Scooby-Doo is a 2002 live-action film based on the 1960s Hanna-Barbera cartoon Scooby-Doo. The film was directed by Raja Gosnell and written by James Gunn and Craig Titley. It was produced by Charles Roven and Richard Suckle for Warner Bros. Pictures and starred Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Freddie Prinze, Jr. as Fred, Linda Cardellini as Velma, and Neil Fanning as the voice of Scooby-Doo (who was created on screen using computer-generated imagery), Scott Innes as Scrappy Doo and Rowan Atkinson as Emile Mondavarious. Pamela Anderson made an uncredited appearance at the beginning of the movie. The film is rated PG for some scary action, some rude humor, and language. The film's television rating is TV-PG-L.
Reggae artist Shaggy and rock group MXPX perform different versions of the classic theme song. Shaggy got his stage name from the show/film's character.
In 2004, this film was followed by a sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. A prequel, Scooby-Doo 3: The Mystery Begins, is currently being filmed.
Plot
After solving the case of the Luna Ghost, an unco-operative Mystery Inc. splits apart. Two years later, the group are unexpectedly reunited to solve mysteries occuring at the remote amusement park Spooky Island. In the time that has passed, Fred has become a celebrity, Daphne a blackbelt expert, Velma an employee at NASA, and Shaggy and Scooby-Doo have stopped investigating mysteries. On the plane, Shaggy and Scooby are eating when Shaggy sees a beautiful young woman with mustard-blond hair, blueberry-blue eyes, smooth skin and red lips. He immediately falls in love with her. She asks if she can sit next to Scooby (who is disguised as an old woman because "they don't allow big dogs on the plane"). Shaggy says yes and as she squeezes to the seat, she sneezes. She apologizes and says that she feels her allergies coming on and that its usually only dogs that do it. She lets out a louder sneeze and says she'd better move but Shaggy desperately stops her and says Morgan, she is probably just allergic to his grandma's perfume and tells Scooby to leave. He finds out that her name is Mary Jane and that she loves Scooby Snacks. On the flight, Scooby gets in a fight with a cat, kinda ruining the disguise. Upon arrival at the island, the gang are greeted by Emelius Mondavarious, the park's owner, who explains that a "spell" has been placed upon the visiting students who arrive as hyperactive but leave as emotionless people with inhuman abilities. The gang split up after an argument to solve the mystery for themselves. Velma watches a dance led by a man named N'Goo Tuana who explains the island was once home to demons who seek vengeance after Mondavarious built the theme park. Daphne encounters Voodoo Maestro who advises her not to go to the closed down castle-styled ghost train. Mistaking this for trickery, Daphne does indeed go to the castle. Scooby gets a mysterious call, telling him to go to the forest for hamburgers, where he gets chased by a demon. He runs back to Shaggy. Mary Jane says she'd better go and kisses Shaggy on the cheek with a stuffed head that he won for her in a crane game. She bends down to kiss Scooby but lets out her loudest sneeze yet on him (you can see the snot fly from her nose). She giggles and leaves and then Daphne then takes Shaggy and Scooby to the castle.
The gang is reunited inside the castle where they split up properly to look for clues. Daphne finds a strange triangular artefact called the Daemonritus, whilst Velma and Fred discover a strange schoolroom where a a training video is played which seems addressed to non-human creatures. Then after Scooby belches quite loudly, he and Shaggy then get into an exaggerated belching contest that then turns into a farting contest where both do both quite loudly and with exaggerated mannerisms (and Scooby reacts to the smell). Moments later, Shaggy farts again and it echoes in the suit of armor he's wearing, while the gas briefly ignites over an open flame.The gang escape the castle when the N'Goo's minions appear, including a wrestler named Zarkos. They return to the island's hotel and tell Mondavarious their suspects: N'Goo, Maestro and Mondavarious(mostly cause he "creeps (Fred) out".. N'Goo plays a piano tune which seemingly summons dog-like demons which capture most of the guests including Fred, Velma and Mondavarious. Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne and Shaggy's love interest Mary Jane escape. The next day, everything seems normal until Fred, Velma, Daphne, Mary Jane and most of the guests are revealed to now be possessed by the demons. Scooby falls down a hole followed by Shaggy, who discovers a pool of ectoplasmic heads and returns Velma, Daphne and Fred to their bodies, although they all end up swapping bodies until they revert to their normal ones, caused by the Daemonritus. The gang find Maestro who explains that if the demon's leader absorbs the captured ectoplasmic heads via the Daemonritus and then a sacrificed pure soul, the demons will be fully allowed to walk and the Earth for the next 10,000 or so years. The pure soul turns out to be Scooby's who is tricked by Mondavarious, the mastermind behind the plan to be a sacrifice.
