Originally posted by scaredy cat
You see, take a look at when SCOOBY DOO was created by Hanna Barbara. 1969. What were they? Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby were a team of young out-going college age kids that hit the road to uncover the schemes of evil doers. Now usually these evil doers were up to land grabbing, treasure stealing no good. Usually they were someone in the establishment. Someone in power, and only these young pesky kids that would stick their nose into the business of the establishment and actually question authority would reveal that they
the man
the older people were out to suppress and scare and cajole the rest of us into their evil schemes.
Now, along comes this movie. Now at a surface level, the idea of a theme park built around the concept of scaring you to bring in the alternative kids of the world to brainwash and spit out as Boy Band Loving Bastards of Materialism plays right into this established history of scooby doo anti-establishment work. However, the ultimate unmasking being a joke bad guy
well is utter and complete bulls hit. Having scrappy doo be the bad guy was utterly ******ed. Only a complete numbskull could actually have that be the bad guy. It stands against everything that Mystery Inc fights against.
Scrappy Doo isnt the establishment, hes a tool of the establishment, but see
they dont tie it in like that. Scrappy Doo was forced by marketers down our throats to peddle to the lowest common denominator. Everything having to do with Scrappy Doo in this filt.. film was awful. Even worse than Freddie Prinze Jr and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
Scrappy Doo was ass.
Linda Cardellinis Velma is almost where it needed to be. The problem was giving her some sort of bulls hit sense of inadequacy was stupid. Velma didnt care about boys or girls. Velma cared about the mystery. About getting to the bottom of what is going on, and upon figuring it out, getting the gang through the mystery safely. Linda did an admirable job with very badly written material. She was indeed hot as Velma, but for all the wrong reasons. Giving Velma cleavage is the wrong way to make her hot, she was hot because she was a chick that loved getting down and dirty in the scary stuff. Not only that, but she was the one that figured it all out.
Sarah Michelle Gellars daphne is an affront. I mean just terrible. First off, she isnt a redhead, but thats a nitpick. Second off, Daphne isnt supposed to be a dumb blonde. She isnt a helpless dumbs hit. Shes supposed to love the mysteries so much and be so into them that she gets caught and used as bait. Making her self-aware is terrible, because youve turned her into Self Parody right from the get go.
There isnt supposed to be anything between Daphne and Fred. Sex doesnt play into the Gang, because believe it or not, the thing that binds them is the MYSTERY.
Now, Shaggy would never fall for a girl, unless
unless she could cook. But even then, he wouldnt care, because no chick could cook like he could. Because Shaggy was the master of the Contrary Meal, and when Shaggy and Scooby are on that beach cooking Eggplant Burgers doused in Chocolate sauce
Sublime joy. Thats it. Bam! Nailed. At the end, when theyre eating nuclear hot peppers.
How bad is SCOOBY DOO? It is mediocre with the bright spots coming from Lillard and Scooby. And the abject horribleness coming from Gellar, Prinze and Scrappy. The production design looking like a bizarre theme park, well it was a bizarre theme park, so that worked. First thing I would do if working on a sequel is develop a plot that involved Velma, Fred and Daphne being Kidnapped and Shaggy and Scooby having to solve the mystery, save their friends and fight temptation to just blow it off and eat.
