Reception

"Oh, those were wonderful times."*This article is about a fan-made element. It is not official and not canon to the original potion scene.*

> *"You're supposed to be sick, Scooby." - Daphne, Transformers*
>
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**Reception** is the term used to describe the critical and audience response to a piece of media. Since its release, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed has gotten many reviews, which often extend toward the film's Potions Scene, Transformers.

## Critical Response

Similar to the original 2002 film, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed was received poorly by critics, mostly for its lowbrow humor and weak script (which can arguably apply to the Transformers scene).

One point of praise across both versions was Matthew Lillard's portrayal of Shaggy, which many complimented for accuracy to the cartoon character in both voice, characteristics, and ability to act off of a non-existent Scooby-Doo. All of these traits can apply to the Transformers scene, as Shaggy and Scooby are the only characters in a majority of its shots.

### SlantMagazine.com

Following the DVD release, Chris Barsanti and Ed Gonzalez made a review of the film for SlantMagazine.com. This review criticizes the film for having "many of the same problems as its predecessor, from an over-reliance on special effects to finding the newest, lowest-common denominator to sink to." In their conclusion, they state, "Those who got a kick out of seeing Shaggy with big breasts may want to head straight to the 'Dancing Dog' feature, which will teach you how to dance just like Scooby."

### ComingSoon.net

This review by Scott Chitwood praises The Potions Scene, stating, "Some of Matthew Lillard and CGI Scooby-Doo's best scenes together are in a bar for villains where there’s a dance number and in the bad guy’s secret lair where they are transformed into various forms."

## Parental Advisories

As a film aimed at children, many reviews that mention The Potions Scene take issue with the potentially frightful or sexual elements of the scene, namely the Shaggy Chick transformation.

### ScreenIt.com

ScreenIt.com is a self-proclaimed, "small but growing team of reviewers who are not affiliated with any political, social or religious group," that claims to "allow parents and others to decide whether a movie, video or DVD is appropriate for them and/or their kids based on THEIR values."

The site gives a brief overview of objectionable content in the film and then has a list of categories with bullet points. The overview mentions, "some mad science causes a male character to turn into a buxom woman wearing a tight-fitting crop top".

* Imitative Behavior: Scooby and then Shaggy belch after drinking an invented liquid.
	+ This statement is only partially correct. While Scooby does indeed belch in this scene, Shaggy does not.
* Sex/Nudity: After drinking an experimental liquid, Shaggy discovers that his body has changed into that of a buxom woman wearing a tight-fitting crop top.

### ChildrenAndMedia.org.au

The Australian Council on Children and the Media (ACCM) claims to be "Australia's peak body representing children’s interests as digital and screen media users". Their mission is to "support children’s healthy development and protect their rights and interests as digital and screen media users by assisting families and children’s professionals, and by influencing decision-makers". This website breaks down content by category and by age, considering whether a viewer is <5, 5-8, 8-13, or 13+ years old.

In the section "Material that may scare or disturb children under five," the article explains that, "Children under five are most likely to be frightened by scary visual images, such as physical transformations".

It goes on to list specific instances of this material, including "Scooby drinks some liquid in the fridge and turns into a monster. Shaggy drinks some liquid and his body changes into a female’s. He then drinks some other liquid and he changes into a muscle man."

It concludes that "there are not really any sexual references except for when Shaggy turns into a woman and he admires ‘his’ body." This is technically false, as Shaggy never actually seems to admire his body as Shaggy Chick.

### IMDb

The Violence & Gore section of the Parents Guide describes The Potions Scene as, “A dog drinks potions in a laboratory and changes into odd shaped creatures (one with tentacles), a man does the same and changes into a woman and then a muscle man.”

Items in the Parents Guide are written by users, suggesting at least one viewer believed this was the most accurate category for this scene. This is an odd choice, considering the Parents Guide also has a Frightening & Intense Scenes section and a Sex/Nudity section. Based on other items in the list, the threshold for violent and/or gory content is very low, including other instances of crude humor or spooky atmosphere that are neither violent nor gory.

