Scooby Doo – Curse of the Lake Monster
When two red-blooded young men and two nubile young women go together for a summer holiday, how many ways can they pair up? That, more or less, is the underlying theme of the movie Scooby Doo – Curse of the Lake Monster. Of course, Scooby Doo goes along, too, but we already know whom he is permanently bonded to. So, let’s watch the movie to see what happens when the director tries to inject some romance into the platonic relationship of the Mystery Gang as they fumble their way to unmasking another monster, this time a Lake Monster in the form of a gigantic frog.
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Scooby Doo – Curse of the Lake Monster is the fourth installment of the Scooby Doo Live-Action movie series. Chronologically, it is the second but that’s another story. Produced by Brian Gilbert and distributed by Warner Bros in 2010, this movie was directed by Brian Levant from a screenplay written by Daniel Altiere and Steven Altiere based on the characters and series created by William Hanna and Joseph Barbera.
Nick Palatas stars as Norville “Shaggy” Rogers, Kate Melton plays Daphne Blake, Robbie Amell is Fred Jones and Hayley Kiyoko takes the role of Velma Dinkley. Scooby Doo, the animated Great Dane, speaks through the voice of Frank Welker. That is the set-up of the four-plus-one Mystery Gang. The slimy role of the Lake Monster is given to – wait, that would be giving away the game too early in the story, wouldn’t it?
Actually the director almost does that in the opening scene of the Scooby Doo movie. The Mystery Gang literally runs a hooded figure to the ground and rips off its hood to reveal … a flashback to events that started a week earlier. That’s a classic opening teaser alright.
One week earlier it is the end of the school term and the Mystery Gang is off to a summer job at the Country Club in Eerie Pointe. The club is owned by Daphne’s uncle, Thornton “Thorny” Blake the Fifth. The gang needs the money to pay for a barn they had set on fire while solving an earlier mystery. Before they leave, Shaggy and Velma stumbles upon Fred and Daphne making out in the back of the van. First attempt by the director at making a pair-up.
As they drive along, Daphne explains to the gang that she first felt something more than friendship for Fred when he caught her as she fell from the top of the barn they had accidentally reduced to cinders earlier. When they arrive at the club, after an unplanned detour to Trowburg’s Store and a mysterious warning about lake monsters, Shaggy falls off the top of the van and is caught by Velma. Instead of seeing stars as he would have if he had hit the ground, he begins to visualize pink hearts. Second attempt by the director at a pair-up.
When Shaggy tells Scooby Doo that he thinks he is in love with Velma, Scooby does the only thing possible. He rolls on the floor laughing. Shaggy, of course, is not amused. Scooby, inwardly, is not amused either. Shaggy is his buddy and no woman is going to come between them. Not if he can help it. So when Shaggy goes on a date with Velma, Scooby Doo goes along, badly disguised as a waiter, to make sure that nothing substantial develops from the outing.
Scooby Doo, as an animated Great Dane, does a great job in popularizing the breed which, among other things, has been called “The World’s Largest Lap Dog”. Originating from Denmark or Germany, depending on whose research you are reading, probably from a cross between the English Mastiff and the Irish Wolfhound, this breed has also been called the “Apollo of all breeds”. It certainly is one of the world’s tallest breed. The current world record holder, at 220 cm from head to tail, is George, a Great Dane. So is the previous tallest living dog, Gibson. This breed has naturally floppy, triangular ears. In the past, when the Great Dane is used to hunt boars, the ears are cropped. There are six show-acceptable colors: fawn, brindle, blue, black, harlequin and mantle.
Despite its gigantic proportions, the Great Dane is friendly, even to other dogs and even non-canine pets like cats. Iwao Takamoto, the animation designer, created Scooby Doo from sketches given to him by a Hanna-Barbera employee who bred Great Danes. The friendly nature of the breed is well-incorporated into the psyche of Scooby Doo.
Ever friendly and helpful, Scooby Doo takes an active part in unraveling the mystery of the Lake Monster. In Curse of the Lake Monster, Scooby is bitten by the shutter bug. His new-found passion for taking pictures with the aid of flash bulbs comes in handy in eluding the monsters coming after him and his friends during the climatic chase scene. While his friends run for their lives, Scooby takes the easy way out by painting an exit tunnel on the wall.
At last, the villain is run to the ground and the hood is ripped off. Watch the Scooby Doo 4 DVD yourself to find out who it is.
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