Anna Daniels
Warner Bros. Animation’s Scoob! will be available for rental tomorrow, but before the film arrives, you can check out a clip of mystery-solving pals Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker) and Shaggy (Will Forte) coming face to face with two heroes in their world: The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt.
Scoob Clip
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eWXfNRqGElw?feature=oembed&w=740&h=416]
In under 50 seconds, this Scoob! clip takes a shot at fan culture (by having Scooby and Shaggy not accept an updated version of a character they’re familiar with) and specifically incorporates the “large adult son” meme into the text of the movie. That might not be the best tactic for appealing to a young audience, but at least the Very Online parents who watch it might raise an eyebrow or two.
Then again, the entire concept of a Scooby-Doo movie in the year 2020 may not be the smartest way to tap into the kid audience. The original animated series originated in the 1960s and became a mainstay of Saturday morning cartoons, but is that even a thing kids participate in any more? With more viewing options than ever, it seems unlikely that they’ll have more than a passing familiarity with these characters – especially the lower-tier Scooby-Doo universe characters like Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg) and Dynomutt (Ken Jeong). I suppose the thinking is that if the film is entertaining enough, they can create a whole new generation of fans.
Like NBCUniversal’s Trolls World Tour before it, Scoob! was originally supposed to hit theaters before making its way into people’s homes via VOD services. But unlike Universal, Warner Bros. pivoted to video for this title without infuriating theater exhibitors. Will family-friendly movies like this continue to perform well as much of the country remains under stay-at-home orders due to the coronavirus pandemic? I suspect we’ll learn about how Scoob! performed very soon, since companies love to trumpet high viewership numbers after opening weekend (even more so when there’s no good way for anyone to track the veracity of those numbers).
Here’s the movie’s synopsis:
Scoob! reveals how lifelong friends Scooby and Shaggy first met and how they joined with young detectives Fred, Velma and Daphne to form the famous Mystery Inc. Now, with hundreds of cases solved and adventures shared, Scooby and the gang face their biggest, most challenging mystery ever: a plot to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world. As they race to stop this global “dogpocalypse,” the gang discovers that Scooby has a secret legacy and an epic destiny greater than anyone imagined.
Scoob! hits VOD on May 15, 2020.
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