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Scooby Doo (2002)
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picture to order this film (widescreen)
Film Also
available in Full Screen: Click Here.
The Film:
Scooby-Doo was a mainstay of Saturday mornings
in my youth. I am not one of those Generation-X critics who would purport otherwise,
nor am I about to poo-poo my single-digit years, implying
I was reading the newspaper and sipping tea back in the day, rather than watching
cartoons and being, quite predictably, a child. Nor would I imply that
Scooby-Doo was worthy of being among the Top
Ten Cartoon Ideas Gone Awry; see that list if you
dare, and be enlightened. I may, admittedly, prefer a Superfriends movie
someday, though the point is, I know what I'm reviewing here.
One must admit
this much: making this cartoon live-action was no easy task.
Memories of last year's Josie and
the Pussycats surface --as much as I wish they would not--
where it was obvious the directors had never seen a single cartoon from that series! This film's
prologue is irrefutably by people who actually saw the
cartoons. There's Daphne in trouble, buzz words like
"Zoinks!" and "Jinkies!" and in
the end, a ghoul is caught and unmasked. Pamela Anderson --apparently, a
modern substitute for Phyllis Diller-- even makes a cameo appearance.
 The main story begins when Fred (Freddie
Prinze, Jr.) takes all the credit for the mystery being solved, annoying
the others in the group. This leads to Fred, Velma (Linda Cardellini), and Daphne (Sarah Michelle
Gellar), all deciding to split up, with only Shaggy
(Matthew Lillard) and Scooby (CGI animated) alone with the Mystery Van, uttering the movie's core theme: "Friends Stick Together." Jump ahead 2 years, when an
owner of "Spooky Island" (Rowan Atkinson), requires their
combined efforts, to
solve a particularly haunting mystery. Will this mystery bring them back
together? Well, it wouldn't be much of a Scooby movie if it
didn't.
The
conflict of how to rate this movie begins with two pairs
of main stars: two that portray their characters exactly
like they were in the cartoon, and two who wanted to improvise.
Freddie Prinze Jr.'s alteration of Fred Jones, from "hunky leader of the
group" into "dizzy blond" was, I feel, a mistake. This may
have been intended to accentuate his real-life fiancée Gellar's
transformation of Daphne, from "Danger prone" victim to,
suddenly, kung-fu heroine;
again, a mistake, since this is not Daphne's style. However, the "cute
factor" of these two stars make their snafus more palatable than they could
have been. Meanwhile, Cardellini's Velma, and
Lillard's Shaggy, are dead-on perfect, from Velma's blindly crawling on the ground
for her glasses when monsters are nearby, to Shaggy's Casey-Kasem-like
voice. However, given Scooby's
alternate incantations throughout the years, there are any
number of Scooby fans with their own, precise view of what a live-action
Scooby flick should look like. This film, quite obviously, will only appease
an elite group of them. Are you among them? That depends. There are those, for example, who look at Scooby's nephew,
Scrappy-Doo, as the irrefutable pinnacle of the show's downfall; the puppy
know-it-all with no
fears, who at one point, even replaced Fred and Velma in the series! If you're a
Scrappy lover, well, I hope you have a good sense of
humor. For Scrappy haters, his harsh treatment here is worth
the price of the whole film. For me, I'll only admit the comment that Scrappy was no real
puppy --it was a glandular disorder-- was worth a hearty laugh. Unfortunately,
two ideas for where to go with this film apparently surfaced: one modern,
one classic. The film obviously originally filmed the former, then was
edited to appease fans of the latter. The gritty mystery, for example,
involves a machine that removes teenager's souls and replaces them with
"demon souls." Little tykes
too young to know how unlikely such a machine is, may leave with mild
nightmares. There are poor edit jobs implying there used to be PG-13 jokes
to go along with this PG-13 mystery, yet only the
potty humor remains: a flatulence contest between Shaggy and Scooby, and a
moment when a very rebellious Scrappy "marks his territory"
(ahem) on Daphne. On the other hand, such potty humor never crosses the
line to sewer humor (Austin Powers 2
comes to mind), so I was still able to have a good time with the
kids...who, admittedly, are who the film was made for. In
the end, what to rate this film? Well, this is truly a film for the kids,
so let them decide (a little). I went to this film with no less than 4
youngsters under the age of 8, and they all loved it. In fact, my
5 year old nephew was disgruntled that he was unable to see it a second
time right away! What did you expect? The sad fact of life is, with only the bare-minimum of
exceptions, even a homage to 1970's animation is
better than most children's entertainment these days. Zoinks! Not THAT'S
scary! The DVD: The
audio commentaries are twofold: one with the cast, one with the crew. The
latter is nice from a technical-anecdotes standpoint, yet it's the
commentary from Matthew Lillard,
Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Linda Cardellini that truly
shines. From as soon as they finish with the introductions, it's clear
that this will be a fun commentary, for one reason; this is a cast
unafraid to laugh at themselves. This is far more fresh than commentaries
like the one for The Sweetest Thing,
where stars gushed about how "perfect" everything was. Face
reality; things are hardly perfect, in even the finest of films.
