Warner Brothers is bringing ‘Scooby-Doo’ back to the big screen, this time in animated format. The film, entitled ‘Scooby’, is due out in May of 2020, and will be directed by Tony Cervone. Three big-name stars have signed on as part of the voice cast– Will Forte, Gina Rodriguez, and Tracy Morgan. In addition, longtime Scooby voice, Frank Welker will provide the scaredy-cat canine’s voice.
The new movie will team Scooby with other Hanna-Barbera heroes to foil the plans of Dick Dastardly, the villain from the cartoon ‘Wacky Races’ and its spin-off, ‘Dastardly and Muttley in Their Flying Machines’. For some reason, on ‘Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics’, Dick and his snickering canine sidekick Muttley were replaced by the almost identical characters the Dread Baron and Mumbly. (It was later explained in a comic book that Dick Dastardly and Dread Baron were twin brothers.)
Forte will voice Shaggy, Scooby’s most famous partner, known for being a beatnik slacker with a ravenous appetite. Rodriguez will voice the brains of the outfit, Velma. And Morgan’s role is as one of those “other Hanna-Barbera heroes”– Captain Caveman.
Forte is an in-demand voice actor, lending his pipes to the new Syfy comedy ‘Alien News Desk’, as well as ‘Bob’s Burgers’, and previously ‘Gravity Falls’, ‘Moonbeam City’, ‘The Awesomes’, ‘American Dad’, and ‘The Cleveland Show’. Forte also currently stars in the flesh on FOX’s ‘Last Man on Earth’, and is still fondly remembered for starring on ‘Saturday Night Live’ for ten seasons.
Rodriguez voices ‘Carmen Sandiego’ on Netflix’s revival of the classic ’90s kids educational series, and is expected to reprise the role in an upcoming film. She has also provided voices for ‘Big Mouth’, ‘Elena of Avalor’, ‘Animals.’ and the movies ‘Smallfoot’, ‘Ferdinand’, and ‘The Star’.
She is perhaps best known for starring in the titular role of The CW’s ‘Jane the Virgin’. She appeared in last year’s film ‘Annihilation’, this year’s ‘Miss Bala’.
Like Forte, Morgan was also a long-running cast member of ‘Saturday Night Live’. He followed that with a seven-season run on ’30 Rock’, and he currently stars on TBS’ ‘The Last O.G.’. His most recent film, ‘What Men Want’ is currently in theaters. He will also appear in the upcoming CBS All Access revival of ‘The Twilight Zone’.
Morgan has also done extensive voice work. Like Rodriguez, he also contributed to ‘The Star’ and ‘Animals.’. He has also lent his voice to ‘G-Force’, ‘Rio’, ‘Rio 2’, and ‘The Boxtrolls’. He stars as Fox in the upcoming Netflix series ‘Green Eggs and Ham’.
Unfortunately, while these new voice actors are big names and may help draw a larger audience, this means that the usual crew that has been bringing Scooby and the gang’s adventures to life for years are out. In addition to Scooby, Welker voices Fred in the various TV series and direct-to-video movies. The rest of the established cast are Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, Kate Micucci as Velma, and Grey Griffin as Daphne. Since Welker was announced as voicing only Scooby in the new project, presumably that means that someone else will voice Fred.
Director Cervone has directed two direct-to-video ‘Scooby’ movies– ‘Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo’ and ‘Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery’. He has also directed numerous movies featuring Tom & Jerry, as well as ‘The Flintstones & WWE: Stone Age Smackdown’. Chris Columbus, Charles Roven and Allison Abbate will produce.
Scooby-Doo first appeared on Saturday mornings in 1969 and has basically never left the airwaves. Lillard portrayed Shaggy in two live-action theatrical films, 2002’s ‘Scooby-Doo’ and 2004’s ‘Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed’. This new animated movie joins the 32 (!) that have already been produced direct-to-video since 1998.
‘Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels’ premiered in 1977 and ran until 1980. Cavey and his human sidekicks– Dee Dee, Daphne, and Taffy– also appeared on ‘Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics’, and Cavey solo would go on to appear in various cartoons, usually paired with ‘The Flintstones’, throughout the ’80s.
Are you excited to see a new ‘Scooby’ animated movie on the big screen?
Source: The Hollywood Reporter
