The latest Scooby-Doo revival, simply called Scoob!, was initially set to be the first theatrical film in the series since 2004’s Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, but the Coronavirus pandemic has forced distributor Warner Bros. to release the film directly to Video on Demand. With a whole new cast of actors in the iconic Mystery Inc roles (in addition to series veteran Frank Welker as Scooby himself), Scoob! represents the latest rebirth for the beloved franchise, which has entertained children of all ages for over 50 years.
In addition to the traditional Scooby-Doo cast, Scoob! also features new versions of some Hanna-Barbera favorites, including Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, and a few others we dare not spoil here. Jason Isaacs stars as the film’s big bad, Dick Dastardly, best known for his status as the bumbling villain of Wacky Races.
While promoting the digital release of Scoob!, Jason Isaacs spoke to Screen Rant about working on the film. He talks about his childhood love of both Scooby-Doo and Wacky Races, and wistfully recalls his childhood love for Penelope Pitstop (who, alas, does not appear in Scoob!). He also talks about his love of accents and the process of discovering the right voice to bring this particular version of Dick Dastardly to life.
Scoob! is now on Video on Demand.
You are a master of accents. You’ve done a lot of cartoons and video games. You’ve got Castlevania and Star Wars, and in live action, you know, Hotel Mumbai, incredible movie. Could you talk a little about doing a character like Dick Dastardly, who is a villain, but with different sensibilities than, you know, Satan, whom you’ve played before?
The thing about Dick Dastardly is, he is the most hammy, theatrical, vain, narcissistic, egomaniacal genius that I’ve ever played. He is the quintessential mustache-twirling super villain. But he’s a pathetic loser at the same time. In the old cartoons, he would lose immediately. He was dismissable, and winging and whining, right from the beginning. But in the movie, there’s got to be a real threat, a real peril. So I had to come up with a voice that somehow embodied all those things and was funny. Because, in the end, it’s a feel-good comedy, this film. There’s only one person in the booth with me; that’s Tony, the writer/director. The challenge was just to make him laugh and then to make him believe it at the same time. So it’s got to be truthful and funny. So we cycled through a whole bunch of voices. As you said, I like doing voices, I like doing accents. So I went through a whole bunch of different things, we recorded lots of different things. Then, at some point, he laughed, and I went, “Okay, there we go.” And that’s it! If they laugh, it’s working. The joke being, when you do it really well and he laughed a lot, you couldn’t use that take, because the laughter is on the track. And I’m trying to honor the original Dick Dastardly, but play this new version, who is a big, powerful, crazy, world-beating megalomaniac. Hopefully, we found some path to walk between the two.
Were you a big Hanna-Barbera kid? What were your favorite childhood cartoons?
When I was a kid, there was no VCR or DVDs or streaming or anything. You just had to watch children’s TV when it was on. If you missed it, you missed it. And Saturday morning was a whole cartoon block in Britain. And I would run downstairs, sit on the sofa, refuse to move, and there would be Scooby-Doo and Wacky Racers. All the Hanna-Barberas were on, but Wacky Racers would be on, and I was addicted to them! I’ve seen thousands of hours of them. I watched Dick Dastardly and Muttley, and Penelope Pitstop, who I fantasized about madly… I still do. And then I found out there was a movie being made. Actually, before I found out what it was about, it was an e-mail that said “you’ve been offered a part in the movie, Scoob,” and my youngest daughter is called Ruby, and we call her Scoob. Our boys call her Scoob. And I thought, I’m in. I don’t care what it is. It doesn’t really matter what it is, if it’s about tin mining in Ukraine, I’m in! But it turned out to be an animated movie about my two favorite worlds, combining. It was phenomenal.
Very quickly, is doing a movie like this like a warm bubble bath compared to some of the other stuff you do that takes you into dark psychological places?
You know, it’s a strange thing. I’ve been in some very dark films, but these are very dark times, at the moment. Acting, itself, is always a release. Even when you’re doing something that is about the worst aspects of human behavior. It’s not real when it’s happening to you. You’re imaginatively going somewhere with full emotional commitment, and then you come out of it, and it’s play. It’s always play. I mean, there’s laughter and joy and happy clapping, and it’s always play. This was non-stop laughter at work, but even the ones that aren’t… I’ve not a very serious job. (Laughs) It’s not a very serious job! It just isn’t. I can’t pretend it is, and in times like this, we see what the serious jobs are, and the people that society should be rewarding. It isn’t people who put on funny voices and makeup for a living.
- Scoob! (2020)Release date: May 15, 2020
