What I Want To See In The Theatrical Scooby Movie
There has been a lot of talk amongst fans about the movie, and yet, all we know so far is who’s writing it.
I figured now was just as good a time as any to say what I want to see from it.
This is all pure speculation.
1. No Stunt Casting For The Gang!
We have an amazing cast that have put in the work, and in some cases breathed new life into their characters, and they deserve the shot at the big screen. Before Mindy Cohn, a name many people know, Velma’s personality was still mostly limited to just “smart girl”. But now she has a fiesta “no nonsense” attitude and doesn’t take crap from anybody.
Matthew Lillard has been great as Shaggy and, while he may not be a star of Affleck-esque proportions, he is somebody that the general public recognizes.
As for Grey Delisle and Frank Welker, they have many many loyal fans!
But sadly they aren’t names that everybody know.
As a fan, it would be nice to see that change!
Save the so called “stars” for any and all villains and other supporting roles and cameos.
2. Focus On Music!
I think the now classic rock bands of the 70’s and 80’s, for the most part, have a sound that meshs well with Scooby no matter what year we are currently in. In the live-action theatrical movies they used music from that era but mostly covers that had an updated feel.
Use the original recordings/artists.
For many years now I’ve wanted to hear the Tom Petty song Running Down A Dream in a Scooby episode or movie, this movie would be a great time to do it.
It would be great to have a band like Aerosmith do a cover of the Where Are You them!
This new movie presents a great opportunity to utilize that sound since they’d never spend that much money on a DTV movie.
3. Go Easy On The Romance.
The main downside for me to all of the recent Scooby I’ve seen has been the increased focus on romantic relationships. The first season of SD:MI, Legend Of The Phantosaur, and Curse Of The Lake Monster are all prime examples of this.
The first 4 DTV’s did it perfectly, Fred and Daph were an established couple which eliminated alot of the conflict and the “will they/won’t they” that gets annoying really quickly. Shaggy and Velma had crushes that didn’t overwhelm the main story. The theatrical movies did a decent job as well, though Shaggy and Mary Jane in the first and Velma and Patrick in the second both came close to pushing it to far.
4. No Immediate Worldwide Jeopardy!
Don’t get me wrong, I liked Scooby-Doo, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins immensely, but they all made the same mistake of making the problem to damn big to handle.
The same could be said for Zombie Island, 13 Ghosts, Witches Ghost, and SD:MI, all of which are are favorites of mine. But this is a franchise about 4 teens and their dog, it’s endured for almost 5 decades.
I really don’t think they always have to be up against an undead horde or an army of monsters.
Keep it small and keep it simple.
That’s not to say they can’t use real monsters though.
If there’s one good thing I can say about CotLM it’s that it used real monsters right and didn’t up the ante to astronomical heights. There were only 3 monsters and a leader attacking a small area. Though it could have, we weren’t shown it getting out of hand like in the other 3 movies I mentioned, which makes a big difference. The mere threat of world domination should be enough.
But maybe it would be best to just go with a local crime organization to give us a few different masked villains and a bigger mystery to unravel while still keeping it grounded.
5. Use 2-D Animation.
This one is simple, I much prefer the classic hand drawn look to 3-D CG. Even well done CG animation tends to look cold and dead for human characters. I also have a fear that if they go CG and it goes well they’ll try to stick with it and that is something I definitely don’t want.
So, as we all know, this movie is still a year or two away. But as fans we love to talk, speculate, obsess, and suggest. That’s all I’m doing.
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Really good thoughts! I genuinely loved reading this and I'd like to see more of this sort of stuff from you. I am very excited to see this. I'd love to see a new animation style. Something classic, but fresh. Do you remember the alternate opening for Scooby-Doo (2002)? I loved that style of animation.
I'm really excited and hope that it's 70's style and a nice balance between light and dark. SDMI did that well from my perspective, but the sharp edges on the characters (especially Fred's chin) were something to get used to.
3D CG wouldn't bother me. Personally I'm open to most styles of animation so long as there's a strong design used. But I would prefer something 2D. I definitely agree about the alternate opening animation used in SDTM. It was a good style that captured the original look, but was more fluid in movement and felt fresh. A much more refined version of that animation would be my preference.
I definitely don't want to see a worldwide plot, that's been done to death. And I don't want a real monster either. I think real monsters can work well, and has in the past, but I also think it's been overdone. Every live action movie has had real monsters, a handful of DTV's had them, and they've appeared in several shows since the 80's. What I want is one classic masked mystery for the gang this time around.
I've been saying for a while that they should tap into the WB music library. I don't think they'd have any copyright problems. They may have to pay a royalty though, not sure how that works. But still, WB could use it.
However, I think Welker and Cohn should be replaced. Grey could be replaced too with someone younger. Lillard needs to do a better job, and with some direction I think he could pull it off. He makes a decent looking Shaggy, but not a decent sounding Shaggy.
I want a good mystery that requires logic and intellectual reasoning to figure out. Enough of these plots that don't even make sense. Enough of the kiddy stuff.
Just my thoughts, but...
I will say I disagree about Mindy Cohn introducing Velma's no-nonsense attitude. If you watch the original series, you can see that Velma did have that type of personality before, it's just that it got toned down later on. I'm not too big on most of the current voices on the gang to be honest, with the exception of Fred (after all, Frank Welker was the one to voice Fred from the original series up to this time... it would just feel strange to replace him, at least to me). Go ahead and get someone else to play Scooby, though.
But yes, I am so tired of all this emphasis on romance in new Scooby stuff. I'd probably just have Fred and Daphne as an established couple, but not make a big deal about it. No more obnoxious jealousy subplots and the like. That way, shippers can have their couple and non-shippers won't have to sit through any eye-rolling drama.
I'd definitely prefer it to be 2D animated.
^I agree. Actually I'm not a huge fan of Frank Welker's Scooby. It's ok, but Scott Innes was better.
And would it really be so bad if they just made Fred and Daphne a couple? It would save more time for the mystery.
That's why I think they should be an established couple. As you said, it would save time for the mystery and, honestly, most of the Fred/Daphne plots they've been coming up with have been done to death and feel very forced. Of course, I'm someone who does not necessarily care for romance in Scooby-Doo at all. That's just me.
I think making Fred and Daphne an established couple would ruin the series. They make a terrible couple. Plus, Frephne shippers would always want to see their relationship portrayed, which returns us to the same problem of it getting brought up too much. Instead, they should just be friends and that's it. Leave it at that.
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I disagree; if you've ever seen both Incredibles movies, Tangled, or The Croods, you'll see how amazing and warm CGI can be.
As for changing the voice actors, the studio wants people who can attract ticket buyers, and casting celebrity voices instead of the people who did the voices originally will help the studio do that; if the studio used the voices from the TV show, moviegoers are more that likely to feel that they can see Scoob on TV at home as a DTV DVD or on pay-per-view/streaming.
Another thing I have to say is (and this may sound cold): movie studios are businesses, not charities, especially for fans of franchises. If a studio wants to cast who they think might get people into movie theater seats, they'll do that, even if the fans don't like that. Besides, the voice actors for this movie may surprise people the same way that Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, and Matthew Lillard surprised everybody as Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy respectively (and before anybody attacks mde, I'm a longtime watcer of animation, and I'm very familiar with this franchise [Velma's my favorite character.])