Movies

Plenty of monsters and adventures are unleashed on a zippy trip to Coolsville

01:00 AM EST on Friday, March 26, 2004

BY MICHAEL JANUSONIS
Journal Arts Writer

There's certainly truth in advertising in the title Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, a roaring, action-filled comedy adventure that scares up a fun-house of spooky beings.

There's a monster who oozes asphalt, another in a glowing diving helmet, an old miner who spits fire, a crypt-like creature who spits green vomit, a knight in armor who has glowing green eyes and a sword that has a mind of its own, a fiery electroman, a pair of skeletons with giant eyeballs -- one green, one red -- for heads, a swooping pterodactyl.

If you're a kid, this must all sound very cool. No wonder they named the town where all this takes place Coolsville. Despite the cartoon violence, I don't think anyone except the youngest children will be frightened by the spooky spectres.

Scooby-Doo 2 is true to its TV series roots in which the enormous Great Dane, who rowfs out his own version of human speech, and his human detective pals at Mystery Inc. were chased by monsters in nearly every episode.

The movie plot is not much more than one of the old TV shows, but the special effects are often quite amazing, especially when the hipster Shaggy and the computer-animated Scooby drink glowing potions they discover in a refrigerator while on the trail of all those monsters. Scooby turns into a stalk-eyed giant slug with many tentacle-like legs while Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) becomes Schwarzenegger-ized, with a pumped up muscleman's body.

Things get off to a fast start when the gang -- there's also Sarah Michelle Gellar as the pretty and curious Daphne; Freddie Prinze Jr. as the pompous Fred and Linda Cardellini as the super-smart wallflower Velma -- is honored at a red-carpet ceremony at the Coolsonian Criminology Museum where costumes of all the villains they've unmasked over the years are on display. But soon the villainous costumes spring to life and, when Scooby and Shaggy become tethered to the flying pterodactyl and smash their way around the museum exhibit, the place is left in a shambles.

Goaded by snippy TV reporter Heather Jasper-Howe (Alicia Silverstone), the gang tries to uncover who is behind this unwanted Monster Fest. Meanwhile, the embarrassed Scooby and Shaggy go off on their own to prove that disaster doesn't necessarily follow them at every turn. Their snooping leads to one of the film's zaniest moments, when Scooby puts on an Afro wig and Shaggy dresses like a '70s hipster to invade the seedy bar where the criminals Mystery Inc. has unmasked over the years hang out. Fortunately, for the audience anyway, Scooby and Shaggy's disguises don't hold up for long.

There's mayhem at every turn in this cartoon-like film which, unlike the first Scooby-Doo movie which raised red flags with parents because of hints of big-time marijuana use, is all for fun. This time you'll gasp as Shaggy and Scooby escape some monsters by riding garbage-can lids down a steep hillside.

Prinze, Gellar, Lillard and especially Cardellini live up to their TV cartoon blueprints, though there are hints that the usually uptight Velma may be on the road to romance. Taking a 180-degree turn, she turns up in a skin-tight red leather suit that startles her "date," played by Seth Green of the Austin Powers movies.

There are plenty of red herrings in the plot to keep even growups in the audience guessing as to who is behind the resurrection of the monster crew. One of the several prime suspects is Peter Boyle of Everybody Loves Raymond, who once made the daffiest Frankenstein's Monster ever in Young Frankenstein. Turnabout here is fair play in this zippy, action-filled adventure.

***1/2

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

Starring: Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, Seth Green, Peter Boyle, Tim Blake Nelson, Alicia Silverstone.

Rated: PG, contains cartoon violence.