There are a number of reasons why Scooby Doo 2: Monster’s Unleashed is in fact a good movie. First of all, there are some parts that are kind of funny. That’s good.

Secondly, Scooby Doo 2 is fairly impressive at recreating the cartoon as much as possible. Sets are colorful and seemingly plastic so as to give off the real cartoon feel, characters and costumes match the cartoon as close as possible, dialogue is appropriately campy and laws of physics are broken in just the right places – such as Scooby’s sustained spinning of the legs before falling through a trap door. Scooby Doo 2 is really rather impressive as scene after scene reproduces its original cartoon on a real life level.

Not only has it managed to create a humor-genre film that’s also a type of homage, but Scooby Doo 2 has also managed to tie a thematic string through its script. Even as masks and false identities comprise the nature of our heroes’ foes, so does the gang themselves deal with identity crises and attempt to recreate themselves unnaturally. Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby are tired of being the screw-ups of the group and so try to act like Fred and lead the group, Velma (Linda Cardellini) has fallen for the mysterious Patrick (Seth Green) and so tries to primp herself up, Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr) is afraid that he is trying too hard to be manly and Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar) is afraid she is just a pretty face. Of course, they all learn that they’re just fine being “who they are” or something.

Unfortunately, the thematic line is weakly put together and never amounts to actually saying anything substantial at all. The precision of the cartoon reproduction is hardly impressive considering the cartoon wasn’t actually film-quality material in the first place – too often it feels just like you’re watching a children’s Saturday morning cartoon. And though there are a few laughs, there are way too few, as in, almost none at all. There’s nothing here to genuinely keep our interest.

The plot doesn’t help much. Mystery Incorporated are celebrating their celebrity status when some of the costumes of their former enemies are stolen. The evil Jacobo (Tim Blake Nelson, who doesn’t get enough screen time to actually be mentioned at all) is attempting to bring back all the monsters of old. The group have to solve this problem as they deal with the slandering reporter Heather (Alicia Silverstone), who seems out to bring the gang down.

Some have called the Scooby Doo franchise ‘satire’. No, there is no satire here. In no way is the film undermining the original cartoon or saying something intelligent through its imitation. The movie is, to the contrary, very much a homage – though ‘homage’ is too strong a word, its imitation. And the imitation, though mildly impressive in its construction, is never appealing in its final product.

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