Scooby-Doo (also known as Scooby-Doo: The Movie) is a 2002 American comedy horror film, based on the long-running animated franchise. The first installment in the Scooby-Doo live-action film series, the film was directed by Raja Gosnell and written by James Gunn. It features an ensemble cast consisting of Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, and Rowan Atkinson, with Neil Fanning providing the voice of the titular character. The plot revolves around Mystery, Inc., a group of young adult sleuths and their talking Great Dane who solves mysteries. They reunite after a two-year disbandment to solve a mystery involving a series of paranormal events at a horror-themed tropical island resort.
Filming took place in and around Queensland, Australia, on a budget of $84million. Reggae artist Shaggy and punk rock band MxPx performed different versions of the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! theme song for the film.
Scooby-Doo was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on June 14, 2002, and was a commercial success, grossing $275million on an $84 million budget. The film received generally negative reviews from critics. The Scooby-Doo Spooky Coaster, a ride based on the film, was built at Warner Bros. Movie World on the Gold Coast, Queensland that same year. A sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, was released in 2004. Both films later gained a cult following.
Plot
After Mystery, Inc. solve their latest mystery and unmask a would-be criminal known as "The Luna Ghost", long-brewing tensions erupt between Fred Jones, who has become a self-obsessed glory hog, Daphne Blake, who is tired of being the damsel in distress, and Velma Dinkley, who resents Fred for always taking credit for her plans. Subsequently, they disband, abandoning a broken-hearted Shaggy Rogers and Scooby-Doo.
Two years later, Mystery Inc. are each separately invited to a horror-themed tropical resort called "Spooky Island", at the behest of its owner Emile Mondavarious, who believes the guests are falling under a demonic curse. While Shaggy and Scooby hope that this will bring the gang back together, Fred, Daphne, and Velma each intend to solve the mystery on their own. At a ritualistic performance given by actor N'Goo Tuana and his henchman, famous luchador Zarkos, N'Goo claims that ancient demons once ruled the island and that the resort has disturbed their sacred ground. Meanwhile, Shaggy falls for a girl named Mary Jane, who is allergic to dogs, distancing himself from Scooby in the process. Scooby encounters the island's demons in the forest and attempts to warn Shaggy, but is not believed.
The gang each end up at the resort's abandoned haunted house ride and decide to cooperate for the time being. As the gang is exploring, the ride is activated, putting the gang in danger. Fred and Velma manage to break into the control room and shut off the ride, where they also discover an educational film about human culture. Meanwhile, Daphne finds a pyramid-shaped artifact called the "Daemon Ritus". Zarkos and his minions arrive, but the gang manages to escape.
Later, at the resort's hotel, the demons launch an attack. Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, and Mary Jane manage to escape, but Fred and Velma are kidnapped and subsequently possessed. The next day, the damage from the night before has been repaired and the resort guests act as if nothing happened. Scooby and Shaggy find Fred and realize that he has been possessed, along with the rest of the resort guests, leading to a harrowing chase in which Scooby realizes Mary Jane is also possessed. Meanwhile, Zarkos captures Daphne and steals back the Daemon Ritus.
Scooby tries to tell Shaggy about Mary Jane's possession, but they have a falling-out after Shaggy refuses to believe him. Shaggy searches for his friends and discovers the demons' underground base of operations, as well as a vat of protoplasm containing the souls of those possessed by the demons. Shaggy frees the souls of Fred, Daphne, and Velma, who discover that sunlight is fatal to the demons.
A local voodoo priest informs the gang that the demons are planning to sacrifice a pure soul with the Daemon Ritus as part of a ritual known as "The Dark-pocalypse", which will result in them ruling the world for the next 10,000 years. The gang realizes that the pure soul is Scooby's and that Mondavarious invited them in order to use Scooby for the ritual. Fred, Daphne, and Velma put aside their differences and make a plan to save Scooby and the world.
Shaggy infiltrates the ritual, where he and Scooby reconcile. Fred and Velma unmask Mondavarious, revealing that he is actually a robot controlled by Scooby's estranged nephew Scrappy-Doo, who the gang had abandoned years before due to his power-hungry and egomaniacal nature. Using the souls already in the Daemon Ritus, Scrappy transforms into a giant demon monster.
Meanwhile, Daphne fights Zarkos and knocks him into the vat, tipping it over and returning most of the other souls to their bodies. Daphne then reflects sunlight through a disco ball the gang had set up earlier, vanquishing the released demons. Shaggy removes the Daemon Ritus from Scrappy's chest, freeing the rest of the souls and reversing his transformation. During the subsequent celebration, Shaggy and a freed Mary Jane reunite along with Scooby, while Fred and Daphne share a kiss. Shaggy also finds the real Mondavarious, who had been trapped by Scrappy. Scrappy and his henchmen are arrested and Mystery, Inc. reunites.
