Release: June 28, 2016
Film: Scooby-Doo: Monsters Unleashed
Tagline: Scooby and the gang are back and the Critic is back to rip it to shreds!
Episode: Season 9, Episode 13
Title: Scooby-Doo 2
Previous: The Grinch vs. The Cat in the Hat - Was That Real?
Next: How True is Amadeus?
Recapper: NESBoy
One day, the Nostalgia Critic is going over notes for his show backstage when a mysterious light suddenly declares that his reign of terror is not over and beckons him to finish what he started (the Critic asks himself, "Why aren't I used to stuff like this already?"), leaving behind a DVD of Monsters Unleashed. As the Critic studies the DVD, a security guard he didn't know worked there appears, asking what he missed. The Critic explains he has a mystery related to his earlier Scooby-Doo movie review. Since he has no idea who is behind the mystery, he tells the security guard he's going to summon a group of mystery-solvers, proceeding to say into his cell phone, "Get me Gus, Lassie and Jules." The show proceeds to show a title sequence for You Just Got Psyched.
The Critic — now in the role of Shawn (Gus is played by Malcom, Lassie is played by Jim, and Jules is played by Tamara) — goes around loosely reenacting typical Psych antics with the rest of the gang, completely ignoring the security guard, who attempts to reveal himself as the culprit of the mystery in an unsubtle manner. The group eventually leaves, and Shawn turns back into the Critic. The security guard again tries to clue the Critic in on himself being the perpetrator, but the Critic dismisses him by telling him to get back to his job, saying to himself, "Some people never open their eyes."
During the beginning of Monsters Unleashed, the Critic immediately declares Alicia Silverstone's character to be behind the movie's mystery, exclaiming, "I've never seen someone so desperate to be found guilty in my life!" On that cue, the security guard returns, asking the Critic if he has any idea on who's behind the current mystery. To the guard's frustration, the Critic passively responds, "I'm fine, Tamara!"
While the Critic watches another villain identity misdirect in Monsters Unleashed, the mysterious light reappears to taunt him before a safe falls towards him. Dodging the safe, the Critic turns back into Shawn as the rest of the Psych gang returns. Also returning is the security guard, whom Shawn notices has rope burns on his hand, appeared just after the accident, and has a name tag that reads "Roger", leading him to suspect that the one behind the crime must be... Cary Elwes, Tim Curry or William Shatner. Roger is once again baffled, exclaiming, "Do you need to lick a frog to work here?!"
At the end of the movie, the Critic complains about how lacking The Stinger was when he is interrupted by the mysterious light's reappearance. Turning once more into Shawn, he summons the other Psych characters as the light repeatedly increasingly blunt hints that Roger is behind it, telling them to write it down as it does so. Roger returns and Shawn reveals that he figured out the person behind the crime, who is revealed to be none other than Jules. Shawn and Gus attempt to conclude the mystery with a thematic satire of Class Act, but Roger finally gets fed up, ranting about them being complete idiots for not understanding that he is the culprit and for making a Narrow Parody of Psych. Shawn explains that that they knew is was Roger, but Jules still did it because she swapped out the copy of the Monsters Unleashed DVD Roger left for the Critic while no one was looking, and dropped the safe before Roger by cutting the rope. She even wrote her name down when Roger told them to write the culprit's name down. As it turns out, the true intent of the review is to provide a smarter fake-out mystery than the film, and the Critic gives his final thoughts on Monsters Unleashed:
The episode ends without going over Roger's motivation. After all, if Scooby-Doo and Psych give little attention to the villain's motivation, why the Nostalgia Critic?
This review provides examples of...:
- Affectionate Parody:The in-between sketches are a parody of Psych, particularly with Roger's rant.
- Bait-and-Switch: When the Nostalgia Critic figures out it's Jules who is responsible, it just seems like he is continuing to miss the obvious and tick off Roger, only to reveal that he was onto Roger from the start, but knew someone else was using the opportunity to use the exact same plan with only very subtle differences.
- Call-Back: To the Critic's review of the first Scooby-Doo movie.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: If you look closely after a ton almost lands on the Critic, you can see Jules kick a pair of scissors under the couch, foreshadowing the above twist.
- Genre Savvy: At the beginning, when he sees Alicia Silverstone's character, the Critic nonchalantly announces, "She did it," and shames the movie for trying to fake the audience out with so many false leads.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Roger shouts out "Madre de pendeja!" ("Son of a bitch!") when NC won't recognize that he's the guilty party.
- In the Style of: The review is done like an episode of Psych.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Roger, who doesn't bother trying to hide that he's the one responsible for making NC review Scooby-Doo 2, even when he's in the guise of a security guard.
- Rage Breaking Point: When Jules is declared to be the perpetrator, Roger finally gets fed up...Roger: You did everything wrong! Everything! First you get the satire wrong, then you get the satire in the satire wrong! Then you do these awful impressions on one of USA's longest-running series! For God's sakes, your Tim Curry wasn't even white! [...] Then you try to solve this bullshit mystery that's so friggin' obvious, and you still... get... it... WRONG!!!
- Riddle for the Ages: Is the story of how Roger came back and the reason he made the Critic review the movie and try to kill him as complex and interesting as he claims? As far as the other characters are concerned, no one cares.
- Running Gag: Throughout the review, the Critic demonstrates how the movie makes you dumber the longer you watch it.
- Sanity Slippage: Happens to Roger when he keeps trying and failing to convince the Critic that he is the culprit, to the point where he's practically pleading to be framed. This is also NC's idea of what he thinks some of the stars of the movie are going through as well.
- Screaming at Squick: NC has this reaction to Shaggy drinking a potion that turns him into a woman."I WANNA GO HOME!"
- Shout-Out:
- He speculates that Seth Green is only in the movie so he can get the cast on Robot Chicken.
- Part of his Running Gag on his instance that Velma is a lesbian is a reference to the Give Elsa A Girlfriend hashtag campaign.
- At one point Critic!Linda Cardellini realizes she'll get better work at Disney, a reference to her role on a certain other supernatural mystery show for kids.
- Star-Derailing Role: NC considers this movie to be the one that killed Alicia Silverstone's career.
- Take That!: There's the anti-Pokémon joke and a brief jab at the more zealous fans of Buffy the Vampire Slayer both mocking their respective Fan Dumbs.
- Combined with Self-Deprecation, as Nostalgia Critic says that his show has stolen more from Psych than The Mentalist "if that's possible".
- Troll: NC makes a quick "Pokémon sucks" joke and gets the crowd booing and leaving comments at him to show he's still got it.
- Villainous Breakdown: Roger has one, after to enough of The Critic blindly overlooking him, despite barely even trying to hide that he was the culprit. At least, he thought he was the culprit. It turns out, however, he wasn't.
