Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, also referred to as Scooby-Doo 2, is a 2004 American live-action/computer-animated horror comedy film based on the animated television franchise Scooby-Doo. It is the second installment in the Scooby-Doo live-action film series, and a sequel to 2002's Scooby-Doo, and was directed by Raja Gosnell, written by James Gunn, and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard, Seth Green, Tim Blake Nelson, Peter Boyle and Alicia Silverstone, with Neil Fanning reprising his role as the voice of Scooby-Doo.
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 "I think Coolsville this movie sucks!"
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The film premiered at Hollywood on March 20, 2004 and was released on March 26, 2004.
Plot
Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo attend the grand opening of the Coolsonian Criminology Museum, featuring an exhibit of monster costumes from Mystery Inc.’s solved cases. The celebrations are crashed by the Evil Masked Figure, who announces the gang’s destruction, before stealing several costumes with help from the reanimated Pterodactyl Ghost.
A smear campaign is started by journalist Heather Jasper-Howe against the gang. Shaggy and Scooby vow to stop bungling up in cases, making attempts to solve the mystery themselves. The gang suspect a former enemy may be the culprit. After dismissing the former Pterodactyl Ghost, the late Jonathan Jacobo, they settle on his cell mate Jeremiah Wickles, the former Black Knight Ghost.
The gang drive to Wickles’ manor house, finding a grimoire previously owned by Jacobo, that serves as an instruction manual for creating monsters. Shaggy and Scooby find an invite the “Faux Ghost” nightclub, a hang out for unmasked criminals. They are attacked by the Black Knight Ghost, but the gang escape. Shaggy and Scooby sneak out to the Faux Ghost in disguise to interrogate Wickles, but are thrown out when the patrons recognise them. Velma identifies a key ingredient in the grimoire as “randominium”, located in the old silver mines. Fred, Daphne, and Velma drive to the museum, accompanied by its curator Patrick Wisely, whom Velma has a crush on. However, they discover the entire exhibition has been stolen.
Fred, Daphne, and Velma confront Wickles at the mines, learning he is planning to reopen them as an amusement park. Upon learning Wickles hated Jacobo, the gang conclude he is innocent. The gang reunite upon finding the Monster Hive, containing a machine that transforms the costumes into monsters. Shaggy and Scooby play with the machine’s control panel, carelessly activating the Hive, transforming more monsters. The gang flee with the control panel, pursued by the 10,000 Volt Ghost.
The Evil Masked Figure terrorizes Coolsville, forcing the gang to flee to their old school clubhouse in shame. The gang realise they can reverse the control panel’s power by altering its wiring. When Captain Cutler emerges from a bayou, the gang race back to the mines to reinstall the panel and reverse the Monster Hive’s effects. One-by-one, the gang split off to lure away the monsters, leaving Shaggy and Scooby to deliver the panel to the Hive. Velma find a shrine dedicated to Jacobo built by Patrick, leading to her suspicion that he is the Evil Masked Figure; this is proven false when he saves her from a collapsing catwalk.
The gang confront the Evil Masked Figure in the Hive, but are all captured by the Tar Monster, save Scooby. He freezes the Tar Monster with a fire extinguisher, before resetting the control panel, defeating the monsters. The Evil Masked Figure tries escaping, but is caught on the catwalk. Outside, Mystery Inc. unmask the criminal as Heather, only to reveal she is actually Jacobo in disguise. Having survived a prison escape, Jacobo plotted revenge, framing Wickles to cover his tracks. Jacobo and his cameraman-turned-accomplice Ned are arrested. The gang are praised as heroes in Coolsville once again, dancing in the Faux Ghost with Ruben Studdard.
After the credits, Scooby is seen playing the tie-in Game Boy Advance game. After he succeeds, he tells the viewers to enter the secret code, this is only seen on the VHS and DVD release.
"Ruh-roh!" Qualities
- It doesn't improve much from the previous films, and entirely repeats a majority of them that made the first movie so infamous to begin with, and results in an equally bad sequel with no charm whatsoever, and ends up as a pretty forgettable kids movie as a result.
- Excessive amount of fart and burp jokes, though there are nowhere nearly as many as there were in the first film. To be fair, most of the non-toilet humor isn't amusing, either.
- The plot is confusing and badly executed - and the story is not even an original concept for the Scooby-Doo! franchise, as the 2002 game Scooby-Doo! Night of 100 Frights had already done this concept.
- Awful CGI effects especially in the transformation scene.
- Alicia Silverstone's performance as Heather Jasper-Howe is incredibly bad, so bad it's one of the reasons for why the next point is so bad.
