Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Movie Review

As far as harmless remakes go, Scooby-Doo 2 is one. It's not much of anything other than another attempt well-calculated attempt to siphon money off of 10-14 year-olds and their parents. Neither group will gripe too much as there's enough special effects, kid humor, slight titillation, and nostalgia for all.

Given Doo 2's pedigree that's not much of a surprise. The first Scooby-Doo relied on almost exactly the same formula and was anchored by one very funny, very effective job by Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, the hippy with the caveman lope and the green shirt.

The gang at Mystery Inc., consisting of Shaggy, Velma (Linda Cardellini), Fred (Freddy Prinze Jr.) and Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Scooby are attending the opening of the Coolsonian Criminology Museum. Coolsville, USA wants to honor their favorite sons and daughters with a red carpet affair in a museum packed with the costumes of all the ghouls and creeps they've unmasked in their career. At the soiree Velma is asked out on a date by the museum's curator, Patrick Wisely (Seth Green, Teflon man) but it's all broken up when one of the costumes, The Pterodactyl Ghost comes alive. A Masked Villain (who looks like an homage to The Wiz) appears to relate that soon all of Coolsville will be plagued with monsters and that it's all the fault of Mystery Inc. Upon re-entering the museum the gang discovers that all of the costumes are missing and soon they've all come alive, wreaking havoc and establishing conflict without too much angst.

None of this makes much sense in retrospect but, like pro wrestling (which is given a small spotlight in the film), that's not the point. The point is to set up a scenario with Shaggy and Scooby (okay, sure, the rest of them too) and paranormal happenings and let them Costello their way out of it. This is all fine and good.

What is annoying, repeatedly annoying, crashingly annoying, is the attempt to give characterization to Mystery, Inc, most of it having to do with self-doubt. Shaggy and Scooby think they're screw ups. Velma feels she can't be herself. Fred is worried he's dumb. Daphne is confronted, once again, with being just window dressing. This was all covered in the first film but it's covered again. Really, if there's any danger at all in taking children to this film it is that it shows them that the first, best, and perhaps only reaction to any situation is to pout. This group mopes so much in this movie that one half expects them to start popping Xanax snacks.

Lillard is once again the best thing in the film (the set design coming in second), though his relationship with the non-existent CGI creation of Scooby isn't as fleshed out this time (Dear Lord, did I just write that?). He actually imbues his character with more life than the others are able to manage (sure he's got more to work with but what he does is pretty marvelous) and gives the most consistent laughs. That's cause he's also got the best lines: "We're gonna die!" yells Shaggy. "Think positive" he's told. "We're gonna die quickly!" and "This is tied with the most terrifying day of my life!" "With what?" asks Velma. "Every other freaking day of my life!"). Perhaps the most positive thing that will come out of these Warner Bros. cash cows is that Lillard, who was the only decent support in the horrifically bad Summer Catch and great in Thir13een Ghosts, gets to break out of what used to be his métier, playing the jerk boyfriend/best friend.

One last gripe: I realize they could only have so many ghosts come back. The ones they do resurrect are: the Miner 49er, Pterodactyl Ghost, 10,000 Volt Ghost, Black Knight Ghost, the Skelemen (did they make these guys up?), the Tar Monster, Captain Cutler's Ghost, and the Zombie. Couldn't they have made room for the Phantom Shadows? Well, it's that nostalgic yearn that produced this movie in the first place and Doo 2, as flimsy as it is, serves that purpose, no matter how whiny those meddling kids and their dopey dog are.