Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery is Exactly What It Says on the Tin. Scooby-Doo and KISS are together in an animated movie with a rock and roll inspired mystery. It is the 24th Installment in the Scooby-Doo Direct-to-Video Film Series. It is also the final entry in the franchise (to date at least) to feature Mindy Cohn as the voice of Velma. Kate Micucci would replace her starting with Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!.
The story features Scooby and the gang coming to the Kiss World amusement park to see KISS play a Halloween concert where — surprise surprise — they stumble upon a mystery. Or perhaps, everything is not as it seems? Or is it?
Scooby-Doo! and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery provides examples of:
- Absurdly Sharp Claws: Catman's nails become these when his superpowers manifest.
- Accidental Kiss: When Daphne uses a churro to revive Shaggy and Scooby, they end up doing the famous spaghetti-kiss with each other.
- Actor Allusion:
- Starchild paints Daphne's portrait at one point on a lark. Paul Stanley is a painter in real life.
- He also calls Fred "Frank".
- American Accents: The Elder speaks with a thick New York accent. (KISS hail from New York.)
- Amusement Park: Kiss World is an amusement park themed after KISS.
- Another Dimension: The cosmic realm of Kissteria is another reality.
- Art Shift: The opening credits are a fun mix of stylized KISS album covers and the band in concert combined with scenes from the original Scooby intro.
- Attack Reflector: Spaceman's able to summon a spherical barrier that reflects the Crimson Witch's own energy blasts back at her.
- Barefoot Loon/Barefoot Sage/Magical Barefooter: Chikara is some combination of all three: she is quite loony, but at the same time seems to have genuine precognitive abilities and possesses a lot of knowledge about Kissteria. And she never wears anything on her feet.
- Big Bad: The Crimson Witch is set up as our big villain of the movie to... well, let's just quote her. "GIVE ME ROCK!"
- Big Bad Ensemble: The ending revealed that the Crimson Witch is this with her imposter, with both their goals being different from each other. The two seem to not be aware of each other and the rest of the gang thinks there is one sole Big Bad, with Scooby and Shaggy being the ones who are aware of the Ensemble.
- The Cameo:
- The mechanics at the opening are designed after and played by Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (Jay and Silent Bob).
- The Elder (leader of Kissteria) is played by Penny Marshall.
- Chase Scene: Several chase scenes are in the film, accompanied by KISS songs.
- Cool Airship: KISS has an airship designed to look like a guitar.
- Cool, but Inefficient: Scooby and Shaggy try to walk in KISS's boots. They have expected trouble.
- Deadpan Snarker: Velma has her moments of snarking. The Elder even refers to her as "the sarcastic one".
- The Ending Changes Everything: Done twice. At first it seems like all the fantastic elements were a hallucination but the real end reveals otherwise.
- Fictional Fan, Real Celebrity: The Mystery Inc. are obviously big fans of KISS.
- Genre Savvy: Daphne uses the fact that Mystery Inc is a Mystery Magnet to get the rest of the gang to come to KISS World in time for a concert.
- Greater-Scope Villain: The Destroyer is some kind of powerful monster trapped away years ago by KISS. The Crimson Witch seeks to free him.
- Green-Eyed Monster: Fred becomes this when Daphne shows to have a Celeb Crush on KISS band member, Starchild.
- Hero of Another Story: KISS has their own experience with groovy mysteries, but as they clarify, the ones they deal with are often more cosmic in nature.
- Ink-Suit Actor: KISS are playing their stage personas as actual superheroes ala KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. The real band voices the characters, with current members Tommy Thayer as Spaceman and Eric Singer as Catman.
- Instrument of Murder: KISS's guitars, which can be used to project attacks (fire for Demon and lightning for Spaceman, for example). Demon's guitar, in particular, looks like an axe — and at one point, he uses it as such, to smash a giant meteor-like rock into bits when it's thrown at him.
- Legacy Character: In a neat Mythology Gag the super-powered KISS origin mentions that the current members are descendants of originals. This tends to allow for the idea there have been multiple incarnations of the team over the years note . Though mind you the real members of the band weren't related, nor were they super heroes from Kissteria, we think.