- The mystery in this movie is very poorly put together. First off, it's far too easy to figure out who the villain is, mostly because of the casting of Alicia Silverstone. Her poor acting to try and look innocent, and the film trying way too hard to make it look like her character isn't the villain, by making the characters portrayed by Seth Green and Peter Boyle look way too suspicious, don't help at all, and second off, Zahf Paroo's character who was Ned the cameraman for Heather's reporting, he's revealed to be the one who disguised as the mastermind to make Heather look innocent, even though he appears as a background character in the movie, and is given no dialogue, and practically no screen time for the audience to know who he is, which makes the reveal of him covering for Heather come off as totally out of nowhere.
- Laughable and forgettable dialogue.
- Most of the villains don't come off as scary and instead seem lame and pointless. Their designs also look awful, even by 2004 standards.
- Shaggy and Scooby are even DUMBER in this film.
- In one scene, the two are seen drinking unknown science formulas, the formulas resulted in:
- Scooby turning into an alien.
- Shaggy getting the body of a woman.
- Scooby turning into the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes.
- Shaggy growing muscles with a dumb personality to go along.
- Scooby turning into a smart scientist and speaking normally.
- The title doesn't make any sense since there is no ties to the original movie and feels less like a sequel and instead a stand-alone film.
- The Luna Ghost, a fan-favorite from the first movie, isn't seen, or mentioned in this one, making him a bit of a wasted opportunity. The Mud Bog Ghoul mentioned at the end of the first movie wasn’t seen at all.
- The reveal that Heather Jasper-Howe happens to be Dr. Jacobo has little-to-no foreshadowing. It would've been better if Heather was the secret daughter of Jacobo, rather than his persona, but the one we got is just dumb and nonsensical.
- Plot holes:
- Why do the people at the Faux Ghost are unaware that their costumes are being transformed into monsters?
- How on earth do Heather and Ned appear in the closing credits sequence, despite Heather not being a real person and Ned being in prison?
- The Skeleton Men changed from menacing villains in the cartoons to gibberish speaking Minion prototypes.
- Uncomfortable implications of pedophilia in this movie, as when both Ned and Jacobo get sent to the police car, Ned is creeped out that supposedly his partner Heather was a man the whole time, and later says this line, "but we cuddled", which might suggest that a teenage cameraman had sex with an old man, while he was disguised as a woman, which is just gross and not funny in the slightest at all. It could be that Jacobo did it as an act.
- There are some moments of the film that try to be emotional and had tons of potential, but get ruined by terrible jokes, such as the flashback scene where it showcases how the gang were back when they were kids and them playing with Scooby, as it feels emotional and wholesome, but only for a lame joke to happen, as Shaggy throws a frisbee at Scooby for him to catch, and Scooby instead runs into a tree and gets hurt, which ruined the emotional impact of the scene and was just unnecessary overall.
- Some jokes tend to be repeated at times, such as the joke where the black knight gets injured in the crotch in two scenes, first with Velma's foot, then from Fred clamping his crotch with lighting clippers, which gets rather repetitive due to the joke not really being that funny in the first place.
- Overuse of cartoon sound effects, particularly during the potions scene.
- Lame post-credits scene, as it is just Scooby-Doo revealing the secret code for the Game Boy Advance video game adaptation of this film, which hasn't aged well, since the Game Boy Advance game likely didn't sell very well, and most people nowadays don't even have Game Boy Advance anymore, due to it being an old console, and are more interested in systems like the Nintendo Switch, and the PlayStation 5. Plus, not many people will get the reference, and only serves as shameless advertising for a mediocre video game adaptation for a system that has been discontinued for years.
- This is even proved further by the fact that it isn't even on Nintendo Switch Online, with the other Game Boy Advance titles, mostly due to its obscurity, and a lack of interest for the title, from people, thus making the post-credits scene entirely pointless, and trivial nowadays.
- There is some product placement for Burger King.
"Scooby-Dooby-Doo!" Qualities
- It has a better grasp of the source material compared to its predecessor; the monsters in the movie are actually from the cartoons, and the events of the first film are completely ignored, with the exception of a fleeting reference to Mary Jane, which makes it look like those events didn't even happen. It helps that James Gunn, the films' writer, is a fan of Scooby-Doo.
- The gang also goes to a traditional haunted house like in the cartoons.
- Most of the acting is great, Matthew Lillard's portrayal of Shaggy Rogers is also still great, and, the new cast members, with the very notable exception of Alicia Silverstone, are fitting additions to the cast, including Seth Green, Tim Blake Nelson and Peter Boyle.
- The acting of Velma, Daphne and Fred has also improved noticeably.
- The main characters are better portrayed than in the previous film.
- A remarkable aspect is how the characters develop when doubting the roles that in the original cartoon they followed to the letter:
- Fred wants to show that he can be a true team leader, and not just the handsome guy.
- Daphne begins to distrust herself for thinking that she's just "a pretty face".
- Velma feels insecure about her image, and feels that she deserves that her personality be something more than, "the smart girl".
