Scooby-Doo (lost unreleased R-rated cut of live-action "Scooby-Doo" film; 2002)

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Scooby-Doo.jpg

The poster for the film.

Status: Lost

Scooby-Doo was a live-action film adaptation of the popular animated franchise of the same name, originally released on June 14th, 2002, in the United States. However, there is a significant difference between the cut that was released and some of the content that was originally filmed for the movie.

Early in production, the film was intended to have a more satirical tone towards the original franchise as well as skew towards an older audience, with a PG-13 rating planned. James Gunn's first draft of the script had a lesbian relationship subplot involving Velma and Daphne as well as multiple marijuana gags. By the time of filming, references to Velma's sexuality were lessened, before eventually being dropped altogether.

This original version of the film went far enough to get submitted to the MPAA, where it received an unexpected R rating, due to what James Gunn describes as "some line of dialogue the MPAA thought referred to oral sex."[1][2] Shortly after this, the studio completely forced a change in direction on the tone of the film, now intent on getting a family-friendly PG rating.

The shooting script for the film, with seemingly all of the PG-13 humor intact, was posted as a series of image files on 4chan's /co/ board on June 15, 2023.[3] It was later uploaded as a PDF to catbox.moe.[4]

Some original scenes in which the female characters exposed a significant amount of cleavage were re-edited with the cleavage CGI'd over for the final cut of the film. Several scenes were removed for the PG rating, including a scene where Daphne and Velma kiss in order to exchange bodies after the Daemon Ritus fails to correctly realign them, and another where Fred jokes that someone "spiked" Scrappy-Doo's dog bowl.

Two of the removed scenes were included in home media releases: one where a possessed Velma dances in a bikini, which parents mistook for underwear, and another where Daphne's protoplasm is removed, which was deemed too dark for children. Other scenes that were removed for pacing rather than censorship are also included.

Some minor adult humor remained in the final cut of the film, most notably a gag in which Shaggy meets a girl named "Mary Jane" (Mary Jane being an often-used slang term for marijuana), to which his response is "Like, that is my favorite name."

While the original cut may still exist somewhere (despite Gunn claiming it to be unlikely), no footage has ever been released from it. Due to the release of 2020s Scoob! reiterating Warner Bros'. intentions to keep the franchise kid-friendly, it is unlikely it will be publicly shown anytime soon.

Gallery

The original theatrical trailer, which contains brief clips of some of the removed scenes.

Another trailer that features some unreleased clips.

TwoEzDragon's video on the subject.

Scribbles to Screen's video on the subject.

External Links

References