Usually I make a review of how great or how bad a film is and to my credit I usually try to be on the nose with how I review a film, but for this review I wanted to not review the film as a whole but talk about why it is a fun film. However I will be talking about two movies in one and if you couldn’t tell by now what films we are going to review and talk about then well you better fasten your seatbelt because we are going in hot for this review.
Live Action adaptations somehow have become a huge thing for movie makers today as many directors and production companies want to create live adaptations. Disney has continuously the last decade and a half made live action remakes of their popular animated films and many production companies create live adaptations of popular animated shows from the past to popular video games to even top selling books. Now they aren’t always critically acclaimed films as we have seen in the past, especially in one of my past reviews. I’m talking to you Mulan 2020. However there are also some very fun live action adaptations that aren’t great or bad but are just right down the middle. For me a fun live adaptation from my childhood that I have grown to love more and more despite it being not a perfect film is the Scooby-Doo live action adaptation from 2002 and its later sequel from 2004. They aren’t terrible films but they aren’t the greatest films you are going to watch. Hell I won’t be the first person to say this but they are very misunderstood and are pretty fun films despite them being rated so low and gaining bad reviews from critics. Now as I said before this review will be different from my past reviews as I won’t be talking about key moments of the film that make it good or bad and I won’t be talking about what makes them good or bad. Instead I will be just talking about both Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and talking about why they are fun films and trying to defend the films as they get a bad rep from critics but yet have a big fan base. Now I will say this now but the films as a whole are not terrible films but they are also not great films. However what makes these films fun is how the live action adaption of a classic legendary cartoon from the late 1960’s to early 70’s is a parody of itself and at the same time a decent adaption of the cartoon. I felt pretty nostalgic this past week and I thought what better films to review and talk about then these two childhood favorites.
Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monster’s Unleashed were written and created by Guardians of the Galaxy and The Suicide Squad director James Gunn. Now James Gunn’s comedy is pretty split down the middle as some people like his taste of comedy and other’s think he is a pretty weird guy that creates weird shitty movies about girls getting worm like creatures inside their vagina’s or literally shitty versions of shitty horror movies that make fun of B-rated horror movies. Pretty much James Gunn is a comedic genius that is misunderstood, kind of like the Scooby-Doo live action adaptations that he wrote the screenplay for and created. Think of this, 10 years after creating these movies he went on to create one of greatest MCU films ever with the Guardians of the Galaxy. Not too bad for a guy who created a web series called PG Porn. But for the Scooby-Doo live action adaptations James Gunn created something that kind of parodied the original Scooby-Doo to also being a love letter to late 90’s to early 2000’s teen movies. And if you don’t believe me then look at the cast of these feature films as our 4 main stars of the film were all big teen movie/shows of the late 90’s to early 2000’s.
Freddie Prinze Jr. was nominated for a Razzie for Worst Supporting Actor in 2003 but yet his performance as Fred Jones is both clever and a parody of the character he is playing on the big screen. Before these two films, Freddie Prinze Jr. was simply type casted in teen movies like She’s All That or I Know What You Did Last Summer. So for him to be casted as Fred was pretty questionable but for me and I’m hoping other people thought it worked out well. Again I don’t understand why he was nominated for a Razzie but I can see why. Fred Jones is seen as a clever young man who is well aware of his surroundings and is also the leader of the Mystery Inc. But for this film he came off as a pretty boy who is half smart half unaware of his surroundings when it comes to the first film. Thankfully by the 2nd film he was back to the old Fred that we know and love from the cartoon but the damaged was done for critics as they hated his version of Fred, hence why he was nominated for a Razzie.
We then have Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne Blake. Now prior to these films, Gellar was in a handful of teen films/shows from I Know What You Did Last Summer, Scream 2 and Cruel Intentions to being the main star of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Now her performance as Daphne was pretty decent as she added more into the character as she brought in the Buffy the Vampire Slayer characteristics of being able to kick some ass. I feel like her performance was pretty underappreciated in both films considering she made the character feel fresh and new with her performance plus add in the fact that she is also adding in Daphne’s true characteristics of being a fashion lover who is wealthy while also being the eye candy of the group. She would end up winning a Teen Choice award for her performance as Daphne but other than that there is not a lot of love for her performance as Daphne Blake despite it being a pretty decent performance.
