Question of the Week #74
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Are you looking forward to the Scooby-Doo reboot? Is going live-action a good idea or should they stick to animated?
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I would like to see another big screen live-action film as long as it's done right and not dumbed down and a proper family film. You don't need toilet humour to make a family film entertaining. Scooby-Doo lasted 32 years without any toilet humour, only for that one film to ruin everything, suggesting that's what Scooby's all about and it's not. They've already done a mock/parody so this is the time to get it done right and bring back some respect to the Great Dane and his teenage cohorts in busting crime. (I don't mind if they use adults again, but only if they get it right. Getting it right and not doing a goofy, million dollar waste of a film once again is the key thing.)
I think that the HBWB state of the art animated movies are my favorites. I think the live-action Scooby movies I've seen have been kind of po' mouthed. The $ is better used on the animated ones. But I am weird and *would* pay to see the current voice actors in a live-action Scooby movie. Set in the present day, they'd all play their current real-life ages. (Scooby would be around 400 years old in dog years...)
Animated. The current voice actors are so great I would miss them. Would love to see some of the SCMI supporting characters return too. Sherif Stone, Mayor Dad and Skipper Sheldon.
I'd personally like to see Madelyn Dinkley to get used again. Her appearance and voice are cute and we could find out exactly what the age difference is between her and Velma. Money money is on them being only a few minutes apart. Since Velma's so much younger than the rest of the gang and Madelyn's old enough to attend a boarding school for stage magicians (probably on a scholarship). Anyway they shouldn't let that character go to waste.
I agree with Aaron about Madelyn. She's a great character!
However I disagree with those that have said that Scooby-Doo doesn't work in live action. I think both the 2002 and 2004 films are excellent. I would personally like to see a new and fresh interpretation of the original series. I would like to see some genuinely teenaged actors to take the parts and in terms of visual elements, I'd like to see similar to Abracadabra Doo (in terms of colour and also plot structure) only with live action.
I don't want to see another modern take on the original. What I loved about Mystery Incorporated is that you couldn't really place the characters in a particular era. They're all wearing these cool retro outfits but using really modern technology. And that's what we saw in SD:WAY.
I have previously mentioned this idea that I had for the movie and would absolutely love to see it done. If you ever played the Scooby Doo game called Mystery Mayhem, (the same idea may have been used in other games but this particular one is my favourite) you'd remember that there were 3 seperate episodes/ levels/ mysteries that all tied together in the 4th episode. It was episodic and really well structured. I would absolutely love to see something like this on the screen! A guy can dream haha..
I really hope this film is well written, directed and performed and I can enjoy it as an adult. The first two films are great, but whenever I watch them, I have to admit that it's thorough the eyes of a younger self (I was only 9 when I saw the 2002 film). Im so excited for this project. I hope it's a keeper!
I think SD works well enough in live-action, it works far better than some of the other cartoons I've seen turned into movies. Really the most far-fetched element of SD is that there's a talking dog, otherwise I think it fits into the real world pretty well. And personally it doesn't bother me that it's not animated. We get several top quality animated films a year for SD, so while an animated theatrical film would have been nice we're still getting something just as good. And truthfully we get those far quicker than we'd ever get theatrical films, so that suits me fine.
I'm hoping for a teenaged cast. I think story wise I would like to see some classic villains adapted. Monster's unleashed tried that, but they used crappy CGI based muppets instead of legitimately scary costumes. I want to see why the gang was scared of these monsters in the first place and that movie made me think maybe it's just because the gang is stupid (Because those monsters were pretty stupid looking).
Personally I liked the plot of the video games Classic Creep Capers and Night of 100 Frights, so plot lines like that are welcome. I really would rather we have classic villains because all the new ones they make up for the live-action movies generally suck (Terrible motivations and most of their costumes amount to just a person wearing a robe and maybe a mask). So I'm looking forward to a more classic take on the SD franchise.
^ The CGI villains were about as real as could be. It's not as if they were completely unconvincing. But I guess it was for you though.
I agree with Anythingspossibleforapossible. I was pretty convinced. I also disagree that Scooby's CGI was terrible. I think they did really well to capture his character and render him in reality. The monsters in Scooby-Doo The Movie weren't too crash hot, but nothing horrible. I'd personally like to see some new villains. Similar to The Freak of Crystal Cove.
I wasn't talking about them being convincing or realistic. I was talking about them looking stupid and silly. Again these costumes all supposedly frightened the gang at one point in their lives, but how they're used in the movie does not give me any idea why. The only thing threatening about these monsters is that some of them have weapons, otherwise most of the monsters were made to look silly instead of sinister.
The original series managed to mix the spooky and the funny when it came to the monsters, but the film failed to do that. They were all stupidly silly and they were all enhanced with CGI even when it wasn't necessary (Like the Black Knight didn't really need to be a giant glowing green suit of armor, that's certainly what he wasn't in the show, though they also referred to him as a ghost, so accuracy apparently wasn't their aim to begin with). To me it shows a lack of care in adapting these characters. The monsters that were brought to life in the movie barely even resembled their cartoon counterparts. It was just underwhelming and they can do better.
As for Scooby's CGI I thought it was fine for the time. Really my only complaint about how he looked is they tried to make him look too realistic and lost some of his overall style. Otherwise though he was perfectly acceptable to me (Though I liked the Mystery Begins version better).
As much as I'm open to another live-action film, I really was looking forward to seeing a big-screen animated Scooby film for once. I will say that I hope this film doesn't use another Scrappy-is-trash trope, because IMO it's getting kinda old.
^ Yes, the Scrappy hate has been done to death at this point. I mean I thought his use in the first movie was unexpected and funny, but long term its aged poorly. Instead of actually solving the mystery the bad guy turned out to be pretty much random.
It's funny, they sort of did the same thing in the sequel. They led you to believe it was one person and then it turned out that person was just a disguise.
I prefer animated!!!!!!