"Scoob! (2020)": A Pre-Movie/Trailer Discussion
Let's Talk About "Scoob! (2020)"
5/14/20
DISCLAIMER: This was written and published before the movie was released. The review will come either tomorrow night or the morning of the 16th after I get my hands on the actual movie. This essay is me discussing the trailer(s) and my hopes/expectations.
Thoughts going into teaser trailer:
I remember watching this teaser trailer for the first time when I saw it on the YouTube trending page back in November. After I watched it initially, I remember being pretty excited to see how Hollywood would inevitably screw up another original and beloved series with a dumb remake, or sequel, or whatever this is. Alas, after watching the trailer, I remember feeling excited, but in a good way, but I now forget how excited I was and for what. Since then, I've pretty much forgotten about the movie and the trailer itself. Though, due to the overwhelming abundance of Instagram ads for the world premier tomorrow evening (link at the bottom of the post), I found it only fit to revisit the trailers to spark my excitement again. The only thing I remembered about the teaser trailer was me laughing until I lost breath at the Ikea joke for no apparent reason.
After my viewing of the teaser trailer:
After watching the teaser trailer, I can't say it justifies the excitement I remember having when it released back in November. It looks okay, don't get me wrong, but it still just looks okay. I've got to commend the writers for trying to make this classic animated franchise spinoff a little different, though. We saw a few jokes I can't consider adult, but they were definitely made to please audiences that weren't just the mindless children this movie was likely intended for. I don't want to spoil these jokes if you haven't seen either this trailer or the official one yet, so I'll leave a link at the end of this essay.
In terms of acting, I feel like Scooby and Shaggy will be the ones bringing a lot of charm and comedy to the movie. After seeing the parts of the other three, I would honestly be fine if the movie were just about Shaggy and Scooby. I was very happy when I saw Will Forte was cast as Shaggy, just because he fits the role perfectly. Also that Frank Welker is back to play Scooby, which is such a relief looking at all the major actors cast as the others in this movie. In my opinion, these two are bound for greatness, and I really hope they become the main focus. I'd like to talk about the other few characters in this movie that have to do with this story in particular, but I don't really know who they are yet. I feel like the teaser trailer was just trying its best to please fans that it didn't want to overwhelm them with a whole new plot. This is something I can totally get behind, especially because this is only a teaser trailer.
You can probably guess by what I said in the last paragraph that I'm not excited for the other three in the gang. Starting with Fred, my first thought was: "damn, he looks young". If you look at the thumbnail of this post you'll see him, and for some reason, to me at least, he looks like an actual kid. I'm still not sure if they're supposed to be actual teenagers or not, but looking at Shaggy, I'm guessing they're not supposed to look that young. The reasoning for this was probably just to fit Zac Efron as an actor, but if I were them, I would have never considered him in the first place. Otherwise, I don't really have any opinions on Fred as of yet. Next is Velma, and she was okay. The footage in the trailer made it seem like she didn't really have any sort of personality, but I guarantee it'll be at least a bit better in the full-length movie. Last is Daphne, played by Amanda Seyfried. By no means is Seyfried an objectively bad actor, but this character seems so terrible. And yes, I'm aware that she only has one line in the teaser trailer, but it still emits so much cringe that I can already see her character throughout the rest of the movie. I can't describe how generic her character is because that stereotype is the epitome of sheer emptiness. Not exuding any personality, life, or creativity whatsoever. Mark my words, Daphne will be the Achilles Heel of this movie. These three didn't really have enough screen time in the trailer for me to develop a more explanatory opinion. But as much as I hate to say it, they all come off kinda dumb.
After watching the official trailer:
I can't say I have too many thoughts on this trailer, seeing as it was pretty much the same as the teaser. It didn't reveal too much more new stuff, (particularly who the new characters are), but overall, it still looks fine. I'll commend this trailer for not staying mediocre all the way through, but rather averaging out to mediocre by the end. I do wish this told us more about the new spaceship characters than just "Falcon Fury". But mainly I just want to know if that guy just dabbed or not, and if so, why? It's 2020, for god's sake.
First, I want to get back to discussing Fred, Daphne, and Velma. First off, I was pretty much right about Daphne. Again, it's still hard to tell because we only have five minutes of what is pretty much the same footage repeated to go off of, but I still think Daphne is going to be very bad. Next comes Velma, and as I predicted, she's gotten slightly better. Still the generic and slightly annoying nerd displayed in the teaser, but certainly better. Finally, I have yet to figure out what Fred is going to do in this movie. I know that they began production of this movie with him in mind, because they can't really cut his character, so what did the writers make his purpose?
Another key thing I'd like to discuss was the plot, but I really can't get a firm grasp on it, so I guess I'll just wait until the movie. There were two more jokes; the Netflix joke and the Rock joke, Netflix being fine, and the Rock joke being exactly what I want from this movie. But, in an attempt to avoid spoiling what's going to be the highlight of the movie, there's a link below if you want to watch these trailers for yourself. Next the EDM-ish pop soundtrack will definitely get old, but you can't really expect much else with a kids animated movie nowadays. A quick theory I have is that the whole movie will technically take place with Shaggy and Scooby watching it in a theater. I highly doubt this will happen and it was just a gag for the trailers, but I would be so wildly happy if that was the movie. It would also allow for a ton of fourth-wall jokes and while they can be annoying if overused, I feel like this is the type of movie that could pull them off.
In a half-ass excuse for a conclusion, I just wanted to wrap things up by saying that I'm definitely hyped for this movie. There's not a chance I'll be missing the premier tomorrow night. Not just because I'm excited again, but mainly because I wanted to see if they really made a character dab in a 2020 film.
Premier on May 15 at 7pm EST (4pm PST):
Trailer links:
Official/Final: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzlEnS7MmUo
Sources (cast):
Image sources (in order):
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