The Live Action Scooby Dooby Duology (Is It A Snack Of A Series Or Will It Leave You Saying Zoinks?)

It has been a few years in the making, but I am finally making that episode all about the live action Scooby-Doo movies.  This episode was drawn out two years in a row in relationship to these movies being omitted from Freeform's 31 Nights of Halloween marathon for a handful of years now.  And while I was proven wrong with Nightmare Before Christmas thankfully making the cut this year, there is a fair amount of odd selections or way too many airings of a few movies that are seriously cutting into Scooby Dooby Duology time.  So let's dive into both Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (I'm seeing this for the first time somehow) and see how Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, and more bring this spooky animated tv show to literal life.  And most importantly, let's finally decide if these movies need to grace this Freeform film fest and determine if they belong in the same company and conversation as Hocus Pocus, Halloweentown, and so many more.  Let's talk about every masked monster and Scooby Snack on social at either Nick Nack Movies or Nick Nack underscore IC on Twitter, Tik Tok, Tumblr, Pinterest, YouTube, Letterboxd, and Instagram!

Transcript

Nick Nack Goes to the Movies Pod S2E36

-Intro/Jingle

-So before I start this episode, I have one correction I need to make from last week’s Halloween marathon episode, specifically Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween.  Nightmare Before Christmas is actually on the marathon twice where I was lead to believe it was not actually on there at all, my mistake, I was a bit tired when I made that last episode.  I guess in general I have been a bit tired for the past few months.  But to make amends for this grave miscalculation on Nightmare’s Before Christmas, I wanted to finally make an episode that I have been teasing for not only weeks now, but years.  Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween used to have Haunted Mansion, which I talked about last October family friendly episode.  But, it has been years since they have had the Scooby Doo duology.  I haven’t seen these in ages, but like everyone, the OG animated series slaps, and that is for sure available on HBO Max.  I remember these live action movies being a mixed bag, but I feel like the first one was good enough.  But enough time for speculation, I am going to finally decide, with you, right here, right now, if live action Scooby Doo is good, watchable, or just bad!

-Actors

-So this cast is surprisingly stacked.  I have of course talked about Matthew Lillard from Scream fame, and gosh I really hope that there is some surprise reveal of his existence in Scream 5.  It may be a stretch, but I am still pretty jazzed and hopeful, really I just can’t wait to see Jack Quaid in both Season 3 of the Boys and with the original trio of Scream leads.

-With the news of the I Know What You Did Last Summer show seemingly coming out of nowhere, it is surprisingly airing on Amazon Prime as early as October 15th!  But we gotta give props to both Sarah Michelle Gellar and Freddie Printz Jr.  We already talked about that franchise on this podcast already, but it is super fun and heartwarming to see how much these married lovebirds have acted together, that franchise, this Scooby Doo franchise, and even Star Wars Rebels, obviously we all know who Printz Jr. voiced, but Gellar actually voiced one of the inquisitors, the seventh sister.  I know, wild discoveries.

-The last of our main 4 live action characters is played by Linda Card-ell-een-e, another name that might sound familiar to you, you Marvel fan you.  With that new fantastically festive and fun Hawkeye announcement trailer just this week, it goes without saying that Renner’s wife will be in his show being so family focused.  She wasn’t seen in the trailer, but we know she will be in here somewhere.

-As far as one-off’s, the first of these movies has Mr. Bean and Johnny English (Rowan Atkinson).  The second movie has both Seth Green and Tim Blake Nelson.  So there are some fun bit players too.

-Also, almost forgot to mention, the voice of Scooby is Neil Fanning, he is more of a stunt man, including super underrated vampire movie Daybreakers, but I figure we can talk further on his voice, and overall how these movies went about making and bringing to live the semi-talking and snacking dog.

-Scooby-Doo (2002)

-Immediately, the remixed version of the original banger of a theme song is brutal.  The original Scooby Doo theme song is one of the best show theme songs ever, I said what I said.  I mean most of the WandaVision themes are pretty tubular too, don’t get it wrong.

