Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Raja Gosnell
Written by	James Gunn
Produced by	Charles Roven Richard Suckle
Starring	Freddie Prinze Jr. Sarah Michelle Gellar Matthew Lillard Linda Cardellini Seth Green Peter Boyle Tim Blake Nelson Alicia Silverstone Neil Fanning
Cinematography	Oliver Wood
Edited by	Kent Beyda
Music by	David Newman
Production company	Mosaic Media Group
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release dates	March 20, 2004 (2004-03-20) (Hollywood) March 26, 2004 (2004-03-26) (United States)
Running time	92 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$25 million
Box office	$181.5 million

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is a 2004 American live-action/computer-animated family horror comedy film based on the animated television series franchise Scooby-Doo. It is the second installment in the Scooby-Doo live-action film series and a stand-alone sequel to 2002's Scooby-Doo, and was directed by Raja Gosnell, written by James Gunn and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. The film stars Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard, Seth Green, Tim Blake Nelson, Peter Boyle and Alicia Silverstone, with Neil Fanning reprising his role as the voice of Scooby-Doo.

The film was released on March 26, 2004. It received mainly negative reviews and failed to meet studio projections, earning $181.5 million from a $25 million budget. Its poor reception resulted in a planned third film being canceled.

Plot

Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo attend the opening of an exhibition at the Coolsonian Criminology Museum commemorating their past solved cases with monster costumes on display. However, the celebrations are interrupted by a masked man known as the Evil Masked Figure who steals two costumes using the reanimated Pterodactyl Ghost. The gang are ridiculed by journalist Heather Jasper Howe, who starts a smear campaign against them. Concluding an old enemy is the mastermind, the gang revisit old cases, dismissing the former Pterodactyl Ghost, Jonathan Jacobo, due to his apparent death during a failed prison escape three years ago, they guess that Jeremiah Wickles, the Black Knight Ghost's portrayer and Jacobo's cell mate in prison, is the culprit.

Going to Wickles' mansion, the group fall through a trapdoor and into a cage targeting unwelcome callers, but escape with the aid of Daphne's cosmetics. Inside, the gang find a book that serves as an instruction manual on how to create monsters. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo find a note inviting Wickles to visit the Faux Ghost nightclub. They are attacked by the Black Knight Ghost, but escape when Daphne fights him off while Velma discovers its weak spot and disables it. Before fleeing, the rest of the gang had previously discovered through the book found in Wickles' mansion that the key ingredient to creating the monsters was a substance called "randomonium", which can be found at the old silver mining town.

Daphne, Velma and Fred go to the museum accompanied by the curator Patrick Wisely, but discover that the rest of the costumes have been stolen. Heather Jasper Howe turns the city against them. The gang go to the mines, finding Wickles' plans to turn it into an amusement park. As they confront Wickles, he states that he and Jacobo hated each other and that he has no connection to the museum robberies.

Shaggy and Scooby, after overhearing the rest of the gang criticizing their tendency to bumble every operation, and especially their most recent offense in failing to secure the Pterodactyl Ghost at the museum, resolve to better themselves and become real detectives. Following the lead from Wickles' note, their first clue ever, they sneak into the Faux Ghost wearing disguises to try and solve the mystery, only to discover it's a hangout for all the villains Mystery Inc. unmasked. After speaking to Wickles, they hear how he has mended his evil ways. Scooby causes a scene and his disguise falls off, and the two escaped through a trash chute. On their way out, they spot Patrick uncharacteristically assaulting someone who appears to be a member of his staff, ordering him to find answers to who vandalized his museum. Escaping an awkward interaction with Patrick, Shaggy and Scooby spot Wickles leaving the club and follow him.

The gang then find the Monster Hive where the costumes are brought to life as real monsters. Shaggy and Scooby play around with the machine's control panel, bringing several costumes to life, and the gang flees with the panel as the Evil Masked Figure terrorizes the city. Escaping to their old high school clubhouse, the gang realizes they can reverse the control panel's power by altering its wiring. Captain Cutler's Ghost emerges from the lake, forcing the gang to head back to the mines, encountering the various monsters along the way. When Velma tries to give Shaggy and Scooby the control panel they refuse to take it believing they'll just ruin everything and admit that they feel inadequate compared to the rest of the gang. Velma convinces them they're fine just the way they are. Velma sees Patrick in the mines, finding a shrine dedicated to Jacobo built by Patrick, but Patrick proves his innocence by helping Velma after a catwalk unexpectedly gives way under her, before being taken away by the Pterodactyl Ghost.

The gang confront the Evil Masked Figure as the Tar Monster captures all of them but Scooby, who uses a fire extinguisher to freeze the Tar Monster's body. He reactivates the control panel, transforming the costumes back to normal. The gang takes the Evil Masked Figure to the authorities, Velma and Daphne unmasking him as Heather. When asked why Heather did what she had to do, Velma suddenly pulls and peels Heather's face off, revealing she is actually Jacobo in disguise; Jacobo had survived the fall from the prison wall, and sought to get revenge on the sleuths by discrediting them. Jacobo's cameraman Ned is also arrested as an accomplice.

