VIDEO New Scooby Doo Frankencreepy movie curses Daphne by making her a size 8

The newest Scooby-Doo movie was made this year, but it seems everyone involved with the project has some incredible archaic ideas about body image: In Scooby Doo Frankencreepy, Daphne gets cursed — and her punishment is ballooning from a size 2 to a size 8. Oh the horror!

“Each of you will lose what you hold most dear,” Iron Face, the bestower of the curse, tells Daphne.

“Is that why I’ve lost my looks?” a horrified Daphne says will looking in the mirror. “Is this because I’m cursed?”

Self-described Scooby-Doo fan Tom Burns wrote on The Good Men Project after watching the new DVD that the lesson writers were supposedly trying to convey just came across as “fat-shaming” and “downright repugnant.” He added…

If the creators of Frankencreepy could only see Daphne skin deep, as a teenager obsessed with her looks, they could’ve dealt with the “loss of her looks” in a less offensive way… But, alas, that’s not what the Frankencreepy creators did. Instead, they said “How can we make Daphne into something truly ugly? How can we make her the opposite of pretty?” And their answer was… Let’s make her overweight. Let’s make her look like people’s friends and sisters and moms. Let’s make her look, not like a supermodel, but rather more like a normal girl you’d see on a normal street, and then let’s have her look in a mirror and RECOIL IN HORROR, just to make sure that all the kids watching at home know that being fat makes you into a monster… Daphne and the gang deserve better. And so does my daughter.

Despite the criticism from Tom and many others, the Warner Bros. film has a 4-of-5 star rating on Amazon and some claim the ultimate message is of self-acceptance.

“Daphne realized she was being superficial throughout that story arc, it added to the story in a meaningful way (it allows her to evade iron face) and the most importantly: Fred didn’t notice/care and said that she ‘always looked good to him,'” one viewer commented. “I would say it was more about acceptance and not being superficial than anything.”

The thing is, it sounds like the fact she’s now a “size 8” is really emphasized and — based on her reaction in the trailer — she thinks it’s the worst thing in the world. In reality, many healthy people wear size 8… Or 10, 12, etc. Some may even be healthier than certain size 2 peers.

And, just to speak to the positive reviewers’ comments, in the mind of a child, what’s going to stick out more: The dramatic scene where Daphne is completely distressed to see she’s put on 20 lbs. or Fred’s passing comment about her still looking good? As adults capable of logging into Amazon and writing a review, they may be able to see the big picture, but I doubt that’s the case with Scooby Doo‘s core audience.