## Audience Response

Much like the critical response, the film was not well received by audiences and fans. While fans of the original show enjoyed seeing classic monsters brought to life, many remained unimpressed by the drastically different comedic tone. Those who enjoyed the original 2002's film for being a darker, more adult portrayal of the source material found the sequel's PG rating and decrease in mature content a downgrade. Overtime, the film has been re-evaluated, mainly by those who grew up with it. Though, it seems public opinion still views the film (and the potion scene) as only decent.

In online discussions, it's clear several scenes standout as being more memorable than others. Transformers is often cited as the film's most iconic moment, mostly in regards to Shaggy's two forms. This title is challenged only by Velma's catsuit outfit and Fred's "I think Coolsville sucks" line (which later become a meme), which are also often brought up.

## Popular Reviews

Since its release, it has become very popular online (specifically YouTube) to act as an informal critic and review older titles. The following is a list of the most popular videos critiquing the Transformers scene.

### The Nostalgia Critic

The Nostalgia Critic is an persona of Doug Walker, who reviews movies (typically beat by beat) that pertain to 80s and 90s nostalgia, though he often extends the reach of the films he covers past that era. Since he reviewed the original Scooby-Doo live action film, he later made a review on its sequel.

He eventually gets to the potion scene, jokingly calling Monster Scooby "Winnie the Tentacle Porn". When asking if "things can get any more perverted", shot 19 is played showing Shaggy Chick. It cuts back to the Nostalgia Critic looking distressed before shouting "I wanna go home!". He then rants about the film "giving Shaggy boobs". He calls Tasmanian Devil Scooby "stupid", and then quickly moves on to Shot 30 where Scooby Brainiac talks about his former dog life. Nostalgia Critic jokingly theorizes the comments made are Raja Gosnell's words instead, saying he was "working through some personal stuff".

### CinemaSins

CinemaSins is a channel who doesn't review movies in a traditional sense, but instead moves through movies and adds points to a "sin counter" every time something they deem a problem happens. They usually count mistakes, plot holes, or logical fallacies, but sometimes just add ones clearly meant to just be jokes.

Here is a list of every "sin" given to the potion scene.

* This scene contains nothing that glows.
	+ This is referring to when Shaggy says "you don't eat stuff that glows," pointing out that none of the potions "glow" as he says.
* Presidential health advice.
	+ This is when Shaggy gives Monster Scooby the a potion saying "it looks medicinal"
	+ This is a reference to a press conference in which Donald Trump speculated on treatments for the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) virus, including the idea of injecting disinfectants into the human body.
* So, this stuff can not only make monsters, but it can turn people into animated beings? Forget taking over Coolsville. Sell this s\*it to the highest bidder and f\*cking purchase Coolsville or do whatever the f\*ck you want with your billions.
* Thank God Scooby took the potion that made him intelligent so he could fix this. But that convenient convenience also prevents us from having to watch any more of this nonsensical transformation sequence. But I still had to watch it, so...
* Also, why would a potion that makes an animal smarter also give it grey hair and glasses? Is it a cliché potion? How did it even f\*cking create glasses?
* College?
	+ This is after Shaggy says "that was almost exactly like my freshman year in college". The joke being that the narrator doesn't believe Shaggy ever went to college.
* How does Shaggy still have sleeves if he didn't have them when he became instantly ripped? If anything, they should have been Incredible Hulked off his body, and those pants should not be shorts.

At the end of the video, they edit parts of the film with audio from other films.

* Shot 16 has Shaggy say "the snozzberries taste like snozzberries" from Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory.
* Shot 32 has Buff Shaggy say "Well, it gets a little bit bigger" from Bedazzled.
* Shot 39, after Buff Shaggy shouts "forever", adds in audio of someone saying "forever" several more times from The Sandlot.
* Shot 43 to Shot 45 have Buff Shaggy say "Watch a few movies, take a few notes. It was fun!" from Scream.
	+ This is dialogue from a character also played by Matthew Lillard.