The sleuths are praised as heroes in Coolsville. In the Faux Ghost, the gang celebrates their victory with the reformed criminals.

Cast

• Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred Jones
  • Ryan Vrba as Young Fred
• Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne Blake
  • Emily Tennant as Young Daphne
• Linda Cardellini as Velma Dinkley
  • Lauren Kennedy as Young Velma
• Matthew Lillard as Shaggy Rogers
  • Cascy Beddow as Young Shaggy
  • Nazanin Afshin-Jam as Shaggy Chick
• Seth Green as Patrick Wisely
• Peter Boyle as Jeremiah Wickles
• Tim Blake Nelson as Dr. Jonathan Jacobo
• Alicia Silverstone as Heather Jasper Howe
• Karin Konoval as Aggie Wilkins
• Joe Macleod as Skater Dude No. 1
• Brandon Jay McLaren as Skater Dude No. 2
• Calum Worthy as Kid on bike No. 2
• Stephen E. Miller as C.L. Magnus
• Zahf Paroo as Ned
  • Christopher R. Sumpton as Zombie
• C. Ernst Harth as the voice of Miner 49er
• Scott McNeil as the voice of Evil Masked Figure

Voice cast

• Neil Fanning as Scooby-Doo
  • J. P. Manoux as Scooby Brainiac
• Dee Bradley Baker as the voice of Pterodactyl / Zombie / Red-Eyed Skeleton
• Bob Papenbrook and Kevin Durand as the voice of Black Knight Ghost
• Michael Sorich as the voice of Tar Monster / Cotton Candy Glob
• Terrence Stone/Dee Bradley Baker as the voice of 10,000 Volt Ghost
• Wally Wingert as the voice of Green-Eyed Skeleton

Cameos

• Pat O'Brien
• Tasmanian Devil
• Ruben Studdard
• Kester Moorhouse
• Big Brovaz

Production

In June 2002, at the time of the release of Scooby-Doo, Dan Fellman, the president of Warner Bros., confirmed that a sequel was in the works, and was slated for a 2004 release. In March 2003, it was announced that Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Neil Fanning, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini would reprise their roles in the sequel. In April 2003, the next month, filming for the sequel began in Vancouver, with Seth Green joining the cast.

Reception

Box office

The film opened March 26, 2004, and grossed $29.4 million (over 3,312 theaters, $8,888 average) during its opening weekend, ranking No. 1. It grossed a total of $84.2 million in North America, and went on to earn $181.5 million worldwide, more than $90 million less than the $275.7 million worldwide Scooby-Doo grossed two years earlier. It was the twenty eighth most successful film of 2004, and ranks as the sixth highest-grossing film featuring a dog as a major character. The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2004, and topped the country's box office for the next three weekends, before being dethroned by Kill Bill Volume 2.

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds a rating of 22% based on 118 reviews and an average rating of 4.27/10. The site's consensus reads, "Only the very young will get the most out of this silly trifle." On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews". Audiences polled by CinemaScore gave the film an average grade of "A−" on an A+ to F scale, an improvement over the previous film's "B+".

The film won the Razzie Award for Worst Remake or Sequel.

Home media release

Warner Home Video released the film on DVD and VHS on September 14, 2004, in both full-screen and widescreen editions. The DVD included deleted scenes from the film's production and other special features, such as two music videos, a "making of" and trailers. On November 9, 2010, Warner Bros. released both the film and its predecessor as a double feature Blu-ray.

Video games

Two video games loosely following the plot of the film were released in 2004 to coincide with the film's release; a 3D point and click adventure on the PC and a 2D beat-em-up platformer on the Game Boy Advance. In both games, one ending could only be seen by entering a code displayed at the end of the film.

Soundtrack

A soundtrack was released on March 23, 2004 on Audio CD and Compact Cassette.

1. "Don't Wanna Think About You" by Simple Plan (Simple Plan had also performed the titular theme song)
2. "You Get What You Give" by New Radicals
3. "Boom Shack-A-Lak" by Apache Indian
4. "Thank You (Falettinme Be Mice Elf Agin)" by Big Brovaz
5. "The Rockafeller Skank" by Fatboy Slim
6. "Wooly Bully" by Bad Manners
7. "Shining Star" by Ruben Studdard
8. "Flagpole Sitta" by Harvey Danger
9. "Get Ready for This" by 2 Unlimited
10. "Play That Funky Music" by Wild Cherry
11. "Here We Go" by Bowling for Soup
12. "Love Shack" by The B-52's
13. "Friends Forever" by Puffy AmiYumi

Canceled sequel

In October 2002, during the filming of Scooby-Doo 2, Warner Bros. approved production of a third film. Dan Forman and Paul Foley were hired to write the script for Scooby-Doo 3. In August 2004, Matthew Lillard said in an interview that the third Scooby-Doo film was canceled because the second had not done as well as expected, which he attributed to Warner Bros. releasing it at an inappropriate time.

External links

• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed at AllRovi
• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed at the Internet Movie Database
• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed at Rotten Tomatoes
• Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed at Metacritic