Review - Scooby-Doo (2002)

       Hey guys, Chuck here. Scooby-Doo was a really popular Hannah-Barbera cartoon which made its television debut in 1969. It follows four teenage sleuths and their Great Dane as they solve mysteries and unmask bad guys disguised as various monsters. The series was so popular that it received several spin-offs and direct-to-video animated movies throughout the years. So, it's really no surprise that Warner Bros. would want to make a live-action movie based on Scooby-Doo in the early 2000's. 

        Released in 2002, the live-action Scooby-Doo was directed by Raja Gosnell, written by James Gunn, and starred Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard, Isla Fisher, Miguel A. Núñez Jr. Sam Greco, Steven Grieves, and Rowan Atkinson, with special appearances by Pamela Anderson and Sugar Ray. 

      The movie opens with Mystery Inc. wrapping up the caper of the Luna Ghost, who had been haunting a toy factory manufacturing a line of dolls for Pamela Anderson. After capturing the phantom, and having Pam Anderson drive in with the Mystery Machine, the Luna Ghost is unmasked as a janitor named Old Man Smithers, who was upset when Pam refused to go out with him. Unfortunately, a growing fracture within Mystery Inc. causes Fred, Velma, and Daphne to walk away, leaving both Shaggy and Scooby behind with the Mystery Machine. 

       Two years pass, and each member of Mystery Inc. has moved on. Each one is approached with an invitation to the horror-themed tropical themed park resort, Spooky Island, at the request of the park's owner Emile Mondavarious, who believes that the guests of the park have fallen under an evil spell. Chasing various leads, Velma sees a live show hosted by N'Goo Tuana and his luchador associate Zarkos. Tuana recounts a story of how the island was home to ancient beasts that were displaced when Mondavarious built his park, and have been plotting their revenge ever since. Daphne, meanwhile, meets a local voodoo priest, who warns her from investigating the abandoned Haunted Castle ride. Shaggy, meanwhile, has fallen for a young woman named Mary Jane, who happens to be allergic to dogs. Whoops. 

      Anyway, Mystery Inc. heads to the Haunted Castle ride, where they find a slew of clues. Damn, I didn't mean to rhyme with that, but oh well. Anyway, Daphne finds a relic known as the Daemon Ritus, while Fred and Velma discover a educational film teaching inhuman creatures how to act like human teens and young adults. Back at the resort, Velma goes over the Daemon Ritus, and finds herself having a conversation with one of the other guests, where she recounts the old times, and the day that Scooby's nephew Scrappy-Doo pushed it too far and was left on the side of the road. 

      But, it turns out that the monsters N'Goo Tuana spoke of are real, and they launch their attack,  abducting many of the guests,  as well as Mondavarious, Fred, and Velma. Daphne is able to grab the Daemon Ritus and she, Shaggy, Scooby, and Mary Jane make their escape and call the Coast Guard for assistance. The next morning, everything appears fine, and the resort guests are enjoying time on the beach, while also enjoying a live Sugar Ray concert. And, Fred is acting like a complete tool for some reason. But, it turns out that everyone, including Fred, Velma, and the members of Sugar Ray are possessed by the monsters from the night before, and Mary Jane is also possessed. Daphne is nabbed by Zarkos and winds up possessed. 

       Meanwhile, while trying to save Scooby after they have an argument, Shaggy finds a cat full of the protoplasmic souls of those possessed by the monsters. Shaggy frees the souls of Velma, Fred, and Daphne, and they all return to their own bodies...sort of. Fred unable to return to his body, and ends up in Daphne's body instead. Meanwhile, Daphne winds up in Fred's body. Once the quartet of Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma are reunited, the Daemon Ritus plays a game of soul-swapping until everyone's souls are in the right place. I'll get back to this scene later. 