The gang set up a trap to destroy the demons via their weakness of sunlight but it does not go according to plan and Fred and Velma are captured. Daphne carries out her part of the plan but ends up fighting Zarkus in a Buffy the Vampire Slayer-like battle. Shaggy saves Scooby but knocks over Mondavarious as he absorbs the ectoplasmic heads, revealing him to actually be a robot controlled by noneother than Scrappy Doo. After being kicked out of the gang, Scrappy vowed revenge and carried out his plan to conquer the world and destroy Mystery Inc. in the process. He transforms into a monstrous giant version of himself and chases down Scooby and Shaggy. Daphne manages to defeat Zarkus, releasing sunlight and destroying the demons. Shaggy destroys the Daemonritus and Scrappy reverts to his smaller self. The real Mondavarious is located by Shaggy, for he had been trapped underground by Scrappy for two years. Mary Jane comes to Shaggy and thanks him for saving her life. They try to kiss but Mary Jane sneezes because Scooby is there. The villains are arrested and Mystery Inc. are quickly told of a new case which they decide to solve together.
Cast
Character biographies
Shaggy – A teenager who loves to eat and owns Scooby Doo. In the film, he falls in love with Mary Jane, a young blonde who likes Scooby snacks.
Scooby Doo – A great dane who is owned by Shaggy and also loves to eat. He is almost tricked into being a sacrifice.
Daphne – A girl who is considered the pretty one of the Mystery Inc. gang. She and Fred love each other.
Fred – The self-proclaimed leader of Mystery Inc., Fred is the one who most of the girls like.
Velma – The smart one of the group, Velma is usually the one who comes up with the plans but gets no credit.
Mary Jane – A pretty young blonde girl who falls in love with Shaggy and is turned into a monster, but it saved by the gang. She has an allergy to dogs, so she sneezes when Scooby is around. She also has hay-fever.
Maestro - A voodoo maestro who lives on Spooky Island. He is really a good guy but he's very suspicious and this causes Daphne to think that he's the bad guy. He and Daphne first meet when he is trying to perform voodoo by using a dead chicken as a sacrifice and she interrupts him.
Reception
The film was released to generally negative reviews from critics. On Rotten Tomatoes, the movie has a "Rotten" rating of 28%, with an average score of 4.3 out of 10. On Metacritic, the film has a 35 out of 100 rating which indicates "generally negative reviews". However, despite a negative reception, it made $19,204,859 on its opening day and $54,155,312 over the weekend from 3,447 theaters, averaging about $15,711 per venue and ranked #1 at the box office. The film closed on October 31, 2002, with a final domestic gross of $153,294,164. It made an additional $122,356,539 internationally, bringing the total worldwide gross to $275,650,703. It is the 15th most successful film worldwide of 2002.[2] Geller was voted Choice Movie Actress: Comedy at the The Teen Choice awards
Video Games
A video game based upon the film was released for Game Boy Advance shortly before the film was released. The game is played in 3rd person point-of-view and has multiple puzzle games and mini-games. The game's structure was similar to a board game. The game was panned by critics and was a poor seller.
Goofs and Easter Eggs
- When the creature is chasing Freddy in the hotel, the table that Scooby is hiding under is missing Scooby-Doo himself.
- (Deleted scene only) During Fred's flashback, the original Cartoon Network logo can be seen in the background.
TV Airings
Scooby-Doo was on a premium cable premiere to HBO in 2003. Later, went to Nickelodeon in Spring 2005. Cartoon Network aired the movie on October 2006. Then, went to ABC Family on October 2007. But, the movie will premiere to Starz! and Encore premium channels on June 2009.
Novelization
Scholastic Inc. released a novelization of the story in conjunction with the film. The novel was written by American fantasy and science fiction author Suzanne Weyn.
References
See also
External links
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