Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed was released by Warner Bros. Pictures on March 26, 2004. Like the first film, it received mostly negative reviews from critics but eventually amassed a cult following.[6] While profitable, the film grossed less at the box office than its predecessor, resulting in a third film, set to be written and directed by Gunn, being canceled.[7] A telefilm reboot featuring a new cast, Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, aired on Cartoon Network in 2009.
Plot
Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo attend the grand opening of the Coolsonian Criminology Museum, featuring an exhibit of monster costumes from Mystery Inc.'s solved cases. The celebrations are crashed by the Evil Masked Figure, who announces the gang's destruction, before stealing several costumes with help from the reanimated Pterodactyl Ghost.
A smear campaign is started by journalist Heather Jasper-Howe against the gang. Shaggy and Scooby vow to stop bungling up in cases, making attempts to solve the mystery themselves. The gang suspects a former enemy may be the culprit. After dismissing the former Pterodactyl Ghost, the late Jonathan Jacobo, they settle on his cellmate Jeremiah Wickles, the former Black Knight Ghost.
The gang drives to Wickles' manor house, finding a grimoire previously owned by Jacobo that serves as an instruction manual for creating monsters. Shaggy and Scooby find an invite to the "Faux Ghost" nightclub, a hang-out for unmasked criminals. They are attacked by the Black Knight Ghost, but the gang escapes. Shaggy and Scooby sneak out to the Faux Ghost in disguise to interrogate Wickles but are thrown out when the patrons recognize them. Velma identifies a key ingredient in the grimoire as "randominium", located in the old silver mines. Fred, Daphne, and Velma drive to the museum, accompanied by its curator Patrick Wisely, whom Velma has a crush on. However, they discover the entire exhibition has been stolen.
Fred, Daphne, and Velma confront Wickles at the mines, learning he is planning to reopen them as an amusement park. Upon learning Wickles hated Jacobo, the gang concluded he was innocent. The gang reunites upon finding the Monster Hive, containing a machine that transforms the costumes into monsters. Shaggy and Scooby play with the machine’s control panel, carelessly activating the Hive and transforming more monsters. The gang flees with the control panel, pursued by the 10,000 Volt Ghost.
The Evil Masked Figure, along with the monsters, begins to terrorize Coolsville, forcing the gang to flee to their old school clubhouse in shame. The gang realized they could reverse the control panel's power by altering its wiring. When Captain Cutler emerges from a bayou, the gang races back to the mines to reinstall the panel and reverse the Monster Hive's effects. One by one, the gang split off to lure away the monsters, leaving Shaggy and Scooby to deliver the panel to the Hive. Velma finds a shrine dedicated to Jacobo built by Patrick, leading to her suspicion that he is the Evil Masked Figure; this is proven false when he saves her from a collapsing catwalk.
The gang confronts the Evil Masked Figure in the Hive but are all captured by the Tar Monster, save Scooby. He freezes the Tar Monster with a fire extinguisher, before resetting the control panel, defeating the monsters. Shocked after their defeat, the Evil Masked Figure tries to escape but is caught on the catwalk. Outside, Mystery Inc. unmasks the criminal as Heather, only to reveal she is Jacobo in disguise. Having survived a prison escape, Jacobo plotted revenge, framing Wickles to cover his tracks. With Jacobo and his cameraman-turned-accomplice Ned arrested, the gang is praised as heroes in Coolsville once again, dancing in the Faux Ghost with Ruben Studdard.
Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed opened March 26, 2004, and grossed $29.4 million (over 3,312 theaters, $8,888 average) during its opening weekend, ranking No. 1.[11] 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-ninth highest-grossing film of 2004,[12] and ranks as the sixth highest-grossing movie of all time featuring a dog (animated or otherwise) as a major character.[13]
The film was released in the United Kingdom on April 2, 2004, topping the country's box office for three straight weekends before being dethroned by Kill Bill: Volume 2.[14][15][16]
Critical response
On Rotten Tomatoes, Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed holds a rating of 22% based on 119 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."[17] On Metacritic, the film has a score of 34 out of 100 based on 28 critics, indicating "generally unfavorable reviews".[18] 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+".[19]
Roger Ebert of the Chicago Times gave the film two stars out of four, stating, "This is a silly machine to whirl goofy antics before the eyes of easily distracted audiences, and it is made with undeniable skill."[20]Dave Kehr of The New York Times gave the film a negative review, saying, "In the strictly secular-humanist world of Scooby-Doo, there are no real ghosts, but only humans desperate for attention who disguise themselves as supernatural figures."[21]
Peter Bradshaw of The Guardian gave the film a two out of five stars, stating, "it's straight down the line family fare, nothing inspired, nothing objectionable: a few funny lines."[22] Nick DeSemlyn of Empire Magazine also gave the film two out of five stars, saying, "This sequel is a step up from the first. Scooby's animation is improved, there are some fun action sequences and a smattering of amusing moments. But the same manic mugging that spoiled the original mars this movie, and the result is a film only a six year-old on a sugar rush could love."[23]Common Sense Media gave the film two out of five stars, saying, "Sequel is milder than original; potty humor, peril, violence."[24]
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.[26] On November 9, 2010, Warner Bros. released both the film and its predecessor as a double feature Blu-ray.[27][28]
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 Game Boy Advance. In both games, one ending could only be seen by entering a code displayed at the end of the film after the credits.
In October 2002, Warner Bros. approved 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 canceled because the second had not done as well as expected, which he attributed to Warner Bros. releasing it at an inappropriate time.[7] In a 2019 interview, James Gunn revealed that he was set to write and direct but the film did not happen due to the financial disappointment of the previous film, stating, "although it did well, it didn't do well enough to warrant a third, so the movie was never made."[30] Gunn tweeted the plot for the canceled film in 2020. Which was that "The Mystery Inc. gang are hired by a town in Scotland who complain they are being plagued by monsters but we discover throughout the film the monsters are actually the victims. Scooby and Shaggy have to come to terms with their own prejudices and narrow belief systems."[31]
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