Scooby-Doo 2:
Monsters Unleashed
Year: 2004
Directed by: Raja Gosnell
Starring: Seth Green, Linda Cardellini, Neil Fanning, Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. & Alicia Silverstone
Runtime: 92 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 15/04/21
Directed by: Raja Gosnell
Starring: Seth Green, Linda Cardellini, Neil Fanning, Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr. & Alicia Silverstone
Runtime: 92 mins
BBFC: PG
Published: 15/04/21
The original Scooby-Doo film is a peculiarity at the best of times. The fact it even exists in the form it holds is a sheer miracle after all the cutbacks the film faced from screenwriter James Gunn’s original script aimed at mature audiences. It toes the fine line between family friendly and something akin to a teen sex comedy, or stoner film. But the monumental success of the film spelled out a sequel from the very beginning, but the fact that it managed to keep that same bottled but about to burst sexual tension, and the numerous mature gags is just baffling. So, did lightning strike twice with Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, or did it end up an incoherent mess that doesn’t really appeal to anyone?
Mystery Inc. are at the top of their game and are attending the opening night of an exhibit dedicated to them and their most famous cases at the Coolsville Smithsonian Museum. But things go awry when the costume of the pterodactyl ghost seemingly comes to life of its own accord, destroying the exhibit and fleeing with a number of the other costumes.
Bad press and the destruction of a public space leave Mystery Inc. public enemy number one as they vow to uncover who was behind the stunt, leading them to investigate the original criminals behind the masks. But as they dig deeper and more ghosts of the past begin to surface, they quickly find that they aren’t the only targets, but the whole of Coolsville is at risk!
Mystery Inc. are at the top of their game and are attending the opening night of an exhibit dedicated to them and their most famous cases at the Coolsville Smithsonian Museum. But things go awry when the costume of the pterodactyl ghost seemingly comes to life of its own accord, destroying the exhibit and fleeing with a number of the other costumes.
Bad press and the destruction of a public space leave Mystery Inc. public enemy number one as they vow to uncover who was behind the stunt, leading them to investigate the original criminals behind the masks. But as they dig deeper and more ghosts of the past begin to surface, they quickly find that they aren’t the only targets, but the whole of Coolsville is at risk!
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is a strange sequel in that the stakes are considerably lower than its predecessor. The mystery of Spooky Island had Scrappy-Doo setting his sights on world domination, but the brains behind the monster invasion of Monsters Unleashed just wants to make Mystery Inc. look bad. Sure, Coolsville is bigger than Spooky Island, and there’s more people at risk, but the threat level is just considerably lower. There are no lives at risk, not really.
Monsters Unleashed definitely wins points for bringing some iconic Scooby-Doo villains to the big screen like the Black Knight Ghost, but it doesn’t really do anything overly interesting with them. Because each monster is unique unlike the first Scooby-Doo films army of freaks, none of them are given enough time to really show off how cool they are, or just what they’re capable of. The Thousand Volt Ghost and the Tar Monster are boiled down to inconvenient obstacles at best, there’s no cool scene for Mystery Inc. to solve how to get around them, it’s just wait for a Deus Ex Machina to clear a path.
The gang are also generally less interesting than they were in the first film. The first Scooby-Doo film made a point of showing how these characters had progressed from their younger selves in the cartoon, as well as giving them a big personality boost to make them more relatable. But Scooby-Doo 2 doesn’t seem to be interested in that, apart from maybe trying to make Velma sexy for laughs (you’re lying if Linda Cardellini in that skintight red latex outfit doesn’t get you going though). They’re all the same as they were at the start of the first film, and that’s boring. Fred’s a narcissist who’s in desperate need of a publicist to handle the media for him; Daphne is honestly barely even there, like she’s physically there, but she doesn’t do anything of note; Shaggy & Scooby feel as though they need to contribute more to the actual mystery solving but just do their normal goofy shenanigans instead. It just doesn’t have any forward momentum, I only watched the film yesterday and I’m already forgetting what happened because it’s so uneventful.
But there’s nothing outright bad about Scooby-Doo 2 either, sure the CGI looks awful now, but I remember watching the film in 2004 and not really noticing it being a massive problem. That’s why it saddens me so much that Monsters Unleashed is so bland and forgettable.
The original Scooby-Doo had balls, probably because it was originally intended for older teens and adults, but Scooby-Doo 2 feels like its living in its predecessor’s shadow. It tries to be edgy like the original but because it was always intended to be a family film the jokes are much safer, and the scenario itself is inherently less threatening.
Whilst neither film is exactly cinema gold, at least the original Scooby-Doo film stands out even twenty years later as this utterly insane adaptation of a dearly beloved cartoon; but Monsters Unleashed has no legacy, and it wouldn’t surprise me if people forgot it existed entirely.
Monsters Unleashed definitely wins points for bringing some iconic Scooby-Doo villains to the big screen like the Black Knight Ghost, but it doesn’t really do anything overly interesting with them. Because each monster is unique unlike the first Scooby-Doo films army of freaks, none of them are given enough time to really show off how cool they are, or just what they’re capable of. The Thousand Volt Ghost and the Tar Monster are boiled down to inconvenient obstacles at best, there’s no cool scene for Mystery Inc. to solve how to get around them, it’s just wait for a Deus Ex Machina to clear a path.
The gang are also generally less interesting than they were in the first film. The first Scooby-Doo film made a point of showing how these characters had progressed from their younger selves in the cartoon, as well as giving them a big personality boost to make them more relatable. But Scooby-Doo 2 doesn’t seem to be interested in that, apart from maybe trying to make Velma sexy for laughs (you’re lying if Linda Cardellini in that skintight red latex outfit doesn’t get you going though). They’re all the same as they were at the start of the first film, and that’s boring. Fred’s a narcissist who’s in desperate need of a publicist to handle the media for him; Daphne is honestly barely even there, like she’s physically there, but she doesn’t do anything of note; Shaggy & Scooby feel as though they need to contribute more to the actual mystery solving but just do their normal goofy shenanigans instead. It just doesn’t have any forward momentum, I only watched the film yesterday and I’m already forgetting what happened because it’s so uneventful.
But there’s nothing outright bad about Scooby-Doo 2 either, sure the CGI looks awful now, but I remember watching the film in 2004 and not really noticing it being a massive problem. That’s why it saddens me so much that Monsters Unleashed is so bland and forgettable.
The original Scooby-Doo had balls, probably because it was originally intended for older teens and adults, but Scooby-Doo 2 feels like its living in its predecessor’s shadow. It tries to be edgy like the original but because it was always intended to be a family film the jokes are much safer, and the scenario itself is inherently less threatening.
Whilst neither film is exactly cinema gold, at least the original Scooby-Doo film stands out even twenty years later as this utterly insane adaptation of a dearly beloved cartoon; but Monsters Unleashed has no legacy, and it wouldn’t surprise me if people forgot it existed entirely.