The Bechdel Cast - Scooby-Doo (2002)

Episode Date: October 19, 2023

This week, Raitlin and Ramie team up to solve the mystery of Scooby-Doo (2002). (This episode contains spoilers) For Bechdel bonuses, sign up for our Patreon at patreon.com/bechdelcast. Follow @Bechde...lCast, @caitlindurante and @jamieloftusHELP on Twitter.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated. Crooks Everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one-woman WikiLeaks. She exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks Everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. I'm NK, and this is Basket Case. What is wrong with me? A show about the ways that mental illness is shaped by not just biology.
Starting point is 00:00:50 Swaps of different meds. But by culture and society. By looking closely at the conditions that cause mental distress, I find out why so many of us are struggling to feel sane, what we can do about it, and why we should care. Oh, look at you giving me therapy, girl. Listen to Basket Case every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:01:12 There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar. Santos! Listen to Lucha Libre Behind the Mask
Starting point is 00:01:38 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you stream podcasts. On the Pectocast, the questions asked if movies have women in them. Are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands, or do they have individualism? The patriarchy's effin' vast. Start changing it with the Bechdelcast. Rarrow, and welcome to the Rectalcast. Not the Rectalcast. Yes, the Rectalcast. Not the Rectalcast.
Starting point is 00:02:06 Yes. Caitlin. The Rectalcast. That's disgusting. Rhyrame is Raitlyn. You said the Rectalcast. Yes, I am familiar and I'm aware. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:02:19 Okay. Welcome to the Rectalcast. My rhyme is Remy Raptis. And I resent how Scooby would introduce us. The rectal cast. The rectal cast. Which. You know, so be it.
Starting point is 00:02:37 So be it. Scooby it. Scooby it. Scooby it. Which celebrity thought that the Bechdel test was called the rectal test did that happen there was someone yes uh whoa let me look it up you know who's been on scooby who joey chestnut wait what that doesn't pass the rectal test but actually anything involving joey does pass the rectal test due to how many hot dogs he eats
Starting point is 00:03:06 but it does not pass the bechtel test due to the fact that he's a man oh right anyways yeah he was in uh he was in an episode of scooby-doo it was a thrilling day for me as a scoopoby fan, and most importantly, as Joey's wife. Yeah, of course. It was Diane Lane who accidentally called the Bechdel test the rectal test. I've got to be honest. I do feel like she's well within her rights, and I hope that no one corrected her. That's pretty iconic. Okay, so the Joey episode, it actually came out in the last couple years.
Starting point is 00:03:43 It's a new Scooby venture called Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? And guess who? Joey Chestnut. Who passes the rectal test with flying colors every 4th of July. Yeah, of course. Well, speaking of hot dogs, there's that part in this movie where Shaggy is like, hey, that reminds me of the time that we tried to eat the guy in the hot dog costume. Don't get me started on this. I also was thinking, what was my...
Starting point is 00:04:16 All right, we have to introduce the show because this is a main feed episode. Welcome to the Bexel cast. Welcome to the rectal rest. Ruh-ruh, we're going to be saying rectal at unprecedented levels this week. It's true. My name is Jamie Loftus. My name is Caitlin Durante, and this is our show where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens using the rectal rest. Which is a re-eretric, prevented by ralicin rectal um sometimes called the rectal
Starting point is 00:04:51 if this is your first episode you should probably pick a different episode to listen to for the first time uh there's a lot of different versions of the rectal test but um we use our our very own special version but caitlin what what the fuck is it well our version is that two characters of a marginalized gender must have names they must speak to each other scooby doesn't you know shaggy oh no they're boys but if velma and daphne talk to each other about something other than a man. They can't be talking to Scooby. Or about something other than Scooby, then it passes. I think we should make our test more, ooh, I can feel a chaotic episode coming on.
Starting point is 00:05:37 I really can. Yeah. I think we should make a special exception for today. Or just maybe a general addition to our version of the rectal rest where um where it does pass if you're talking about scooby oh okay so like an alfred melina kind of thing yeah exactly did i ever tell you about my like i i feel like there's a lot of like stale Jamie bits that are going to be connected to this episode. First of all, Matthew Lillard. I was trying to remember what the fuck I was saying about Matthew.
Starting point is 00:06:13 I think I was pretending to be his assistant. Was that it? Or I would be like, Lillard! No, he was my assistant. Matthew Lillard was my assistant in my in my little fantasy life and i was making him bring me i think tuna on crackers it could have been oh or maybe soup i kind of remember this was this oh i think lillard was bringing me soup and he was dropping the soup and i was yelling at him was this on the scream episode maybe i forget when we would have i believe
Starting point is 00:06:42 that that would have been it could have also been and I think it maybe made a comeback in the, what's that Winona Ryder movie where they're just complaining, complaining, complaining. He's in that one too. We covered it last year, I swear to God. Reality Bites? Yes. No, he's not in that, is he?
Starting point is 00:07:01 Wait, no, am I? No. No, because, no, I'm thinking of steve zahn but he is in hackers i think he is in hackers how long has it been since we've colored covered a lillard original and we haven't done slc punk and we should at some point we should i've only seen that movie once and it was the only time i've done molly and i was like why why would you do Molly and then watch SLC Punk alone? Not alone. To be clear, not alone.
Starting point is 00:07:29 With a friend. Oh, okay. Congrats. Thank you. Thank you. There was the bit about Matthew Lillard being my assistant, and you're right, making me soup. I think I'm going to bail on it. I think I'm going to bail on it for today.
Starting point is 00:07:43 But I do have another Scooby that I'd like to share. This is a longer term one. I used to have this dream, not like a, but like a wish, a cherished wish kind of dream. In which at every pivotal point in my life, I thought it would be really funny if there was someone wearing a Scooby costume just also in the room in a way that would feel so bizarre that I would want people to feel like they were dreaming if they attended. So I'm talking about like a wedding that is a very standard wedding, but someone in the audience or the – not the audience. God, depressing. The pews or whatever. The seats. Is wearing a Scooby costume and like no attention is brought to it.
Starting point is 00:08:29 I'm talking, I'm giving birth, delivery room. Whoa. Scooby. Scooby's there. Yeah. All the way through my funeral. When I've shuffled off this mortal coil, I think it would be fun for there to be just someone in a scooby suit at each important turn in my life. Is this like a lifelong dream you've had?
Starting point is 00:08:55 This has been something I've been talking about since high school. Oh, whoa. Yeah. I'm not at my apartment at the moment, but if I were, I could show you an illustration that I've done of me. It's a self-portrait. There's two Jamies. It's much like the Frida Kahlo self-portrait, where she's sitting across from another Frida. It's that, but it's me, and between us is a Scooby. Interesting.
Starting point is 00:09:22 So it has been a cherished wish for for a long time and i'll say it's not too late because the the very arbitrary life quote-unquote accomplishments i was listing uh none of them have happened and so not too late for scooby at the wedding not too late for scooby in the delivery room not too late too late for Scooby at the Funeral. Yeah. Scooby at the Funeral. Wait, what is it? That is a Sundance movie waiting to happen. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:09:52 Okay. So you should write it, I guess. All right. I'm not going to talk for the rest of the episode. Is that okay? Yeah, I'll take over. We should talk the matrion because this this episode is happening in this way yes due to the fact that our listener base has really gone off the rails it's true um run off the rails i like it yeah exactly exactly so we are covering scooby-Doo 2002 because we had put a request out to our matrons on the
Starting point is 00:10:27 matrion asking what horror movies that we have not yet covered that they would like us to cover for the month of October. And now to be fair, should we have put Scooby-Doo 2002 under horror movies? We haven't covered. Some might say no. However say no however well well here's what happened uh-huh so eventually it became a poll that the matrons voted on but before that we were just submitting any request and you sickos maybe it was my fault with the wording of the
Starting point is 00:11:02 original post because I just said spooky movie rather than like a horror movie. I would say that, yeah, that does pretty closely. And you got the double O. Sounds like Scooby-Doo. Scooby-Doo more like spooky-doo. It's giving Scooby. It's giving Scooby. Okay.
Starting point is 00:11:20 Sorry. I'm listening. I'm listening. I remember. The requests flooded in and there were six that ended up on the poll, the most frequently requested movies. And one of them was Scooby-Doo 2002. So we put it on the poll. I thought it would be like maybe somewhere in the middle toward closer to last place. Unbelievable response. Won by a landslide.
Starting point is 00:11:43 I think did a lap around the closest competitor like yeah i don't know what are you all is every listener on this show the exact same age like i don't understand what the but i do think that i mean well whatever 20 year cycles right people have scooby doDoo 2002 on the brain. And also, I will shout out one of my favorite YouTubers of all time, Mike's Mike, did a barn burner of a video about Scooby-Dooby-doo video uh in the last couple of years where he watched 44 scooby-doo movies scooby scooby's got his paw on the pulse again let's just say that he got joey he got joey are you joey chestnut and joey chestnut another person who's got his paw on the pulse well while we're talking about it so apparently i don't know if this is an animated scooby-doo movie or just maybe the name of an episode of a scooby series i think it actually might be a movie though there's something called scooby-doo and the curse
Starting point is 00:12:55 of the 13th ghost that came out in 2019 with matthew lillard voicing shaggy matthew lillard voicing Shaggy. Matthew Lillard is also in a movie called 13 Ghosts. So is this a crossover kind of thing? Well, and then also there's been Scooby-Dooby drama in the last couple of years. I think we talked about this on the podcast at the time, which is wild because I have no idea what the conversation would have connected to but one of I think the enduring of the many enduring elements of Scooby-Doo 2002 this like Matthew Lillard Shaggy specifically became canon canon he still does Shaggy to this day he's done shaggy one two three in three different series this year alone he is the canonical shaggy that has not been true for anyone else in this cast um not to say that
Starting point is 00:13:55 they weren't wonderful but like usually voice casting is pretty fluid but uh not so. I mean, I think Lillard really just nailed it so much that he. He cornered that market. And God bless. But if you recall, there was a bit of drama. Oh. Scooby-Doo drama. Scoob. Yes.
Starting point is 00:14:16 Right? Yes. The movie Scoob. Thank you for remembering the drama surrounding Scoob. Yes. They replaced Matthew Lillard. People were furious. They were losing it.