### Caravan Of Garbage

Caravan Of Garbage is a series by the channel "Mr Sunday Movies", who cover largely bad movies in a podcast-like format. During their discussion on Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, they briefly talk about the Potion Scene. They mention Scooby becoming the Tasmanian Devil and a a slug monster, before discussing the rumored transformations where Scooby would become a 2D version of himself and president George W. Bush. One of them pointed out a supposed hypocrisy of not wanting Scooby to be compared to his 2D version but being perfectly ok with "Shaggy turning into a sexy lady".

### LS Mark

LS Mark, a popular cartoon reviewer, made a video specifically discussing his view that the second movie is better than the first. He skips over the scene during his break down and only shows clips of the scene near the video's end. He briefly refers to Shaggy Chick, saying "and a lot of something else, if you know what I'm talking about", jokingly implying the form to be sexy. Despite this brief mention, Shaggy Chick is on the video's thumbnail.

### NICKtendo

NICKtendo, a popular cartoon reviewer, did a live video discussing several theatrical adaptations of cartoon shows. While most of the video is about animated film adaptations, his first segment is on the live action Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. In it, he mentions writer James Gunn as the reason for the movie being "generally really horny". He specifically points out Velma's new outfit and Shaggy Chick. In regards to the latter, he says "(he) will not say he thinks female Shaggy is hot". This later turns out to be a setup for a later joke where he forgets to edit out audio of him claiming exactly that (in reference to the "I think Coolsville sucks" line being out of context, saying it would never happen to him).

### WatcherOfThe2000s

WatcherOfThe2000s was a series that focused on films and cartoons from the 2000s era. In his video for Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, he recaps Transformers, mentioning all of the transformations aside from Monster Scooby. After, he complains that the scene is very out of place and mockingly imagines what James Gunn's script said about the scene:

"Shaggy (in female body) looks over at Scooby, who is now the Tasmanian Devil from Looney Tunes projected against a live action background like Roger Rabbit. Scooby (as Taz) says 'I'm a Tazmanian Devil!'."

## Internet Culture

As many people grew up with the Scooby-Doo live action films, it would only be natural that it would somehow become part of internet culture.

### Shaggy Chick TikTok Trend

A popular trend on TikTok where people lip-sync the line "I've got a chick's body" from Shot 19 while dressed as Shaggy Chick. The audio is mainly popular with cisgender women, but has also been used by cisgender men in drag, transwomen experiencing gender euphoria, transmen experiencing gender dysphoria, and nonbinary people experiencing gender euphoria/dysphoria.

There's a lot of variation in the trend. Some people don't lip-sync the line, and some people don't dress as Shaggy Chick. Some videos include props, such as a mirror or refrigerator, while others bare no resemblance to the original scene. Some people have combined this with the T-shirt/Pajamas Challenge, in which participants pull loose-fitting clothing tight to reveal the shape of their body. Notably, several videos have the subjects feel their new figure, an action which was absent from the original scene.

The trend appears to have begun on December 1st, 2018, when user @blue.moonie.cos (TsuHaruNagiZaya) uploaded a cosplay video using audio from Shot 19 and the beginning of Shot 20. Most users use audio from this upload, but others have reuploaded the audio themselves.

This trend was covered in Distractify article regarding "'meme' halloween costumes". They mention Shaggy Chick as an "A somewhat obscure 'Scooby-Doo' reference", and even linked a viral tweet that suggested him and Buff Shaggy as a couples costume idea.

### Ultra Instinct Shaggy

Ultra Instinct Shaggy is a meme in which Shaggy undergoes the "ultra instinct" transformation of Goku from *Dragon Ball Super*. On October 12th, 2017, YouTuber Midya posted an Ultra Instinct Remix featuring Shaggy fighting a gang of thugs from the 2011 film *Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur*, featuring the song “Ultimate Battle” from the Dragon Ball Super soundtrack playing in the background. The video became popular and the character developed a fandom online. The original video has since been deleted, but was reuploaded by YouTuber RoastedCurry in January 2019.

Because of his appearance, images of Buff Shaggy are frequently used to represent Ultra Instinct Shaggy. The connect we most prominent when Matthew Lillard responded to the meme with a previously never before seen picture of him in the Buff Shaggy outfit lifting up a baby to his Instagram.