Scooby-Doo (film)

This article is about the 2002 film. For other uses, see Scooby-Doo.

Scooby-Doo
Theatrical poster.
Production company:	Mosaic Media Group Atlas Entertainment
Distributor:	Warner Bros. Pictures
Release date:	June 14, 2002
Run time:	1:26:29
Starring:	Freddie Prinze Jr. Sarah Michelle Gellar Matthew Lillard Isla Fisher Rowan Atkinson
Executive producer(s):	Robert Engelman Kelley Smith-Wait William Hanna Joseph Barbera
Producer(s):	Andrew Mason Alan G. Glazer Sheryl Benko Stephen Jones Philip A. Patterson
Music composed by:	David Newman
Story by:	James Gunn Craig Titley
Screenplay by:	James Gunn
Storyboard artists:	Anthony Zierhut Graeme Callander Bob Camp Pete Von Sholly
Director(s):	Raja Gosnell
Art director(s):	Bill Booth Donna Brown Gabrielle Gliniak Christian "Pipo" Wintter
Title card

Scooby-Doo, also known as Scooby-Doo: The Movie, is an American-Australian live-action/CGI American-Australian horror comedy film based on Hanna-Barbera's animated TV series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! which aired from 1969 to 1970. It was written by James Gunn, produced by Charles Roven and Richard Suckle, and directed by Raja Gosnell. It was distributed by Warner Bros. Pictures on June 14, 2002. Two years later it was followed by the sequel, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

After an argument, the members of Mystery Inc. break up and try to make lives for themselves. After some time apart, they are forced to reunite when they are called by an eccentric amusement park owner to investigate the strange happenings on his island.

Memorable quotes

Reporter: Fred, what's the secret of your success?
Fred: Teamwork. I do I tremendous amount of teamwork.

Old Man Withers: I would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling kids and your dumb dog! I'll get you for this!

Fred: How many times do I have to tell you? There are no such things as ghouls, ghosts, goblins, or monsters. Now listen up. There is absolutely, absolutely no such thing as... Monster!

Velma: Let's get jinky with it.

Scrappy-Doo: Yeah, and I've would've got away with it, If it weren't for those meddling sons of a--.

Characters

Legend
Character debut	Speaking debut	Ep. debut	No lines	Mentioned

In order of appearance:

Character	Actor
Luna Ghost/Old Man Withers	Nicholas Hope
Daphne Blake	Sarah Michelle Gellar
Velma Dinkley	Linda Cardellini
Fred Jones	Freddie Prinze Jr.
Scooby-Doo	Neil Flanning (voice)
Shaggy Rogers	Matthew Lillard
Pamela Anderson	Herself
Reporter #1	Alex Ruiz
George Clooney
Autograph seeker #1	Emily Gosnell
Autograph seeker #2	Marea Lambert Barker
Autograph seeker #3	Kym Jackson
Autograph seeker #4	Danielle Starkey
Spooky Island emmissary	Rio Nugara
Airport attendant	Kyas Sherriff
Airport mother	Celeste Gosnell
Airport twin #1	Cayley Gosnell
Airport twin #2	Audrey Gosnell
Airport boy	Bradley Gosnell
Velma's friend	Charles Cousins
Brad	Kristian Schmid
Cat	Frank Welker (voice)
Emil Mondavarious	Rowan Atkinson
Carol	Michala Banas
Skeleton man	Frank Welker (voice)
N' Goo Tuana	Steven Grives
Zarkos	Sam Greco
Bartender	David Vallon
Melvin Doo	Martin Broome
Voodoo maestro	Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.
Hong Kong Phooey
Tiny henchman	Chris Cruickshanks
Training video presenter	Holly Ann Brisley
Training video guy #1	Robert Diaz
Training video guy #2	Remi Broadway
Papa Smurf
Scrappy-Doo	Scott Innes (voice)
Don Knotts
Demons	Jess Harnell (voice) Frank Welker (voice)
Fitzgibbon	Jonathan Coffey
Coast guard officer #2	Michael Caffrey
Co-ed volleyball player	Janis McGavin
Mark McGrath	Himself
Stan Frazier	Himself
Shaggy's mother
Scooby's mother
Guy in the vat	Troy MacKinder
Cavern henchman	Miguel A. Nunez, Jr.
KXBD19 reporter	Sheryl Benko

