After Warner Bros. canceled several upcoming Scooby-Doo movies, fans of the iconic show wondered when they would take a break. Following reports that Warner may have also canceled the upcoming Scooby-Doo And Krypto Too! movie, this weekend the full movie suddenly leaked online. Warner's anti-piracy team is trying to contain the leaks.
Most people born in the 1960s or later will be familiar with Scooby-Doo, the world's most recognizable Great Dane.
For those further along in years, think of Enid Blyton's Famous Five; four young men continually encounter mysteries and then solve them with the help of a talking dog.
Scooby-Doo fans have been captivated by the format for more than half a century, but the twilight years may already be here.
Scooby on the cutting board
Last August, David Zaslav, the president and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said the company had done a "reset" and would no longer release expensive movies directly to streaming platforms. One of the first casualties was the nearly completed Batgirl movie which reportedly went into the company's accounts as a tax deduction.
โWe are not going to release your movie until it is ready. We are not going to launch a movie to make a quota. And we are not going to make a film unless we believe in itโ, Zaslav saying.
Scoob joined Batgirl on the shelf. Holiday Haunt, which cost $40 million and was nearly finished. Scooby-Doo and the Haunted Skyscraper it was also canned With Scooby Doo! and the mysterious puppies.
With reports suggesting Scooby-Doo and Krypto too! could meet the same fate, this weekend fans were treated to an unexpected but tasty Scooby snack.
Scooby-Doo and Krypto too! online leaks
South Korean animation studio digital eMation started working on Scooby-Doo and Krypto too! in 2021 and stills from the film appeared online last year.
Then this weekend, amid considerable uncertainty, the question of whether the movie would ever see the light of day was answered when the entire show leaked online.
No one seems to know who leaked it, let alone why, but Warner clearly doesn't want the movie to be seen in public.
Warner tries to plug the leaks
Whether the company intends to release the film or not, Warner's anti-piracy department is now hard at work removing infringing copies, including on YouTube, where fans have uploaded copies obtained elsewhere.
Twitter users who shared the excitement (and links to the leaked movie) have also come under fire from Warner's takedown team. For reasons that aren't immediately clear, Brazilian Scooby-Doo fans appear to be among the most excited.
One slightly overzealous Twitter user found his account received five successive copyright complaints, presumably after posting links to pirated copies.
The question of who leaked the film remains unanswered, but two discussion platforms have been repeatedly mentioned as candidates for the first upload: Twitter and 4chan.
anonymous boot loader
While anything is possible, a post that appeared on 4chan on Saturday afternoon has garnered a lot of attention.
In 4chan tradition, a user by the name of 'Anonymous' posted a link to the film and a screenshot, then disappeared.
As of this writing, the linked .mp4 file has been downloaded close to 6,000 times, but that's from only one platform. Copies of the movie are now widely available elsewhere, including on various torrent sites.
Interestingly, the copies that are shared via BitTorrent have a much larger file size than the 1.19 GB variant linked by the poster on 4chan.
The Lumen database currently lists other DMCA takedown notices directed at a Full load to Archive.org and a copy of the movie hosted on a Google Drive account.
It is unknown if Warner will be able to identify the leaker. Right now, it seems they have another mystery on their hands.
