Now I know what you're thinking.
Yes, this is a Scooby-Doo movie. Yes, it involves KISS. Also, yes, this is technically a "mystery" film given the set up. This film also involves mysticism, an alternative universe that holds a great evil within it that is trying to get out and take over the world, and an order of warriors who fight against him.
Sure, they may not have swords, but they do have axes!
So let's do the rundown.
Scooby-Doo! is a franchise that goes pretty much without saying what it is, given that it wrote the book on how shows in the same vein as it are done. Created in 1969 by Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the show has had various forms over the years since then. However, the basic formula that it has had most of its success with has almost always been the same: four kids and their dog travel around in a van solving mysteries. By the end of the episode, they had captured a masked bad guy and unmasked him, explaining what it was the villain had been doing and how they pulled off their tricks to pretend to be monsters.
Sometimes there would be variations on it like "Foul Play in Funland", but it mostly kept to that.
Scooby-Doo! is a franchise that really deserves it's own retrospective at some point in the future and I may just do that. It honestly is one of those franchises where there's a lot to enjoy about every incarnation about it, even if it's just repeating quite a bit.
And even if they allow Scrappy out of his kennel in Hell for them.
Now the second part of our peanut butter-chocolate combination today is the rock band KISS. They, like Scooby-Doo! were formed in the early 70's, although KISS started out from a band called Wicked Lester. Two of that band's members, Gene Simmons and Paul Stanley, wanted to take things in a new direction. Over the next few years, they gathered together drummer Peter Criss and guitarist Ace Frehley and the original lineup was cemented. Being some of the pioneers of shock rock, the four gave themselves colorful onstage personas in the style of comic book characters, complete with accompanying make up and costumes. Gene Simmons was "The Demon", Paul Stanley "Starchild", Ace Frehley "Spaceman", and Peter Criss "Catman".
This seems kind of silly to us here in the present of 2020 (unless you're reading this after that - in which case, hello modern people of [Insert Your Current Year Here]! How is the Coronavirus recovery going?), but in the 1970's, the sky was literally the limit for these guys. A testament to their longevity is the fact that "Rock N' Roll All Nite" remains, to this day, a staple of most people's [insert your music playing device here].
Also, the song is now in your head. Sorry for the inconvenience.
There was also, at the peak of their popularity, a KISS movie: KISS meets the Phantom of the Park.
Interestingly enough, Hanna-Barbera (the company behind Scooby-Doo!) also produced that movie as one of their few live action ventures. Will the next crossover between the worlds of animation and rock and roll be a smash hit?
Let's have a look. Scooby-Doo! and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery begins with Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo headed to a KISS-theme amusement park. However, as the title suggests, a mystery is afoot! An entity known as the Crimson Witch has been causing trouble at KISS World, all with her sights set on the fabled Black Diamond, a prop used by KISS in their live shows in order to summon an ancient beast from the fabled dimension of Kissteria to conquer the Earth. Will she succeed? Not if Mystery Incorporated and the Ultimate Rock Band have anything to say about it!
Of course, there are a few things that are thrown in for either gags or to play off of the characters involved. For example, Daphne (Grey DeLisle) has a massive crush on Starchild (Paul Stanley), which annoys Fred (Frank Welker) who is definitely not a KISS fan. You also have Velma (Mindy Cohn, ending her tenure as the voice of Velma that had been going since 2002), who most definitely does not believe any of the supernatural or mystical explanations for anything and seeks the truth behind all of it, wanting to break things down into facts.
Ignoring, once again, that she travels around with a talking dog. Also, yeah, it's entirely legit. KISS are superheroes from another dimension. . .and they have superpowers. . .and they use them.
Scooby and Shaggy (Frank Welker and Matthew Lillard, respectively) don't really have an arc in this movie, but they do hang around with the Demon (Gene Simmons) a bit, at first annoying him but eventually learning how to breathe fire from him.
No, don't go into this looking for a good plot. It's fairly stock as far as fantasy adventure ones go. In fact, I dare say that this film honestly could have been good without the Scooby Gang around, though I know that would be blasphemous to some.
. . .also a KISS movie solo has already been tried as we have previously established and the less said about that, the better.
However, if the addition of Scooby and the rest of the gang isn't enough to get you onboard, then the absolutely intense, sometimes balls-out insane visuals will definitely do it for you. The art in the film was said to be inspired by the works of comic book legend Jack "The King" Kirby, and boy does it show! Every bit of art that is meant to be fantastical definitely fits that definition and then some. Every single inch of even static images feels completely packed to the brim with energy and life. I know that it's a phrase that has been used to the point of being completely meaningless: but it really is a feast for the eyes.
Of course, that's fitting of the general modus operandi of KISS: visual spectacle and theatrics. Bonus points because, as I said, the art style is based off of comic book artistry. Being that this is some of the same style of art that inspired KISS to begin with, it's rather fitting.
...and yes, KISS had a comic book. Several comic books, actually. Some by Marvel, some by IDW, some by Archie Comics, of all things. I haven't read any of them (at the time of this writing), but the fact that that happened is kind of interesting.
Speaking of which, the film takes a few jabs at KISS merchandising (they have quite a lot, too). Given that they have everything from condoms to video games to funeral caskets (no, really, Dimebag Darrell is buried in one), it's a subject that is ripe for abuse.
I will also tell any KISS aficionados that this isn't the original line-up, but with Tommy Thayer and Eric Singer in for Ace Frehley and Peter Criss as Spaceman and Catman, respectively. So the band is in the current (as of 2020) lineup as opposed to the original, but it's pretty cool that they were able to get all the members of the band at any rate.
What will probably get you, in connection with the visuals, is the songs. They're all KISS staples - "Rock and Roll All Nite", "Shout It Out Loud", "Detroit Rock City", and so on - and they're all pretty good. I haven't been able to find confirmation on it, but given that the band also recorded a new song for the movie - "Don't Touch My Ascot" - I wouldn't be too surprised if they re-recorded the songs for the movie. They all sound really great, but at least two of these guys have been doing this since the 1970's and the others have been trained up by them and their predecessors, so of course they know what they're doing.
It's also just as long as it needs to be at just over an hour. So it's a relatively short, but fun and high-energy romp with some fantastic elements and more than a few laughs along the way. So, to answer my earlier question: yes, this was a great crossover between KISS and Hanna-Barbera and it only took 37 years to finally crystalize perfectly onscreen.
. . .and it's a hell of a fun ride, to boot!
Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery is now available on DVD and Blu-Ray from Warner Brothers.
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