Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed is a 2004 American family comedy adventure film, based on the animated television series, ''[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scooby-Doo,_Where_Are_You! Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?]''. It is the second installment in the Scooby-Doo live-action film series and a sequel to 2002's Scooby-Doo, and was directed by Raja Gosnell, written by James Gunn and released by Mosaic Media Group and 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 to negative reviews but grossed $181 million worldwide.

Plot
Mystery Inc. (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 death during a failed prison escape, 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, Fred insists on ringing the door bell twice, which activates a trap door that drops the gang into a cage. Velma identifies that the lock can be unlocked with Wickles's fingerprint. Daphne ingeniously releases them all using the makeup from her bag to recreate the previous thumb print left by Wickles, thereby effectively unlocking the prison. 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’s 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 Wickle's mansion that the key ingredient to creating the monsters was a substance called "randomonium", which can be found at the old silver mining town.

After Daphne helps Velma overcome her fears of intimacy and assert herself by changing up her image, 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 ridicules the gang further by turning the city against them. The gang go to the mines, finding Wickles's plans to turn it into an amusement park. As they confront Wickles, he states that he and Jacobo were cell mates who 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 failing to tie the rope and secure the Pterodactyl Ghost, resolve to better themselves and become real detectives. Following a lead from their first clue ever, which was stuck to Scooby's foot after he played around in Wickles mansion, sneak into the Faux Ghost to try and solve the mystery. After speaking to Wickles, they learn he has resolved his ways. Scooby eventually causes a scene and his disguise falls off, leading Scooby and Shaggy to escape through a trash chute. On their way out, they spot Patrick uncharacteristically assaulting 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 bar 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 flee with the panel as the Evil Masked Figure terrorizes the city. Escaping to their old high school clubhouse, the gang realize they can reverse the control panel’s power by altering its wiring. Captain Cutler’s Ghost emerges from the bayou, forcing the gang to head back to the mines, encountering the various monsters along the way. 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.

The gang confront the Evil Masked Figure as 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 take the Evil Masked Figure to the authorities, unmasking him as Heather. When asked why did she do all this, Velma suddenly pulls and peels Heather's face off, revealing she is actually Jacobo in disguise, having escaped death and sought to get revenge on Mystery, Inc. by discrediting them. Jacobo’s cameraman Ned is also arrested as an accomplice. Mystery, Inc. are praised as heroes once again in Coolsville. In the Faux Ghost, the gang celebrates their victory with the now reformed criminals whom they unmasked in the past (including Wickles).

After the credits, Scooby-Doo is seen playing a Scooby-Doo 2 Game Boy Advance game. After he succeeds, he tells the viewers to enter the Scooby-Doo 2 Game Boy Advance code. (This is only seen on the VHS and DVD release)

Cast

 * Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred Jones
 * Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne Blake
 * Matthew Lillard as Shaggy Rogers
 * Linda Cardellini as Velma Dinkley
 * Seth Green as Patrick Wisley
 * Peter Boyle as Jeremiah Wickles
 * Tim Blake Nelson as Dr. Jonathan Jacobo
 * Alicia Silverstone as Heather Jasper-Howe
 * Scott McNeil as the Evil Masked Figure
 * Kevin Durand as the Black Knight Ghost
 * Karin Konoval as Aggie Wilkins
 * Joe Macleod as Skater Dude #1
 * Brandon Jay McLaren as Skater Dude #2
 * Calum Worthy as Kid on bike
 * Nazanin Afshin-Jam as Shaggy Chick
 * Cascy Beddow as Young Shaggy
 * Emily Tennant as Young Daphne
 * Lauren Kennedy as Young Velma
 * Ryan Vrba as Young Fred
 * Stephen E. Miller as C.L. Magnus
 * Christopher R. Sumpton as the Zombie

Voices

 * Neil Fanning as the voice of Scooby-Doo
 * Dee Bradley Baker as the voice of Pterodactyl / Zombie / Red-Eyed Skeleton
 * Michael J. Sorich as the voice of Tar Monster / Cotton Candy Glob
 * Bob Papenbrook as the voice of Black Knight
 * Terrence Stone as the voice of 10,000 Volt Ghost
 * Wally Wingert as the voice of Green-Eyed Skeleton
 * C. Ernst Harth as the voice of Miner 49er
 * J.P. Manoux as the voice of Scooby Braniac

Cameos

 * Pat O'Brien
 * The Tasmanian Devil
 * Ruben Studdard

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.

