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James Gunn says he received some pretty harsh pushback from Warner Bros. when making 2002's live-action Scooby-Doo, as the studio wanted something a bit more family-friendly.
"The first movie was a nightmare. People know that our first rating was rated R – it was about something stupid; it was not an R-rated movie," Gunn told The Viall Files podcast, when asked about the notes he received on his 2002 live-action Scooby-Doo movie. "We cut that one thing and then it was PG-13. We had written and directed a movie that was for teenagers, that was basically a little more like Austin Powers – it was more risque."
As a millennial who grew up on the Scooby-Doo cartoons and was elated when the first-ever live-action movie was announced... I would pay pretty good money to see what this supposed R-rated cut of this very PG Warner Bros. movie.
The film stars Shaggy (Matthew Lillard), Scooby (voiced by Neil Fanning), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), and Velma (Linda Cardellini), as the one and only Mystery Incorporated, a group of well-known super sleuths who always crack the case. After taking two years off, the gang reunites to investigate a mystery at a popular horror-themed tropical island resort known as Spooky Island. Raja Gosnell directed the pic from a screenplay by Gunn.
Continued Gunn: "They decided that this was a movie completely for family, children, and that everything needed to be adjusted to be for kids. Some of it… they couldn’t get around. The girls' cleavage was CGI'd [out] because of one test audience member in Sacramento who was like, 'Why are their dresses so low-cut?' So both Sarah and Linda's cleavage was CGI'd out."
The notes for the sequel Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed, also directed by Gosnell and written by Gunn, must have been a bit different, given that whole scene where Velma wears a super tight latex dress. The film still somehow maintained a PG rating, despite being a bit more violent and having a few more adult jokes. Both films are considered cult classics, even though they did pretty well at the global box office (and have won several Oscars in my house).
Scooby-Doo: The Movie and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed are streaming now on Netflix. For more, check out our list of the best Netflix movies and the best Netflix shows to stream right now.
