Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

'Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins' is a reboot to the theatrical films, Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Produced by Cartoon Network and Warner Premiere, directed by Brian Levant and distributed by Warner Home Video. The TV film premiered on September 13, 2009, the 40th anniversary of Scooby-Doo on Cartoon Network and released on DVD and Blu-ray on September 22nd.

Premise
Four unlikely high school students (and one Great Dane) team up to clear their good names after they are accused of vandalizing their school and to solve the mystery of the haunting of Coolsville High before their parents are informed that they were expelled.

Synopsis
The bus is going to Coolsville High, there Shaggy, a goofy teenager who loves to eat, meets Fred, the school quarterback, whose friend trips Shaggy every day, then Velma, the smartest girl in the school, finally he meets Daphne, the seemingly shallow drama club president. The bus arrives at school without any further interaction between the four, and Shaggy has a talk with Principle Deedle about his lack of friends, Deedle gives Shaggy a book on Philately (stamp collecting) which the principal is obsessed with.

Meanwhile after not being adopted at a pet adoption fare, the Great Dane Scoobert Doo accidentally falls out of a truck, and then wanders into a graveyard. Two ghosts scare him away, and he bursts into Shaggy's bedroom window. The two meet, and Shaggy nicknames the dog "Scooby" and says he can stay at his house, Scooby agrees.

The next day, Shaggy tries to sneak the (clothed) dog onto the bus with him, but their cover is blown when Scooby bites the ankle of a bully, a fight breaks out on the bus, and because the driver is distracted, he crashes the bus into a pole, which smashes Vice Principal Grimes' windshield. Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred are all sentenced to detention, during a pep rally, for causing the distraction, while Scooby remains tethered outside.

An argument breaks out among them during detention, then the weather turns cold, and books start flying off the shelves, two ghosts come and scare the kids into the pep rally. At the pep rally, another ghost appears, the three cause panic telling everyone to leave, then they disappear. Vice principal Grimes accuses the four kids of pulling a prank, and suspends them.

The gang then follows Scooby to the graveyard where he saw the ghosts to clear their names. At the graveyard, two suspicious graves (Prudence Prufrock and Ezekiel Gallows) are found, and Velma makes a rubbing of them.

The next day, the kids meet up in Shaggy's basemant, and Velma tells them about how the two graves were the founding faculty of the old school which was wiped out in the Coolsville flood just before 1900. They decide to go looking for clues at the school that night.

Once they arrive, Velma finds a sticky fluid beneath where the third ghost appeared. The ghosts of Ezekiel and Prudence then posses two football mannequins and attack the group, who split up and are chased by the ghosts. Fred discovers another clue, the gymnastics harness, which would allow the specter to 'fly'. During the chase, Shaggy and Scooby are locked in the school's freezer, but the rest of the gang escapes.

The next day, Velma, Freddy and Daphne return when they realize Scooby and Shaggy are gone, Grimes discovers the two in the freezer, along with a lot of damage caused to the school by the ghosts. The gang is expelled, and upon leaving, Velma tells the gang that the liquid they found can be used to make a smokescreen like the third ghost had, and Shaggy tells them about two possible suspects, Otis, the janitor, who never wanted to be a janitor, and the librarian, who is angry about having her budget slashed and having to do "double duty with a bunch of illiterates" (detention).

The gang comes back later in the school day wearing disguises to spy on the suspects. Fred and Daphne find out that Otis just wants to be a dance star, and Velma finds out that the librarian got a transfer, and that Vice Principal Grimes checked out a book on raising the dead. The gang decides to go to Grimes' house, but they do not have a car or licenses to drive all the way to Coolsville mountain where he lives. They take Daphne's van after Shaggy reveals he was held back and has his license.

At Grimes' house, they are attacked by the ghosts after finding the book on raising the dead, then the third ghost (the specter) incapacitates them, and brings them back to the school, where he has blown a hole in the floor of the gym that leads directly into the old school which was buried in the flood.

The specter forces them to search for a time capsule buried down there after threatening a crated Scooby and Grimes. The gang goes down into the old school, then they lure the specter down, and attack him, unfortunately, their plan fails when a flooded room knocks them all down, and the specter sics Ezekiel and Prudence on them.

While looking for a spell to get rid of the ghosts, Shaggy accidentally releases more ghosts onto the town. Meanwhile Scooby breaks free of his bonds.

Eventually Shaggy manages to banish the ghosts, who apologize, saying they were not in control, and Scooby ties up the specter. The gang finds the time capsule, and unmasks the specter, it turns out to be... Principle Deedle, he wanted a rare misprinted stamp buried in the time capsule. The gang is personally awarded by Grimes whom they rescued, and are admitted back into school.

With the mystery over, there is nothing to bind the friends together anymore, but just as they are about to go their separate ways, Velma comes back and informs them of some "strange goings-on at the museum" and they set off to solve another mystery along with Scooby-Doo!

Songs
Performed by Edmund (Ed) Hartman
 * "Football Funky"

Performed by Mariachi la Estrella
 * "Fiesta"

& "You and I" Performed by Anarbor
 * "What's New, Scooby-Doo?"

Performed by David Buttolph
 * "American Jig"

Locations

 * Coolsville
 * Coolsville High School
 * Coolsville Pet Adoption Fair
 * Coolsville Cemetery
 * Rogers home
 * Dinkley home
 * Blake Mansion
 * Coolsville Mountain
 * Vice Principal Grimes's home (Old Spooky House)
 * Coolsville Museum (mentioned)

Notes/trivia

 * The role of Otis (the dancing janitor) is played by C. Ernst Harth, who also portrayed Miner 49er in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
 * The music is scored by Academy Award-nominee David Newman, who had previously scored the theatrical films.
 * Other known titles are: Scooby-Doo 3 and Scooby-Doo: In The Beginning.

Filming locations
Production took place in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada from August 4, 2008. Cartoon Network's content advisor, Rob Sorcher, said “This contemporary take on Scooby-Doo will be an exciting movie event on Cartoon Network. This project is also an anchor component of our new push into movies, our great partnership with Warner Premiere and the overall expectation of Cartoon Network programming efforts.”

Templeton Secondary School stood in for Coolsville High School.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (DVD)
 * Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (Blu-ray)