Warner Bros. Canceled Another SCOOBY-DOO Animated Film That Would Have Featured The Hex Girls
It looks like Warner Bros. Discovery has pulled the plug on another groovy new Scooby-Doo flick, Scooby-Doo and the Haunted High Rise, which was set to feature the Hex Girls and their killer tunes. Animator Carolyn Gair spilled the beans during a chat with the JayBee & Milly YouTube channel, revealing that the project was axed for a tax write-down before animation could even begin. She explains, though, that before it was shut down, they had already recorded the movie's dialogue and the Hex Girls’ songs. Gair said:
"I think the Haunted High Rise was even funnier than the first, because we had the Hex Girls, and new songs, and we pulled out all the stops. We had motorcycle chases throughout the hallways. Joe called me and said, 'Has the studio been in touch with you?' And I said no. I think this was the beginning of October, and he said, 'Oh, well somebody should be reaching out to you, I'm afraid it got shelved and it's a financial decision and I think Warner Bros. is getting a tax credit for shelving it and canceling it, so it's dead dead dead, I think because of the merger with Discovery.'
“They just took a look at everything that was going to be going into streaming, everything that was going to be going into HBO Max, and just drew a red line through everything, figured out how much they spent. Do you know, the saddest part is it would've cost the same to shelve it as it would to make it, because it was already lock picture and in animation. That was another reason for them doing the two movies back-to-back because they had an animation studio they could be feeding work to.
“It seems so sad, since it's already so close, but I do not understand the politics or how financial decisions at Warner Bros. get made, but I don't think they're going to resuscitate this. My producer keeps saying he doesn't think it's going to come back to life. But, maybe, who knows? It was locked picture, all dialogue, songs were recorded, it was ready for animation."
This Scooby-Doo movie sounds like it would have been a lot of fun! It’s a shame that it was scrapped. But, hey! There’s always the Velma series for you to get your Scooby-Doo fix! They made sure to keep that trash around to hate-watch!