-I have to say, the beginning of this movie finds the mystery inc. team one the tail end trap portion of one of their cases that feels right at home for anyone watch the tv show.  The trap of the baddie of the week goes wrong and inevitably something with scooby and shaggy has it still all working out.  Velma tries to make things work but with Daphne constantly getting captured and Fred being over-confident and a smidge self-absorbed, somehow this mess works out in the end.  And the villain being old-man smithers or something like that, perfection, simple perfection of nailing everything that makes the show great.  Now, especially in 2021, Scobby-Doo looks a bit odd, and throughout the movie the humor associated with Scobby-Doo is the same kind of lazy terrible writing that feels awful in the live action adaptation.  The TV show version somehow feels smarter, or at least more classic and less what you would get from watching Boss Baby or something like that.

-Now they did try and humanize these characters and make more strife between the group members, Scooby and Shaggy feel the same but Daphne feels more helpless, Velma feels a bit more jealous, and Fred seems downright egotistical. 

-Now the movie needed to make some conflict to get out of a sitcom feel of villain of the week and nothing mattering after each episode.  So this movie pretty quickly starts off with our clue solving crew broken up and living their own lives, what a heartbreaking moment to people watching in theaters back in 2002 just 8 minutes into the film, I mean this is even more hardcore than the 12 minute mark of The Suicide Squad.

-I genuinely have no clue what a good Scooby-Doo in live action would look like, I mean, this isn’t bad, but like, it isn’t grand either.  And there truly is some dumb humor littered in this movie.

-I like that they made Scooby-Doo and Shaggy the heart and soul of the team, but it is a bit at the expense of the other three mystery inc members.  It would be fine, but I wish we had one movie with the team working normally as opposed to starting us off with a broken team.

-Also, Rowan Atkinson is the perfect oddball actor to play a quirky scares enthusiast millionaire

-While Scooby isn’t perfect, that CGI looks like a masterclass compared to the other creatures in this movie.  I mean chalk that up the times, I mean the Mummy 2 had some brutal Rock/scorpion CGI and that came out only 1 year prior.  I do enjoy the oddity of making Scooby Snax clear dog treats and having not only Scooby and Shaggy enjoy them but this clear plant dream girl for Shaggy also eat them.  I gotta imagine there is some interesting reason why a product for dogs/people is named after a character in that world who doesn’t make millions of name image and likeness, gotta make some college sports ties once in a while with me still working in that field.  I guess there was a live action prequel movie that tried to explain it but it looks like garbage even from the movie poster, but Robbie Amell is Fred which feels super spot on, especially after seeing those the babysitter movies on Netflix.

-While these aren’t perfect obviously, there are some moments that they make either reference to or just nail, the classic team up where Velma calls Fred out for always teaming up with Daphne is like, very fun.

-Also random fun fact, how about James Gunn being the writer behind these two movies, fun fact indeed.  Maybe one day we can get him to come out with a scooby doo 3, anything is possible with all the franchises coming out with new entries like Halloween, Ghostbusters, and Top Gun, which all have original franchise actors reprising roles in them.

-Now no matter what, these movies are just okay, not amazing, but you know what they are amazing at, being quirky fun enough festive fall film viewing options, we will get to monsters unleashed, but the first one at least is fun enough.  I mean the subtle moments of classic tropes like secret doors with bookshelf locks, ingenious.  And regardless of the quality of these, they are not the pinacle of cinema, the castings and acting of the mystery inc. crew is spot on and very fun, once again, yes, these should be a yearly availability on Freeform’s 31 Nights of Halloween, period.

-Okay, yeah there is some absolutely crass and garbage humor in this movie, they really made Matthew Lillard do some dumb crap in this movie.  I honestly forgot about some of that stuff, the same stuff that makes the Shrek sequels bad.

-But with all the bad parts associated with the junk humor, those moments that are spot on with the source material like hiding in suits of armor are so good, that and of course Velma losing her glasses and the whole monster mask fake-out.  I mean they even go out of their way to use the pgrase scooby-doo where are you on numerous occasions, rightly so.

-I knew one of these movies had Scrappy-Doo in it, and I remember that being like not so good.  I don’t remember Scrappy being the worst thing in the original TV-Show, but now that I remember this stuff a bit, they 100 made him like a full-on villain, like the main villain in this first movie.  And he is not in the second one I am pretty sure.