Organizations

• Mystery Incorporated
• NASA (mentioned)
• Led Zeppelin (mentioned)
• The Powerpuff Girls (mentioned)
• Coast Guard
• Sugar Ray

Locations

• Earth
  • United States
    • Wow-O Toy Factory
    • Coolsville (mentioned)
    • California
      • Beach
    • Airport
  • Spooky Island
    • Spooky Hotel
      • Voodoo Doll Lounge
    • Dead Mike's
    • Voodoo maestro's residence
  • Yucca Flats (mentioned)
    • Spooky Castle
  • Sunny Tower
  • France (mentioned)
  • England (indirectly mentioned)
    • London (mentioned)
• The Moon
• The Sun

Objects

• Luna Ghost action figures
• Pamela Anderson dolls
• Fred on Fred: The Many Faces of Me
• Super Food Ideas 101
• Scooby Snacks
• Emil Mondavarious robot
• Crystal skull disco ball
• Deamon Ritus
• Coca-Cola (mentioned)

Vehicles

• The Mystery Machine
• Spooky Island plane
• Spooky Island boat

Production

Development

Between 1990 to 1994, David Kirschner, then chairman of Hanna-Barbera, commissioned an art pitch by Bob Singer and Iraj Paran.

In 1994, Atlas Entertainment's Charles Roven went into partnership with Turner Pictures to produce a live-action Scooby-Doo film. Although unsure of how to tackle Scooby, Universal Pictures' The Flintstones had been released a year later, which included a CGI Dino, which got the ball rolling. Titley, a young and inexpensive writer, was put into contact with Turner Pictures after telling his manager writing a live-action movie of Scooby-Doo was his dream job; his first draft was dated February 16, 1996, telling a story of how the gang formed while at Kingston College. Filmmaker Kevin Smith was also sought after by Turner Pictures, who tried to bribe him with a ton of Scooby paraphernalia, but when his producing partner Scott Mosier wasn't interested in co-writing, Kevin Smith turned them down twice, and then he was scooped up by Warner Bros. Pictures to write the unproduced Superman Lives.

As fate would have it, Time Warner then bought Turner Entertainment, who weren't interesting in doing the movie, as they thought it would have no value. However, after running a "q score" for popular fictional characters, where Scooby rated number two, they gave it a second chance. By this point, however, Titley was unable to continue with his script. Instead, Warner Bros. turned to someone much more famous with Mike Myers, who on August 10, 1998 was reported to have been hired to write a new script with Jay Kogan, and star as Shaggy, Although Craig Titley also claimed that Mike Myers would actually play a human version of a CGI-created Scooby after he somehow gets transformed into a human in the first five minutes. Jim Carrey would've also played Shaggy. Brian Levant was hired to direct the script, who described it as having the gang have a major fall out and a mystery involving the souls of children being stolen. Levant wasn't comfortable with this, and suggested an origin story where the gang meet as college students and solve a mystery while on Spring Break at Daytona Beach, but Warner Bros. just preferred for him to direct Myers's script.

In 1999, James Gunn was hired to write a new script after Warner Bros. let Mike Myers and Jay Kogan go. Gunn's first draft was dated March 17, 2000. John August acted as script doctor when Gunn was briefly unavailable.

Warner Bros. greenlit the film on October 17, 2000, announcing that the director would be Raja Gosnell.

Casting

Real-life couple Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar were announced to play Fred and Daphne, respectively, on November 6, 2000. This was to give legitimacy that Fred and Daphne could be a real couple on-screen. Prinze Jr. had his hair dyed.

