While the movie may have surprisingly hit number one at the box
offices when it was first released, the “Scooby Doo 2:
Monsters Unleashed” soundtrack is anything but a hit
album.

The second movie to the first “Scooby
Doo” mystery series, the movie revolves around a
mastermind having released look alike of old monster that used to
attack the town of Coolsville. With people pressuring the gang to
take up the investigation, the Mystery Inc. group begins their
relentless investigations into the new attacks.

The group members, obviously for comedic relief, each
begin their own investigations into who may be behind these scary
ghouls attacking the city, causing a mix up of information and also
causing fights within the group. While the plot line seems thin,
the viewers obviously liked it, as it was a hit on its opening
weekend.

The soundtrack, however, seems to be a repeat of all
former soundtracks ever. None of the songs seems to be an original
to the movie or even to a soundtrack. Featured artists like Simple
Plan, New Radicals and Fatboy Slim make cameo appearances on the
soundtrack even though they have been used on other soundtracks
before.

In listening to the album all of the songs seem
somewhat similar and while some of them have a comic twist to them,
it hardly makes it worth the time to listen to the whole album. In
the song “You get what you give” by the New Radicals, when they
sing “We’ll kick your as*” in, the word ass is bleeped out, maybe
for the PG rating the movie holds. It doesn’t do much for the song
however, taking away from the content.

In another song, “Boom Shack-A-Lack” by the Apache
Indian, the words are indecipherable and while there are random
boings within the song to add to the humor of the song, it makes
the song unbearable to listen to. Who wants to listen to a song
they cannot understand?

The album does feature a song by the great new American
Idol Ruben Studdard, who obviously couldn’t sell enough of his own
records that he appeared on this soundtrack. His song named
“Shining Star” sounds remarkably like the new Usher song, but it
unfortunately isn’t. He sings, “When you wish upon a dream/ life
ain’t always what it seems” with a back beat and random input of a
trumpet. It could be a good song with its upbeat melody and
somewhat corny lyrics, but it is only heard on this soundtrack
where no one will ever find it.

There are even songs on the album that are not even in
the movie. Fatboy Slim’s song “Rockafeller Skank” is not included,
probably due to its grammatical errors and flagrant use of the word
skank, which is probably also not PG rated. Other songs such as
Harvey Danger’s song ‘Flagpole Sitta” is also not included, as he
sings “I can’t forget the curves of your body/ and when I feel a
little bit naughty/ I run up the flagpole and see.” This song was
probably not included due to the fact that it appeared in the
American Pie movies and that was certainly not rated.

Why would they include songs on the soundtrack that
aren’t even in the movie? While the soundtrack could be played to
pump someone up or to listen to in the background while getting
ready for a night out, it doesn’t have any new songs that haven’t
already been heard or used on a soundtrack before.

Grade: C