      Anyway, the gang heads back to the beach, where the voodoo priest is preparing a protective charm, as he believes the monsters are preparing for their evil Darpokalypse Ritual, where the souls in the vat will be absorbed by the leader of this band of monsters, and the ritual can only be completed by absorbing a truly pure soul, which is why they need Scooby. And, no surprise, the leader is Mondavarious. So, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma work together to save Scooby, stop the ritual, and save the world. 

      So, they set up a Disco Skull to reflect sunlight into the cavern, and Daphne heads to open the vents atop the cavern to let the the sunlight in.  But, the possessed guests arrive with both Mondavarious and N'Goo Tuana, who collect the Daemon Ritus from Fred and Velma, begin the ritual, and steal Scooby's soul from him. Shaggy, however, grabs manages to prevent Mondavarious from absorbing Scooby's soul, which returns to Scooby's body. And, it turns out that Mondavarious is a robotic suit used by Scrappy, who uses the souls he already absorbed to grow larger, but needs Scooby to finish the transformation. 

      Way up above, Daphne ends up in a fight with Zarkos, and she defeats him, sending him through the vent, falling onto the vat of souls and freeing the souls, returning them to their respective bodies, and unleashing the monsters, which are destroyed by the sunlight reflected by the Disco Skull. Shaggy removes the Daemon Ritus from the monstrous Scrappy, freeing the souls and turning him back to normal. Shaggy discovers a vault door, where the REAL Emile Mondavarious had been locked up for two years while Scrappy, who showed up for a casting session, walked around in the mechanical replica. 

      The police arrive by helicopter and arrest N'Goo Tuana, Zarkos, and Scrappy, who remarks "I would have gotten away with it, too, if not for you meddling son of a --" only to be cut off by the helicopter door closing. Mystery Inc. is reunited, and go off to solve more mysteries. 

      This movie isn't good, but it is a relatively harmless distraction. James Gunn's writing, while certainly hampered by some lousy directing by Raja Gosnell, was at least decent. The four leads of Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, Linda Cardellini as Velma, and Matthew Lillard as Shaggy were all really good. Some of the other cast, such a Isla Fisher as Mary Jane and Rowan Atkinson as Emile Mondavarious were good additions as well. And, yes, I did appreciate the cameo appearances by the likes of Pam Anderson and Sugar Ray. After all, one of the old cartoons was called The New Scooby-Doo Movies, which featured the likes of Sandy Duncan, Don Knotts, the Harlem Globetrotters, the Addams family, and even Batman and Robin. So, this movie having famous celebrity appearances by Pam Anderson and Sugar Ray wasn't a problem. 

      No, the problem is that the movie doesn't know whether to be true to the original cartoons, a loving satire, or a mean-spirited deconstruction. And, the handling of Scrappy-Doo, and the way he was made into the film's villain, was just kinda mean-spirited. And, a big part of the more confused nature of the movie stems from the fact that in the time between the actors signing on and the film going into production, Scooby-Doo went from being an adult oriented satire of the cartoons to trying to be a more faithful and family-friendly adaptation of the cartoons. Many of the planned adult elements that were cut included having Shaggy being a stoner, and an additional bit in the soul-swapping scene, where Daphne and Velma's souls couldn't return to the proper bodies, so the two ladies had to kiss each other to switch their souls back. 

       But, in all, I still enjoy this movie, as it's a fun relic of my childhood (I was about ten years old when it came to theaters), and it had a lot of things I enjoyed, such as the performances of the four leads, the design of Scooby-Doo, and the soundtrack consisting of two versions of the classic Scooby-Doo: Where Are You? theme song (one by reggae singer Shaggy, and one by rock band MxPx), as well as songs like "Land of a Million Drums" by OutKast and "Words to Me" by Sugar Ray. Like I said, not a great movie, but definitely a fun one. 

      Alright guys, this is Chuck signing off, and I think that we'll revisit Scooby-Doo at the end of this month with Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. As for the next review, we'll be looking at another live-action adaptation of a Hannah-Barbera cartoon: The Flintstones.