Scooby-Doo (2002) Review

"Friends don't quit."

-Shaggy Rogers

Two years after the breakup of Mystery Inc, each member of the gang is recruited to come to an amusement park on Spooky Island.  The owner, Emile Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson), tells them the people that come to the park are having their personalities completely changed while on the island.  The gang goes their separate ways to solve the mystery, but quickly realize they will have to come back together if they want to survive Spooky Island.

What Sucks:

I'm going to start with what's wrong with Scooby-Doo this time around.  The biggest problem with the movie is the tone.  It's all over the place.  The movie started out as a much more adult-oriented film.  It was supposed to be PG-13 or even rated R and some of the jokes still reflect that, even if most of them were cut out.  Mid-production, they changed the film to be more family-friendly.  They really needed to commit one way or the other.  Either way would have been fine, as I'll get into in the "What Works" section, but the awkwardness of the tone is really messy.

Since the tone was changed in the middle of production, that means some scenes were cut.  The edit always felt a little messy to me like we were missing some establishing shots and setups.  I watched the deleted scenes and found that is definitely true.  It was like finding missing puzzle pieces.  They were cut because they had more adult jokes, but cutting them hurt the film's structure.

The CGI has aged like milk.  Scooby-Doo (Neil Fanning) and the creatures all look terrible.  I get that it was 2002 and CGI as a whole wasn't great, but oof.  It's rough to watch.

Finally, Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), and Velma (Linda Cardellini) aren't very likable characters.  I get what they were going for, especially with Fred and Daphne.  Those two are pretty shallow characters in the original cartoon, so changing them up for the movie makes sense, but they could have made them somewhat likable.  

What Works:

While the finished film is messy due to the strange tone, the individual parts work well.  On the family-friendly, classic Scooby-Doo side, the toy factory and castle sequences are great.  They feel like the cartoon series come to life and are both really fun.  

The darker stuff works pretty well also.  The cult is an unexpected route for the story to go and the educational tapes are creepy and hilarious.  The body switching sequence is probably the most adult stuff of the movie and I'm shocked they kept parts of it in, but it's still really funny.  Plus the jokes about marijuana are excellent, especially because they went way over my head as a kid.

The deconstruction of Scooby-Doo is also well done.  The film pokes fun at some of the tropes of the series and the characters.  James Gunn wrote the script and I can tell he loves Scooby-Doo, but acknowledges some of the "flaws" in the series.  I think it would have been even better if the tone had been gotten correct. 

The design of Spooky Island is awesome and I wish we had gotten to see more of it.  The costumes and set design make me want to visit the island.  

The reveal that Scrappy-Doo (Scott Innes) is the villain is a stoke of brilliance.  Scrappy-Doo is one of the worst characters in all of pop culture and to see the movie acknowledge and double-down on that is brilliant.  He was the perfect choice to be the villain.

Finally, far and away the best part of the movie is Matthew Lillard as Shaggy.  This might be the single greatest casting choice in all of cinematic history.  He is beyond perfect in the role and nails every single moment he is on screen.  Lillard is a joy to watch and would go on to voice the character after Casey Kasem retired.  I cannot understate how amazing Lillard is in the role, he's that impressive.

Verdict:

Scooby-Doo is a very flawed movie due to it's disjointed tone.  It doesn't know what it wants to be.  Plus the CGI is terrible and most of Mystery Inc. is unlikable.  That said, this is still a very entertaining movie with parts that are greater than the whole.  I love the set design, the villain, and Matthew Lillard's performance is legendary.  It could have been much better, but I still enjoy the film, even with its flaws.

 7/10: Good