Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009), Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster (2010), and the Franchise's History with Monsters

On September 13^th, 1969, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! premiered as part of the Saturday morning cartoon block on CBS. It introduced the world to the characters of Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, and a Great Dane named Scooby-Doo. The five characters were collectively known as Mystery Inc. They travelled around in their van, The Mystery Machine, and solve mysteries. The show aired two seasons, before ending on October 31^st, 1970. It was on the air for a little over a year.

That would not be the end of the characters. The New Scooby-Doo Movies began in 1972 and many more series would follow. There would be The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, and What’s New, Scooby-Doo? in the years that followed. They didn’t stop there, either. Currently, there’s a show called Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? airing on Boomerang and Cartoon Network.

There has been a basic formula to most of the shows. Mystery Inc. would show up wherever there was a spooky mystery. They would work together to uncover the truth about the mystery. Usually, a monster was involved. The group would catch and unmask the monster to reveal someone with an evil plan of some sort. That person would mention that they would have gotten away with it if it weren’t for Mystery Inc. and their dog, too. That was the formula. It stayed consistent through most of the franchise.

For a time during the 1980s real supernatural elements were added into the Scooby-Doo world. The teens, or whoever was left of them, would go up against ghosts and ghouls and other real spooky things. They wouldn’t be unmasking them to reveal people doing bad things. This wasn’t something common for most of the Scooby-Doo shows, but it was a staple of the 80s incarnations.

When Scooby-Doo was translated to film, the storytellers decided to stick with the real supernatural elements. What could be bigger than unmasking someone who pretended to be a supernatural being? The bigger thing would be for the person to actually be a supernatural being. That started in the late 1980s when three television films came out. Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers saw Shaggy inheriting a haunted house. Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School had Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, and Scrappy-Doo (Scooby’s nephew) hired as gym teachers at a school for ghouls. Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf saw Shaggy become a werewolf. They were part of that 1980s supernatural in Scooby-Doo thing, though, so they had to be the outlier. Right?

That wasn’t the case. The Scooby-Doo franchise got a direct-to-video film series in 1998. It began with Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. This one has always been my favourite iteration of Scooby-Doo. The team took a hiatus for a time before coming back together to solve a mystery on a bayou island. They expected the haunting on the island to be another person in a mask, but were surprised when they discovered real ghosts, zombies, voodoo dolls, and werecats. Much like those 1980s versions of Scooby-Doo, the monsters were all real. There were no people in masks.

The direct-to-video movies would continue down the real supernatural rabbit hole for a few more entries. They were meant to be something special. They were meant to be more than the television shows. The way to make them special was the darker tone and the real monsters. Things would stay that way for the first four direct-to-video films, before reverting back to the man-in-a-mask format for Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire.

Scooby-Doo got a big screen, live action adaptation in 2002. Much like the the direct-to-video movies, the live action movie and its 2004 sequel had real monsters as an integral part of the story. The first film saw Mystery Inc. travel to a resort island where spring breakers were being brainwashed into acting differently. As they dug deeper into the mystery, they learned that people’s souls were being removed so some demonic looking monsters could use the bodies as hosts. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed had the costumes of solved mysteries being turned into living breathing monsters. Mystery Inc. had to face the monsters they unmasked throughout their career, only now the monsters were real.

The difference with these live action adaptations was that they wanted to have their cake and eat it too. The monsters were real, yes, but there was also a man in a mask behind the monsters. Well, maybe not a man. The first film revealed that Scrappy-Doo had found an ancient artifact that would allow him to bring demons to the world and absorb the souls of people to gain strength. The sequel saw an old foe fake his death so that he could continue researching how to make monsters real. There was a man-in-a-mask in each movie who brought the monsters upon the world. It was the best of both eras of Scooby-Doo cartoons.

Things didn’t change much when the live action films were rebooted on television as prequels. Fred (Robbie Amell), Daphne (Kate Melton), Velma (Hayley Kiyoko), and Shaggy (Nick Palatas) were now high school teens. They met, they created Mystery Inc., and they found Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker). Much like the other two live action films that came before, there were real monsters and a man-in-a-mask. The filmmakers still wanted to have their cake and eat it too.

In Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, audiences were given the origin story of the teens and how they met. They got detention for fighting on the bus, then discovered ghosts in the school. Their pursuit of the ghosts led to the school being damaged and their expulsion. That wouldn’t stop Mystery Inc.. They got right back to solving the mystery and discovered that the ghosts had been summoned by the school principal because he wanted to retrieve a valuable stamp from a time capsule under the school.

Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster saw the teens head off to a country club on Lake Erie, where they stumbled into a mystery about a lake monster. There was a very real giant frog monster terrorizing the rich people at the country club. The teens set out to figure out where the frog monster came from and who wanted to ruin the country club. They found out that the spirit of a dead witch had possessed Velma, making Velma the man-in-the-mask that was controlling the frog monster.

