By Geno McGahee
Hollywood is not a place that generates a lot of original ideas. The common practice is to take something that has a following, reboot, re-imagine, or remake it, and then do it again. Whatever they can get their hands on, they will turn it into some bad major motion picture. Well, they got their hands on Scooby-Doo and made two movies out of it. The first was successful and mediocre and it prompted them to go back to the well and make SCOOBY-DOO: MONSTERS UNLEASHED.
In the sequel, the team is now celebrities. They drive up in a stretch hummer and meet their fans that are all crazy, which is really accurate. If this team really existed, I guarantee that the depiction of the fans here would be spot on.
Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr) and Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar) are stopped by Heather, a reporter (Alicia Silverstone), and it reminded me much of the reporter in SCREAM. She played it nearly the same and did a good job with it. Shaggy (Matthew Willard) spends much of his time with the computer-generated Scooby-Doo and I have to give him credit. One, he is doing a great impression of Shaggy and two, he is working basically alone. Rounding out the team is Velma (Linda Cardellni).
As the team arrives at a celebration, a monster attacks, and soon all of the costumes from prior conquests are gone. There is a mystery to solve and they have several suspects. This movie really has two things going on and only two things. One, let’s see how many stupid things we can do with Shaggy and Scooby-Doo to make the kids laugh, and two, an awkward romance with Velma and Patrick (Seth Green). Other than that, there really isn’t much going on here, but the movie does keep on moving forward and is watchable, despite its many shortcomings and lack of substance.
Although the film is predictable and directed at children, it does hold true to the blueprint set out by the original cartoon. The team has to solve a mystery, there are monsters, and Shaggy and Scooby have to overcome their fear to help the team survive and solve the crime. It’s all there and even though the screenplay is weak, there are enough cool visuals to keep you interested.
I also really liked Seth Green playing the tough guy in this. When they were pointing to him as a potential suspect, they added a scene where he was roughing up a guy and then playing tough with Shaggy. It was pretty amusing and you can tell that Green enjoyed the role. He made the most of it. The same goes for Alicia Silverstone. Outside of the dull and lifeless performances of Prinze Jr and Michelle Gellar, there was a great element of fun in this film. You can tell that the cast genuinely had a good time and its reflected in their performances.
SCOOBY-DOO 2: MONSTERS UNLEASHED is not as bad as you probably think that it is. It is not a perfect movie and the cartoon Scooby-Doo movies are far better for the most part, but this one is certainly worth a watch, especially if you grew up on the cartoon or if you have a 3-year-old that loves the character and insists on watching everything that has Scooby-Doo in it, like I do.
Rating: 5.5/10