Cast
Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred Jones Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne Blake Matthew Lillard as Shaggy Rogers Linda Cardellini as Velma Dinkley Rowan Atkinson as Emile Mondavarious Isla Fisher as Mary Jane Miguel A. Núñez Jr. as a voodoo priest who is the last living native of Spooky Island
Neil Fanning voices Scooby-Doo. Scott Innes reprises his role as the voice of Scrappy-Doo, with J. P. Manoux providing the voice of the monstrous form he enters using the power of the Daemon Ritus (credited as "Scrappy Rex"). Sam Greco portrays Zarkos; Steven Grives portrays N'Goo Tuana; Kristian Schmid portrays Brad; and Michala Banas portrays Carol.
Additionally, Holly Brisley appears in a training video, while Frank Welker and Jess Harnell provide the vocal effects of Spooky Island's resident demons. Sugar Ray, Pamela Anderson and Nicholas Hope (Old Man Smithers) appear in cameo roles.
Production Development
Producer Charles Roven began developing a live-action treatment of Scooby-Doo in 1994. By the end of the decade, the combined popularity of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, along with the addition of the script and updated digital animation, led Warner Bros. to fast track production of the film. In 1996, Kevin Smith was offered to write a script for the film, but would only accept if his producer Scott Mosier agreed to write with him. Writer Craig Titley wrote the original screenplay. His was an origin story, focusing on how the gang met in college and teamed up for the first time to find a hidden treasure. Titley's script included multiple references to the original series, including the use of the Kingston Mansion from the intro as a major setting, but his draft was ultimately unused after Titley was unavailable to perform rewrites. However, many elements from Titley's draft were incorporated into the final film, including a demonic cult creating monsters, Shaggy getting a girlfriend who creates tension between him and Scooby, and the use of profanity and adult humor. Mike Myers was reported to be co-writing the screenplay with Jay Kogan in July 1998, and was later on board to play Shaggy as well. In October 2000, the film was officially given the green light. Variety reported that Raja Gosnell had been hired to direct the film.
Production was started on February 12, 2001, at the Warner Bros. Movie World theme park, with over 400 cast and crew also taking over Tangalooma Island Resort for six weeks to film all the scenes set on Spooky Island. The film was originally set to have a much darker tone, essentially poking fun at the original series, much like The Brady Bunch Movie, and was set for a PG-13 rating. Shaggy was set to be a stoner, and there were many marijuana references.Entertainment Weekly, 636/637 – Jan 25 Issue. Page 38
Several rumors about these aspects in the original cartoon series were passed around by fans of the original and were to be incorporated into the live-action film. In March 2001, one month into filming, the first official cast picture was released.
According to Sarah Michelle Gellar, after the cast had signed on there was a change, and the film became more family-friendly, though some of the original adult jokes are still in the film. They are also included in deleted scenes on the home media releases."Sarah Michelle: The Buffy Slayer". Marie Claire, November 2006. Vol. 13, Issue 11. Page 100. Gellar said her character and Linda Cardellini's shared an onscreen kiss that did not make the final film. "It wasn't just, like, for fun," she said, explaining it took place in the body-switching scene. "Initially in the soul-swapping scene, Velma and Daphne couldn't seem to get their souls back together in the woods. And so the way they found was to kiss, and the souls went back into proper alignment."
The film was originally planned to have an anonymous, nameless, otherworldly monster mastermind as the main antagonist. James Gunn, the film's screenwriter, and the production team had problems choosing the villain of the film, since they did not feel comfortable with the idea of giving the role to an "anonymous monster", and much of the film had been shot with this ending in mind. Another ending was filmed with Old Man Smithers revealed as the antagonist. The team decided to make Scrappy-Doo the antagonist, as Gunn disliked the character.
In 2017, the 15th anniversary of the release of the film, Gunn revealed in a Facebook post that there was an R-rated cut of Scooby-Doo and that CGI was used to remove cleavage of the female cast members.
Casting
Actors Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar, who both previously worked together in I Know What You Did Last Summer (1997) and portray Fred and Daphne, are romantically involved in both the film and reality. This film marks the first time in the franchise's history where the characters are portrayed as a couple. The pair married shortly after the film was released. Prinze said of his character, "[He] always showed more arrogance than everyone else. So in the movie, I took the opportunity to make him as narcissistic and self-loving as possible."
Jim Carrey was originally attached to play Shaggy, while Mike Myers also expressed interest in the role. Lochlyn Munro also auditioned for the role. The role was eventually given to Matthew Lillard. When asked about watching several cartoons before playing Shaggy, Lillard responded, "Everything I could get my hands on. If I ever have to see another episode of Scooby-Doo, it will be way too soon." Lillard would continue voicing Shaggy in the rest of the Scooby-Doo media starting in 2010, at the request of the character's original voice actor Casey Kasem, who had stepped down due to health issues; he would also poke fun at this appearance in the following year's Looney Tunes: Back in Action, where an animated Shaggy and Scooby voice their grievances over Lillard's portrayal during a lunch in the Warner Bros. studio cafeteria and threaten him to portray the character better in the sequel. Hadley Kay was selected by William Hanna to provide the voice of Scooby-Doo, but was later fired. Scott Innes was also going to voice Scooby in the film, but was replaced with Neil Fanning, an actor and stuntman who was performing in Warner Bros. Movie World's Police Academy Stunt Show at the time. Innes provided the voice of Scrappy, and also ad-libbed the character's dialogue for the ending scene when he is arrested.