their usual incarnations:
- Fred goes from being the calm, yet laid-back leader to a narcissistic jock who takes advantage of the team's success, despite not even doing much (if any) of the planning. Additionally, Freddie Prince Jr. is typically seen as the most questionable casting choice of this adaptation's Mystery Inc. However, he does have his fans who find his egotism over the top to the point of being hilarious. Also, despite the admittedly questionable casting, his overall performance was actually good. The fact that the majority of the movie's funniest scenes involve him in some way earned him some favor.
- Daphne goes from being the damsel-in-distress to being a stereotypical popular girl whose sole arc is to not become a damsel with no character development or reason. This may have been the result of Sarah Michelle Gellar of Buffy fame which resulted in Daphne being a Buffy clone.
- Velma goes from being the sensible voice of reason to being an argumentative know-it-all, also demonstrated by the fact that Fred, Daphne, and Velma spend the majority of the film just arguing with each other.
- Shaggy goes from being a comedic goofball into an incompetent and unlikable idiot. For example, in one scene, he suggests just leaving Fred and Velma to die while he, Daphne, and Scooby-Doo escape Spooky Island.
- He is also oblivious to what his best friend Scooby-Doo says to him, as in the scene where the two and Mary Jane escape from the possessed beings trying to kidnap them, Scooby discovers that Mary Jane has become possessed just like the others, and tries to tell Shaggy about it, but Shaggy instead has an argument with him and even tries to fight him due to how attracted he is to Mary Jane, and this upsets Scooby-Doo who while captured by Mondavarious feels abandoned and betrayed by Shaggy after that argument, and it shows how selfish Shaggy is in this movie.
- He's also quite dumb, as after Scooby-Doo falls down a hole into Mondavarious' secret lair, he's apparently worried about him despite arguing with him earlier in the same scene and insulting by saying his mommy is "Cat Poop", so he clearly would've been glad that he's gone and instead chose to ignore him, which would've resulted in the film having actual stakes and Mary Jane reveal to Shaggy that she's possessed when he decides not to save Scooby after he was barking at her angrily and started to realize that she really is possessed, which could've been a better way to handle the scene instead of Shaggy deciding to save him and have Mary Jane be gone after that scene until the climax where she does ambush Shaggy and Scooby-Doo but even then, she woes over Shaggy with her breath and he is still attracted to her even when she clearly is possessed by a demon.
- The flashback with Scrappy-Doo shows Mystery inc. just abandoning him in the middle of nowhere, especially since Scooby is technically Scrappy's caretaker; as a result, the Mystery Inc. comes across as villains rather than heroes.
- There's also a somewhat mean-spirited scene where Fred flicks Scooby in the nose to keep him quiet, only for the latter to punch Fred in the face.
- When Daphne and Zarkos fight, some of the hits don't connect and it looks more like an exaggerated WWE match than a fight. The slow-motion doesn't help either.
- The kiss between Fred and Daphne at the end of the film is quite unnecessary and out of place since at no time the relationship between them is explored.
- A chief complaint amongst older fans of the franchise is that the basic premise of the film recycles several elements from Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998): a disbanded Mystery Inc. is brought together to solve a new mystery, the heroes are lured to a mysterious island by a character with ulterior motives and the villain's plan involves draining the soul/life out of their victims. The film also lifts a few jokes directly from the older film, such as Shaggy and Scooby having an exaggerated reaction upon eating peppers, or a protagonist pulling a monster's face in ridiculous ways before realizing that it's not a mask.
- Plot holes:
- By the end of the movie, after the demons are destroyed by the sun, the souls of the students return to their bodies, but what happened to the students who left the island possessed? This is why Mondavarious called the team in the first place.
- In the climax, there was no need for a trap in the first place. When Shaggy finds a well of souls captured by the demons, he frees only Fred, Daphne, and Velma's souls instead of saving everyone else's souls (especially since it is still daytime and it was established that the demons dissolve in sunlight). Not helping is that Daphne successfully beats Zarkos and kicks him down the roof where the well of souls is and manages to knock it over, freeing everyone's souls in the process, making the viewer wonder why Shaggy didn't do it earlier.