Starting point is 00:14:27 Will Forte shaggy. I love Will Forte, but it was wrong. It was wrong. And Lillard, I think in a way that I was like, all right, this is maybe a bit much. He publicly responded and he was like, I'm very disappointed to not have been cast in Scoob. It hurts. It feels bad. And the fans were outraged
Starting point is 00:14:46 because Lillard is canon shaggy. He loves being shaggy. And I'm thrilled to report that it really has appeared to have course corrected because, you know, that Scoob was 2020. I remember watching it
Starting point is 00:15:00 in early lockdown and being like, this is the worst thing that's going to happen in 2020. No, like, that's how you know that, you know, the world is in utter disarray. Lillard's not even doing Shaggy. It's a mess.
Starting point is 00:15:14 Fortunately, within the year, it was, the fans, they got what they fucking wanted. And he's, you know, he is our Shaggy again. Thank goodness. None of this passed the Bechdel test, but it is relevant. And that is how Scooby would say that word. He would say relevant. I think he actually would say relevant.
Starting point is 00:15:34 Relevant? Re? Zoinks. Zoinks. Can I just say zoinks? You can. If you want. Oh, God bless this movie what a treat so anyways uh if you're listening to this episode
Starting point is 00:15:51 um and you voted for scooby-doo on the matreon this is your fault i hope you're happy because i'm actually quite happy that we are covering this movie but if you're not a member of the matreon here's a plug for it because um i mean we're we couldn't be more biased but it's it's a treat it's a treat for five bucks a month you can get two bonus episodes it's just me and caitlin it's a little more you know it's like a light hearted fun vibe over on the matreon we usually choose a theme every month this month it's popular horror requests we haven't gotten to and so the reason that we shifted Scooby-Doo over to the main feed is because it won by such a landslide and we're like well if this many matrons want it surely this many people in general want it so then on the matron this month we were were covering, I guess, like second and third place, which basically tied two votes apart.
Starting point is 00:16:48 It felt it felt right. It felt right to do it. So we're doing It Follows and Barbarian, which both also take both take place in the greater Detroit area and are kind of more independent movies. So it feels like a more appropriate match up over there. And if you would or if you're interested in those episodes or hell the like 150 episodes of backlog we have over in the matron it is a mere five dollars a month it's a very fun community um and as you can tell by the episode we're doing right now um they're absolute menaces over there they're always making us do all sorts i think i truly
Starting point is 00:17:21 i'm trying to think of like for me for me on the mat Matreon, I think it's the Pinocchio Wars for me. That's where we can really let our worst instincts fly free. We did do a theme earlier this year that was every adaptation of Pinocchio that came out in 2022, which was three of them, including theshore pinocchio so if you really want some um some deep cuts and some fun discussions that is where you can find them but today serious discourse on the main feed scooby-doo 2002 now caitlin what is your history with this movie and i would also say scooby cannon of course i had never seen this movie before. No way. Really? It's true. And I had never seen its sequel either, nor had I really seen any Scooby-Doo intellectual property. I'm fascinated to hear this. I was aware of the characters. You know, it has permeated
Starting point is 00:18:21 pop culture, you know, the zeitgeist, if you will. So I just knew through cultural osmosis, who all the and maybe I've like, it was on in the background at some point, but I never like actively sat down and watched any Scooby show or anything like that. But I, you know, obviously, you know, Scooby and scrappy and shaggy and fred and velma and daphne they're very yeah they're like peak cultural osmosis stuff yes so but yeah i had never seen this movie or i feel sick much in the way of any other scooby-doo property um but i was you know keeping my eye on the poll and saw that scooby-doo is taking the lead by a lot i was like well i'll watch it so i watched it a few weeks ago with our friend bryant and then
Starting point is 00:19:13 i watched it two more times to prep for this episode well i mean you've got to be ready you've got to be ready because there's a lot going on in this movie and i'm like kind of serious i i i knew i told you remember we were like you're like i don't know if there's a lot going on in this movie. And I'm like, kind of serious. I knew it. I told you. Remember, we were like, you're like, I don't know if there's anything to say. And I was like, there's some stuff to say. And we'll say it.
Starting point is 00:19:32 And then I also watched Scooby-Doo 2, 2004, Monsters Unleashed. I haven't seen that movie, I don't think, since it came out. So I'm thrilled to hear. Jamie, what is your relationship with Scooby? Oh, you know, I love it. I love it. I love it. It maybe will not shock longtime listeners of the show to know that I love Scooby-Doo.
Starting point is 00:19:57 I think that it was maybe in arrogant child brain. It was maybe one of the first cartoons I got burnt out on as a kid because I really loved mainlining. I mean, they would show reruns on Cartoon Network. I'd watch them with my cousins. But it was, you know, very, very formulaic, which I think is commented on quite brilliantly at the beginning of Scooby-Doo 2002,
Starting point is 00:20:18 where it's a ghostly mystery, but also like, I mean, in the deeper into Scooby canon you got, there's a lot of kind of um questions of like in the scooby-doo world is magic real is the supernatural a force in this movie i think it is equally ambiguous and confusing and equally written off and dismissed which i guess is true to canon but also it's always like, oh, no, it's not. You know, ghosts aren't real. It's just some horny old guy who works at a carnival. Yeah, you know, in a very predictable way. And so it was like, as a kid, I remember loving it and then being like, oh, my God.
Starting point is 00:20:58 I think I know how every episode is going to end. And then abandoning the Scooby ship for a while, I'll be honest. I saw this movie in theaters, I remember loving it, thinking it was a little raunchy, really being fixated on Sarah Michelle Gellar's outfits and being, I think I've mentioned this on the show before being like there, I didn't like practical effects or CG animals when I was a kid. And I think a particularly gnarly time to be a kid and be witnessing effects. Because with all due respect to the Scooby Hive, to the denizens of the Mystery Machine, Scooby looks busted in these movies. Oh, it's not good. He fre in these movies oh he freaks me out he
Starting point is 00:21:47 freaks me out and yeah scooby-doo 2002 even as a kid i was like this is not this this is not my scooby i don't you know this is not hashtag not my scooby i was i was a little freaked by the scooby but i loved this movie i thought it was so funny. And I also am just like, as a grown person interested in Scooby discourse, Scooby Dooby discourse, as we call it in the community. Of course. I'm not a part of the community. Let me be. I just, but I am interested because I feel like there is a lot of of um because it's been you know it's a property that's been around for i believe let me check i okay i did know off the top of my head yeah over over half a century these damn kids have been ripping masks off of old guys heads and i think
Starting point is 00:22:40 that there is like a really interesting legacy around the way that fans have perceived these characters. I think there's a huge queer reading of the Scooby-Doo expanded universe that is very unique and very cool and also ties into this movie directly. For the sake of like, I don't know, there's if you're the listener, there's a lot of Scooby-Doo content we are mostly going to be sticking to the movie but you know in the context of who these characters have meant I think especially with like Daphne and Velma and a little bit of Fred there's a lot to talk about I think it's an interesting um and and wholesome kind of um property and I do remember there was something of a shit storm surrounding like discourse around the mindy kaling velma series that came out last year yes i'm gonna say i'm not touching that i'm not touching that i didn't watch it i don't know the only thing i will say that i think is relevant
Starting point is 00:23:40 to our discussion is that the cast of scoby-Doo has for a very, very long time been white, just a bunch of white people. And then Velma, the HBO max or whatever, just Mac, whatever it's HBO quite trying to make max happen. Anyway,
Starting point is 00:23:59 the world is going to be incinerated in 10 years. Nothing matters. Yeah. Um, but the animated series velma starring and i think like executive produced by mindy kaling mindy kaling plays velma there's also constance woo plays daphne and sam richardson plays shaggy as well as glenn howerton playing fred so three of the four main cast are people of color in the series. So it, you know, course corrects this problem of, you know, Scooby Doo being extremely white. Unfortunately, audiences hated that series and the creative liberties it took. not connected to um the scooby-doo gang not being white it was more connected to just like the
Starting point is 00:24:46 writing and how the series ended up i don't yeah i again i didn't watch it because it just seemed so nuclear maybe it was good i don't know i i yeah i remember like there being an initial wave of excitement of like oh this historically like white group of teenagers like they're um like they're diversifying this cast in a way that makes total sense um but then i do remember there being conversation around um handling the queerness of the group was considered to be fumbled all this other stuff we didn't but that's not what we're talking about today but but all that to say the fact that there was a massive wave of scooby-Dooby discourse within the last calendar
Starting point is 00:25:25 year uh-huh these characters people care they do care about what's going on with these damn kids um yeah I think that this was um in conclusion I think this was a movie that was uh was formative and also um one where I just like the women are, they're really doing something. They're really doing something cool in this movie. I just remember being like, wow, Linda Cardellini sweater. Interesting. Interesting. And I'm thinking about it.
Starting point is 00:25:57 All right, let's talk about, oh, and also, like, for, because I think we will be talking about this at length within the conversation after the recap. This is directed by Raja Gosnell and screenplay and story by James Gunn, who has spoken about this movie extensively. He is later famous for doing Guardians of the Galaxy. He's currently in charge of Batman. He's like Mr. DC. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:26:37 Has encountered his, you know, share of, you know, public humiliation in the way that I feel like anyone who gets remotely near superhero properties does. But in general seems to be a pretty beloved writer and certainly loves talking about Scooby-Doo. So we're going to be getting into that Scooby-Dooby discourse. But first. Yes. First a break, and then we will come back for the recap. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16, 2017, was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate.
Starting point is 00:27:14 My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad-free, subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel,
Starting point is 00:27:53 available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. I felt too seen. Dragged. I'm NK, and this is Basket Case. So I basically had what back in the day they would call a nervous breakdown. I was crying and I was inconsolable. It was just very big, sudden swaps of different meds. What is wrong with me?
Starting point is 00:28:24 Oh, look at you giving me therapy, girl. Finally, a show for the mentally ill girlies. On Basket Case, I talk to people about what happens when what we call mental health is shaped by the conditions of the world we live in. Because if you haven't noticed, we are experiencing some kind of conditions that are pretty hard to live with.
Starting point is 00:28:42 But if you struggle to cope, the society that created the conditions in the first place will tell you there's something wrong with you, and it will call you a basket case. Listen to Basket Case every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone.
Starting point is 00:29:00 Jake Storielli here from John Boy Media. I want to tell you about my podcast, Wake and Jake. It's your go-to spot for anything and everything sports. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, college, whatever's hot in the street, we're talking about it on Wake and Jake. So if you're a diehard fan or looking for the latest buzz, we've got you covered, no matter your favorite sport. We're breaking it down with the passion that'll make you feel like you're in
Starting point is 00:29:25 the stands with us. Plus we've got a bunch of guests, foolish Bailey, jolly olive, Chris Rose, and more mock drafts, rankings, whatever you want.
