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You are familiar with Scooby Doo. It doesn’t matter if you’ve never seen a single frame of the show or subsequent movies, you know the deal. It is ubiquitous. You are born with the knowledge that Scooby Doo is a talking great dane who hangs out with a group of “teens” in order to solve spooky crimes. It is known.
Weirdly though, most of the non-cartoon Scooby content bends this concept. The movies have all focused more on adding internal strife among the team. The first movie completely splits them apart, then drags them back together to solve a mystery almost out of spite. It’s only at the end that they make up. SCOOB! starts off on the right foot. We meet Scooby and Shaggy as kids and when they meet the rest of Mystery Inc they solve a spooky haunted house mystery right there. But after a time jump, Simon Cowell tells them that Scooby and Shaggy worthless so they leave. Yes you read that right.
This leaves Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed as the closest thing resembling the formula that has worked for five decades worth of TV shows. And by that metric, Wil claims that it is the superior film among the three. And why wouldn’t that be the most important metric to measure? At that point in 2004, Scooby Doo had existed for over 30 years. Why change what was working? Whether or not it’s ACTUALLY the best, well art is subjective and maybe the polish of SCOOB! will sell you over the early 2000s stink which permeates the first two films.
Any way you look at it, Scooby Doo has yet to be executed all that super effectively on film. The first couple movies are so of their time they are nigh unwatchable today. And SCOOB! skips the classic formula in lieu of adding a weird super hero element. It also is hella sad a couple times in a way that felt a bit unearned and emotionally manipulative. Have you seen any of these movies? If so, hit us up on Twitter! This might be a hotly debated topic. Nostalgia is a hell of a drug! For now though, grab some Scooby Snacks, settle into the Mystery Machine and join us for today Scooby impression-filled episode of So…I’m Watching This Show!
