The first live-action adaptation of the long running cartoon waxes nostalgic about the well executed balance between satire and faithful homage and the all around campy fun.

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No animated series in the history of animation has had as many variations as Scooby-Doo. More episodes of the venerable Hanna-Barbera series have been revived since 1969 than Doctor Who. Each generation had their own version of Scooby-Doo to grow up with: Gen-Xers watched the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, while Millennials watched A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. For my benefit, Gen-Z received one of the most recognizable adaptations to date: Scooby-Doo, the live-action feature version from 2002. But Scooby-Doo wasn't simply a huge cultural breakthrough that Gen-Z still holds in high regard; it also permanently altered the course of the brand.

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It's the perfect opportunity to explain the 31 percent Tomatometer score and provide the case for why the Raja Gosnell-directed and James Gunn-penned classic is a brilliant and subversive retelling of the franchise's history as the film celebrates its 20th anniversary.

IT DECONSTRUCTS THE ARCHETYPES AND HAS FUN DOING IT

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Scooby-Doo for the big screen might have been adapted procedurally by anybody, but James Gunn made an effort to break down the concept of the show while maintaining true to it. His strategy was intended to be similar to that of Shrek, who at the time was the popular cool kid in the classroom. Gunn's script was a brave attempt to remark on the stereotypes of the characters and the mysteries they've encountered, even though it doesn't succeed in the same way Shrek did in terms of satire. It was Gunn's first foray into the field for which he is now best known: an ensemble family group with wonderful chemistry who also hate each other.

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The idea of breaking apart the gang for the majority of the film is intriguing, if not particularly novel. The break-up at the introduction is justified by the general weariness of the gang's status quo—Velma is consistently underappreciated for her efforts, Fred is a showboat, and Daphne is frequently abducted. They have been working together for a long time, and throughout the novel, the mystery gang's internal instability reaches a breaking point. Although it moves rapidly, you can still feel the weight of it all.

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The new mystery allows them to gradually restore their connections, and the group rediscovers what it's like to work as a team on Spooky Island two years later. The team's dynamic is altered by Gunn's script as it explores various directions. He wasn't able to make Velma or Fred explicitly gay as he had hoped, but he was able to give them a solid relationship. One of the best instances is when Velma observes that Daphne and Fred constantly part ways when they attempt to look for clues, leaving her on her own. Unexpectedly, Fred allows Velma to accompany him, and the two of them cooperate throughout. It’s not commentary for the sake of being meta but for bettering the relationship of a group that has been on the rocks.

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Arguably, the best played-for-laughs aspect is Daphne’s arc, which back then was meant to be hilarious but today is empowering. During the team’s breakup, she spent her time training in martial arts so she can defend herself from being kidnapped, which often happened in the series. The climactic fight between her and Zarkos is well executed, and the script is never in your face about her gender like so many modern superhero films are; it lets her actions speak for themselves.

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ITS SENSE OF HUMOR IS GOOFY, BUT IT’S TIMELESS

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Scooby-Doo sticks to the rules without making any connections to the present. In contrast to films like Alvin and the Chipmunks, Sonic the Hedgehog, or even 2020's Scoob!, all of which frontload their humor with pop culture references, Gunn's writing primarily avoids pop culture shout-outs to give the film a timeless quality. Although Scooby-Doo did go beyond with the fart jokes, the good news is that fart jokes never go out of style.

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IT WAS A POTENT SHOT OF EARLY 2000S NOSTALGIA

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Having stated the above, though, Scooby-Doo is also a compelling time capsule of its era. The tropical resort setting is straight out of MTV, complete with a cameo from Sugar Ray, and the Mystery Inc. gang’s modernized looks fit in seamlessly, despite calling back to their classic outfits.

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The cameo appearances aren’t unreasonably gratuitous, either; they provide a glimpse into the show’s identity, or they serve as legitimate plot details. Daphne, for example, realizes people are being possessed when she notices Mark McGrath’s eyes glow a demonic green as he sings to her. It’s subtle but effective, a combination that a lot of movies today have difficulty achieving.

IT BOASTS A PERFECTLY CAST KILLER ENSEMBLE

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Casting director Mary Vernieu deserves a Nobel Prize for assembling an ensemble of great actors who fit into their respective roles so perfectly. This was the first live-action adaptation of the series, and she knocked it out of the park with Avengers-level precision. Soon-to-be-married duo Freddy Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar (their wedding was just a few months after Scooby-Doo opened) were top-notch as Fred and Daphne; Gellar’s independent spunkiness and Prinze’s confident, self-centered attitude brought more life than the characters had in previous iterations. Linda Cardellini’s absolutely nailed Velma with her nasally, deadpan delivery. And then there was Matthew Lillard.

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What can one say about Matthew Lillard’s performance as Shaggy? Despite the film’s negative reviews, Lillard’s performance was universally praised, and he’s now the primary actor who portrays the character in all Scooby-Doo-related media to this very day. It was the role he was born to play, and he is now one with Shaggy.

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All joking aside, though the narrative places all the characters at odds with one another, you can see the genuine chemistry between the cast, the shared camaraderie within the Mystery Inc. gang that matched the spirit of the source material. Sure, Scooby-Doo himself might suffer from CGI that looks dated even by 2002 standards (seriously, compare this to the other big family blockbuster of the time, Stuart Little 2), but the energy Lillard shares with that dog is more realistic than a lot of the schlock we see even today.

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We’re not saying Scooby-Doo is some gold standard of family entertainment, but it understands its source material and knows how to play off of it, which is more than a lot of other live-action adaptations can say. The casting is pitch-perfect, the balance between being faithful and satirical is fresh, and it’s just classic campy fun. It was a modernized Scooby-Doo without emphasizing how modernized it was, which, in today’s cinema landscape, is more welcome than ever.