Starting point is 00:29:35 It's the sports world and come on and join our friends in the wake and Jake family. You will not regret it. So new episodes, Monday and Wednesday, you can watch along on the Wake and Jake YouTube channel or listen to Wake and Jake on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 00:29:54 And we're back. Is there any... It's Ruh-Roh, it's Scooby-Dooby-Doo, it's Zoinks. And for me, it's Zoinks. Okay. Zoinks, what happens in this movie okay well first of all we are in Coolsville USA ever heard of it I just like it's so Scooby-Dooby-Goofy I just love how like brain dead some of it is. Yeah, Coolsville. Yes.
Starting point is 00:30:31 Perfect. We open on Mystery Inc. AKA like the Scooby gang solving a group of bisexual teenagers. Yes. And their large dog who can talk. Yeah. They are solving a mystery at a toy factory of course it's shaggy played by matthew lillard fred is freddie prince jr velma is linda cartellini daphne is sarah
Starting point is 00:30:55 michelle geller and of course scooby-doo and he's voiced by neil fanning yeah who is not our normal scooby i think we would normally have um oh gosh frank not your normal scooby yes okay so they stop this guy old man smithers who is pretending to be a ghost and he's like i would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids cloud yet another phrase intrinsically connected to the scooby-doo universe and then a bunch of people show up including pamela anderson god and it's quote-unquote her fault that old man smithers did this whole thing to begin with because she wouldn't go out with him frank and so now welker frank welker and i only say that because we have talked about him on the show before he's like a legendary voice actor yes and i love voice actors okay frank welker but this is not frank welker let's go back to the discussion yes okay so pamela anderson is there because it's
Starting point is 00:32:06 her toy factory question mark okay not sure she's a girl bossing at the toy factory it's great yeah yeah um and so everyone's like wow good job mystery inc this was a this was a big thing for movies of 2002 because if we're talking about like goofy children's movies of 2002 unavoidable or avoidable until i'm forcing the discussion is uh master of disguise starring dana carvey comes out in this same stretch of time we've got scooby-doo coming out in june master disguise on its heels august 2nd 2002 and that movie also opens with a nostalgic to children, meaningless reveal of a famous woman in Master of Disguise. It's Bo Derek. She rips off a rubber mask with James Brolin and she's Bo Derek. And that's, you know, that's for parents, I guess. This is, I think that we're getting kind of a lot of uh and I I have a quote for this uh
Starting point is 00:33:07 later in the episode but um this movie I think you can very clearly trace its lineage to coming off the success of Shrek Shrek changed everything we know this to be true I really do feel like it comes up on the show at least once a month shrek changed everything because now you have to have uh jokes for parents as well and that becomes like very inherent to what popular children's media is and i think that you can really really see that reflected in scooby-doo which comes out the following year and james gunn oh god he used this very funny turn of phrase oh he said in the heat of shrek that's what he said there excuse me in the heat of shrek it's like in the heat of the night kind of movie you would but it's in the heat of shrek but in the heat of shrek i but there is i think that that's like
Starting point is 00:34:01 there are there's a quality to these like children's movies of the early 2000s that are like a little raunchier than they even are now. Due to the heat of Shrek. Wow. And Shrek makes me feel like I'm in heat. So, you know. Caitlin. That's so awesome. I I'm so okay okay sorry sorry sorry sorry we're in the first scene of the movie yes yes yes okay so Mystery Inc solves the mystery everyone's like
Starting point is 00:34:39 wow good job and Fred is like yeah I basically did everything and so velma is upset with fred for taking credit for her plan and she decides to quit i really like the choice of dynamics between characters i think there's room for more which we'll talk about but i i kind of because i'd seen this movie a bunch of times but easily not in at least like five years and i kind of because i'd seen this movie a bunch of times but easily not in at least like five years and i kind of forgot that like uh fred and velma have a bit of a power struggle but it makes sense with their characters and i and i i liked it yeah same yeah so velma quits then daphne who does not like that she's the one who's always getting kidnapped and damseled also quits okay and then fred quits because everyone else is quitting so now it's just shaggy and scooby we cut to two years later uh shaggy and scooby are living on the beach they're just chilling
Starting point is 00:35:39 you know they're just they're vibing vamping maybe they're vamping isn't that what you would used to what they're never no there was a phrase that you have said on the podcast like probably honestly seven years ago they're vamping i couldn't have said that what was okay what was i trying to express at that time? Like just chilling. Lamping. Lamping.
Starting point is 00:36:08 Lamping. And even that now makes me sound ancient crusty dead. That's so, yeah, that was like what you would say if you were like hanging out with your friends in 2009. And that's from a movie that we haven't covered and I don't think we ever need to. Napoleon Dynamite. That's where that's from a movie that we haven't covered, and I don't think we ever need to. Napoleon Dynamite, that's where that comes from. Oh, I did not realize that was the source of it. I love Lamp. Lamping is that.
Starting point is 00:36:35 Vamping is just like what you do when you're on stage and you need to kill time. And the next comedian is still not arrived. Right. Vaping is what they would have been doing if you could show that in the movie took place 20 years later what they are doing is smoking weed in a van for two years but that they're not you know you're not allowed to show that but in the heat of shrek you can imply it in the heat of shrek you can imply it you just can't show it yes okay so they're not vamping they're lamping well they
Starting point is 00:37:05 are kind of just killing time until the rest of mystery shows something happens yeah they're really like waiting on the plot yeah they're eating they're snacking but they're not detectives anymore until they're approached by someone who wants them to come to an amusement park called Spooky Island. Because there's a mystery at the park that needs solving. Another brainless title for a location. And you're like, the only way this could get better is if Mr. Bean was on the island. Well. Well, guess what, baby? But first we go to the airport and we see the gang reunite,
Starting point is 00:37:47 which is important and formative because of Daphne's suitcases matching her dress. Yes, yes. The other members of Mystery Inc. have also received letters inviting them to Spooky Island. None of them know that the other members of the group were going to be there, and so they kind of reluctantly board the other members of the group were going to be there and so they kind of reluctantly board the flight to spooky island on the plane shaggy meets a woman named mary jane played by isla fisher incredible that that is what she's doing in this movie uh mary jane again we're in the heat of shrek yes and these things will happen uh-huh and mary jane and shaggy have a lot in common and they're flirting they're
Starting point is 00:38:33 vibing they're lamping maybe even and we have to get we have to stop saying it we have to um okay so they arrive on spooky island and meet emile mondavarius aka rowan atkinson aka mr bean we do quick have i mentioned this on the show i think about it um frequently as a big james a caster fan do you know where i'm going with this oh yes the okay i love james a caster he um whatever he's doing right now i wish him well he released an amazing special and i think like 2020 or 2021 i think all this i called like cold lasagna 1998 want to kill myself something like that the thrust of this oh the thrust caitlin the thrust of the special um involves him after like years i think close to a decade disclosing that his one-time fiance left him for mr bean and how as a comedian it was a very challenging secret to keep due to the fact that it was A, devastating to his life,
Starting point is 00:39:47 and B, being left for Mr. Bean is kind of the funniest way to be abandoned by someone you love. To be like, sorry, I've fallen in love with Mr. Bean. I'm pregnant with Mr. Bean's baby. Greg Bean with Mr. Mr. Greg Bean. baby ed greg and with mr with mr mr greg bean and anyways um i wish them the best mr bean still married to oh i'm not i'm not gonna give her government name you know like but but i just remember i mean it's a great special and i also was like wow james a caster classy for keeping
Starting point is 00:40:21 that under your hat for 10 years yeah i don't think I would have been that successful if my beloved had run out on me from one Mr. Bean. Anyways, Mr. Bean's on the island. Yes. And he's not acting silly. And so we're like, something's up. So he believes he runs the amusement park, Spooky Island. And I think the island is also called Spooky Island. I'm not sure.
Starting point is 00:40:46 Anyway. We don't know. He believes that someone is casting a magic spell on the college students who go to the park for spring break. And he believes this because they arrive all lively and excited. But when they leave, they're like kind of zombie-esque they're like just you know dull and quiet just kind of like boring they leave boring right yeah they don't leave they're like i think the subtext to it is like they arrive slutty they leave not slutty they're not horny right you're just like interesting what a quandary for mr bean right
Starting point is 00:41:29 so the scooby gang gets to work on solving the mystery velma goes to an event i'm not sure Where this guy, Nagu Tauna, is pissed at Emil for building his park on this land and disturbing and displacing these like creatures slash ancient beings who lived on the island. And the island is a thoroughfare to a supernatural realm. And we'll talk all about that representation yes in a bit all of the major weaknesses of a fun movie yes um so now nagoo is a suspect yes on a different part of the island daphne is investigating and runs into this man who is doing a quote unquote voodoo ritual. We will also talk about how that is represented. And he's like, definitely do not go into the spooky island castle. And so she's like, well, obviously I have to go there now. Meanwhile, Scooby is being lured into the creepy forest with the promise of a bag of hamburgers.
Starting point is 00:42:52 And while he's there, he gets attacked. Classic Scooby. Yes. He gets attacked by some kind of monster. And he escapes and rushes over to Shaggy, who, who again is still flirting and vibing with mary jane and then daphne also shows up and she's like okay we got to go check out this castle so they go to the castle fred and velma are already there scoping things out and it turns out to be this ride that's closed for maintenance and the group splits up to search
Starting point is 00:43:26 the castle for clues now fred and velma find what appears to be a brainwashing facility for a cult yeah shaggy and scooby find the set of a tv show and then they have a burping and farting contest there. Also, does that set ever come back in any way? Not that I could tell, no. And I do think, I mean, I guess that that is just like, again, I mean, it is maybe creatively foolish to have Scooby and Norval Shaggygy rogers you know like in the mix and not farting farts and burps yeah yeah it's kind of their whole their whole thing caitlin well i mean
Starting point is 00:44:14 come on and in the heat of shrek and in the heat of shrek of people burping and farting for a burping and farting extravaganza. In fact, I'm on IMDb right now. Brag. Wow. Going to the tags. The tags for Scooby-Doo 2002. First tag, farting contest.