This cast is humble enough to admit this, leading to a great time. Let's
jump to the deleted scenes. While not offered individually, you can use
chapter skip to jump to the deleted scenes that sound best to you. Scene
one is a far better opening credit sequence (WHY did they delete this?!?),
where animated versions of the characters introduce the film far more
brilliantly than the film did, which incorrectly jumped right to the
mystery. Scene two, by stark contrast, is a forgettable moment when the
gang catches each other up on what they've done since they broke up as a
team. Let's just say the stories are worth deleting. More
deletions. "Mystery
Boulevard" shows more of the Island than we saw in the film, where
each of the gang is given a more scenic tour. This includes the scene only
viewed in the film trailer (!), when Velma describes herself as "the
smart one" to someone who's never heard of the Scooby Gang. Speaking
of Velma, actress Linda Cardellini is
the star attraction of the next two --and best--
deleted scenes! The first,
"Velma's Song," has a drunk Velma strutting her stuff on top of
the lounge piano. The second, "Locker Room," has Velma's doppelganger
in a bikini ---Jinkies! The deleted scenes end with "Daphne's Spirit
Thingie" when her spirit first gets yanked out (probably deemed too
intense for the younger kids), and "heart attack," when Scooby
tries the oldest trick in he book to get free from the villains' cage. While
these are some nice deletions to enjoy --and en even better cast
commentary-- what else is there? Well, there's a 21 minute,
behind-the-scenes featurette that apparently was first shown on TV (hence
the only 21 minute length, sans commercials). There's also a "two
player game" to enjoy, yet with DVD-only interaction, you can imagine
how little this "game" will sway kids from wanting to play a
round of Scooby Doo: Night of
100 Frights instead. Capping off the extras (click on the
"next" arrow at the bottom-right of the main menu) is the
obligatory music video (Outkast's "The Land of a Billion
Drums"), and three short clips on how they designed the set, built
the Mystery Van, and choreographed Daphne's Buffy-like
fight scene. The only surprise? Try as I might, I could not find any of
the film's trailers. Strange. There
is also one cute little Easter egg. In the main menu, Scooby dashes to
pick up his "SD" tag in the bottom-middle. Wait until he drops
it again if you have to, then highlight it and click Enter. You'll see a
70 second tale of rainy seasons at the film site they chose. Ruh-oh! In
the end, this was a good film...yet not great. So, why has WB given it the
go ahead, for two more sequels? The answer is simple: because this could
be a film franchise as lucrative as Star Trek's was, and if Trek got a
second chance after that yawner of a Star Trek The Motion Picture, so
should Scooby. Here's hoping the sequel guest stars Don Knotts! Until
then...
Click
picture to order this film (widescreen)
Film Also
available in Full Screen: Click Here.
| All text, Title
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