- The Meddling Kids Are Useless: Averted, they help save the universe!
- Merchandise-Driven: The merchandise manager for KISS (a parody of legendary rock manager Doc Mcghee) is an in-universe example of this trope, obsessing over profit and helpfully popping up with expensive KISS-branded items any time the gang needs something. Also doubles as Self-Deprecation, as the real life KISS have put their logos on everything from toothbrushes to coffins!
- Mythology Gag: So so many.
- For KISS, there's a black diamond, The Destroyer, a woman named Delilah Domino, a woman named Shandi Strutter with her assistants Christine and Beth, a fortune teller named Chikara, etc.
- KISS has their superpowers from KISS Meets the Phantom of the Park. Which was also produced by Hanna-Barbera. The Amusement Park setting is also a part of this.
- In general, Scooby and Kiss briefly interacted in What's New, Scooby-Doo?. Although there only Paul Stanley did his own voice.
- Never Say "Die": Averted. The song "Detroit Rock City" is about a fan who dies in a car accident on the way to a KISS concert, based on a real event. The song is played during the climactic fight with the Destroyer. Athough the verse that refers to drinking and smoking is cut, the end of the song is not: "Oh my God, no time to turn/I got to laugh, cause I know I'm gonna die/Why?" Even more, these lines come at a point in the battle when the Mystery Gang are wondering if they'll make it out alive.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: KISS members are only referred to by their stage names, Demon, Starchild, Spaceman and Catman.
- Playing with Fire: This is Demon's power, as he summons a ball of fire that turns into his Axe guitar, and can project fire from it.
- The Power of Friendship: As Velma eventually points out (and the Elder backs her up), they all need to work as a team to defeat the Crimson Witch and The Destroyer. In fact, when Starchild battles the Witch alone he is soundly trounced, but when they gang up on The Destroyer they defeat him with ridiculous ease.
- The Power of Rock: Given that this is a movie that prominently features KISS, naturally, they used the trope of rock music being able to save the world.
- Real After All: It is once again Scooby and Shaggy that are the ones to remember that all their crazy shenanigans really happened.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: At first the gang expect the Crimson Witch to be one. Then they think not as they travel with Kiss to a cosmic dimension. However then that is "revealed" to be a hallucination making the whole thing a "Scooby-Doo" Hoax again. Until Scooby and Shaggy see that Kiss really are super powered and that the whole adventure was not just an hallucination. Got all that?
- Shock and Awe: Spaceman's guitar lets him shoot lightning.
- Shout-Out:
- Let's get one out right off the bat. It seems fitting a movie with lots of shout outs features the KISS song "Shout It Out Loud".
- The crests of the "ancient warriors who fought so bravely" include a fox for their late, great drummer Eric Carr and a gold ankh for former guitarist Vinnie Vincent.
- The belt the Crimson Witch uses (or was it?) is from Quest Industries. As in Jonny Quest.
- Kissteria's design aesthetics are basically a mix of the kind of 80s Scifi/Fantasy shows Hanna-Barbera and Ruby-Spears made (Thundarr the Barbarian and Galtar and the Golden Lance), mixed in with some stuff from Silver Surfer, right down to the Kirby Dots. Gene Simmons is a fan of Jack Kirby
and even wanted him to illustrate KISS comics, which didn't happen, Kirby illustrated an art where the band faces Dracula, he and some design work at both HB and RS, so it kinda comes full circle. - KISS' Transformation Sequence is taken straight from Sailor Moon, specifically Mars' (Demon), Jupiter's (Spaceman), Star Fighter's (Catman), and Venus' (Starchild).
- In the epic battle against the Crimson Witch in Kissteria, Starchild calls the Crimson Witch "Witchie-Poo".
- Super-Scream: Starchild can project sonic waves while singing.
- Transformation Sequence: KISS undergoes a transformation sequence to change their outfits.
- Two-Keyed Lock: Four-keyed example. The McGuffin the witch wants is kept inside a box that cannot be opened unless Demon, Starchild, Spaceman and Catman open it together.
- Uniqueness Value:Spaceman: Starchild seems to think they're okay. Plus, they have a talking dog, which is kinda wild!
