UPDATED with funnier video! MYSTERY TEAM trailer gives Scooby Doo an R-rated dose of reality… with hilarious results. by COOP

Posted on July 21st, 2009

I’ve always hated Scooby Doo. Even when I was a kid I watched it and I just didn’t get it. Four nitwits and a talking dog against corrupt real estate scam artists (but no real monsters) really bugged the hell out of me. When the Venture Bros. made fun of Scooby Doo by turning the characters into deranged, over the hill degenerates, I couldn’t have been more amused.

Check THAT out below…

It appears the creators behind Mystery Team aim to accomplish a similar feat by taking a Hardy Boys-like team of youthful sleuths, letting them grow into adulthood and having them take on a adult-level caper with all of the vile, lurid elements that go along with real-life crime.

This isn’t a new idea. In 2006 a film called The Cassidy Kids trod similar territory with a band of pre-teen detectives reuniting as adults only to learn that one of the cases they solved as kids was used as a smokescreen to cover up a murder made by the father of a team member. Sounds like a great concept, but a terrible cast (including Kadeem Hardison and Anne Ramsay) and a poor choice by the creators to eliminate any tongue-in-cheek elements and shoot the film as a serious drama made it a surefire miss.

Mystery Team corrects this mistake by playing up the ridiculousness of amateur detectives getting involved in real-life crime and turning it into a dark comedy. Even better, the “adult” boy detectives never actually grew up. They’re a bunch of man-children trying to relive their former glory days. Plus it’s rated-R.

Only skilled hands could make this story work, but with a bunch of unknowns, both in front of and behind the camera, anything can happen. Only good word of mouth from festival goers have brought this project to my attention. Sometimes that’s all you need to set the internet aflame with buzz. Definitely a niche indie film though. Only those with a refined sense of humor will appreciate this one.

Zoinks! Bust out your Scooby Snacks. Here’s the trailer…