While some of you may not be fans of the live action Scooby-Doo movies, I wonder if you feel the same way about the announcement there’s a Hong Kong Phooey live action flick in the works?
Project’s an adaptation of the 1970s Hanna-Barbera animated TV series, about a police station janitor who becomes a dog with mystical powers, including the ability to do kung fu.
The movie is being produced by Brett Ratner, Jay Stern, Broderick Johnson, and Andrew Kosove.
I wonder how this movie will play out. Will it be live action with a CGI dog? I’d be up for that, especially if they didn’t try to make it look too much like that weird Cats vs. Dogs movie. Perhaps the Phooey will be replace by a live person, but that might make it too much like Iron Fist. The only thing I do know is whoever plays the title role will never live up to Scatman Crothers.
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No we’re talking!!!
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Who doesn’t love Hong Kong Phooey? Though, this is not the 70’s so the title alone should give pause, much less the premise. The guys who pitch and greenlight these movie concepts…what did they major in, and how much do they get paid? Serious question.
At this rate Capt. Caveman cannot be far behind. And perhaps a sequel to the Josie and the Pussycats movie from 10 years back.
Honestly, I didn’t have a problem with the Scooby-Doo movie per se. I mean, the animation was horrible, and the jokes were bad, but (once we take it off of its pedestal) the original show wasn’t quite cutting edge, either.
I think what bothered me about the movie was that it pandered a bit too much to the adult in-jokes that became ubiquitous.
We’ll see if this one falls victim to the same.
The voice acting is going to be key here.
Just as Jason Lee was no Wally Cox (which, in my mind, torpedoed Underdog, a similar flick) this movie won’t fly with, say, a Jonas Brother as Fooey.
Now, Neil Patrick Harris? I might possibly buy that.
When I first saw this, the one thing I immediately thought of was “Underdog”; then I thought of the best review of “Underdog” I heard – “Thanks to this movie, I now hate all dogs everywhere.” This is going to be just like “Underdog”, a name-only adaptation designed to show off how unnervingly realistically the CGI people can make a beagle do kung-fu. Ugh. Not even the mighty power of NPH could salvage another one of those.
Chris B – I actually agree with you about the Scooby movies. Scooby himself was cartoony enough that I didn’t find him to be too creepy, and the casting was solid. Like you said, the attempts at making all the fandom jokes the basis for the humor was what really killed. OMG, Scrappy’s the villain ‘cuz we all hate Scrappy, amiright? And we all thought Velma was gay ‘cuz she’s smart and real women aren’t smart, amiright? Yeah, what works in a small group for joking around don’t always translate well to a big mass market movie. They actually learned their lesson for the sequel, which as half-decent.