Starting point is 00:44:36 Wow. Second tag, 2000s. Third tag, strong female character. Fourth tag, fart. Okay. character fourth tag okay fart uh okay so you know there's a lot of which i mean if you if if those aren't shrekian tags as well i mean you could argue that you could yes you certainly could okay so the farting contest is happening meanwhile daphne finds this little like pyramid shaped relic of some kind and so they all leave the castle and start doing further research velma goes to some kind of like restaurant lounge place to study the relic which she thinks is something called the damon rightus
Starting point is 00:45:21 and this guy approaches her who's gonna kind of be her love interest sort of but we never learn his name this guy I don't think he couldn't be more script notes if he tried right this is a guy who wanders out of the ether he may not even be alive and tries to force Velma Dinkley into like it's like gilly it's like gilly what he's doing he's he's just he's like no canonically gay you know since clarified canonically gay character you are my girlfriend and she's like oh okay boo boo to the nameless script notes guy yeah well she tells him about mystery inc and we get this flashback of the scooby gang in the mystery machine and scrappy doo is there and he and and now and now i'm really booing because i do you hate scrappy doo can we all agree we hate scrappy yeah yeah i do i do Scrappy-Doo? Can we all agree we hate Scrappy-Doo? Yeah, yeah, I do.
Starting point is 00:46:27 I do, D-O-O. He's a B-I-T-C-H. Whoa, okay. Anyway, he pisses all over Daphne. Yeah. So they kick him out of the group. He pisses all over. Did you hear that sentence?
Starting point is 00:46:42 Yeah. Scrappy-Doo, huge. Oh, I hate Scrappy-Doo. And even as a kid i think kids find scrappy doo grating obnoxious he talks in his little he's scooby doo is his uncle and he's disrespectful to him see i i guess have mixed feelings because while the character is, you know, annoying and not a good person, not a good dog. Bad dog. Bad dog. But it's revealed that he's not a puppy, which I think is maybe commonly assumed that he is because he's small. But it's like.
Starting point is 00:47:19 But they're like, he's not even a puppy. He has a gland disorder. And then all the characters laugh at him for it they're like making fun of him for something he can't help so that i again i canonically choose to believe that that was a script note to make scrappy more sympathetic to audiences because he is i because i do i mean that on its face absolutely ableist yeah but that is not canonical to the character of Scrappy-Doo what is canonical to the character of Scrappy-Doo is being annoying and I oh oh he just pisses me off and I have a specific when he gets jacked at the end of the movie
Starting point is 00:48:00 spoiler alert when he gets jacked that CG uh has never sat well with me so scary honestly some of the worst cg that 2002 had to offer and i was like oh maybe it's just because they had a low budget no but this had an 84 million dollar budget no they they could have and they didn't and it requires it requires uh there should there should have been a federal investigation about it yeah anyway so we learn about we meet you know scrappy doo on screen in this movie for the first time and he gets kicked out of the group we cut back to the present and suddenly monsters attack and abduct fred and velma because monsters are real question mark we don't maybe no but i think yes i don't know i think in this world yes which is yeah you know we we don't have time to get into
Starting point is 00:48:56 it right debate amongst yourselves so fred and velma have been abducted so now it's up to daphne shaggy scooby and also mary j Jane is there to solve the mystery and save their friends. Also, Mary Jane is there. It does sort of sum up how that character is treated throughout the movie. She's there. Also, she is there. But the next day, after they've like all passed out on the beach for some reason everything seems back to normal as if there was no monster attack and then sugar ray is there putting on a concert
Starting point is 00:49:31 and 90s icon mark mcgrath he's up to something he starts singing to daphne but then she notices that his eyes have this green glow yeah because he because he has supernatural powers, dodoi. Oh, I forgot about that cameo. What a treat for Mark McGrath to have his eyes start glowing green, trying to get Sarah Michelle Gellar to fall for his little tricks. Like, just really unbelievable stuff. I really enjoyed it. so his eyes are green sure which is the color of shrek you know i bet originally in the heat of shrek in the heat
Starting point is 00:50:15 of shrek you're gonna want to make things green i bet it was red originally but they're like no no green green is green is the warmest color in 2002 in the heat of shrek yeah forget it okay so shaggy finds fred whose eyes are also glowing green oh nor along with basically all the other people on the island because they're possessed and then they're also talking in a way that feels very culturally appropriative yes for some reason we will get back to that too yeah but they are also trying to possess shaggy and scooby who escape on a pair of four wheelers and they link back up with mary jane but oh no scooby sees that she has green eyes too and when he tries to tell shaggy about it shaggy doesn't believe him and so they kind of like have a fight and then they all end up in this cave where shaggy finds this like well
Starting point is 00:51:16 type thing there's a lot of plot there's a lot of plot in this area and you're just sort of like uh-huh so there's this well where all of the possessed the people who have been possessed they're like spirits slash souls slash protoplasms are swimming around and shaggy finds velma's spirit and releases it so it can return to her body and then the monster that was possessing velma's body is kind of like forced out and explodes in the sunlight so she realizes that these monsters need human bodies to survive and like walk around in the sunlight which is why they're possessing all of these college kids shaggy then also saves fred and daphne and then there's this body swap scene where the protoplasms return to the wrong bodies and it is it's well i mean i'm sure we'll circle back to that scene as well but like the it it felt very of the era where whenever um one of the men's spirits would be
Starting point is 00:52:30 transported into a woman's body you would hear it just was very like uh prescriptive where it's like the men's spirits would always be like hey this is my personality uh but when it was the women's spirit when it was a man's spirit going into one of the into Daphne or Velma's body it was like look at my boobs I'm gonna like it's just it was very like creepy or like Daphne don't you eat anything what's wrong that was like oh my god saying that to a young woman in 2002 are you that's not it's not funny one of the most fucking evil times for talking about women's bodies in the last you know century it's just it's just very ugly behavior um yeah that whole sequence well i think that there were interesting opportunities for that sequence sure fell flat for me agree also reminded me of a similar sequence in jumanji welcome to the jungle yes yes and it was also um a little bit freaky friday although that's you
Starting point is 00:53:40 know just between a mother and a daughter but just if there's any body swap with a person with breasts they're going to grope themselves yes and the implications will be complicated and it will not be very fun to watch uh yeah that scene was a bit of a mess yeah um so eventually everyone ends up in the right body and velma figures out that the creatures are about to perform the Darkopolis ritual, another incredible naming convention. Yep, great turn of phrase. Where the leader, whoever the leader is, needs to absorb a purely good soul to complete the ritual and once the ritual is performed the creatures will rule the world for 10 000 years and who's got a pure soul oh well of course it's scooby dooby dooDoo. Ruby-Roo. Even though he did bully his nephew,
Starting point is 00:54:46 but outside of that, pretty pure. Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. And they realize that Emil Mondevarious must be behind the whole thing since he invited Scooby and the gang to the island. So they go back to the cave to try to stop the ritual and save Scooby-D-doo who has been kidnapped but they get
Starting point is 00:55:08 caught and scooby's spirit gets plucked out of his body but shaggy saves him and he knocks over emile mondavarius when we're at the point in the movie where it's like oh the stakes are scooby-doo's very soul yeah the soul the eternal soul of do i was just like this movie is like unbelievably great i had a list of things that happen in order of intensity and how much they shocked me uh-huh mr bean wants scooby to take advantage of his pure soul that's a meeting that takes place and there'shuh mr bean wants scooby to take advantage of his pure soul that's a meeting that takes place and there's a great shot where scooby-doo is smiling at a picture of himself yes and laughing next mr bean wants scooby to sacrifice himself to god basically then mr bean wants to absorb scooby-doo's soul so he can live forever and then what we're about to get to
Starting point is 00:56:07 Freddie Prinze Jr. pulls off Mr. Bean's face to reveal that he's a Chuck E. Cheese animatronic robot yes and the person inside or the being inside is Scrappy-Doo Scrappy-Doo. Scrappy-Doo. And we're like, Mr. Bean was Scrappy-Doo. And what does that mean in the context of the James Acaster story? Well, and then it's, I'm getting ahead of myself here, but it's revealed that there is actually a guy named Emil Mondavarius and Scrappy-Doo had been like hiding him in a dungeon for the past two years unlike we can't even talk about the political implications of what took place on spooky island like it is just absolutely um it's sick it's sick what was done
Starting point is 00:57:01 okay so scrappy do turns out to be the bad guy, and he has absorbed enough souls to turn into this big, muscular monster dog thing, and he's trying to kill Scooby and the others. But meanwhile, Daphne has escaped, and she goes up onto the mountain and opens the vents to let the sunlight in. But there's this luchador guy who I forgot to mention earlier. But he's friends with Nagu. And he shows up.
Starting point is 00:57:36 And so she fights him because she's no longer the damsel in distress. She's the vampire slayer. It's a cheap move. It's a cheap move. But, move but you know yes we were cheering so she's fighting him and she opens up the vent and the light comes in and then down below the others are able to stop scrappy do this is when they find the real emile mondavarius everyone reunites some people kiss each other or they're like canoodling and the possessed college kids go back to normal and the day is saved and then the movie ends with shaggy and scooby eating a big meal the end classic them meal. The end. Classic them.
Starting point is 00:58:27 We're going to take a quick break but we'll rewrite Rask. Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th, 2017 was murdered. There are crooks everywhere you look now. The situation is desperate. My name is Manuel Delia. I am one of the hosts of Crooks Everywhere, a podcast that unhurts the
Starting point is 00:58:59 plot to murder a one-woman Wikileaks. Daphne exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. And she paid the ultimate price. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad free, subscribe to the iHeart
Starting point is 00:59:30 True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. I felt too seen. Dragged. I'm NK, and this is basket case so i basically had what back in the day they would call a nervous breakdown i was crying and i was inconsolable it was just very big sudden swaps of different meds what is wrong wrong with me? Oh, look at you giving me therapy, girl. Finally, a show for the mentally ill girlies. On Basket Case, I talk to people about what happens when what we call mental health is shaped by the conditions of the world we live in.
Starting point is 01:00:14 Because if you haven't noticed, we are experiencing some kind of conditions that are pretty hard to live with. But if you struggle to cope, the society that created the conditions in the first place will tell you there's something wrong with you. And it will call you a basket case. Listen to Basket Case every Tuesday on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hey, everyone. Jake Storielli here from John Boy Media.