- Overuse of juvenile humor and movie themes.
- The humor mostly consists of lots fart and burp jokes, none of which were even in the original cartoon series, to begin with.
- The infamous scene where Scrappy-Doo pees on Daphne's dress.
- As with most of the humor falling flat, there's even a pointless scene where Scooby-Doo and Shaggy have a burping and farting contest that drags on for longer than a minute and does nothing to contribute to the film other than just for cheap, lazy and childish attempts at comedy and padding.
- Speaking of humor, after Fred's soul is gets into Daphne's body, he says "Hey, I can look at myself naked!", which is very uncomfortable for some fans and very inappropriate for a PG film.
- The humor mostly consists of lots fart and burp jokes, none of which were even in the original cartoon series, to begin with.
- The movie cannot seem to decide whether if it wants to be for children, for teenagers, or for adults.
- Initially, the film was aiming for the PG-13 rating (although the cut was labelled R-rated due to a misunderstood joke according to screenwriter James Gunn), before Warner Bros. toned it down to aim for a PG rating instead, resulting in the removal of several scenes so the film would get a PG rating, notably an alternate opening sequence is done in the distinctive artstyle of the original series.
- There were several scenes that were deleted but that were necessary to understand some parts of the story. Particularly one in which Shaggy witnesses how Daphne's soul is extracted from herself and her body possessed by one of the demons after being captured (which was deleted for being considered quite terrifying) which would have explained why Shaggy looked scared before entering the cave, why Daphne's soul was in the cauldron and why Velma found her possessed in a corridor.
- The "jump-the-shark" moment, where the film officially gets to flip its middle finger to its source material, is when it's revealed that Scrappy-Doo is the main antagonist. Not only is he a weak and poor choice of a villain but why would the creators of this movie choose him to be the main villain knowing how hated this character was in the first place?
- Even though Scrappy-Doo was a somewhat obnoxious character, to begin with, he still had plenty of redeeming qualities and became a lot better portrayed once Don Messick took over the role. The film, on the contrary, drastically flanderizes Scrappy to the point of making him very intentionally obnoxious and unlikable without any redeeming qualities whatsoever; as a result, Scrappy's villainous role in the film officially ruined his character as a whole due to Warner Bros. and writer James Gunn (who later admitted that he despised Scrappy-Doo with a burning passion) having had made him this way just to symbolize their hatred of him and axe him from the franchise permanently. He may have initially been annoying, but, never diabolical. Making this out of character for him.
- In fact, Tim Curry, who was originally going to play Mondavarius (and what would have been his second role in a Scooby-Doo film, behind Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost), decided to leave the project after finding out that Scrappy Doo was in it.
- False advertising: The trailers, posters and commercials made it look like the Luna Ghost was going to be the main antagonist of the film, but he only appears briefly in the first act.
- There's a very buzzar scene were after Daphne push Zarkos into a hole, Daphne ask him "Now who's the damsel-in-distress?", with Zarkos very timidly saying "Me?", before being kicked down into the hole by her, this line from Daphne is a reference to the original Cartoons were she was kiddnap by a monster most of the time, and while that is the case, Daphne was never a damsel-in-distress that often(as stated in Pointer 1 of the #1 Segment).
- With the exception of Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, the acting (while not horrendous nor terrible) is mostly lackluster and phoned-in. Such as how Linda Cardellini sounds bored when playing Velma.
- Blatant amount of product placement, especially for Sprite and Coca-Cola.
- The film features a pointless cameo from Pamela Anderson, who only appears in the film at the beginning when the gang finds out who The Luna Ghost is and is never seen after that, as her appearance is only in this film mostly because of fanservice, that's it.
"Scooby-Dooby-Doo!" Qualities
- Some people may actually like this film, despite its flaws.
- It has a nice 2000s feel in it.
- Good score composed by David Newman, with a good cover of the original Scooby-Doo theme.