-Also, the show is known for the dumb but hilarious multiple doors hallway chase scene.  The movie tried it’s gosh darn best, but that in live-action is not it.  Look adapting a child’s cartoon for live action movie is never gonna be amazing and sensational, but once again, this works for a fun Halloween movie that feels way more in season compared to Shrek, monsters inc., and men in black.  This may not be taking place in fall and it may not be 110 percent Halloween, but it is at least 80 with the air quotes “spooky” parts, and the mystery and intrigue are super good

-There is something nice when the team eventually reunites to be a full squad that we have grown to love, but I really do wish we could have seen this in movie one, even though there is a really nice friendship message overall.

-Unrelated, bro Fred and overall dancing Freddie Printz Jr is super special, same with Matthew Lillard, how is this dance not on Tik Tok yet, I can try but it is not a guarantee that I can be the best social media influencer on the inter-webs yet.

-Now this movie is a bit more supernatural, not unlike some of the animated movies like the alien invaders one, ghoul school, cyber chase, and so many more.

-Random fun joke in the movie, having someone named Melvin Doo as a name drop twice is subtle but surprisingly hilarious, this movie has moments of genuine timeless humor and vintage scooby-doo fun, but there is also a stupid massive scrappy doo cgi monstrosity in the end which looks terrible.

-But at the end of the day, it may be worse than Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown, and it may be less iconic, but gosh darn it this movie is perfect for October and Halloween family friendly viewing.

- Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)

-So I honestly can’t say if I had seen the live action sequel, Scooby Doo 2, monsters unleashed, I mean, I was jazzed for seth greene and tim blake nelson, who also really need the zemo MCU treatment, I mean, I am not saying it is official, like sam rockwell and more, but if time blake nelson and liv tyler can be back for she-hulk with tim roth and mark Ruffalo.

-But to this spooky sequel, let’s see if it is more twitches 2 or more Halloweentown 2: kalibars revenge.

-Some of these late 90’s early 2000’s movies you can spot immediately, not just by bad cgi, but these weird fake looking city tours for the opening credits, 90’s batman and so many more movies did this weird bad looking thing.  It is in the same family as the over the top DVD/VHS title menus that had 3d antics all over the place before you could click on play movie

-Yes the mystery inc stretch limo and shaggy in a ruffley dress tux, so many amazing things early on.  I don’t know what the most iconic Freddie printz jr role is, I would love to say kanan jarrus, probably not ray Bronson, most would say guy from she’s all that, but he is perfect for the role of Fred, once again, overall, this casting of live action mystery inc is spot ot.

-And I don’t know what it is, but the dinkley brigade as a thing for daphney’s fanbase is hilarious.  In the same way Shaggy smelling his fans has to be a not so subtle weed joke.

-Also, remembering that the town they are from is coolsville and the museum opening is called the coolsonial criminology museum, this is the kind of humor the 90’s batman’s, and maybe the 60’s batman’s were littered with, and I am all about it and here for it.

-Velma and Seth Greene having a slo-mo geeky moment to Clay Aiken is also perfect, just perfect.  And that emotional relationship not happening was more emotionally heartbreaking then any avengers infinity war and endgame moments combined.

-I gotta say, the setting of their own club house is super groovy, the setting is totally tubular and having a tv made of wood that moves up and down from a table was wild.

-It is fun seeing the entire team together for a bit, even if they do rag on Shaggy and Scooby.

-I gotta say, this new setting of like creepy mansions and a city is way more fun compared to a one off isolated beech trip

-While this feels more personal, the ties to the old show like the different ghosts, the black knight ghost and more, it’s a nostalgia blast, and this is definitely my first time watching this movie.

-While the first movie was fun, and obviously supernatural, this movie feels right at home with the Scooby Doo that I remember watching, I’d say I grew up with, but the originals were all 60’s and 70.  The newest Scooby Doo to my childhood was the 02’ what’s new scooby doo show

-I will say, CGI scooby doo is growing on me a bit as not too brutal, even the monster to start the movie was better up close, even if the credit CGI was appalling.

