As the writers for “The Simpsons” can also attest, writing for a dog character is surprisingly easy. As James Gunn noticed from his own dog’s behavior, they have a tendency of “going quickly, from one emotion to the next, and always getting distracted by anything around the corner, jumping at sounds.” It’s why Scooby can be so terrified that he jumps in the air and stays up there for several seconds, and then a moment later he’s getting excited over the possibility of a Scooby Snack. As Gunn explained to IGN:
“There’s something humorous about dogs. I have a dog and a cat. And my cat is funny in a different way, but dogs are just … They’re funny. I think that’s why God gave us dogs; they’re jesters.”
Sure enough, it’s hard to imagine a successful version of the series where Scooby is a cat. Cats are great, but they don’t have that same sort of excitement for life that Scooby’s always had. Throughout the live-action film, Scooby is often selfish and unreliable, but he still gets chosen as the cult’s sacrifice because of his “pure soul.” That’s because, like any dog, there’s never any malice to Scooby’s inconvenient behavior, and he’ll always be loyal to his friends as long as he’s not distracted.
Although James Gunn’s Scooby-Doo movies took a while to win over hardcore fans of the franchise, Gunn at least understood the appeal of the titular character. Scooby may be a coward and a bit of a dolt, but first and foremost he’s a dog, and we’ll always love him for that.