Now Linda Cardellini’s performance as Velma Dinkley was pretty spot on. She might have been a perfect casting for the character but let’s not forget she really wasn’t as known as the other three main stars. Cardellini was known her roles in teen films like Good Burger and Legally Blonde to being one of the main stars in the underrated teen show Freaks and Geeks. However it was this performance as Velma that gave her the spotlight to the public eye. She truly was a perfect version of Velma despite the amount of times they sexualized her in the film. Trust me I will talk about this later on with the films as a whole but my god was Velma the victim of being sexualized the most.
Then we have the most praised star of the film, Matthew Lillard. Lillard played Shaggy Rogers and he was the most perfect choice for this role as not only did he perform as the character so perfectly but his voice for the character was spot on and since 2009 he has been the voice of Shaggy in many Scooby-Doo animated films and T.V shows. Lillard unfortunately in his career prior to Scooby-Doo was type casted into teen movies. These movies include She’s All That, Summer Catch and his 2nd most well known role as Stu in the horror movie scream. Lillard is such an exceptional actor that while his career is remembered for playing Shaggy and being in teen films, he is a pretty good actor that gets no appreciation for his acting chops despite him being stuck in shitty teen films. Now Lillard literally became Shaggy as he had all of his mannerisms to his characteristics and once again his made his voice just as raspy as Casey Kasem did for the original Scooby-Doo animated shows and films.
Now I want to talk about both films but want to keep them short, but to understand why these two films are both negatively critiqued I need to talk more about the first one.
Scooby-Doo is about the Mystery Inc. reuniting after a two year disbandment as they go on a huge investigation by going to a horror themed beach resort, Spooky Island, to find out why people are becoming brainwashed in the island. Now this film uses the silly parts of Scooby-Doo like the ridiculous chase scenes, Shaggy and Scooby’s love for food, unmasking the so-called villain and among other troupes of the show, but the film has a more mature style as it feels like it is a film more for high schoolers and not its target audience of kids. The film has a lot of flaws despite it having pretty decent performances from its cast. One thing that stands out that literally makes this film kind of creepy is how the film sexualizes the tone of this film. The amount of cleavage shown in this kid’s film is sky high as every 10 minutes I feel like I’m forced to stare at Daphne, Velma or any female character’s cleavage. I get what James Gunn and the director, Raja Gosnell, is visioning in this movie by making this live adaptation feel like a teen movie but let’s not forget this film is PG and is targeted for kids and the pre-teens who are watching the cartoon and animated films on television. Another flaw I noticed in this film is the CGI. Now for Scooby the CGI looks fine but most of the film’s CGI budget went to Scooby as the monsters in the film look like a cartoon and there are multiple moments in the film where it looks very cartoonish. Finally this flaw isn’t big but it’s something I noticed in my recent viewing. The villain of this film is pretty obvious when watching this movie as we all know it’s the island’s creator, played by Mr. Bean, but once we see a flashback scene of the gang in the Mystery Machine with Scrappy-Doo, it’s pretty obvious to me how the film literally wasn’t hiding the fact that Scrappy was going to be the bad guy of the film or in this case, “Bad Dog”. Now I understand why they made Scrappy the villain as the character is not well liked by Scooby-Doo fans so I can see why James Gunn decided to make Scrappy the villain, but I mean at least make it not so obvious. Other than that this film is just a fun film that yes it gets ridiculous and silly at times but I mean so do the other Scooby-Doo animated films. Hell I don’t like the whole souls being taken out of the body and pretty much being floating heads but I mean we have seen more ridiculous things being done in the show/films. Also I find it very funny how James Gunn is literally putting in marijuana jokes in the film with a character being named “Mary-Jane” and Shaggy falling in love with her. The joke is Shaggy smokes weed but if you didn’t know that then well now you know.
