In 2002, James Gunn and Craig Titley partnered up with film director Raja Gosnell to bring the iconic Scooby-Doo IP into the real world. The aloof formerly R-rated take on the beloved kids series found great success within the Scooby fanbase alongside general audiences who enjoy campier films, which were rising in popularity at the time. Additionally, its 2004 sequel, Monsters Unleashed, follows the similar trend of 2000s tropes mixed with jokes that people of all walks of life could enjoy.
Now, both Scooby-Doo: The Movie and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed can be streamed for free. This isn't us saying it's free on those unsavory sites that you can easily accidentally come across; no, it's free on YouTube. Now, it's worth noting the films aren't free without ads, the caveat to the film going free to watch is you'll need to put up with some ads here and there as if you're watching it on regular TV.
The films star Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, who continues to play that role through series like Robot Chicken, Buffy the Vampire Slayer's Sarah Michelle Gellar as Dapne, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, who continues to play Shaggy to this day in many Scooby projects, and Linda Cardellini taking the role of Velma, who once again makes appearances as the character on Robot Chicken. Meanwhile beyond Gunn, Titley, and Gosnell, you also have the iconic composer David Newman acting as the film's music guru.
With a modest $84 million budget, Scooby-Doo: The Movie managed to blow past recouping its costs with an impressive $250 million dollars worldwide. It's not too shocking then when we say that this film hasn't left the mind Gunn, be it because of his own reasons or because of fans never letting him forget about the time he made a more adult-oriented Scooby-Doo adaptation.
For example, there was the time he addressed whether or not the intiial plans for the live action films were to be threequel and those just tapered out over time. Nowadays, Gunn is pretty busy making new flicks for DC and running the whole show. Unfortunately, this even means he's confirmed a live action Scooby-Doo 3 will never see the light of day as recently as earilier in the year.
At least if we can't get more live action Scooby-Doo, we could relive the glory days of the live action flicks for free on YouTube... albeit with ads.