Rooby Rooby Dooooooo (Scooby Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Scooby Doo 2 - Monsters Unleashed (DVD)
Date:	25/01/05 (159 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Better than the original, The kids will like it, Generally fun

Disadvantages: You may hate cartoon dogs

Some things in life are simply unstoppable like the dawning of a new day, the imposition of new taxes and a follow up movie to one that’s made any kind of reasonable numbers on a previous outing. Scooby Doo the live action movie was a financial success despite, in the main, mixed reviews. Two years later, broadly the same team came together to release the inevitable sequel - Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. At the time of it’s UK release and unusually for me, I made the special preview weekend although, in practice, this hardly makes a difference when you’re sitting there in the dark subjected to a big screen offering that has you by the short and curlies. Well, unless you decide to walk out, of course.
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Director: Raja Gosnell
Run time: 91 mins
Cert: PG

Freddie Prinze Jr - Fred
Sarah Michelle Gellar - Daphne
Matthew Lillard - Shaggy
Linda Cardellini - Velma
Seth Green - Patrick
Peter Boyle - Old Man Wickles
Tim Blake Nelson - Jacobo
Alicia Silverstone - Heather
Neil Fanning - Scooby-Doo (voice)
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The plot on this occasion is much closer to home. Gone are the tropical island settings from it’s forerunner; switch to big city US of A in the guise of Coolsville. Mystery Inc. has become something of a showbiz phenomenon with a glitzy lifestyle for the intrepid five. When called upon to grace a museum with a special exhibit of monster costumes from previous villains snared and unmasked, a mysterious masked character gate-crashes the opening, stealing some of the costumes courtesy of the efforts of the pterodactyl ghost. The motives of the masked marauder appear to be to discredit Mystery Inc. for reason’s known only to the perpetrator.

With the added complication of a hostile media in the shape of Alicia Silverstone (Clueless and TV series, Miss Match), Mystery Inc have it all on to uncover those involved with this heinous plot whilst rescuing their tarnished image generated by the local TV station. The trail leads the gang to the notion that one of their previous conquests is up to know good and this time it looks like they are using the substance "randomonium" (I'm not making this up, you know?) to re-generate new ghosts (hence, monsters unleashed) to terrorise the city. It’s a typically barmy comic plot but then what else would you expect?

Live action interpretations of cartoons have been around for a while and generally done well at the box office. Ever since the watershed production of “Who Framed Roger Rabbit” in 1988 made it to the big screen, the technology has been available to make increasingly sophisticated affairs that blur the boundaries between cartoon and real life. Scooby Doo 2 takes this on to a new level with top draw computer generated effects albeit it makes me smile when I see a plain old monster costume on set as worn by a nickel and dime extra.

A continuing theme from the first movie is the teen angst felt collectively by the group. With a sortie into the shallowest of group dynamics, Velma now has intimacy issues, Fred is distinctly less camp with a lack of self-assurance that would qualify him for an ego overhaul at the nearest cartoon psychiatrist, Daphne doesn’t know why she’s in the team (again) while both Scooby and Shaggy feel decidedly introspective by their joint lack of bravery. Of course, this soul searching is hardly new to the comic genre and seems to be an essential pre-requisite of the modern day children’s movie.

Raja Gosnell (Home Alone, Mrs Doubtfire) returns once more to direct a furiously paced story that careers around the sets at a hundred miles an hour. Attention to detail is as close as ever with the colour coded heroes and heroines sporting the same lurid schemes as before. With Velma in orange, Fred in blue, Daphne in lilac and Shaggy in green, the miasma of colours in general signal a strong comic book feel to the audience that’s intended to plant the cartoon seed in the viewers mind. With stock in trade spooky sets such as a mine, a base for Mystery Inc and a twilight setting for the city, Coolsville, that looks inspired by the original Tim Burton, Batman movie, Gosnell creates a convincing base to take his audience into a world of cardboard cut out characters that could be moving around a gaming board during an evening’s entertainment with friends.

The main players in the movie seem more pensive than in the original although that’s probably intended when you consider the self-analysis going on in the script. It’s amazing what a difference two years can make as Mystery Inc en masse look decidedly older. I have to say, Velma the cartoon character never did much for me in the cartoon series but Linda Cardellini (Legally Blonde) dispenses with glasses and frumpy jumper to don a bright red, leather jump suit at one point and looks an absolute babe (definitely Velma as you’ve never seen her before!).

New additions to the cast are highlighted by the inclusion of Seth Green as Patrick and Alicia Silverstone as the local reporter. Both do well in what amount to not much more than supporting roles but Green, in particular, is an actor I like excelling in previous movies such as Idol Hands and as the hapless son of Dr Evil in the Austin Powers dynasty. As Velma’s potential love interest Green gets to swan around in a checked jacket and glasses looking suitably serious which is a shame because he is generally the main man when it comes to one liners. Oh well, there’s always his next movie.

The musical score is a strong one again with a blast of Bon Jovi’s “Dead or alive” amongst a long list of up to date hits.

Best scenes included:

-Scooby drawing a picture of a bunny at a potentially serious moment

-The scene with Shaggy and Scooby in a villain’s hangout dressed in 70’s gear. Scooby reminded me of Huggy Bear from Starsky and Hutch or was it one of the Hair Bear Bunch while Shaggy looked remarkably like a retro pimp.

-The joust between the Black Knight ghost and Freddie on a motorbike with Bon Jovi playing the background

-Freddie reversing his van into an unsuspecting deep-sea diver ghost.

All in all, this is a much better effort than the original. The story is convoluted but more interesting this time, the characters a little more empathetic and the effects are spot on. The thread of humour keeps the wheels turning to and the introduction of Scooby as a 70’s style hipster replete with afro hair style is inspired (in fact, Scooby and Shaggy get all of the gags once more apart from Fred being outrageously taken out of context on the TV ).

My kids enjoyed it along with the adults present and it did prove a distraction from my desire to accidentally wander into the screen showing the latest re-make of “Dawn of the Dead” (he he). I'm not sure if the intention is to bring colloquial lingo onto the scene but the phrase "If it wasn't for those meddling punks" at the end seemed out of context with the traditional cliché using the word "kids" as opposed to punks. Maybe it's an American thing? Four stars for a better showing or alternatively, this one will make an ideal video/DVD gift for one of your favourite (or not so favourite) children.

For anyone that hated the first movie and probably won’t watch the second, this movie is strong enough to spawn yet another sequel so beware!

Thanks for reading

Marandina


Notes:

Scooby Doo 2: Monster’s Unleashed is available at Amazon.com in VHS video format for £12.99 whilst the DVD is available for £7.97. Of course, you can always try other sources like Play.com or Bol.com who may be cheaper.

Official movie site including trailer clip: http://www2.warnerbros.com/scoobydoo2/

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