‘Scooby-Doo’ Gets a Makeover for Prequel
Warner Premiere and Cartoon Network are going back to the origins of “Scooby-Doo” with Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, which offers a look at how the whole gang — Velma, Shaggy, Daphne and Fred — got together in high school to solve mysteries.
The feature premieres on Cartoon Network in September and on DVD, Blu-ray Disc, on-demand and download from Warner Home Video Sept. 22. Exclusive to the Blu-ray are pop-up facts about the series.
July 26 at the 2009 San Diego Comic-Con International, filmmakers and cast gathered to talk to fans about the new live-action take on a classic.
“The story [of the gang’s origins] has never been told,” said director Brian Levant, who added that creators William Hanna and Joseph Barbera would be “proud” of how the series has evolved.
Cast members found re-imagining the characters a challenge, trying to live up to the gang’s several incarnations on TV and in two live-action theatrical films.
“I think it was a really big challenge because the show was so iconic,” said actress Kate Melton (Daphne). “I’ve never met anyone who actively dislikes Scooby-Doo.”
Added Robbie Amill (Fred): “You don’t want to be the person who butchers a 40-year-old icon.”
Nick Palatas (Shaggy) didn’t study the voice work of Casey Kasem or Matthew Lillard, who developed the character’s well-known squeaky voice in the series and films, respectively.
“I just kind of did what I could do,” he said.
He found it a particular challenge to act with an animated Scooby-Doo, who had to be placed in later.
Several scenes filmed on the high school set of “Smallville,” which suffers some major fire damage from marauding ghosts.
Amill’s favorite scene was “being able to run out of that school with big fireballs behind us.”
“I personally liked when Fred accidentally fell on me — well, Velma did,” joked Hayley Kiyoko (Velma).
The actors tried to invest their characters with a modern sensibility, and the costumes matched that updated take on the show.
“We wanted to make a wardrobe that reminded you of the characters,” Levant said, adding that Fred didn’t wear the outdated ascot, for instance, and Daphne wore purple and Velma orange, but not always a turtleneck.
Fred also wasn’t blond, and one Comic-con attendee asked why that was.
Playing to the Comic-con crowd familiar with the new “Star Trek” movie, producer Brian Gilbert explained that it was a time travel anomaly.
“Spock came back to the past and made Fred’s hair brown,” he joked.
www.homemediamagazine.com/comic-con/scooby-doo-gets-a-makeover-prequel-16542