Rhys Ifans was apparently a potential to play Shaggy, while Lochlyn Munro actually auditioned for the role, but lost to Matthew Lillard was cast as Shaggy, who was announced on November 16. Lillard would have to scream every morning to get the scratchy voice.

In October, Christina Ricci was set to play Velma, before being replaced with Linda Cardellini on December 1, rounding out the primary cast.

Neil Fanning was hired only to only voice Scooby during rehearsals, but he worked well with the cast and crew that he was hired for the finished movie. Scott Innes claimed that while Fanning had been hired to do the off-camera work, he had been hired to do the voice of Scooby, which took him two days to perform. He originally had no idea that he was going to do the voice of Scrappy. He believes that while Warner Bros. was "dead set" on him being the voice of Scooby, Raja Gosnell and Richard Suckle had grown accustomed to hearing Neil Fanning's voice after six months, so according to Innes, either having been told by someone else or due to his own inflated ego, that the press expected him to be the voice of Scooby, so Innes was described as being in the movie with the implication that he would be Scooby, but it was really for voicing Scrappy, which was done in Houston for three separate days, which Innes had to fly out on each occasion.

After difficulty casting Mary Jane, Isla Fisher was chosen ten seconds into a reading with Matthew Lillard, who shared good chemistry with each other. The name "Mary Jane" had been changed (presumably from Kandy Mint in Craig Titley's draft) for another pot reference. Fischer wore a blonde wig as there could only be one redhead.

Filming

Principal photography took place on February 12, 2001 at the Warner Roadshow Movie World Studios in Queensland, Australia. The island scenes were shot at Tangalooma Island Resort.

The film was much "edgier," but test screenings got the adult references dialed down or removed entirely to make the film more family-friendly. There was a kiss between Daphne and Velma cut,

There was an alternate opening with Mystery Incorporated in animated form as they appeared in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, along with an animated version of the Luna Ghost, setting up how the final version of the film begins. This was animated by Bob Kurtz of Kurtz and Friends. It was accompanied by a longer version of "Shaggy, Where Are You?" by Shaggy. It was removed when screened for test audiences that it just slowed down the film and was an unnecessary introduction as everybody knew the film was based on the cartoon.

There were also several scenes deleted for time; some of which had a more mature context:

• The opening of the film wasn't supposed to begin with Old Man Smithers as the Luna Ghost. Instead, he was intended to be an onlooker on the island when Scrappy was being arrested, setting up Old Man Smithers to be a villain in the sequel.
• There were more implicit gags for Shaggy being a stoner/selling drugs:
  • A sign reading "Pot - $5," although the camera pans out to reveal they're actually selling a clay pot with flowers for five dollars.
  • After Mondavarious first tells the gang about the possessions, Fred makes a snide remark about being Shaggy selling pot, that the only thing the students have to worry about is their possessions going through customs.
• Velma was written to be "explicitly gay", but the studio tore Gunn down forcing him to water it down until her homosexuality was non-existent:
  • Velma checks out Daphne as she's struggling with her luggage, which was replaced with Fred looking at Daphne instead.
  • Velma drunkenly serenades Daphne or Fred with the song "Can't Take My Eyes Off Of You." It's also revealed that despite acting intoxicated, Velma wasn't drinking alcohol after all.
    • • There was an alternate take where Velma sings Cypress Hill's "Insane in the Brain."
  • The only way that Velma and Daphne could get their souls back in their rightful bodies was to kiss.
• There were flashbacks to what Fred and the girls had been doing between the time they split up and reunited at the airport, which was only spoken about in the finished cut.
  • Fred attends Fan-Con-A-Thon to promote his book. He mentions the Black Knight Ghost a callback to the episode "What a Night for a Knight," although the monster was actually just called the Black Knight. The Black Knight Ghost, as he is called in the deleted scene, did appear in the sequel. At the convention, there was also logos for Cartoon Network with a booth for The Powerpuff Girls, a stand of a Batman costume without the cowl, badges for of Wonder Woman, and a Batman Adventures comic. The most important takeaway, perhaps, is that Fred is teased by a kid (played by Joshua Ward) who suggests that he dyes his hair blond.
  • Velma is in a self help group.
  • Daphne learns karate in Japan.
• The gang is driven through Nightmare Boulevard on their first night; Shaggy says to Mary Jane it was giving him the creeps but in a good way, right when he was accidentally looking at one of her shoulder straps having fallen off. Also, the Lep Zeppelin fan that Velma befriends believes that she was once a man.
• Fred and Daphne have adjoining rooms, allowing Fred to stay the night in Daphne's room, under the pretense of keeping her from being scared, but she was just faking it to lull the island into a false sense of security. She also says that was the only thing she was faking, implying that they had an unfulfilled sexual encounter with Fred.
• Daphne discovers Velma is possessed, who is dancing with other girls in the locker room. It was cut because parents believed that the girls were in their underwear instead of clearly in their bikinis.
• Shaggy witnesses Daphne's spirit being removed from her body and being possessed by a demon.
• Scooby fakes a heart attack when he is captured and held in a cage by the demon.
• Despite Scrappy being defeated, the demons successfully infiltrate the Pentagon, which had a poor audience reaction.
• Two endings were filmed; one with the culprit behind the demons being Old Man Withers, who followed up on his revenge claim, and the one where Scrappy was the culprit. Neither James Gunn nor Raja Gosnell liked Scrappy, Gunn in fact hated Scrappy to his very core, and saw this opportunity to get his own revenge on the character. He still hates him to this very day.
• Fred was also written with intention that he was gay, which is why he wore an ascot.