Starting point is 01:00:41 I want to tell you about my podcast, Wake and Jake. It's your go-to spot for anything and everything sports. Baseball, football, basketball, hockey, golf, college, whatever's hot in the street. We're talking about it on Wake and Jake. So if you're a diehard fan or looking for the latest buzz, we've got you covered, no matter your favorite
Starting point is 01:01:00 sport. We're breaking it down with the passion that'll make you feel like you're in the stands with us. Plus, we've got a bunch of guests, Foolish Bailey, Jolly Olive, Chris Rose, and more mock drafts, rankings, whatever you want. It's the sports world, and come on and join our friends in the Wake and Jake family. You will not regret it. So, new episodes Monday and Wednesday. You can watch along on the Wake and Jake YouTube channel or listen to Wake and Jake on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 01:01:32 And we're rack. We're rack. With your permission, I would like to start this discussion with the discussion of queerness within the Scoooby-doo universe please so there's uh quite a bit to discuss here i think like as we sort of alluded to earlier in the episode there is a fair amount of um just like uh lore as far as it goes uh i think the characters who have been most famously queer coded in the crew i think velma is the most popularly discussed one um going back to the show's initial release um there was always i guess sort of an undercurrent of questioning what her
Starting point is 01:02:19 sexuality was um you know i think it's reasonable in a children's cartoon like it wasn't addressed uh and i don't think that at the time it would have ever been um i think that the main not in that era certainly not and and what you did know i think because you have in this group you have like four very specific types that make sense for 1969 you have a stoner you have a quote-unquote like nerdy girl you have a popular girl and you have a jock all very typed characters but um what i think is cool is like you don't usually see these characters as like being close friends right however inside of that the quote-unquote cool guy and cool girl friend Daphne they're always paired together that is very much implied within this movie as well to the point where they cast a married couple as Fred and Daphne right and then they kiss at the end so
Starting point is 01:03:16 and they kiss at the end I mean it's and that's very inherent to who those characters have been speculated to be um but I think that Scooby-Doo 2002 and Scooby-Dooby scholars, I'm sure could trace this earlier, but starting in Scooby-Doo 2002, this at least was attempted to be like these long discussions because there also was discussion of potential queer coding for Fred. This was sort of the first time that um this was even attempted to be uh addressed in the scooby-dooby do universe so what that means is and and james gunn uh addressed this in a 2020 twitter thread uh because he just the man loves to talk there there were two characters who were in uh planned to be explicitly queer to some extent the fred uh the fred's character is a little
Starting point is 01:04:15 more complicated so i'll get to that in a second but uh james gunn says in 2020 in 2001 velma was explicitly gay in my initial script but the studio just kept watering it down and watering it down, becoming ambiguous, the version shot, then nothing, the released version, and finally having a boyfriend, the sequel. Although I would argue that she's basically given a boyfriend in the original as well. Right. And then the sequel, Seth Green shows up and he becomes her love interest. And, you know, and I have no comment i have no comment to uh my dear friend seth green and later like linda cartolini would also comment on this all of the
Starting point is 01:04:53 actors i think that the difference between i feel like there is this tendency for writers creators in general to like course correct their work in retrospect to be like oh well i actually like i think that the most popular example from one of the worst people of all time was when jk rowling originally was like actually dumbledore was gay i just didn't write it down but i meant to and you're just like okay evil be quiet but i think that this story is actually different because the actors all corroborated this. And there was stuff shot. It was written in the heat of Shrek. I think that James Gunn's script was approved as a more, I mean, problematic in its own ways.
Starting point is 01:05:37 But even just an attempt at LGBT representation at all in 2002 in a kids movie movie would have been you know different and it would have meant something um but it was all cut out and mr script notes was added and and all of this um linda cartellini has also commented on this she said velma has been around since 1969 i just went trick-or-treating with my daughter and there were a lot of Velmas out there. And so I love that she still has this place in culture that is always sort of active for decades. I think her being a lesbian has been hinted at so many times. And I think it's great that it's finally out there, which is in response to the first time that Velma Dinkley was explicitly stated as a queer character is in 2022. Like exactly a year ago to the day we're recording this happy coming out anniversary to velma um in a tv movie called trick-or-treat scooby-doo
Starting point is 01:06:36 um she's depicted as a queer woman who has a crush on a character named coco diablo because of course sure uh we're not covering that movie and then in the um in the Mindy Kaling um iteration I believe she's bisexual um and I believe in the Mindy Kaling version Daphne is also bisexual couldn't say don't know anything about it again Scooby Dooby Scholars sound off. Yeah. But I think that, like, the fact that truly, like, it's an interesting kind of yardstick to measure what is considered, quote-unquote, acceptable in widespread children's media,
Starting point is 01:07:14 that it was literally just last year that Velma was a queer character in a way that, like, was not challenged. Yeah. But there were, I think that Scooby-Doo 2002 is kind of the earliest meaningful attempt from what I was able to gather. Fred was also written to be a queer character. Freddie Prince Jr. has stated in interviews that that was what he was told when he took the part.
Starting point is 01:07:43 And so his performance was, that was what he was told when he took the part and so his performance was that was his performance and then the way that it was edited um didn't honor that but i do think it's interesting that like the the actors were playing queer characters but the movie would not let them um actually be those characters right um the scene that was shot and cut the i think most explicitly um that there was a a kiss between daphne and velma apparently in this scene daphne and fred are together and they run into drunk velma when she's at the bar um and she's, I guess, flirting ambiguously, and it seems like she's actually flirting with Daphne. That's what got shot. There was a kiss written into the script that never got shot.
Starting point is 01:08:33 I see. And to conclude, Sarah Michelle Gellar also commented on this all the way back in 2002. This is very inherent to this movie. Sarah Michelle Gellar told Sci-Fi Wire in 2002 that a Velma and Daphne kissing scene was cut out from the film. Quote, it wasn't just like for fun.
Starting point is 01:08:53 Initially in the soul swapping, Velma and Daphne could not seem to get their souls back together in the woods. And so the way they found was to kiss and the souls went back into the proper alignment, unquote. So that soul swapping scene that we discussed as not loving was also um initially different and i guess significantly rewritten so i think it is interesting um i i will sort of leave it to individual listeners to decide um but i mean i i
Starting point is 01:09:20 i do think that that would have made a difference and certainly would have impacted the direction that this goopy franchise took from there if James Gunn's original script had been honored. But I think it's just very frustrating and telling that this simple choice that seemed like it would have been pretty consistent with um who the general public thought these characters to be um wouldn't be honored for another 20 years wild yeah and there's like additional coding with velma's character and then kind of as how she's compared to daphne because as you were saying the whole um you know these characters are very stereotyped as being you know one's the jock one's the smart girl one's the hot girl one's the st donor this movie honors those like very archetypal type of characters pretty in a way that's like not at all challenged and i think it's just because like you know daphne is like the hot one quote unquote who's like always being damseled. And she's depicted as being not as smart as Velma because Velma is the smart one.
Starting point is 01:10:50 And she, therefore, cannot be hot also by the movie's logic. And I feel like that was a little like complicated in the scope of the movie. Because it was like the movie, like obviously these the girls are hot like they're both right well be serious stop joking around stop fucking with me i know but the the way that i thought that was addressed because it's like i mean velma i feel like is very peak like you would be so beautiful if you took like your off your glasses girl and and that has always been true like she's always been like an adorable character and the way that it's addressed in this movie is that Fred at one point says to Velma like
Starting point is 01:11:37 that he's like no I get it like you're you're also hot he says dorky girls like you turn me on too yeah and she like scoffs at it and he's like what it's a compliment that uh that was a disaster i think that's as close as the movie comes to acknowledging that like these women are both gorgeous um but yeah like like you're saying like plays into the stereotypes surrounding the stock characters that I don't know I mean I think that the movie did better than I was expecting it to off of memory just in the I don't know the weird middle place where I felt I had feelings about this surrounding the recent Barbie movie recent barbie movie as well where um it felt like the movie had a real vested interest in commenting on the perception of a long-standing character more so than presenting this is who this character is and they're fully realized it's more like very like self-aware kind of
Starting point is 01:12:43 writing where you're like well i know how everyone thinks of barbie as like a bimbo who can't do anything so i'm going to present that image and then challenge it throughout the course of the movie or like with i think that that is like pretty i guess more so with daphne but like presents daphne is like well we all think of daphne as this damsel in distress but what if she had a problem with that and then that's her that's her journey throughout the movie which I don't really have a problem with it just it seems like um it's like a step towards being able to do something more with that character it's like addressing I don't know
Starting point is 01:13:19 there's more there's plenty of ways to handle that but like addressing the public perception pushing the character through that public perception and then hopefully moving them on to something cooler um but i don't know daphne's story i thought was interesting i think it's like tricky because she is still presented as like not as smart as the rest of the group at different moments. But I was, you know, in the heat of Shrek, I was, I guess, like, gently impressed at how she did sort of, like, tackle people's assumptions about her fairly head on. And, you know, by the end of the movie, had, you know, dismantled that view of her where, like like when the first time she says she has a black belt it's sort of implied that no one believes her um and then at the end she um fights
Starting point is 01:14:11 a luchador so okay right which is which mirrors the evolution of her character and how it went in the various like series where in the original animated series that you know premiered in the late 60s she was very much just like danger prone you know she didn't seem to have a lot to contribute and she was always the one getting kidnapped but then later versions of the show made a change to her character so like versions that came out in the 90s and 2000s had her knowing martial arts and like being able to defend herself so cool the movie recognized that and was like, okay, we're going to like kind of show that whole arc in this movie. So yeah, she opens up being damseled like in that opening scene. She's not only been kidnapped, but also the ghost. I think it's implied that it keeps like touching her butt. And yes, it is. And you're just like, and it's presented in a very like jokey way.
Starting point is 01:15:25 So that's not. Yeah, like of course this would happen. Right. And then she's fed up with always being the damsel in distress. So in the two years where the group has disbanded, she has learned martial arts. And but then throughout a big chunk of the movie she's still i guess it's it's a matter of her you know being like i can do this i'm not gonna get captured again oops i did get captured and so there's like this it's definitely stop and go and i like and i feel like there's a lot of ways to view it i yeah i i was struggling with that because you're like okay they're not really like
Starting point is 01:16:06 you know mary suing her but also it felt like it was playing her recapture as more of a joke than anything else i don't know i think that if like if this storyline for daphne was presented in a movie that came out today i would be really exhausted by it right because she's like i'm not a damsel in distress uh which i think at this point is like pretty overdone and hackneyed and blah blah blah but for the time i think that it was like it's it's at least an interesting way to kind of publicly course correct the character as i don't know i think that they could have done more to be like she's actually a very competent person and there's a way i think that the barbie movie does this far more effectively of saying like hyper femininity or even just traditionally feminine qualities and aesthetics does not equal weakness does not equal um incompetence does not equal
Starting point is 01:17:06 being lesser than which it like the Daphne character I think that that is like that's where that is headed and I like that they they don't you know they don't sacrifice like what makes what is important like she likes wearing purple and she likes having cool outfits and like i love that for her and i like that you know as she's proving that that it's not like i feel like sometimes you get sort of when um when women are you know asked to like step up and become leaders they have to they're asked to shed elements of who they are and it's like if that's something that you want to do, great. But it feels almost like the way to be taken seriously is to present more masculine. And Daphne does not do that.
