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‘Scoob!’ movie serves up diverse range of sonic snacks

The daunting prospect of revamping the classic theme song of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” — the beloved ’70s cartoon — is enough to make you let out a Shaggy-like “Yikes!” But that was just one of the challenges with the music for “Scoob!” — the animated movie about the titular Great Dane and his mystery-solving …

The daunting prospect of revamping the classic theme song of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” — the beloved ’70s cartoon — is enough to make you let out a Shaggy-like “Yikes!”

But that was just one of the challenges with the music for “Scoob!” — the animated movie about the titular Great Dane and his mystery-solving posse that’s opening at home on demand Friday.

“The theme song is obviously the one that stands out the most,” says music supervisor Gabe Hilfer. “We wanted to modernize the nostalgic original version that everybody has such an affinity for. Bring it into 2020, but also keep that authenticity of that song.”

Getting the call to update the trademark tune was indie-pop duo Best Coast. “We talked about a lot of different bands and a lot of different styles and feelings,” says Hilfer. “And then Tony Cervone, our director, was a fan of Best Coast. They have a cool sound, and it felt like it could be very fun with a female vocalist to flip it in that way, make it feel our own and original.”

Scoob! the album coverAtlantic Records

But landing on the Best Coast cover wasn’t as breezy as it sounds. “We actually tried a couple different versions,” says Xplicit, executive producer of “Scoob! The Album,” which also comes out Friday. “We actually even tried to present a completely new version and not just a rendition of the original. And we humbly failed. We shot our shot, but if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”

The original songs serve up a range of sonic Scooby snacks — from dance-pop (Lennon Stella feat. Charlie Puth’s “Summer Feelings”) to hip-hop (Jack Harlow’s “Yikes”) to EDM (Galantis feat. Faouzia’s “I Fly”). “One of the things that we wanted to do is have lots of perspectives represented — multigenerational, multigenre, multiethnic — where we could make this movie feel universal,” says Hilfer.

The single “On Me,” played over the ending credits, is a country-pop collaboration by Thomas Rhett and Kane Brown feat. Ava Max. “One of the producers of the film was a huge country music fan,” says Hilfer. “Thomas Rhett and Kane Brown are interesting to me because they are not necessarily your traditional country artists. They’re young and they’re culturally relevant, and they’re crossing over a little bit into pop music.”

Thomas RhettGetty Images for dcp

Adds Xplicit: “Kane Brown is actually the reason why Thomas got on, because Kane was so hyped on the song, he played it for Thomas. And we sprinkled in Ava Max — her parts gave it that pop element.”

There are other songs featured in the film that are not on the soundtrack, including “California Love,” a 1996 hit by 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre that is used in the beginning of “Scoob!” “We wanted a very well-known song that set up California in a way, ’cause we land in Venice, California,” says Hilfer. “We wanted to embrace southern California … and ‘California Love’ just had the beat, the energy. And it was also a little bit unexpected because I feel like people are not necessarily expecting Dr. Dre to come on.”

In fact, the appeal of the “Scoob!” music extends beyond kids to their parents — and all ages in between. “We balanced it out,” says Xplicit, whose real name is Alex Izquierdo. “It’s not so edgy that we couldn’t play it in the film and not so safe that the parents would say, ‘Aw, this is too PG.’ ”

And as music supervisor, Hilfer had one particular goal in mind: “We wanted the music to have passed the ‘Is this cool?’ test,” he says. “If my kids ask me to play this in the car every day and if I get sick of it within five minutes, that would not be great.”

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