Post production

According to James Gunn, the original cut was R-rated due to a joke misinterpreted by the MPAA. There were some minor alterations as well to appease the Christian audience, such as "demons" and "souls" being redubbed with "creatures" and "protoplasm." Cleavage was apparently also CGI'd away. The demons were also softened to be less scary.

Music

Main article: Scooby-Doo (soundtrack)

The music was composed and orchestrated by David Newman, which was recorded and mixed by Bruce Botnick. The other orchestrators were Gregory Jamrok and Rebecca R. Liddle. The music was edited by Katherine Quittner, Tom Villano, and Andrew Silver. The scoring consultant was Newman's wife, Kystyna Newman.

Songs

1. "Shaggy, Where Are You?" - Shaggy
2. "Rock Da Juice" - The Dude
3. "Pass the Duchie" - Musical Youth
4. "Happy Ending" - Fiona Horne
5. "Grow-Up" - Simple Plan
6. "Lil' Romeo's B House" - Lil Romeo featuring Master P
7. "Land of a Millions Drums" - OutKast featuring Killer Mike and Sleepy Brown
8. "Freaks Come Out at Night" - Uncle Kracker featuring Busta Rhymes
9. "Creatures Chant" - Danny Saber featuring Stacie Plunk and Bernard Fowler
10. "It's a Mystery" - Little T and One Track Mike
11. "Bump in the Night" - Allstars
12. "God Only Knows" - The Beach Boys
13. "Words to Me" - Sugar Ray
14. "Thinking About You" - Solange
15. "Man with the Hex" - The Atomic Fireballs
16. "Take the World" - Evan Olsen
17. "The Name Game"
18. "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" - MXPX
19. "Scooby D" - Baha Men

Release

Dates are in order of release:

• United States: June 14, 2002
• Australia: June 20, 2002
• United Kingdom & Ireland: July 12, 2002