Starting point is 01:17:53 Barbie does not do that. It's like, I think, a worthwhile message. But yeah, the way that she's characterized is very kind of, it was hit and miss for me scene to scene for me i didn't mind the arc of you know deciding she basically she quits because she doesn't like that she's always being damseled or that that's like yeah it almost feels like commentary on the just the idea of being damsel did somebody say commentary and okay you know she decides to take matters into her own hands but then applying the skills
Starting point is 01:18:35 that she learned obviously is going to take some time to get used to and so she still is you know she's she's working out the kinks as the story goes. But then by the end, her arc is fully realized with that fight with the luchador who is in the movie for some reason. And she kicks his ass. And, you know, it's very a 2002 way to handle all of that. But yeah, I didn't mind it i think i think a valiant attempt for 2002 in this arena um yeah i i was pleasantly surprised and i think that like the the downsides of that which based on james guns james guns characterization so we you know whatever
Starting point is 01:19:21 we can't say for totally sure but it seems like the um you know fred kiss at the end i would guess that that studio notes because that felt pretty unconnected to what her journey throughout the movie was right you don't even really see her and fred interacting very much like fred's main story very much has to do with this ego death in acknowledging that Velma is a person who is smarter than him. So his story is unconnected to Daphne's. So I think that more so they're like, oh, we need a series of heterosexual moments because it's the end of the movie. And these two characters are already publicly associated as husband and wife and also cartoon boyfriend girlfriend right makeup kiss yeah but even that that felt like i i liked that daphne's main story was you know like it is like
Starting point is 01:20:12 a proto like but for a kids movie and 2002 i think it works and i um i enjoyed sarah michelle Sarah Michelle Gellar's performance and and did I enjoy the outfits yes I did I love those damn outfits any other any other thoughts on Daphne oh you're wearing your flubber mambo t-shirt oh yes I sure am and the heat of flubber and the heat of flubber. In the heat of flubber. Another huge green influencing. I mean, what a decade for the color green. Flubber. Yeah. Trek. Jim Carrey Grinch.
Starting point is 01:20:52 Whoa. All in the same five-year span. Incredible. Three-year span. 98, 2000, 2001. Wait, flub. Wow. Mind-blowing.
Starting point is 01:21:03 Kermit's impact. Yes. Well, let's talk about Daphne or you know let's talk about Velma yes um I similarly like that her arc is being frustrated that a man is taking credit for all of her work because she's like recognizably the best at solving mysteries she is doing a lot of uh deductive reasoning she understands what a lot of clues mean she's doing a lot it's her whole thing she's always been the smartest person in the group. Right. I will say, the detail that she, in the two-year interim, was kind of military-industrial complexing. They say she was developing missiles for NASA. Right. And you're like, now that is a misapplication of Velma Dinkley's powers. I like to think that she is a leftist.
Starting point is 01:22:08 I was like, why is she making missiles for the government? Imagine being getting so mad at Freddie Prinze Jr. that you pivot to making missiles for the government. I know. Also, making missiles for NASA, that also feels like a mismatch. Because you're like, what is missiles to like... Fire at aliens in outer space? It felt weird that they said she was making missiles for NASA.
Starting point is 01:22:32 For NASA, yeah. Hey, astronaut gang. I'm sure a lot of people with doctorates listen to this show because we're so... Intellectual? Just so fucking... Yeah, we're just a really well-educated show. And that's why you do have a master's degree well in screenwriting from boston university not that i'd ever mention it i'm just saying that people that are geniuses want to listen to scooby-doo for two
Starting point is 01:22:57 hours um it's but she i was like bad practice Velma developing missiles in her off time. We will give it a pass this time. But in the heat of 9-11, she's developing missiles. And I'm just like, these are, I don't, how old? I think they're supposed to be in like, I think they're supposed to be like college aged. So you're like, did Velma vote for Bush? Oh, she's developing missiles.
Starting point is 01:23:27 Caitlin. I mean, I mean, Daphne, I will say Daphne. I think Daphne votes blue. No matter who. I don't want to get into the politics of it.
Starting point is 01:23:39 Shaggy's a libertarian though. That much is obvious. Shaggy. Oh, he's an independent thinker, which, but like, he doesn't know what he's talking about which is very libertarian no i if anyone's a libertarian
Starting point is 01:23:49 i think it's fred i think shaggy is green party he doesn't vote he doesn't vote and scooby scooby is an anarchist well yeah scooby wants to burn it all down because they don't let him vote they don't let him vote it's true um also scooby gender non-conforming icon in this movie before we get to velma there because she's developing missiles she has to wait for a second scooby i don't have much to say about scooby other than i mean check this guy out he looks a little scary in this movie but he's that's not his fault. That's the fault of the bad CGI at the time. And Scooby is a part of our lives.
Starting point is 01:24:34 Whether we like it or not, Scooby is a part of our lives. And Scooby does wear a dress. Scooby is in grandma drag during the plane scene. Yes. And, you know, I didn't hate it i didn't hate it yeah uh i think what was interesting about that scene was that scooby's in grandma drag first of all everyone on at the airport thinks falls for it falls for it and thinks it's hot they're like this thing that's very visibly a dog in a dress. They're like, woohoo, a wooga.
Starting point is 01:25:11 And then I think most interestingly, Scooby punches Fred in the face in Grandma Drag, and it is never commented on. It doesn't come back. There's no consequence. Fred just goes, ow. Well, he initiates the violence. He fl scooby on the nose scooby responds by punching him that was out of pocket from scooby this yeah not that it was like you know the flick certainly an invasion of personal space but
Starting point is 01:25:38 scooby really decks fred um and i'm sure i was laughing when I was a child. Sure. I'm laughing when Scooby punches Fred in the face. So I just wanted to give a quick shout out to Scooby gender nonconforming icon, Scooby self-confidence icon, because when he's told he's pure of heart, Scooby's not fighting it. He's like, yeah, that tracks. That makes sense. Scooby, you know, has some work to do as an uncle, but he's on the journey. I love Scooby. And I really, I don't really have anything to, it's not relevant to our discussion, commenting on how much I like the scene between Matthew Lillard and Scooby when he's like, Scooby, you're my best friend.
Starting point is 01:26:23 I'm not going to let Mr. Bean do this to you. But I teared up. I thought it was really nice. I think their friendship. I mean, Scooby and Shaggy, they're special together. They're special together. I know. And I love them.
Starting point is 01:26:37 All right, let's go back to Velma. Yes. So Velma is fed up with this man taking credit for her work. Yep. And she quits. Then Fred's arc becomes about learning to respect Velma and recognize and acknowledge her contributions to the group and to stop taking credit for her work.
Starting point is 01:27:03 The bar is very low here and yet but that is his arc and yet we're cheering and we're clapping when it happens yes we're like yay yeah we are really conditioned to accept very little from fred here because i i like found myself on my first watch congratulating fred on things that were like nonsensical i'm like wow he acknowledged that velma is an attractive person and you're just like why am i giving fred credit for nothing yeah but yeah his arc is that he like learns to concede some of the credit i don't really remember within i don't know i guess i just never had hopefully scooby fans won't take this personally. I never had a very vested interest in Fred. I would say if I'm ranking the characters, he is dead last.
Starting point is 01:27:52 Wait, rank them. Rank them really quick and include Scooby. Oh my goodness. Well. Go. It's important. Scooby number one. Good, good, good.
Starting point is 01:28:02 Keep going. I would say Velma number two. Daphne number three. Good, good, good. Keep going. I would say Velma number two, Daphne number three, Shaggy. And maybe this is still great, but he is he, I find him kind of irritating.
Starting point is 01:28:15 Are you ranking Fred above Shaggy? No, but Fred is last, but I just don't have a lot of respect for, for Shaggy. Although I do relate. You're like Shaggy needs to get his ass up and work shaggy i do relate to his interest in food i like that he's more that i just i don't know would i want to date shaggy no do i want to date fred well that's not what's on i'm not that's not what's on but how fuckable is shaggy to you
Starting point is 01:28:58 no one asked no one asked although i think i have dated a kind of a series of shaggy types uh yeah to the point where first i'm currently dating dating showed up to my house the other day accidentally you know like accidental minion when someone's wearing yellow top and jeans accidental shaggy oh green shirt brown green shirt corduroy pants wow scary wow scary awesome but well maybe he was trying to look like shrek but then you're gonna need to get a vest and for someone to have a vest it is just so shrek intentional um so shrekian if you will yes in the shrekian heat um my My rankings are the same as yours, except I am swapping Daphne and Velma. Okay. But yeah, obviously Scooby, number one.
Starting point is 01:29:50 Let's not play around. I love a talking animal. Paddington, hello. See, I don't even like a talking animal. I love Scooby. Ruby, Ruby, Roo. And I think it's only because he talks. Scooby, as a character in this tone poem
Starting point is 01:30:07 Scooby only speaks when he has something to say he's not just running his mouth and I really appreciate that in a character I appreciate when he's he is careful he he he can speak english as a dog he can speak english but he's not you know he's not waxing poetic selecting his words very carefully and that's not to say he doesn't have a very rich interior life because you know he does you know there's a lot going on in that big old dog cranium of his although there is one thing he says that i did not like one bit what did he and it's when he's trying to convince shaggy that mary jane is actually a monster and shaggy is like no i don't believe you first of all believe scoobies secondly scoobies response to that is saying you're whipped yeah and i was like first of all who told scooby what that means who taught him that and you know maybe not to call
Starting point is 01:31:14 shaggy out as a bad you know parent slash friend but i bet shaggy taught him that there were you think scooby learned that on the beach where i think scooby learned it from fred oh very possible very possible yeah the and i think that that is i'm grateful i mean i not that i think that the concept of being quote-unquote whipped has made its way out of media entirely i do think that phrase has has sort of gone the way of Jim Carrey Grinch. It's not around anymore. Had a moment. It did, but I haven't heard it in over a decade, I think.
