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Scooby-Doo The Movie: A Retrospective

"We're really two trippy peas in a far-out pod, man!"

Oddly evocative of the 2000's, with a cameo by Sugar Ray, Scooby-Doo is a bizarre film, written by James Gunn, which plays a little on tropes of the era. I think this showcases Gunn's forward-thought as a screenwriter, though I also love the man for his boldness, so I'm willing to say I may be overthinking.

But, having Mr. Bean as the bad guy says a lot about subverting the audience's expectations. Rowan Atkinson hasn't had many chances to play the villain. This is one of his best performances.

Matthew Lillard as Shaggy is the best character of the bunch. It's hard to imagine other actors embodying the hungry stoner as well as Lillard does.

The CG is awful, even for 2002. When you consider how real scenes in Lord of the Rings look given the extensive work Peter Jackson did with Weta in 2001 coming off of Frighteners from 1996(which birthed the CG movement of the entire culture), the graphics in SD are absolutely awful. It's at it's worst when Scooby shares scenes with monsters and there are no human counterparts on-screen.

Gunn's writing is really good, as it has always been. What it lacks is overtly sexual undertones and mysogynistic male banter. /sarcasm

The women are equally intelligent, take command of their lives, and are rescued only when the situation has presented itself. Gunn gets a few weird shots off by implying Shaggy and Scooby smoking weed a couple of times, and he serves his odd bent when Shaggy digs in a cauldron filled with souls and puts one back that isn't Fred, Daphne or Velma.

This is the kind of humor Gunn has been known for, and as an adult it makes this script fun and exciting to see a subversion of the modern day hero. Shaggy can't be bothered saving someone else because he's trying to save his friends.

It's hilarious, true to character, and doesn't give Shaggy a fully heroic arc. If he were a hero's hero, he'd have released the soul and let it go back to it's human host. The film has fun little interactions like this that were a precursor to Quill in Guardians being a self-serving jerk, but smart enough to do the right thing when it is absolutely needed, or to be completely blind to his status as a hero.

The band members of Sugar Ray being unwitting parties to the soul-stealing ritual are a nice way of grounding their cameo in the film's world and not just shoeing them in for atmosphere like Rammstein in XXX or Vanilla Ice in TMNT.

Band cameos are fun but they take me out of the film if they're just performing a song in a club scene. That's an interesting trope that must have been dying in the 2000's, which likely led to the way Sugar Ray was being used, almost as to thumb their nose at how silly band cameos can come across on-screen.

Overall, Scooby-Doo isn't a great movie, but it's better now than it was in 2002. Gunn's run of bad luck with saying what he wants seems different now that I've gone back in time to see some of his early writing in Hollywood. I don't know if other writers would mess with the audience as Gunn did here.

While the film is childish, it is clearly meant to be fun and engaging, and I can see how Gunn took his time writing scenarios that didn't lead to the dude doing all the rescuing. Daphne is self-aware she gets captured all the time, which is a step in the right direction for her as she spends the movie trying to be the hero with some success.

Fred is a self-centered moron who hurts more than he helps. Shaggy is a lover, albeit blindly, and ultimately the biggest hero of the bunch... until Daphne is... then Velma... and Fred. Velma is the outcast who spends her time trying to become relevant. And, Scooby is just along for the ride... and, dies. Briefly.

Tell me the last kids movie you saw where the title character dies.

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Canted Angle Media (Everything Relatively Applicable) is the brainchild of Jed Nichols. As a cinematographer, director, writer and actor, Jed's passion for art finds itself most drawn toward the world of narrative filmmaking. On this site, Jed shares stories from his adventures as a short film creator, purveyor of the arts, and reviews of popular films and other artistic mediums. 

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