Another live action reboot happened with the 2018 film Daphne & Velma. I haven’t seen that one, but it appears that it did not have any real monsters. It stuck solely to the idea of the man-in-a-mask, though a more modernized, technological version of it. Scoob! is an animated film adaptation that came out two days ago, which I also haven’t seen. I don’t currently know which way it goes on the real or fake monsters version of Scooby-Doo.

Over the fifty years since Scooby-Doo first hit television screens, the franchise has had an interesting relationship with the monsters that it features as villains. Most of the television shows involve Mystery Inc. capturing the bad guy and unmasking them to reveal someone from earlier in the story. In the 1980s, though, many of the characters became real monsters. There were ghosts, ghouls, werewolves, and many other supernatural beings. Most of the film adaptations take this route. The villains become real monsters. Some of the movies still have an unmasking scene, but many of them feature real supernatural elements. The movies need to be bigger events, and as such, they go bigger in the stakes and the danger. A real monster is scarier than a man in a mask.

The Scooby-Doo! franchise left a lasting legacy upon everything that came after. It spawned numerous television shows and movies. It inspired many others. It inspired elements within other stories, such as Buffy the Vampire Slayer calling their group of monster hunters “The Scooby Gang.” The amount of stories that Mystery Inc. and their exploits have helped inform is countless. Scooby-Doo is one of the most important franchises. It has its good and it has its bad. What wouldn’t in fifty years?

Here are a few notes that won’t take fifty years to scan through:

• Both Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster were directed by Brian Levant. He directed the movies Jingle All the Way (week 160) and Snow Dogs (week 322).
• Frank Welker took the top spot in our most frequent actors list with his seventh and eight appearances, voicing Scooby-Doo in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster. He was previously involved in Anaconda (week 80), Mortal Kombat (week 140), Hudson Hawk (week 232), GoBots: Battle of the Rock Lords (week 244), Super Mario Bros. (week 248), and Godzilla (week 282).
• Garry Chalk joined the Five Timers’ Club with his appearance in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins. His other four appearances were in Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (week 50), Warriors of Virtue (week 88), The Karate Dog (week 281), and Nick Fury: Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. (week 284).
• Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins saw the return of C. Ernst Harth, who was in Space Buddies (week 270) and Dudley Do-Right (week 336).
• Another person who returned in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins was Daniel Riordan, who had been in Jingle All the Way (week 160) and Breakin’ 2: Electric Boogaloo (week 350).
• David Dustin Kenyon was in A Nanny for Christmas (week 3) and Sharknado (week 190) before returning to the Sunday “Bad” Movies with Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster.
• The two Scooby-Doo  live action television movies weren’t the first time Robbie Amell was in the Sunday “Bad” Movies. He was in Nine Lives (week 228).
• Hayley Kiyoko was another Sunday “Bad” Movies alumnus who returned for both Scooby-Doo live action television movies. She was previously seen in Jem and the Holograms (week 238).
• Kate Melton and Nick Palatas were the other two actors who were in Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster.
• Shawn Macdonald was in both Superbabies: Baby Geniuses 2 (week 50) and Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins.
• Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins was the first time since House of the Dead (week 59) that Kira Clavell was in the Sunday “Bad” Movies.
• The final Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins cast member who was returning to the Sunday “Bad” Movies was Benita Ha, who was in Catwoman (week 174).
• Richard Moll was in Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster after appearing in Jingle All the Way (week 160).
• Danielle E. Hawkins returned to the Sunday “Bad” Movies in Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster, after appearing in Budz House (week 198).
• Daphne’s uncle in Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster was played by Ted McGinley, who was in God’s Not Dead: A Light in Darkness (week 319).
• Finally, Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster featured Nichelle Nichols, who was also in Snow Dogs (week 322).
• Have you seen Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins? Have you seen Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster? What did you think of them? Did you like that they had real monsters and people in masks? Use the comments and Twitter to give me your thoughts.
• You can let me know about movies I should be checking out for the Sunday “Bad” Movies by finding me on Twitter or in the comments. I’m always trying to find movies I might not otherwise know about. It gives me a little bit more variety in the movies I schedule.
• Make sure to check out Sunday “Bad” Movies on Instagram. I regularly post some fun things. Video clips, screenshots, other stuff related to the Sunday “Bad” Movies. Give it a look and maybe a follow.
• I’m going back to something I’ve discovered I like for next week. For whatever reason, I like finding the lesser known action movies of the 1980s and 1990s that feature people who never became huge action stars. People like Lorenzo Lamas or Traci Lords or Frank Stallone show up in the action hero roles of these movies. The one I’ll be covering next week starred Marc Singer. It’s called Street Corner Justice. I’ll see you when that post comes up.