Revisiting Warner Bros' Scooby-Doo (2002) on It's 20th Year Anniversary
Celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Warner Bros' Scooby-Doo (2002) by revisiting the film's development and critical reception.
In the streaming era, corporations such as Disney and Warner Bros are constantly rebooting or reimagining beloved franchises. Sometimes this works and sometimes it doesn’t. When I think of a reimagining that simultaneously failed and succeeded, Scooby-Doo (2002) comes to mind.
Like other 20-somethings, I grew up with this film and its 2004 sequel Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (My favorite.) I love this one too and I consider it the blueprint for how a live-action adaptation should be done. Unfortunately, most critics and some theatergoers didn’t agree and we ended up never getting the third film in the series.
WB Gets The Gang Together
The idea for Scooby-Doo (2002) originated in 1994. Warner Bros wanted to make a live-action Scooby-Doo movie and they wanted to do it ASAP due to the popularity of Scooby-Doo. If things went their way, we would have had a completely different cast.
Around 1996, Jim Carrey was set to play Shaggy but the film experienced production delays causing him to leave the project. His replacement would have been Mike Meyers, who was co-writing the script, but ultimately, the role went to Scream star Matthew Lillard. How did he get the role? “I begged. There's only so many tall, skinny, gangly funny guys in Hollywood,” said Lillard in a BBC interview. “It just so happens that I was at a great time in my career when this movie came along.”
When it came to casting Daphne, there were several possible candidates. Jennifer Love Hewitt, Jennifer Anniston, and Isla Dawn were considered at one point. While Buffy the Vampire Slayer’s Sarah Michelle Gellar ended up getting the role, the film’s director, Raja Gosnell, liked Isla Dawn so much, that he cast her as Shaggy’s love interest, Mary Jane (His, like, favorite thing.)
The role of Velma had three possible choices originally: Alyssa Milano, Carla Gugino, and Christina Ricci. All three lost the role to Freaks and Geeks star Linda Cardellini. It seems that Freddie Prinze Jr. may have been the only choice for the role of Fred as there aren’t any articles online about who else might have been considered for the role.
The roles of all four members of Mystery Incorporated were handpicked from a list of choices. The role of Scooby was not. His voice actor in the film was stuntman and actor Neil Fanning. Here’s what he had to say about how he got the role:
“Fortunately, they shot the first film in my hometown along the Gold Coast in Australia, and they were looking for a voice reader. Just delivering the dialogue live, since obviously there is nothing there to shoot to. It was to help the actors, as well. They loved what I did and fortunately chose me for the final film.” —Neil Fanning, The Assoicated Press, March 25, 2004
Scooby-Mania is Running Wild
After Scooby-Doo (2002) was officially announced in the year 2000, a marketing blitz soon followed. A marketing blitz is when a company does any and everything possible to advertise a product. Warner Bros was no stranger to this strategy as in the 80s they used it for the marketing of Tim Burton’s Batman. That film ushered in the summer of Batmania with its soundtrack CD by Prince, toys, clothing, and tons of other products that are probably rotting in a landfill right now.
It made sense for WB to employ the same strategy again and create the summer of Scooby-Mania. The amount of marketing done for Scooby-Doo (2002) is pretty ridiculous. There was the Lunchables tie-in, a Minute Maid giveaway, a Bayer vitamin tie-in, a Nascar car, and Dairy Queen menu items. Of course, no movie is complete without its soundtrack. The soundtrack for the film featured songs performed by Outkast, Shaggy, Lil Romeo, and Solange. It was released on June 4, just 10 days before the movie hit theaters. There’s even a music video.
Previously, places like Dairy Queen and Burger King had done promotions involving Scooby-Doo so doing another was a no-brainer. “We did a Scooby-Doo kids promotion in 1999 and it was one of the most successful kid's promotions the DQ system has ever had,” said Larry Newell, president of the Texas Dairy Queen Operators' Council. “We believe this promotion will be even more successful.”
#ReleaseTheGosnellCut
The film’s production started on February 12, 2001, and lasted until June with the Spooky Island scenes being filmed at the Warner Bros. Movie World amusement park in Queensland, Australia. Originally, it was supposed to have a darker tone and be PG-13 according to writer James Gunn.
References to this version of the film can still be seen in the final product but some huge scenes and storylines were censored or removed. For instance, Velma and Daphne were supposed to have a kissing scene.
“It wasn't just, like, for fun. 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.” —Sarah Michelle Gellar, Sci-Fi Wire, June 7, 2002
Freddie Prinze Jr. filmed many scenes portraying Fred as gay but these were also cut. The film suffered from so much censorship thanks to 3 outraged parents at a test screening. These 3 parents were enough to convince Warner Bros that the film needed to be PG which resulted in all of the mature scenes being cut and cleavage being removed with CGI. Thankfully some of them made it to DVD like this scene.
Sadly the original cut of the movie was never released. It may never see the light of day unless a set of weird, obsessive fans force Warner Bros to officially release it but that’ll NEVER happen.
Hate Now, Laugh Later
On June 14, 2002, Scooby-Doo finally hit theaters and its critical reception was not positive. It has a Rotten Tomatoes approval rating of 30% with a critical consensus that reads “Though Lillard is uncannily spot-on as Shaggy, Scooby-Doo is a tired live-action update, filled with lame jokes.” Even though critics didn’t love the movie, it did make money at the box office.
By the time the film’s run in the theaters ended, it took home $275.7 million and became the fifteenth highest-grossing movie of 2002. Surprisingly, Scooby-Doo did take home some awards. Sarah Michelle Gellar won the Choice Movie Actress – Comedy award at the Teen Choice Awards. The film itself took home the Kids Choice Award for Favorite Fart in a Movie.
I first saw the film when it came to HBO sometime in 2003. Because I was a kid, I loved it and saw the sequel in theaters the following year. After rewatching it recently, I like it even more because it’s a great parody of Scooby-Doo that retains the spirit of the original show. In the years following the film’s release, others began to feel the same.
What makes the film so great to me is the fact that it’s a parody of Scooby-Doo while also keeping the spirit of the original show. I think a lot of critics didn’t consider that as they trashed this movie like it was The Room or Batman and Robin.
The first two minutes of the film might be the best of any that I’ve seen because of how well it establishes the main characters. We see Shaggy and Scooby beings cowards, Fred setting a trap, Velma being the smartest person in the room, and Daphne getting captured. Critics didn’t seem as appreciative of this as I am and just got kept saying “It’s not like the cartoon. It sucks!”
The online opinion of the film is currently positive. You’ll find posts on Twitter or Reddit from people who grew up with the movie and can now appreciate some of its more mature jokes that went over their heads as kids.
To me, the first film is the funnier than the second, but the second does have a better plot. I’d blame the rating change for this. The first movie is a weird combination of a hard PG-13 movie and a kid’s movie. The second seemed more focused on what kind of movie it wanted to be. A mature parody of Scooby-Doo with zero censorship sounds a lot better than the film we ended up getting.
Scooby-Doo (2002) is one of my favorite movies from my childhood and I’ll always be a little salty at how Warner Bros. never let it reach its full potential. If they ever decide to do another live-action reboot I hope they let the director stick to his guns and not handicap him because a few Karens complained.