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 117 reviews and an average rating of 4.3/10. 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 a 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 GBA game. 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
 * 14) "Wanted Dead or Alive" by Bon Jovi

Cancelled sequel and prequels and reboot
In October 2002, during the filming of Scooby-Doo 2, Warner Bros. gave the green light for 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 cancelled. "There will be no Scooby 3," Lillard said. "The second one didn't do as well as it was expected to do, and I completely hold that to Warner Brothers' fault. I think Warner Brothers made a mistake releasing it at the time they did March 2004. I think the movie's much better than the first movie, and I honestly thought it was going to do ridiculously good box office. But we had a bad timeslot. We had 13 movies open up in two weeks after we opened up. I mean, it did well, but it didn't do great, and it needed to do great", added, noting that the studio was quite disappointed with the result, which prevented the production of a third film. The film was followed by two telefilm prequels: ''Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster'', which both aired on Cartoon Network in 2009 and 2010 respectively. A spin off film, Daphne & Velma, was released in May 22, 2018 and a reboot will be released on May 15, 2020.

Trivia

 * The video version is re-edited slightly; the film caused controversy upon release when concern parents found its comical drug references to be a little too out-in-the-open and explicit for a film intended for children. The VHS and DVD releases excise some of this objectionable humor, and the theatrical version has never been re-released.[citation needed]
 * On of the DVD's special features has a game which shows a new monster in the Museum: The Mermaid. It also shows that the Mermaid's Ghost has a cartoon version in the title about this gilled goon.
 * Shaggy now wears a white sleeved undershirt beneath his green t-shirt.
 * Ruben Studdard was one of the winners of American Idol.
 * Depending on the version one watches, there is product placement for either KFC or Burger King, when Scooby accidentally spills his milkshake onto the chauffeur.
 * This movie and the previous one were teased in Looney Tunes: Back in Action, when Shaggy and Scoobywere berating Matthew Lillard about his performance.
 * In an interview with Daily Radar about the previous movie, James Gunn confirmed that events similar to the first two seasons of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and both seasons of The New Scooby-Doo Movies took place in the movie's alternate continuity.[1]
 * This movie also establishes, through the accumulated disguises in the Coolsonian Criminology Museum, that events similar to all three seasons of The Scooby-Doo Show happened in this continuity, as well as the events of Chickenstein Lives. Though since Mystery Inc. claims the Black Knight Ghost was their first case, they may have faced off against Chickenstein at a later point in time compared to their mainstream counterparts, who fought Chickenstein prior to the Black Knight.

Possible monsters
As with most films, not every scene and character make it to the final film. Not all of the wanted monsters appeared in the film. Some of the hopefulls are listed below:
 * Redbeard's Ghost: One of the monsters that was to appear in the film, but was scrapped and replaced by Miner 49er,[citation needed] although his costume, ghost ship and portrayer, C.L. Magnus, appeared, played by Stephen E. Miller.
 * Creeper: The Creeper is a zombie that was replaced by the Zombie in the film. He can walk through walls. His concept drawing can be seen in the DVD special features and his costume is seen in the museum.[citation needed]
 * Ghost Clown:[citation needed] The Ghost Clown ran amok in a circus in the original series, hypnotizing the gang to do his evil deeds. He appeared as a costume in the film.
 * Phantom Shadow: The Phantom Shadow was going to appear in the movie but was scrapped as well. It does seem to appear in the bonus sections of the DVD and Blu-ray section. Its concept was to hover through walls and it seemed to resemble its cartoon design due to its jail chain on its right arm.[citation needed]