Scooby-Doo (film)

Scooby-Doo (also known as Scooby-Doo: The Movie) is a 2002 American mystery adventure comedy horror film produced by Mosaic Media Group and based on the long-running animated franchise. The first installment in the Scooby-Doo live-action film series, the film was directed by Raja Gosnell from a screenplay by James Gunn, and stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini and Rowan Atkinson. Neil Fanning provides the voice of the titular character. The plot revolves around Mystery Incorporated, a group of four young adults and a talking Great Dane who solve mysteries, who reunite after a two-year disbandment to investigate a mystery at a popular horror-themed tropical island resort.
Filmed in and around Queensland, Australia, on a budget of $84 million, Scooby-Doo was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on June 14, 2002, and grossed $275 million worldwide. Reggae artist Shaggy and rock group MxPx performed different versions of the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! theme song. The Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster, a ride based on the film, was built at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast, Queensland, in 2002. The film received generally negative reviews from critics. A sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, was released on March 26, 2004.
After Mystery, Inc. solves the mystery of the Luna Ghost at a toy factory, long-brewing friction between Fred Jones, the self-obsessed glory hog, Daphne Blake, who has become tired of being the damsel in distress, and Velma Dinkley, from whom Fred regularly steals credit for her plans, causes the gang to break into a heated argument. Subsequently, they disband, abandoning a dismayed Scooby-Doo and Shaggy Rogers, and leaving them to care for the gang's van, the Mystery Machine.
Two years later, they are all invited to solve a mystery on a horror-themed tropical resort named "Spooky Island" at the behest of owner Emile Mondavarious, who believes the guests have fallen under a demonic curse. While Shaggy and Scooby hope this will bring the gang back together, Velma, Fred, and Daphne each intend to solve the mystery on their own. Velma attends a ritualistic performance given by actor N'Goo Tuana and his henchman, famous luchador Zarkos. N'Goo claims ancient demons once ruled the island, but have been plotting revenge ever since they were displaced by the resort. Meanwhile, Shaggy falls for a girl named Mary Jane, who is allergic to dogs, distancing himself from Scooby in the process.
The gang are led separately to the resort's haunted house ride, and they decide to get along for the time being; they split up and search for clues. Fred and Velma discover a film that educates inhuman creatures about human culture, while Daphne finds a pyramid-shaped artifact called the "Daemon Ritus". Later, at the resort's hotel, Fred, Velma, and Mondavarious are kidnapped and possessed by the island's demons. Mary Jane calls the Coast Guard for help, but the radio operators have been possessed. The next day, after Scooby tries and fails to tell Shaggy that Mary Jane is secretly possessed by a demon, the two have a falling-out that results in Scooby-Doo going missing as well; Zarkos steals back the Daemon Ritus from Daphne, who is also captured and possessed.
Shaggy searches for his friends underground and finds a vat of protoplasm containing the souls of all those possessed. He frees the souls of Daphne, Fred, and Velma, who quickly discover that sunlight destroys the demons. A local voodoo priest informs the gang the demons are to perform their "Darpokalypse" Ritual, which will see them rule the world for ten thousand years if a pure soul is sacrificed in the Daemon Ritus. The gang realizes that the pure soul is that of Scooby, whom Mondavarious was ultimately after. Finally realizing their mistake, Fred, Daphne, and Velma put aside their differences for good and team up with Shaggy to save Scooby and the world.
The gang infiltrates the ritual, where Mondavarious is foiled in sacrificing Scooby's soul by Shaggy. Mondavarious turns out to be a robot controlled by Scooby's estranged nephew Scrappy-Doo, who has been plotting revenge on the gang for being abandoned long ago due to his increasingly power-hungry and egomaniacal nature. Absorbing the tourists' souls, Scrappy transforms into a giant monster and tries to kill the gang. Daphne knocks Zarkos into the vat, tipping it over and returning most of the other souls to their bodies, then reflects sunlight through a skull-shaped disco ball, killing the released demons. Shaggy frees the rest of the souls, reversing Scrappy's transformation in the process, and finds the real Mondavarious, having been captured and replaced by Scrappy. Scrappy and his henchmen are arrested, and Mystery, Inc. reunites.