Now all in all to some this film didn’t feel like a Scooby-Doo live action adaptation as the film felt more like Scooby-Doo meets 2000’s teen movies. But I think that was the point of the film and why James Gunn made it a parody of itself while at the same time being a love letter to teen films. Now you have to think that this film literally came out in 2002, a time where teen films were being released continuously. Films like Not Another Teen Movie, the American Pie franchise and Bring it On were the type of films that teens were watching and this film was plastered hard in that era. So Gunn made fun of that era by adding in ways teens talked in the early 2000’s to even adding in people partying on the beach with the popular late 90’s early 2000’s band Sugar Ray. The film used a very weird language for teens as they were being “hip” and using words like word, dawg, bro or fo shizzle and in all honesty those were the hip words for teens to say and it made sense why it was used. But also you have to remember Scooby and the gang are from an era where teens said groovy, jinxies or peace and love and it’s slang words like that that made this live action adaption in the 2000’s work for this film. I don’t think this is 100% true but I feel like Gunn put Scooby-Doo and the gang in this modern era and made them use the hip slang words of the early 2000’s to kind of make fun of not only early 2000’s teen movies but to make fun of the fact that Scooby and the gang were using slang words during their era of the late 60’s to early 70’s. It might seem all confusing but if you read between the lines and pay close attention you can see how James Gunn is trying to interpret this movie as a 2000’s teen movie, but for kids.
Now Scooby-Doo did pretty well in the box office despite all the negative reviews. This then led Warner Bros. to make a sequel to this live action adaption and if Scooby-Doo was a love letter to 2000’s teen movies, then Scooby-Doo 2: Monster’s Unleashed is a love letter to the original classic cartoon. The sequel also received negative reviews and despite it doing pretty decent in the box office, it somehow managed to do worse than the original. However the fans of Scooby-Doo, or at least a good percentage of them, loved this movie. Monster’s Unleashed felt more like a Scooby-Doo live action adaptation than 2002’s Scooby-Doo as it had all the troupes of the classic cartoon and added in some key features of the first movie. This movie to me is the better film as I love both films equally but I own Monster’s Unleashed on DVD so now you see which one I favorite more. Scooby-Doo 2: Monster’s Unleashed is about the gang solving another mystery while also facing off some of the monsters from their biggest mysteries. Now this film feels more like a classic straight to video Scooby film as it has all the troupes of Scooby-Doo but it also puts them up against a villain that is by far impressive and the monsters feel so real. Of course they are just costumes of the “fake monsters” that they took down in the past that become real in this movie but they still look pretty cool. In fact that’s the first reason why I love this film a bit more. The classic Scooby-Doo monsters from the show play a big part of the film. We got a lot of the classic monsters/villains from the original show in this film including The Black Knight, Miner 49er, Zombie, The 10,000 Volt Ghost and the Pterodactyl Ghost and there live action or in this case CGI live action of the classic original characters look very impressive. While the CGI isn’t great I will give it two thumbs up anyway because they look pretty cool despite the CGI not being so great.
Another thing that I really liked about the film that makes it pretty special is that the villain is not obvious. The last film we clearly knew who the villain was but in this one it takes us on a journey and we have a few suspects that we might believe is the bad guy. Seth Green character is the biggest suspect but when it turns out to be….*Spoiler Alert*…..Dr. Jonathon Jacoba but in an Alicia Silverstone’s character costume, it kind of leaves us shocked and doesn’t make it so obvious. I actually like the villain in this film as he looks more of a villain than Scrappy in an Mr.Bean robot while bringing terrible CGI monsters to life with the help of some weird ancient pyramid. I don’t think the villain in this film was used enough as the classic monsters take up more of the spotlight unfortunately.
Now while I love this movie a lot, it has its flaws. I mean let’s face it this film has a 22% rating on Rotten Tomatoes and it won a Razzie in 2005 for Worst Remake or Sequel. This film had a lot of sexual innuendos again, specifically with Velma. Now I mean they did it a bit in the first film but they over killed it with this one. Not only did we get more cleavage, but then the production team decided to put her in a latex red suit that makes her literally look like something out of Saturday Night Fever or Grease. In all fairness she looked hot as hell but my god those ten year olds in 2004 that probably got their jollies crazy for sexualized Velma. I just find it weird how James Gunn sexualizes the female characters, but oh Shaggy was sexualized too. There is a weird scene where Scooby and Shaggy are drinking potions and they transformed into a genius or Tazz but the biggest WTF moment was when Shaggy’s body transformed to a woman’s body. The CGI for that part of the scene was bad but my god was this scene just very awkward. Now the film had more flaws other than sexualizing characters. First off Shaggy and Scooby are usually silly and are wacky but my god they really made them dumb for this movie. To be fair I don’t hate how dumb they made them, I’m just annoyed of how dumb they made them. They were a bit smarter in the first film but in here they literally are airheads at some points. Also the first film used a lot of burp and fart jokes but in here every ten minutes has a fart joke and it’s kind of annoying. Finally the jokes in this film really don’t land well and I don’t know who to blame for this one. I know James Gunn wrote the movie but he can’t be the full blame for the lack of funny jokes in this film.
