On a cold November night, as the clock struck midnight and the movie theater lights dimmed, the audience broke into raucous, hooting-and-hollering applause, and I knew that movie-going etiquette was out the window.
Sipping Mystery Machine Margaritas—the Music Box’s featured cocktail for the occasion—longtime fans of 2002’s cult classic Scooby-Doo watched with giddy anticipation as the beloved members of Mystery Inc. reluctantly reunited to untangle the secrets of Spooky Island. As each star made their debut, viewers screamed and fangirled, the theater overwhelmed with a sense of, “Damn, I forgot the cast was this iconic.” There’s Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred, Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, Linda Cardellini as Velma, and a not-distractingly-bad CGI Scooby Doo.
Together, they make no run-of-the-mill live-action adventure flick; the 2000s star power, queer energy, and stoner jokes that all went over my head as a kid, cause Scooby-Doo to elicit a specific queer nostalgia and sense of camp that hit just right. Shout-out to Elizabeth Arnott for programming this memorable Scooby screening.
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