Can We Talk About: Fred’s Autobiography in Scooby-Doo (2002)
Can We Talk About is a semi-serious ongoing discussion about forgotten and underrated moments in film and television.
2002 was a year that gave us plenty to talk about.
Britney Spears and Justin Timberlake had broken up. Two major franchise sequels were released following the wildly successful Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings. Michael Jackson dangled his baby over the edge of a balcony. What a ride.
But let’s not pretend that any of these cultural events came even close to the iconic and inexplicable piece of art that is the Scooby-Doo movie.
Scooby-Doo is a bizarre and perfect film. Those of us that didn’t grow up watching the original Cartoon Network show at least watched one or two of the seemingly countless Scooby-Doo original movies that came out over the years. (Admit it, you also wanted to be a Hex Girl.)
So when the movie came out and we were finally able to get our juice-covered, grubby little hands on a live-action Mystery Inc, the excitement was palpable. We may not have known who Matthew Lillard or Linda Cardellini were, and we may not have known about the film’s more adult-skewed original intentions, but the one thing we did know was that we were sure as hell ready for it.
But were we?
Were we prepared for the almost biblical nature of what we witnessed? The rubbery horror of the 2002-grade CGI that made me love but also fear Scooby Doo himself? Freddie Prince Jr’s platinum blonde bowl shaped wig in the opening scene? Daphne’s chic latex purple boots that some of us still dream about to this day?
Hearing Rowan Atkinson call Scooby by his truly wild Christian name, ‘Scoobert’?
There’s a lot to unpack in this film. But something that has been sitting in the back of my mind for many years is Fred’s irrelevant but impactful autobiography ‘Fred on Fred: The Many Faces of Me’.
To set the scene, after an ego-fuelled dissolve of Mystery Inc, the gang goes their separate ways. After a time jump (perhaps reminding one of the artistic flare taken from such other classics as Citizen Kane) we see the gang accidently reuniting at the airport on their respective journeys to the mysterious theme park Spooky Island.
They each discuss what they’ve been up to. Velma has done some work with NASA, Daphne has been learning martial arts, and Fred has been on the ‘lecture circuit’ for his new book.
He pulls out a copy. Shiny, bright blue, and splashed with a very unsettlingly spaced title font. A double image of his smiling faces adorns the cover, although honestly, can anyone for sure confirm that it’s actually Freddie Prinze Jr’s face and not just that of a frightening mannequin lookalike?
The book looks startlingly thin for an autobiography. Not surprising, since canonically (at least in the later seasons/films) the gang are depicted as teenagers and it’s doubtful that Fred would have enough life experience to fill up a best-selling worthy book.
That said, I’ve never wanted to read a book more. We don’t get much more info on the content of the book (aside from a deleted scene which we will get into later), so we are left to agonize and guess over that delicious stories and secrets this book might hold.
From the title, it’s probably likely that this is a self-reflective retrospective into Fred’s time in Mystery Inc. In the film, he is very much drawn as a vapid and arrogant Ken-like himbo. Is this book Fred’s attempt to dispel some negative public image of him? Or is it just the ramblings of a self-absorbed celebrity?
Fred could be a literary genius. His generation’s Hemmingway.
From some of his dialogue in the movie, we can only assume so. This is the man behind such moving phrases such as “Hey, I can look at myself naked”, and “I’m a man of substance, and dorky chicks like you turn me on too”.
But wait! A deleted scene reveals some essential information about The Many Faces of Me.
For one, the book is wildly unpopular. We see Fred at a ‘Fan-Con-A-Thon’ (genius) talking about it. Evidently, it definitely seems to be a book about Mystery Inc. Specifically: him taking most of the credit for the gang’s success.
Before him, a crowd of only three kids. He gets heckled. It’s humiliating. Is the book bad or just massively underappreciated and ahead of it’s time?
There have been many other fake books that have appeared in movies and TV shows that may have also grabbed your attention. I, for one, have also always wanted to read fictional author Paul Sheldon’s ‘Misery’ series in Stephen King/Rob Reiner’s Misery (1990). (Hey, if they were good enough to drive Annie Wilkes into a murderous rage, then they sound alright to me.)
But no other fictional book has made me feel more hungry, more desperate to know more. It’s a great tease that was probably never meant to be more than a passing joke on an self-obsessed character (hence probably why they deleted the scene that gave further detail) — but for some, it’s a strange and perfect little snippet of what makes this movie so great.
It’s weird, self-referential and satirical, and whilst it’s not the R-rated spectacle that was originally envisioned by James Gunn, it’s a spectacle nonetheless.