Behind the scenes

• Velma says "Jinkies" three times.
• Shaggy says "Zoinks" four times.
• Pamela Anderson is uncredited.
• The Pamela Anderson dolls are a parody of Mattel's Barbie.
• The Mystery Machine's vanity plate reads "MYST INC."
• The gang breaking up and being independent is suspiciously too similar to the first direct-to-video film, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, although, in that film, the gang broke up on good terms, as they're excited to finally be back together, unlike Daphne, Fred, and Velma in this film.
• Pamela Anderson was added as a reference to the random times a celebrity would pop up in The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
• "Mary Jane" is a euphemism for drugs, so of course, that's why it's Shaggy's favorite name.
• There is a recurring gag about Fred not being able to pronounce Mondavarious's name.
• When Scrappy is kicked out of the van, he is next to a six miles away sign for Yucca Flats, which is a reference to the 1961 b-movie The Beast of Yucca Flats.
• The gang was once invited to Don Knotts's Christmas party, which is a reference to the times he guest starred in a couple of episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
• Fitzgibbon was named after James Gunn's friend since childhood, Larry Fitzgibbon.
• There are cameos of Gosnell's family; Emily Gosnell, his eldest daughter, appears as one of Fred's autograph seekers, and at the airport reacting to Scooby in drag, is his wife, Celeste, twin daughters, Audrey and Cayley, and son, Bradley.

Errors

• There is no backstory given for the demons.
• During the scene when the monsters attacked the hotel, Daphne runs up the stairs wearing sneakers, instead of her pink go-go boots.
• How the voodoo maestro is allowed to live on the island, which is owned by Mondavarious, is unexplained.
• The film doesn't explain how and when Mary Jane got captured and possessed by the demons.
• How Scrappy learned about the demons and the Deamon Ritus is also left unexplained.
• The gang didn't get the monsters that left the island, and one of them could have been spared from the sun if they were inside, especially the coast guard tower.
• When Shaggy finds the real Mondavarious beneath the caverns, he had long, scraggly hair and a beard, but a few minutes later when he walks to the reporters, his hair is cut and is clean-shaven.
• The tiny henchman wasn't detained on the helicopter with the rest of the culprits. He was either overlooked or had also been possessed by a demon.

Everlasting influence

• Due to past friendships and working with the cast in the sequel, Seth Green has continuously brought in Prinze, Lillard, Gellar, and Cardellini to voice Mystery Inc. for his stop motion series Robot Chicken, which airs on Adult Swim.
• In the Gilmore Girls episode "Knit, People, Knit," Rory attends a 2002-themed party, where a poster of the Scooby-Doo film has been put up on a door.
• Lillard ended up being Casey Kasem's replacement for Shaggy in official cartoon productions since 2009.
• In Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, an unrelated TV series, the Luna Ghost costume was used by Velma's parents as an exhibit at the Crystal Cove Museum.
  • Linda Cardellini had guest spots as Hot Dog Water, Velma's rival.
• In 2018, Matthew Lillard sparred in a rap battle against Shaggy in an episode of Drop the Mic.

Marketing and promotion

Main article: Scooby-Doo (film)/Marketing campaign

Lillard appeared as Shaggy in a music video for OutKast's "Land of a Million Drums," which also featured a couple of shots of a CGI Scooby and the Mystery Machine.

Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Matthew Lillard, and Linda Cardellini appeared on the May 15, 2002 episode of The Rosie O'Donnell Show.

Accolades

Award	Date of ceremony	Category	Recipient	Result
Teen Choice Award	August 19, 2002	Choice Movie Actress - Comedy	Sarah Michelle Gellar	Won
Golden Rasberry Award	March 22, 2003	Worst Supporting Actor	Freddie Prinze Jr.	Nominated
Golden Rasberry Award	March 22, 2003	Most Flatulent Teen-Targeted Movie	Scooby-Doo	Nominated

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning

Home availability

• In the United States:
  • October 11, 2002: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo on VHS.
  • October 11, 2002: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo on DVD.
  • January 16, 2007: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo on Blu-ray Disc.
  • November 9, 2010: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo 1 & 2 Collection on Blu-ray Disc.
  • April 11, 2023: Warner Home Video releases Best of WB 100th Anniversary: Scooby-Doo! 10-Film Collection on DVD.

Trailers

Teaser trailer:

Click to load content

Original theatrical trailer:

Click to load content

Standard theatrical trailer:

Click to load content