Neil Fanning voices the titular character, Scooby-Doo. Scott Innes reprises his role as the voice of Scrappy-Doo and J. P. Manoux voices Scrappy Rex. Sam Greco portrays Zarkos; Steven Grieves portrays N'Goo Tuana; Kristian Schmid portrays Brad; and Michala Banas portrays Carol.
Additionally, Holly Brisley appears as a Training Video Woman. Frank Welker and Jess Harnell voice the creatures. Sugar Ray, Pamela Anderson, and Nicholas Hope appeared in cameo roles.
Producer Charles Roven began developing a live-action treatment of Scooby-Doo 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. to fast track production of the film. Mike Myers was reported to be co-writing the screenplay with Jay Kogan in July 1998, and was later on board to play Shaggy as well. In October 2000, the film was officially given the green light. Variety reported that Raja Gosnell had been hired to direct the film.
The film was shot on location in and around Queensland, Australia. Production was started on February 12, 2001, at the Warner Bros. Movie World theme park, with over 400 cast and crew also taking over Tangalooma Island Resort for six weeks to film all the scenes set on Spooky Island. Production wrapped in June 2001. The film was originally set to have a much darker tone, essentially poking fun at the original series, much like The Brady Bunch Movie, and was set for a PG-13 rating. Shaggy was set to be a stoner, and there were many marijuana references.
Several rumors about these aspects in the original cartoon series were passed around by fans of the original and were to be incorporated into the live-action film. In March 2001, one month into filming, the first official cast picture was released.
According to Sarah Michelle Gellar, after the cast had signed on there was a change, and the film became more family-friendly, though some of the original adult jokes are still in the film. They are also included in deleted scenes on the home media releases. Gellar said her character and Linda Cardellini's shared an onscreen kiss that did not make the final film. "It wasn't just, like, for fun," she said, explaining it took place in the body-switching scene. "Initially in the soul-swapping scene, Velma and Daphne couldn't seem to get their souls back together in the woods. And so the way they found was to kiss, and the souls went back into proper alignment."
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.
Actors Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who both previously worked together in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and portray Fred and Daphne, are romantically involved in both the film and reality. This film marks the first time in the franchise's history where the characters are portrayed as a couple. The pair married shortly after the film was released. Prinze said of his character, "[He] always showed more arrogance than everyone else. So in the movie, I took the opportunity to make him as narcissistic and self-loving as possible."
Jim Carrey was originally attached to play Shaggy, while Mike Myers also expressed interest in the role. Lochlyn Munro also auditioned for the role. The role was eventually given to Matthew Lillard. When asked about watching several cartoons before playing Shaggy, Lillard responded, "Everything I could get my hands on. If I ever have to see another episode of Scooby-Doo, it will be way too soon." Lillard would continue voicing Shaggy in the rest of the Scooby-Doo media starting in 2010, at the request of the character's original voice actor Casey Kasem, who had stepped down due to health issues; 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 during a lunch in the Warner Bros. studio cafeteria and threaten him to portray the character better in the sequel.
Isla Fisher grew up watching Scooby-Doo in Australia, and said that the "best part of making this movie was being part of an institution, something that has been in people's childhoods and is something that means a lot to a lot of people." Linda Cardellini was also a fan of the Scooby-Doo series.
Principal photography began on February 13, 2001, and wrapped on June 1, 2001. Filming took place throughout Queensland, Australia. Spooky Island was filmed on Tangalooma Island resort in Moreton Island.
The film's score was composed by David Newman. A soundtrack was released on June 4, 2002, by Atlantic Records. It peaked at number 24 on the Billboard 200 and 49 on the Top R&B/Hip-Hop Albums.
On November 16, 2001, the first trailer of Scooby-Doo was released in theaters with the opening of Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. A second trailer debuted with the release of Ice Age and Showtime on March 15, 2002.