Starting point is 01:31:54 I think, yeah. And I think that that is, that's, you know, that's something. I was kind of jarred to hear that phrase because I was like, oh, I kind of forgot that was a thing. And why is Scooby-Doo saying it? And why was it really so pervasive that Scooby-Doo could say it and that Shaggy would be insulted by it? Because I think something that is nice about Shaggy in general is that he is a – and also, you know, I'm ranking him four out of five. But the first three are so strong. I like Shaggy a lot and i
Starting point is 01:32:25 think that like he is a very emotionally generous and empathetic character in ways that men are not often depicted as being um he is effusive in all of his friendships with people of all genders and in this relationship with mary jane while she is a non-character as we'll get to is like he's like openly liking her he's not playing the fred game he's not negging her he's like and so yeah again for like the whipped thing to be introduced and for shaggy to be insulted it also just felt like out of character because you're like i don't think shaggy really gives a shit yeah like what's getting into these boys? They're such nice guys. It's these creatures. It's the monsters.
Starting point is 01:33:09 It's the monsters that were unleashed. Yeah, so that I found to be, that was not Scooby's best moment. But I have to believe that he grew from it. And I, oh, Scooby. All right, Velma. to believe that he grew from it and i oh scoopy all right velma okay so velma um yeah i i do also like and it feels very of the time um and in that same sort of like mission that it seems like james gunn had that we've been talking about of addressing just like the popular tropes or the popular opinions around this character and attempting to challenge them which it seems like having her be explicitly queer in this movie was
Starting point is 01:33:53 an extension of that mission but barring that like addressing like how she is always been considered to be the smartest person of the group but is not considered to be the leader person of the group, but is not considered to be the leader. And why is that? And like exploring that through the story, I think is a really smart move. And I like, I mean, I don't know. I still think that Fred ends up a little bit too on top for my taste towards at the end of the movie. And that, yeah, the conclusion of this movie just in general is tricky
Starting point is 01:34:24 because i like velma's journey i obviously don't like script notes boyfriend but he's barely there he kind of is just there to like set up a flashback and then comes back at the end yeah and i also don't i mean at the beginning in a way that um i think that even though you don't get you know the um intended i guess undercurrent that you're that was intended between daphne and velma i think they have like a kind of a smaller but interesting story going on as well where at the beginning of the movie velma is kind of on the like i don't take daphne seriously train like she says you practically come with your own ransom note. Like she's very much on the side of Fred when it comes to Daphne standing up for herself.
Starting point is 01:35:10 And she and Daphne later on, once the monsters are unleashed, have that scene together where they figure something out together. And it's like by the end of the movie velma i think has come around on not taking daphne seriously and challenging her own assumptions about her friend and it's like okay so kiss but that doesn't happen but i i did appreciate that i mean it was like a smaller arc but um that velma starts sort of i mean it's like you see those dynamics in real life of like there are you know two women in this group and uh one is turning on the other to try to gain favor of the shitty men that they're surrounded by it's a dynamic that definitely exists it sucks but it exists and it feels like that is sort of hinted at within this group and then velma um to some extent realizes the error of her ways
Starting point is 01:36:06 and i like that i like and and like linda cartellini is a great velma true trope that is addressed in a way that i did not think was productive and was just like showing the thing was you'd be so pretty if you took off your glasses. The sequence in which Velma's glasses are off, she's more sexualized immediately. Well, and this happens to an even greater extent in the sequel, where she's trying to impress Seth Green. So Velma takes off her glasses. She suddenly has hair that's twice as long.
Starting point is 01:36:43 I don't know if she put in some extensions or something and then she's wearing this like pleather red like very squeaky outfit that's like very form-fitting and she's doing this to impress seth green because that's what she thinks he's going to like yucky the lesson she learns well the lesson she she learns is that he didn't like it. He never liked that. He liked her the way she was originally. And she's like, oh, okay, that's nice. And I'll just be that way.
Starting point is 01:37:19 And then they get together at the end, even though for half the time, he's like, kind of a villain or something. I don't know. I wasn't fully paying attention. But he's like, maybe just a red herring. I don't't know but he's definitely a red herring do his red hair and that he has red hair did you think you know what uh when fred was possessed by the monster he very much i and i i feel like i'm bringing up the barbie movie a lot also because we're kind of preparing to to cover the barbie movie and i saw the barbie movie i movie a lot. Also because we're kind of preparing to cover the Barbie movie. And I saw the Barbie movie.
Starting point is 01:37:47 I have a lot of issues with it, but I saw it four times in theaters. I have two Barbie Halloween costumes. And I'm wearing my Barbie Crocs right now. Fred, when he's possessed by the monster, looks like Beach Ken. See, I think that Freddie Prinze Jr as Fred is, he's giving. He's giving Ken. Ken. Ryan Gosling as Ken in the Barbie movie.
Starting point is 01:38:09 Yes. I also made that, except that he is, I mean, I guess that, well, we'll talk about the Barbie episode. Ryan Gosling Ken is also absolved to a degree that I found to be a little silly. Sure. As is Fred. Because, you know, these issues, they're cyclical. We just have to keep forgiving men with certain kinds of hair. But what were we talking about?
Starting point is 01:38:34 Who can say? Oh, we were talking about how Velma is treated in the sequel. Well, I mean, that is nice. But also, again, an over-rewarding of the male character to be like, wow, he likes a woman for being a person and then the reason i brought it up is because it's daphne's idea for velma to dress like that no and they have this really bizarre conversation where she's like i'll help you pick out an outfit and and before that velma's, I don't know how to get him to like me.
Starting point is 01:39:08 I'm not hot. And then Daphne's like, I'm not hot either. Anyway, let's go change our outfits. And it's just like, who wrote this exchange? I'm bummed. I have had that exact exchange with women friends. Like, I look like shit. No, I look like shit. Well, like shit well i'm gonna change my shirt
Starting point is 01:39:28 but this is children's media you know don't do that don't do that don't do that ultimately with vama i appreciate that this is her story like her main story is challenging fred's being an asshole the story is very clearly on her side. I think that there is a marked difference with how, I don't think that, well, Velma is damseled at one point, but then is rescued by Daphne. And, like, giving Daphne this big moment of agency and challenging how Shaggy viewed her
Starting point is 01:40:01 to not be an active member of the group. And, like, we get moments with Daphne and Shaggy where they to not be an active member of the group and like we get moments with daphne and shaggy where they're sort of presented as like the less effective members of the group and daphne is like no we have to do this i think that the way that velma is quote-unquote damsel but like i would say more just captured generally with that with the exception of that um one i think that like even towards the end, she and Fred are captured simultaneously and are equally active in getting out of the situation. So to me, that's not even really a damseling. That's just monsters when they're unleashed.
Starting point is 01:40:36 I mean, they're going to be capturing people. One thing about monsters, don't unleash them. You're going to be in a world of trouble. Yes. So those are our gals yeah um let's talk about we we hinted at this but they're the this movie and this franchise and this movie does not move the needle on this really at all um is a very very white franchise um and the way that this movie handles any even a hint at a uh non-white, non-American culture is handled, I think, pretty poorly.
Starting point is 01:41:09 Real, real bad. So one example is the group of people who, first of all, they're, it's very vague, but they seem to be coded as polynesian in the most like generic stereotyped way possible it's like almost impossible to comment on because you're like i don't even know to the extent that the writer knows what they're even saying right right it's almost as if he just like took existing tropes and stereotypes and which to be fair i'm sure i i if i'm remembering correctly are present in the scooby do universe but but it's 2002 and you don't have to do that even in the heat of shrek don't even be racist like come on yes yes so there so there's like this just this vague coding um the character of nagu who by the way is played by a white british actor named stephen grives or greaves okay he is explaining that he and the other people are upset that emile mondavarius displaced ancient creatures there's no mention of displacing
Starting point is 01:42:29 you know people which is the thing that happens when colonizers come in and steal land from indigenous people which i mean and this feels like especially in the cartoony universe of scooby-doo like an actual opportunity to comment on it because you're, theoretically, you'd be displacing people to start a shitty theme park. Like it is like a cartoonish situation and feels like a missed opportunity. upset that these ancient creatures which are also monsters and there's references to like the island being this like thoroughfare to this like mystical realm so there's all this like mysticism attributed to this indigenously coded people there's also that luchador character named zarkos and it's like okay why do these polynesian coded people have a why is there like a cultural thing from mexico right it is just like treating like this movie and i think that the scooby-doo universe in general
Starting point is 01:43:42 and a lot of media that dates especially because like this is it almost feels like if you want to make a lazy racist writing choice then for sure adapt a property that came out 40 years ago and then and it's like oh well that property is likely already deeply racist in the way it's portrayed any other culture and like it's it's really frustrating and like yeah just over the top cartoonish the way that this movie and this franchise in general um up until more recently treats every culture that is not white midwestern americans as a monolith it's wild and then there's also the representation of voodoo, where there's a character whose name we never learn.
Starting point is 01:44:33 Everyone just calls him Voodoo Man. He is played by an actor named Miguel A. Nunez Jr. I really hope he was paid well. Oh, of course he was not for this i know i know i but i have to say it out loud and to keep optimism alive sure um we see him in i believe two scenes both times he's trying to conduct again a quote-unquote voodoo ritual but again it's nothing that resembles actual practices of the voodoo religion we talked about this a lot on the princess and the frog episode yeah where if you're interested to hear more detail like the full history of appropriation and that because that's also yeah in the princess
Starting point is 01:45:21 and the frog it's appropriation within the context of new orleans specifically and i mean there's it's it's a very deep history yes so in this movie it just is presented as like a gag i don't even know you could write that character out of the movie and it would not really make much of a difference he's only there to suggest something about the castle but like that could have just happened a different like the whole thing both the representation of voodoo of the indigenous coded people yeah i even hesitate to call it representation like it's like it's just like saying shit in a way that's offensive yeah like it's yeah the the presence of it i guess is like yeah it all reads as no thought or research went into anything it's just relying relying on and reinforcing existing stereotypes
Starting point is 01:46:15 the filmmakers it just seems like they're like well who cares only white people are gonna see this anyway which is like that again deeply untrue and uh yeah that's super i mean i i honestly i'm gonna be honest and say i haven't seen a single damn guardians of the galaxy movie and and furthermore i don't plan to i bravely have seen all three well i guess that's my question not that it in any way excuses the way that he handles a series of of cultures um throughout this movie is this something that in james gunn's body of work there's been movement on from what you've witnessed or i'm always curious and like how someone course corrects or doesn't throughout the course of their career. Right. Um, I have not watched those movies through that lens. The main thing that comes to mind is Zoe Saldana. Sure. Another example of her, you know, not being allowed to show her actual skin and instead she's much like shrek she's green she's
Starting point is 01:47:29 green she is green in those movies and even i know that as someone who is really to like kind of like absurdly avoided not those movies specifically but just like they make me tired i got so depressed after i saw doctor strange and the multiverse of madness i was like wow like a sam raimi superhero movie we're so back and then it just absolutely sucked so hard and i fell asleep and then i was just like i'm done with these motherfuckers i'm done i'm not seeing them anymore they don't even let Sam Raimi make a good one. He made Spider-Man 2. I know.