- Speaking of which, the soundtrack is good such as: Simple Plan, Outkast, MXPX, Sugar Ray, Busta Rhymes, etc.
- Despite the mostly lackluster and phoned-in acting, the four casting choices for our main characters were all spot on since they all mostly resemble the designs of the original cartoon.
- Matthew Lillard, especially, is the one who steals the show as he nails the role of Shaggy so well that you feel you're watching the actual cartoon character. His performance was praised from both critics and fans and he later became the official voice actor of Shaggy.
- In addition, the voice acting for Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo and the Spooky Island Demons is surprisingly good.
- Speaking of which, the acting in this film ain't horrendous nor terrible at all. It's just quite lackluster for the most part.
- Even though the trap in the climax was unnecessary, it was impressively well-put together.
- While most of the humour was bad, there were some funny moments:
- The Scrappy-Doo jokes are somewhat funny, especially when he claims he’s as cute as a Powerpuff girl, despite the pointless pop culture references.
- The teaser trailer attached to screenings of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone hilariously tricked people into thinking there is a Batman reboot coming up with Scooby-Doo inside a mansion saying "Who, me? Rah-uh!"
- Melvin Doo is quite a funny minor character who shares the same last name as Scooby but is a human being. The bar owner gets a call for a Mr. Doo. Melvin thought that the call was for him but the bartender explained the call is for Scooby. He gets brought up again after Scrappy wants Scooby-Doo’s soul, with Scooby-Doo saying “Me? Don’t you mean Melvin Doo?”
- The final scene with the hot peppers was very funny.
- Although the effects are bad for the most part, there are some good parts of it:
- The Luna Ghost's effects are surprisingly good.
- The CGI used to remove the cleavage from the female characters is quite stunning as well.
- The production design for Spooky Island is quite unique and many people wished it was real.
- Despite being pointless, Mary Jane is quite likable compared to the Mystery Inc. crew.
- Despite being wasted and barely in the film, The Luna Ghost in the prologue is a memorable Scooby-Doo villain, complete with Joker/Pennywise mannerisms. It helps that he later appeared in the first episode of Mystery Incorporated.
- It had some good foreshadowing for the divisive Scrappy-Doo reveal. For example, the fake Emile Mondavarious is seen inside a mechanical device greeting Mystery Inc. Also, Mondavarious was scratching himself like a dog. And the Wow-O Toy Factory was named after one of Scrappy’s catchphrases.
- Most of it was ignored for good in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, with a more kid-friendly tone and better grasp of the cartoons.
- Pretty memorable and funny quotes like "Okay, I will. Your mommy eats cat poop! No, Scooby-Doo, your mom eats cat poop!" and above all "Are you challenging me?".
Reception
Scooby-Doo received mixed-to-negative reviews from critics and fans alike, who criticized its script, humor and visual effects; however, Lillard's performance received praise. On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 30% based on 145 reviews and an average rating of 4.37/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "Though Lillard is uncannily spot-on as Shaggy, Scooby-Doo is a tired live-action update, filled with lame jokes." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 35 out of 100 based on 31 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "B+" on an A+ to F scale.
Trivia
- Frank Welker (the current voice of both Fred and Scooby) played the creatures alongside Jess Harnell.
- The film was the major screenwriting debut of James Gunn.
- The infamous fart scene in the film received a cult following as time went on, with fans of this movie and the main Scooby-Doo franchise considering it as one of the most iconic and memorable fart scenes, tied with Blazing Saddles and Extreme Movie.
- The film was originally going for a more mature tone and a PG-13 rating while poking fun at the original series. Shaggy was going to be a stoner, Velma and Daphne had a side lesbian relationship and there were many marijuana references. In 2017, the 15th anniversary of the release of the film, James Gunn, the film's screenwriter, revealed in a Facebook post that there was an R-rated cut of Scooby-Doo and that CGI was used to remove cleavage of the female cast members due to a missed interpreted joke. The test audience wasn't impressed and was thus forced to cut the film down to a more suitable PG rating.