-Some of the jokes are still pretty groan worthy, but I did like the barricade scene with the ghost grabbing things to help build the barricade, vintage scooby do hijinks.

-I also do like this movie series giving Daphne more to do from an action standpoint and not just being there to get kidnapped

-Aww, there were actually some really nice dating advice moments between Daphne and Velma, and the whole fear of intimacy thing thrown in, unexpected for a movie like this.

-There is also something fun about an entire bar called the faux ghost with all of the unmasked villains of the past, this is something truly amazing, I wish I had seen this movie way before, there is so much littered advice through all this.

-Having a real life villains club in everyday live is like a super fun idea, and it is so goofy and zany, I am totally here for it.

-For how much I have talked about Batman, and 90’s batman specifically, I was trying to figure out who Alicia Silverstone was, and she was exactly in one of those movies.  In this moment it was Batman & Robin as Barbara Wilson/Batgirl!

-I didn’t always love the writing in the first one, but the line, “we gotta make like your personality and split”, that is very good.  I mean even old man whatever his name was saying dang bushes yelling at me again was also hilarious.

-Also, Fred having to balance giving woman advice and being just awful at it, it may not be vintage TV Fred, but they really could not have done better.

-Also, for true WB synergy that HBO Max could have learned from for Space Jam 2.  But having mad science projects make Scooby the Tazmanian Devil was so good, I mean the Rick and Morty Space Jam 2 thing was fun, but so much of that movie was not so good!

-Oh Miner 49er, I remember that one too, these monsters aren’t the best CGI but they look way better compared to what we got in the first movie, and I love the thematic nature overall of them and the Scooby Doo franchise as opposed to the more movie specific things from the first one.

-Actually the worst CGI came from like a bad stunt/set-piece moment of grinding down a big mountain, because the monsters and like a big ghost pirate ship, it all looked pretty good all things considered, the tar monster was iffy, but good enough all things considered.

-I actually like that there are multiple potential baddies who could be the main villain.  Keeps you on your toes guessing who could be behind it all, the journalist, tim blake nelson, the old man guy, or seth greene?

-Even getting Fred to have a suffering of confidence and identity is something fun.

-If anything, super negative of these movies, the pop music is overall pretty bad

-It does get a little wild and out but the end, but there really was and is something fun about seeing all of these vintage villains in live action and it not feeling like an actual mess, it is more so just a really fun time.

-Also, one really good musical moment has Fred taking on the black Knight ghost to wanted, dead or alive by Bon Jovi jousting on a motor cycle

-I mean the jokes are better and less crass, not gone but less at least, and they made the special effects a bit better overall, but I didn’t expect this move to be super heartwarming, but color me impressed and surprised

-That weird cover of the scooby doo theme song is still not it, the original is the best for a reason.

-I have to say, the end game moment of Scooby and Shaggy saving the day, and helping save the day was a big moment!

-I am so happy the news person was the villain, even if it was a double mask thing and all a farce and tim blake nelson was the real villain all along

-But in short, I was really happy that Seth Green was a good guy after all and Velma got to have a true love/romance moment!

-The second one really was better than the first, I mean these were all not perfect, but still, what did you expect with live action scooby doo movies

-Also Rubben Studdard was in the end so more American idol things, and that is pretty fantastic for a shining star cover in the faux ghost bar, gosh they made movie enders way different back in the day

-Letterboxd Rankings and ratings

-2. Scooby-Doo – 2.5 stars

-1. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed – 3 stars

-wrap and call to action

-So in short, yes, these Scooby Doo movies are for sure fun, are great for family friendly fun October, and definitely belong on the pantheon of freeform 31 nights of Halloween marathon along with casper, nightmare before Christmas, halloweentown, ghostbusters, hocus pocus, harry potter, twitches (the first one), beetlejuice, haunted mansion and many more! 

-Well what are your must watches for Halloween and what did you think of the live action scooby dooby duology?  Let me know on social at either nick nack underscore ic or nick nack movies on twitter, Instagram, pinterest, tumblr, tik tok, youtube, and of course letterboxd.  Well cheers and as always, until next time chinephiles.