Starting point is 01:48:08 What kind of joke is this? I think that Alfred Molina could have played the Mr. Bean character, just for the record. Oh, sure. Yeah, of course. Yeah. Yeah. But he was in Frida this year, so he couldn't. Right.
Starting point is 01:48:20 He was busy. Yeah. I don't think I have anything else to talk about. Do you, do you, D O O. Jamie, Scooby,
Starting point is 01:48:31 do you, do you? No, I don't. I, I, I do not. I think that that is all I have to say about Scooby-Doo 2002,
Starting point is 01:48:41 but I will say that I, um, I was pleasantly surprised by how much of this movie held up better than i thought it was however caitlin dorante does this movie pass the bechdel test sorry first of all my name is caitlin dorante d-o-o uh-huh uh-huh uhante do and secondly um i think it does right i forgot to pay attention as per usual oh i thought you were gonna say the rectal rest um yeah does this movie rast the rectal rest uh yes it does it does uh yeah between velma and daphne uh there there's a few i mean there's some exchanges that are about you know characters like for example scooby-doo um but usually when they're
Starting point is 01:49:32 talking they they i think one that stood out to me was daphne protesting to velma characterizing her as helpless um right but they also talk about ghosts and monsters, who I think in the context of this movie are presented as relatively genderless. And so I would have that count. Oh, actually, really quick, we didn't talk about Mary Jane. Oh, right. Who I think is, like, it's frustrating because I think that, like, Daphne and Velma are the best characterized of the four I think that the the women are given more precedence and uh more significant arc than the men of the story that's
Starting point is 01:50:12 rare that's cool and then we have Mary Jane who I think is very much presented as a girlfriend character um in a more kind of stock character way We get depth to her in that she is possessed. But I would ultimately say that she's a possessed girlfriend character. And a waste. And I don't like seeing people waste Isla Fisher's time, I think, is what I believe to be true. So that's, but anyways, this movie does pass the rectal rest and the bechdel test but what about the most important metric of all time if you're referring to the ripple rail god it sounds so gross when you when we scooby-fie any of the like vernacular
Starting point is 01:51:00 associated with this show yes the rectal test and the ripple rail aka the nipple scale on which we rate the movie zero to five nipples based on examining it through an intersectional feminist lens yeah i'll give this movie i guess two nipples i think that while it does rely on some pretty tropey ideas of female characters and like the way they are designed, the way they are presented feels rather tropey at times rather ropey rather ropey i do appreciate that they are given the bar is low here but they're given narrative significance they're given interesting arcs that for 2002 feel kind of feminist in a 2002 way where one of them is tired of being damseled and so she takes matters into her own hands she learns how to fight and defend herself and then we see her doing that by the end of the movie yes and it actually follows through because i feel like so
Starting point is 01:52:18 often in this era you would get the beginning of that message and it would bear out in no significant way. So I do think ups on actually having the vague feminist statement results in something. Wow. Crumbs. Crumbs. And also that, that scene where she fights is, um,
Starting point is 01:52:38 I mean, for me, it's a, it's a slay. It's great. It's good. It's fun. And speaking of slay,
Starting point is 01:52:43 it's kind of giving Buffy the vampire sleigh. If we're saying this, the, the vernacular is dead. Um, and if it's, if it's arrived at us, you know,
Starting point is 01:52:55 well, Jamie, don't. Yeah. I was going to ask if you want to come over and lamp with me later. Something that hasn't been said in decades. And also, I never even heard it. I was like, it's very possible that that was like regional New England parlance in my area after we saw Napoleon Dynamite five years after it came out.
Starting point is 01:53:25 Really don't know. We really don't know what all that was then. We should cover Napoleon Dynamite. I said earlier I'd never want to. Oh, sorry. Okay, I'll take it back. But why did I say that? I don't know.
Starting point is 01:53:42 I think I just don't want to watch it. Oh, well, our job, Jamie, is to watch every movie. We wanted to watch Scooby. Yeah, it's true. Anyway, okay. Okay. So that is Daphne's storyline. Velma's storyline is being frustrated that a man is taking credit for her work, a very familiar thing.
Starting point is 01:54:06 We've both been there. We've both been there. And the end of the movie, the situation is that, so really it's kind of like a redemption for Fred, which is kind of annoying. Yes. But it is Velma being acknowledged and recognized publicly, like in front of the press. On the news.
Starting point is 01:54:28 On the news for her work. And then he also like, again, the bar is so low here, but he gives her the space to like tell the story for herself and say like, here's what happened. Although we cut away almost immediately. Well, it is presented as like he lets her and you're like he lets her do it exactly so that's like okay but still still not nothing not nothing so there's those pretty cool things i would have liked to see i think more of a relationship and friendship between daphne and velma i I would have liked to see Mary Jane be more of a realized character, you know, and also let Velma be gay. He tried. He tried.
Starting point is 01:55:16 But it was 2002, so... I appreciate the attempt. Right, yes. So, you know, maybe I'll bump it up to two and a half even and i'll give one to velma one to daphne and one to ruby ruby rue yay or one half i'm gonna give two and a half to the version that or not i'm gonna give two and a half to the version that came out on three to the version that james gunn intended um i think that the um the racism in this movie is pretty uh obviously fucked up um not that there's any not obvious way to do that but um it's pretty flagrant i guess is what
Starting point is 01:56:00 i'm saying um the way that a number of cultures are not only turned into a monolith but insulted on top of that and on top of that just like a lot of missed opportunities for inclusivity that the franchise takes we know now uh with the benefit of time decades to course correct on yeah i was interested to learn about the history of trying to include queer characters in this franchise and the very of-the-time way that that was prevented from happening. But I'll hand it to James Gunn for really pushing for it to the point where the actors on set were like, this is my character. For 2002, that is fairly impressive.
Starting point is 01:56:41 And then to just piggyback on what you were saying, I think that, yeah, I wouldn't have expected of this era for the two characters of the five to be most focused on would be the two women. And that, yes, at their core, they are kind of like simple feminist messages. But in the context of a kids' movie at this time the fact that those messages are are said and acted on within the story um i thought it worked i thought it was good and i
Starting point is 01:57:14 wish they had kissed yeah and so i'm gonna give uh yeah two and a half two or three depending on which version of it we're talking about. I'm going to give one to Daphne's Suitcases. I'm going to give mine only, I'm not giving mine to people. Daphne's Suitcases at the airport. I'm giving one to Scooby's Grandma Drag. And I'm giving the half to the animatronics inside of Mr. Bean. Wonderful.
Starting point is 01:57:52 And there you go, you sickos. The hundreds and hundreds of people that said, no, no. We want them to cover Scooby-Doo. Well, guess what? We did. And we had a great time. Hope you're happy. I had a great time i hope you're happy had a blast i had a rest with you ratelin verante and uh just a reminder if you want to you know force us to do things that are ultimately fun
Starting point is 01:58:16 for us um you can subscribe to our patreon aka matreon right now five dollars a month to uh listen to two additional bonus episodes with just caitlin and me every single month on a theme that uh i would say at least every other month um we give the uh matreon community a chance to choose either what the theme is or we come up with a theme and you vote on the movies occasionally we will cancel democracy and be like it's the pinocchio wars and you have to deal with it but it's just kind of a chaotic energy over there uh we have fun over there and if you liked the vibe of today's episode that's kind of what the vibe is like over on the patreon so check it out so true and that's at patreon.com slash bechtel cast you can go to rectal cast don't go we don't we can't vouch for whatever is at patreon patreon.com slash bechtelcast you can go to the rectal cast don't go we don't we can't vouch for
Starting point is 01:59:06 whatever is at patreon patreon.com slash the rectal cast but spinoff podcast no okay fine so yes patreon.com slash bechtelcast you can also go to tpublic.com slash the Bechdel cast for all of your merchandising needs, which are designed by Jamie Loftus. Sorry, Rami Loftus. Rami Loftus. Yeah, it is the season to get your, to show where you stand on the political spectrum and get merch that says, I think Beetlejuice comes sweat scabs and or dry scabs and uh yeah people love to wear the merch in public just kidding i think the entirety of like it is if you want a shirt to wear only inside your house you gotta get the scabs merch um anyways we love you so much uh we're yanking the mask off your face at being like wait you're just you're just some guy
Starting point is 02:00:06 what the fuck yeah and i would have gotten away with it if it weren't for you meddling podcasters exactly whatever exactly and i think we really stuck the landing and we're gonna bye goodbye Daphne Caruana Galizia was a Maltese investigative journalist who on October 16th 2017 was assassinated crooks everywhere unearthed the plot to murder a one woman wiki leaks she exposed the culture of crime and corruption that were turning her beloved country into a mafia state. Listen to Crooks everywhere on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. To listen to new episodes one week early and 100% ad-free,
Starting point is 02:01:01 subscribe to the iHeart True Crime Plus channel, available exclusively on Apple Podcasts. How do you feel about biscuits? Hi, I'm Akilah Hughes, and I'm so excited about my new podcast, Rebel Spirit, where I head back to my hometown in Kentucky and try to convince my high school to change their racist mascot, the Rebels,
Starting point is 02:01:19 into something everyone in the South loves, the biscuits. I was a lady rebel. Like, what does that even mean? It's right here in black and white in print. It's bigger than a flag or mascot. Listen to Rebel Spirit on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.
Starting point is 02:01:37 There's so much beauty in Mexican culture, like mariachis, delicious cuisine, and even lucha libre. Join us for the new podcast, Lucha Libre Behind the Mask, a 12-episode podcast in both English and Spanish about the history and cultural richness of Lucha Libre. And I'm your host, Santos Escobar, emperor of Lucha Libre and a WWE superstar.
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