For the first time since 2004, Scooby-Doo and the gang are headed to theatres, this time in the form of an animated film entitled Scoob!.
While the trailer doesn’t feature much mystery solving, it does give a glimpse into the relationships of the Scooby Gang members and how they became friends. Scooby and Shaggy take up the majority of the time in the trailer, first with some fourth wall breaking hi-jinks and then with an origin style look at their first meeting. Velma, Fred and Daphne already seem to be friends and meet the other two for the first time while trick-or treating on Halloween. It wouldn’t be a Scooby-Doo film without monsters and there are a couple of different threats in the form of ghosts, robots and flying saucers shown off throughout. While it wasn’t shown in the trailer, the major threat that the Gang is trying to stop is a villain who is trying to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world.
Last week, Warner Bros. unveiled a series of photos that showed the Scooby Gang in their brand new art style for the first time. Scoob! features the voice talents of Zach Efron as Fred Jones, Amanda Syfried as Daphne Blake, Gina Rodriguez as Velma Dinkley, Will Forte as Shaggy Rogers and Frank Welker as Scooby-Doo. Joining the Scooby Gang are other A-list film talent including Mark Wahlberg, Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, McKenna Grace, Jason Isaacs, Tracy Morgan, Ken Jeong, and Kiersey Clemons.
The last theatrically released Scooby-Doo movie was Scooby-Doo 2: Monster’s Unleashed, which was the follow-up to the Jame’s Gunn Directed film from 2002. Scooby-Doo 2 disappointed at the box office, making $90 million less than the original, and dooming any hopes for a third installment in the series. That being said, there has been a steady stream of direct to DVD Scooby-Doo films since then, including a few live-action ones as well.
Scoob! is directed by Tony Cervone, who has also directed a number of direct to DVD Scooby-Doo Films including Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery, Big Top Scooby-Doo!, and Scooby-Doo: Music of the Vampire. Scoob! is set to release on May 15th 2020.