- Both Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar hated their wardrobes for this film. The former hated wearing Fred's ascot, and the hair-bleaching process (see below). The latter just had to wear a wig, but she hated the go-go boots. Shortly after the film was finished, Freddie Prinze Jr. (the actor for Fred in the film) hated having his hair dyed blonde and ended up shaving it all off.
- To help differentiate it with the franchise, fans prefer to call this film "Scooby-Doo: Spooky Island".
- Jim Carrey was originally attached to play Shaggy, while Mike Myers also expressed interest in the role.
- Starting in 2010, Matthew Lillard would continue voicing Shaggy in the rest of the Scooby-Doo media; he would also poke fun at this appearance in the following year's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, where an animated Shaggy and Scooby voice their grievances over Lillard's portrayal over a lunch in the Warner Bros. studio cafeteria and threaten him to make him do a better portrayal in the sequel.
- While still considered a bad film, it has gained a cult following for those who grew up in the early 2000s.
- This movie reveals Scrappy-Doo's full name to be Scrappy Cornelius Doo.
- This is the last time William Hanna served as an executive producer before his death on March 22, 2001.
- According to the DVD commentary, several of the music acts, including Shaggy (the reggae singer) and OutKast, agreed to appear on the soundtrack because the name "Scooby-Doo" was fun to sing.
- Scooby pronounces hydrochronic as "hy-dro-ca-ro-nik" while Shaggy pronounces it as "hy-dro-clo-nik", making the latter say hydrocolonic.
- Isla Fisher was considered for Daphne. She would eventually go on to portray Mary Jane in the film.
- There are multiple deleted scenes:
- An alternate opening that began showing the animated counterparts dancing around to the theme song. The Luna Ghost would then kidnap Daphne and the sequence would shift to live-action.
- Flashbacks when Fred, Velma and Daphne meet up at the airport. Fred would be shown giving a speech on his book tour to an uninterested audience. Velma would be at a support group, confess that she was a member of Mystery Inc. and no one in the group would remember her. Daphne would be shown karate training but accidentally get herself stuck in a tree.
- Velma, Fred and Daphne on a tour bus going around Spooky Island. This is where she'd meet her love interest, and he says "you've always been a chick?"
- A really random sequence in Dead Mike's bar where Velma would get up on stage and start singing "Too Good To Be True" to mock Fred and Daphne. As she does this Mondevarious says "she does know that Bloody Skulls are non-alcoholic?" Although, given the true nature of Mondavarious, he could have been just trying to embarrass Velma by getting onlookers to think she acts this way when she isn't drunk.
- Daphne encountering a possessed Velma in the girls' locker room, having a similar encounter to Shaggy and Scooby with the possessed Fred. Velma would be acting like a valley girl before turning on the Game Face. This is included in the novelization.
- Shaggy witnesses Daphne's soul getting extracted and a demon possessing her - explaining why he knows to look for her head in the vat as well. This is also in the novelization.
- A kiss was filmed between Daphne and Velma. During the scene where the souls keep swapping into the wrong body, Daphne and Velma's would keep getting in the wrong ones-so they decide to kiss to make sure they go in properly.
- While Scooby is locked up in the cage, he fakes a heart attack to try and escape. The guard points out that he's done it eight times already.
- This movie directly lifts a lot of plot elements from at least three of the four DTV animated movies that came out before it. Specifically, the gang are on a regular investigation, but soon after disband and they're invited to an island to solve a mystery by someone who owns it years later from Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the supernatural elements from that one and Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost and Shaggy getting a love interest from Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders. However, the film does them in its own way and completely ignores those movies' events.
- Plans for a live-action film had started when producer Charles Roven bought the rights in 1994. By the end of the decade, the combined popularity of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, along with the addition of the script and updated digital animation led Warner Bros. (who inherited the rights from Turner Pictures after the Turner/Time Warner merger) to fast track production. In July 1998, it was reported that Mike Myers would be co-writing the script with Jay Kogan. The film was officially greenlit in 2000; production started in February 2001 and wrapped in June of that year.
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