- Despite becoming more dumb, Shaggy and Scooby are still overall better portrayed than in the first film as they are fed up with being seen as buffoons or the team's fools and are desperately trying to prove their bravery to others by trying to solve the mystery themselves.
- In fact, the scene where Shaggy and Scooby lament, and reflect on how they do nothing, but mess things up for the team, despite their efforts, and wish for being able to do things right, is pretty sad, and even relatable for some people.
- Some of the jokes are pretty funny, such as the cotton candy glob part and, “you’re pushing your luck, Scoob!”.
- Even though the monster designs are bad, they're somewhat better than those in the first film.
- Daphne's outfit is also more accurate, although she still wears pink go-go boots in some scenes, and Scooby-Doo looks nice in his Jimmy Hendrix-like costume.
- Decent soundtrack by David Newman.
- Some of the dialogue is quite memorable including, "I think Coolsville sucks".
- MXPX's cover of the Scooby-Doo theme song from the first film was reused in this film's climax.
- The only genuinely terrifying villains are the Tar Monster and the 10,000 volt ghost, especially when the tar monster cover his enemies in tar.
- Even though Heather-Jasper Howe was poorly executed, her story arc aged well in a post-Donald Trump era with the rise of "fake news".
- The evil masked figure’s mask is quite expressive and unique.
- It had some neatly put tributes that catered to Scooby-Doo fans, without pandering. For example, a few monsters from the cartoons can be seen as displays at the museum, and the black knight ghost was mentioned by Fred as Mystery Inc.’s first case, which is a reference to the very first Scooby-Doo cartoon, and had the black knight ghost as the villain.
- The genuinely good visual effects came from the black knight ghost, which was made from a man in armor, and computer-generated imagery.
- Decent climax.
Reception
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed received negative reviews by critics, fans and audiences alike. It currently holds a score of 22% on Rotten Tomatoes with an average rating of 4.3 out of 10 and a critic consensus that reads "Only the very young will get the most out of this silly trifle". On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, an improvement over the previous film's "B+".
Box office
The film opened up at #1 on its opening weekend grossing $29,438,331 domestically. It later made a total domestic gross of $84,216,833. In overseas territories, the film made $97,250,000. Overall, the film made a total of $181,466,833 against its $25 million budget.
Awards and nominations
The film won the Golden Raspberry Award for "Worst Remake or Sequel", and was nominated for two Stinkers Bad Movie Awards including "Worst Sequel" and "Least "Special" Special Effects", but won none.
Fate of the live-action film series
While its reception was generally negative as with its predecessor, it grossed considerably less than its predecessor. Let alone its critical reception, its financial failure resulted in a third film (set to be both written and directed by James Gunn and set for a 2007 release) being cancelled.
Trivia
- Seth Green, who appears in this movie, later created Robot Chicken. Two episodes have skits involving Scooby-Doo crossing over with Friday the 13th and The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Freddie Prinze, Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini and Matthew Lillard reprised their roles from the movie in both skits.
- There was originally going to be a third live action Scooby-Doo movie, but in an August 2004 interview, actor Matthew Lillard stated that those plans where cancelled after Warner Brothers was unhappy that the film had a box office return of $84 million in the U.S.[1] The third movie would have been written and directed by James Gunn and it would have taken place in Scotland. The plot, according to James Gunn, was originally going to be as follows: "The Mystery Inc. gang are hired by a town in Scotland who complain they’re being plagued by monsters but we discover throughout the film the monsters are actually the victims & Scooby & Shaggy have to come to terms with their own prejudices & narrow belief systems."
- It created the "I think Coolsville sucks!" and potion scene memes.
- After the credits, Scooby is seen playing the tie-in Game Boy Advance game. After he succeeds, he tells the viewers to enter the secret code to view the game's ending, which contained spoilers for the movie itself, this is only seen on the DVD and VHS release of the movie.
- While Dee Bradley Baker and Terrence Stone were credited as the voice of the 10,000 volt ghost, Stone revealed on a Facebook comment that he actually did the voice, and not Baker.
- Michael Rooker was considered to play Old Man Wickles.
- Gunn revealed his favorite monster in the film is Captain Cutler.
- There is a whole wiki dedicated to the infamous potion scene.
Comments
- 2000s films
- Mediocre media
- Adventure films
- Based on cartoons
- Based on television
- Comedy films
- Family films
- Horror films
- Sequel films
- Warner Bros. films
- Mystery films
- Animal films
- Average films
- Worst Prequel, Remake, Rip-off or Sequel winners
- Abusing the show
- Live-action films
- Films with cancelled/scrapped sequels
- Hybrid films
- Box office disappointments
- Hanna-Barbera films
- Bad movies from good franchises
- Internet memes
- Cult films
- Movies that killed the franchise
- Remakes/reboots
- Gross-out films
- Live action films based on cartoons
- "It's made for kids"
- Films aware of how bad they are
- Films with content inappropriate for their target audiences