A video game based upon the film was released for Game Boy Advance shortly before the film was released. The game is played in third-person point of view and has multiple puzzle games and mini-games. The game's structure was similar to a board game. Metacritic rated it 64/100 based on five reviews, which they labeled as "mixed or average reviews". Meanwhile, Dairy Queen began promoting the film with kids meal toys, frozen cakes and a limited edition Mystery Crunch Blizzard flavor.
The film was released on VHS and DVD on October 11, 2002. The release included deleted scenes, among them an alternate opening animated in the style of the original television series. It was later released on Blu-ray on January 16, 2007. Said Blu-ray was given a double feature pack with its sequel, Monsters Unleashed, on November 9, 2010.
Scooby-Doo debuted with $19.2 million on its opening day and $54.1 million over the weekend from 3,447 theaters, averaging about $15,711 per venue and ranking No. 1 at the box office above The Bourne Identity. At the time, it had the second-highest June opening weekend, behind Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me. During its theatrical run, Scooby-Doo also competed against another family-oriented film, Lilo & Stitch. The film closed on October 31, 2002, with a final gross of $153 million in the United States and Canada. It made an additional $122 million in other territories, bringing the total worldwide gross to $275.7 million, making it the fifteenth most successful film worldwide of 2002. The film was released in the United Kingdom on July 12, 2002, and topped the country's box office for the next two weekends, before being dethroned by Austin Powers in Goldmember.
Scooby Doo received mostly negative reviews upon release. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, the film has an approval rating of 32% based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 4.6/10. 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 received a weighted average 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.
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Sun-Times gave the film one out of four stars, stating that the film "exists in a closed universe, and the rest of us are aliens. The Internet was invented so that you can find someone else's review of Scooby-Doo. Start surfing." Peter Travers of Rolling Stone said, "Get out your pooper-scoopers. Doo happens June 14th, warn the ads for Scooby-Doo. And they say there's no truth in Hollywood." Chris Hewitt of Empire gave the film two out of five stars.
Robin Rauzi of the Los Angeles Times called the film "entertainment more disposable than Hanna-Barbera's half-hour cartoons ever were." Although Jay Boyar of the Orlando Sentinel said that children who liked the animated version of Scooby-Doo will "probably like" the film, he urged parents to "know that the violence is a bit harder-edged than in the cartoon version". He would later go on to say that adults who remember the cartoon version "may get caught up in what Scooby would call the 'rostalgia'", but said that "adults who do not fondly recall the Scooby-Doo cartoons are strongly advised to steer clear." Robert K. Elder of the Chicago Tribune gave the film 2 and 1/2 stars out of 4 and wrote, "Screenwriter James Gunn gets it mostly right, remaining fiercely faithful to Mystery Inc. mythology, from integrating Scooby's annoying nephew Scrappy-Doo to Velma's penchant for yelling 'jinkees!' Unlike the lead balloon adaptation 'Josie and the Pussycats,' Scooby-Doo knows when to take itself seriously and when to laugh at itself -- even if its audience isn't laughing along at every gag."
Conversely, Hank Struever of The Washington Post gave the film a positive review, stating that "You don't want to love this, but you will. Although Scooby-Doo falls far short of becoming the Blazing Saddles of Generations X, Y and Z, it is hard to resist in its charms." Meanwhile, Lillard's performance was universally praised.
Gellar won the Teen Choice Award for Choice Movie Actress – Comedy. Prinze was nominated for the Golden Raspberry Award for Worst Supporting Actor (Razzie), but he lost to Hayden Christensen for Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of the Clones. It was also nominated for another Razzie, Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie, but lost against Jackass: The Movie. It won the Kids' Choice Award for Favorite Fart in a Movie.
Following the retirement of Casey Kasem as the voice of Shaggy, Lillard became the official voice of the character beginning with Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated. In the same series, Cardellini voiced the supporting character Hot Dog Water opposite Velma.
The film and its sequel have developed a cult following since their release, mainly among enthusiasts of James Gunn's later work.
A sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, was released in 2004. A third film was planned, but canceled after the poor critical and financial results of the second.
In 2009 and 2010, two telefilm Prequels, Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster, aired on Cartoon Network. In 2018, a direct-to-video film titled Daphne & Velma, with no connection to the previous Scooby-Doo films, was released.