My Review of Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed (2004)

 

Written by James Gunn 

Directed by Raja Gosnell 

Shaggy: "This is tied for the most terrifying day of my life!"

Velma: "Tied with what?"

Shaggy: "Every other freaking day of my life!"

With the first movie proving to be a success, it didn't take long for a sequel to emerge as Mystery Inc. were back together and seemingly more famous than ever as a team.

The movie opened with Fred Jones (Freddie Prinze Jr), Daphne Blake (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Velma Dinkley (Linda Cardellini), Shaggy Rogers (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby-Doo (Neil Fanning) returned to their old home, Coolsville for the grand opening of the Coolsonian Criminology Museum. It was a chance for the gang to look at some of their past cases.

It was also a chance for the main villain - Evil Masked Figure (Tim Blake Nelson/Scott McNeill) to ruin the event and destroy the Scooby Gang's credibility as well. Also a bit too willing to help with the latter bit was journalist Heather Jasper Howe (Alicia Silverstone), who seemed to have a particular disdain for Daphne.

Of course the gang while somewhat demoralised by events in this movie did suspect that a former enemy of theirs - Doctor Jonathan Jacobo could be behind the whole thing. Of course they're absolutely right about the whole thing but on the other hand, there was a lot of monsters to be had in this movie.

The monsters were an interesting bunch but by the time we get to the third act, they're easily defeated. There's a fun moment with Scooby-Doo and Shaggy changing body proportions and intelligence while Velma had an amusing romantic subplot with Patrick Wisely (Seth Green).

After the first movie with the gang largely at odds with one another, I do think the strength of this one was having a united front with the gang this time around. There's a nicer sense of teamwork this time around, which helped.

- There are cameos from Pat O'Brien, Tasmanian Devil, Ruben Studdard and Big Brovaz.

- A third movie was planned but scrapped after this one underperformed at the box office.

- Standout music: New Radicals You Get What You Give and Mark Provart's Monsters.

- Chronology: A while since the events of the first movie and set in Coolsville.

While not as fun as the first one, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed made for an okay sequel. There was a better sense of teamwork with this one and the likes of Seth Green and Alicia Silverstone were on good form.

Rating: 6 out of 10