Movies that scratch the Scooby Doo (Hardy Boys, Nancy Drew, etc) itch?

August 7, 2024 12:48 PM

I recently watched Chastity Bites and it was a movie for adults (or at least teens) that had big Scooby Doo, Nancy Drew, Hardy Boys, Three Investigators, [Insert Series Name here] energy.

It was:

• silly and camp
• not afraid of groan-worthy jokes
• about an unofficial, too-serious teen investigating a mystery
• ... and the mystery wasn't just any mystery, it was a monster
• at least partly about the interpersonal dynamics between the main character, her best friend, and another dude who gets involved in the case
• filled with sapphic (sub?)text

My ideal Scooby story is about how the supernatural doesn't exist, but this totally counts even though the monster really was a monster in this case. All they needed was a 5-minute exposition dump about how the main character was Velma in high school before she met the gang, and it could be canon.

It made me wonder if there are other movies that have big teen investigator energy, without actually being an official Scooby / Nancy Drew / whatever movie.

I'm definitely up for loose interpretations... if there are a dozen attributes that make up a Scooby experience, a movie having 4 of the 12 is probably enough, if the vibes are right.

posted by Number Used Once to Media & Arts (15 answers total)

Very tentatively, The Kid Detective
posted by crocomancer at 1:43 PM on August 7

It's been a while since I've watched it but the first thing that came to mind is The Faculty.
posted by phunniemee at 2:02 PM on August 7 [2 favorites]

There is a whole slew of Scooby Doo/Goonies vibe movies, each with its own ethnicity/nationality/quirk vibe:

- Attack the Block and Supacell (on the gritty side, british, etc)
- Kids vs Aliens (Usian kids)
- Slash/Back (Nunavut First Nation Kids)
- Dead Boy Detectives (ghosts, mostly)
- The Mysterious Benedict Society (gifted kids)

Of course, they did reboot both Nancy Drew (pretty good, actually) and Hardy Boys (hmmmm).....
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 2:07 PM on August 7 [2 favorites]

If you’re open to series, try Los Espookys. It’s basically a reverse ScoobyDoo, where a group of young people get paid to stage spooky situations. It checks pretty much all the bullet points you mentioned.
posted by chrisulonic at 2:19 PM on August 7 [5 favorites]

Have you watched the Velma animated origin story? Mindy Kaling voices Velma and EP'd it, it hits all those points a few times over.
posted by k3ninho at 2:41 PM on August 7

Adventures in Babysitting
Mystery Team
Please Don't Destroy: The Treasure of Foggy Mountain
Stranger Things ... ?
posted by credulous at 2:58 PM on August 7 [1 favorite]

Also, they redid Archie comics' Riverdale as a grimdark, CW-style series that morphed from a could-have-been-a-carcrash to a batshit insane YA adventure, complete with cults, serial killers, aliens, witches, time-travel and Lovecraftian monsters.

Lastly, if your pain tolerance is high, there is:

Stitchers (featuring Allison Scagliotti from Chastity Bites and Warehouse 13), a so-bad-it's-OK cross between Flatliners and Mindstorm

Wolfpack (Buffy and Abercrombie & Fitch teens fight California wildfires .... with werewolves)

and

Pandora (Abercrombie & Fitch teens....in SPAAAACE!)
posted by Bigbootay. Tay! Tay! Blam! Aargh... at 3:10 PM on August 7 [2 favorites]

Two TV shows: Not a monster, but Veronica Mars. And supernatural but not exactly a monster, On My Block which is heavy on friend dynamics
posted by knile at 4:25 PM on August 7

I have not watched Susie Searches and it has decidedly mixed reviews but might be worth a try (it's something I want to watch but I haven't gotten to it yet).

Brick might be slightly darker than what you want but also ... Brick. (I love Rian Johnson, though.)

Slightly further afield, but Do Revenge may also work. It's every teen girl movie in a technicolor noir and it's amazing.
posted by edencosmic at 5:59 PM on August 7 [1 favorite]

Seconding Mystery Team with Donald Glover. No idea why this film isn't more widely known/enjoyed.

Another boy-detective-grown-up (?) situation: Dick Town.
posted by BrashTech at 6:03 PM on August 7

Nobody’s mentioned the Venture Brothers yet? It’s a bit more Jonny Quest than Hardy Boys, but it’s sly, modern, and hilarious. And not too cynical. There is a movie, but it was made after the TV series. It leans on a lot of running jokes, so I don’t know if it’s a good place to start (and absolutely spoils major reveals from the tv show)

(I haven’t heard any good press/reviews of Velma)
posted by itesser at 9:02 PM on August 7

If you have access to Netflix, I would wholeheartedly recommend The Pentaverate! While the lead investigator, Ken Scarborough, is a not a teen but a late middle aged human-interest reporter, he is earnest as all get-up. Wacky shenanigans ensue!
posted by Rube R. Nekker at 9:09 PM on August 7

Might be just me but I think The Goonies fits into that niche nicely.
posted by Lynsey at 7:22 AM on August 8

Darby and the Dead checks a bunch of those boxes.
posted by rikschell at 6:16 PM on August 8

I Am Not A Serial Killer is a fun, creepy little teen-investigator thing that takes some interesting turns. I really enjoyed it. Bonus: Christopher Lloyd!
posted by Mister Moofoo at 8:06 PM on August 8