Look this film isn’t great but in the end of the day I love this film for being more like a Scooby-Doo movie than the last one. While it did have many flaws, I look past them and look deep into what the film was trying to do and that’s being a fun entertaining kid’s movie. And yeah it’s a kid’s movie but it defiantly doesn’t feel like one when we see “Sexy Velma” and Scooby-Doo dancing with a villain who looks like her main job is being a….hooker…smh. But like I said in the end of the day I love this movie because it is a nostalgic movie from my childhood and its one of those movies that I watch for entertainment value and not for being a great feature film value.
Now there seems to be a battle between the people that love these two films as one side thinks the first movie is better while others think the second movie is better, I mentioned before that Monster’s Unleashed is a movie I watch for entertainment and the same can be said for the first movie. Both films are not great films but they somehow manage to entertain us in a way in which we know it’s bad but we love them so much. The main cast are the best part of the films as their performances are really great, mostly Matthew Lillard and Linda Canderilli but the whole cast does a phenomenal job. When it comes to which film is better, well it’s not simple to just say “oh this film is way better than this film”. Each fan of these films loves one more than the other but for their own reason. I mentioned that before that I liked Monster’s Unleashed more because it has the classic monsters and felt more like a live action adaptation of Scooby-Doo, but I know that both films are equally the same. Both are entertaining, fun films that will bring every 90’s to early 2000’s kid back to Nostalgia Avenue.
Here the thing about these films though, yes they are not great films but they are also not terrible films. Both these films aren’t Oscar nominated films, they are more close to the Kids Choice Awards, but in the end of the day that’s okay because these fun little kid’s movies were silly and entertaining and even though they had so many fart jokes and ridiculous amount of sexual innuendos and ridiculous jokes that are very mature for their target audience, they still managed to stay relevant and be loved for being different and being fun and silly. But they somehow manage to get misunderstood and I don’t understand why they do, why people consider these films one of the worst films ever when I never really hear someone physically say that this film is trash or this is the worst film ever. Like I have seen people say it’s a terrible film and a bad adaptation but never have I seen specifically someone say it is “Worst Movie Ever”. Now as I said before and will probably say later, both these films are not great films but they are also not terrible films, they have their problems and have many questionable jokes/moments in their films but I mean in the end of the day no one is trying to take these films serious because Scooby-Doo and all the films/classic shows never were serious. We are talking about a cartoon that had a crossover with Batman, the Harlem Globe Trotters, Johnny Bravo and hell if you remember or ever watched Scooby-Doo, Where Are You then you would remember that the show included a laugh track, thus making it a comedy mystery show. So I still don’t understand why people say this film isn’t a good adaptation of the classic cartoon, when in actuality it’s a pretty decent adaptation that adds in some fun qualities into the mix.
You can love or hate this film but we all know that this film is very enjoyable and is a fun film that you can watch with a group of friends or if you are feeling nostalgic and want to watch something from your childhood. I feel like because these two films were a big part of my childhood that I automatically love this film and I can never hate it even though they both can get pretty ridiculous and have very questionable moments in the films. Plus I love Scooby-Doo and I love that these two films were made with love from not only James Gunn but the actors involved and most of the production team. The Scooby-Doo live action films unfortunately can get a lot of hate from the people who didn’t like it or critics and I feel like that has to do with how the films were adapted onto the big screen. The first one especially as it felt like it was a Rated R film but inside a PG movie and at the same time it felt more like a Scooby-Doo teen movie for kids. I feel like a broke record at this point when I say this but these films are just supposed to be fun, plain and simple.
Final Rating for both films: 3 out of 5 Stars, 60% out of 100
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