Scoob!

Tonight I saw the new “Scoob!” movie, which came out nine days ago On Demand. Now, I was a fan of the “Scooby-Doo” cartoon growing up and watched it a lot. It taught kids deductive reasoning when solving the cases. However, I wasn’t fond of the spin-offs, like “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.” I don’t like it when they took famous characters and decided to spin-off the cartoon by showing them in their childhood or teenage years. For me, it just didn’t work. However, the other spin-off, “The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show/The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries,” I remember seeing a little bit of. I especially remember that catchy theme from “The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries” which never left me. However, I do agree with everyone that Scooby’s nephew, Scrappy-Doo, was pointless and annoying. He didn’t really do anything to help the characters out. I think it may or may not be surprising to see that a Hanna-Barbera cartoon that started in 1969-1970 has so much popularity that their still making cartoons and spin-off movies for it to this day.

Seeing how popular the franchise had begun, it was inevitable that they decided to make movies to cash in on their popularity. I only saw little bits of the first two live-action movies that came out in the early 2000s, but I never sat down and saw the whole movie. I did see the Nostalgia Critic’s review of the three movies and I’m glad I never saw them. However, enough of all that; let’s talk about how this new CGI movie is and if it’s good for families to rent.

Rich Cline started his review by saying, “Corporate fingerprints are all over this colourful, energetic animated feature, which was clearly designed to establish a franchise of Hanna-Barbera characters while referencing Warner Media properties from Harry Potter to Wonder Woman. There are moments when the movie captures the inane glee of the original Scooby-Doo cartoons, complete with some terrific character gags. But the expanded blockbuster scale is uninteresting, complete with pointlessly bloated action sequences.”

After solving so many cases, the Mystery Inc team is thinking what the next step will be, getting assistance from America’s Got Talent judge, Simon Cowell himself. He likes strong Fred (Zac Efron), intelligent Velma (Gina Rodruiguez) and friendly Daphne (Amanda Seyfried), but doesn’t understand clumsy Shaggy (Will Forte) or his funny dog Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker). When Dick Dastardly (Jason Isaacs) sends killer robots after Shaggy and Scooby, they’re saved by the heroic Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg), his pilot Dee Dee (Kiersey Clemons) and robot dog Dynomutt (Ken Jeong). Now everyone has to join forces to stop Dastardly from collecting three skulls before flying to Athens to release Cerberus from Hades’ palace.

A cute beginning shows the kid Shaggy meeting the stray pup Scooby, introducing Blue Falcon as a toy and showcasing the young kids’ first mystery. Cline said, “Almost immediately after this, everything turns spacey, with Falcon's gleaming futuristic jet pursued by Dastardly's steampunk airship. This bigger-is-better approach never pays off, mainly because the frankenscript fails to construct a coherent narrative to hold each plot element together.” Instead, the story just jumps from one set-piece to another, with the best parts being throwaway comedy tricks in between.

The animators and voice cast work together to create amazingly hilarious characters. The Mystery Inc gang is perfectly recognized, with added personality quirks and enjoyable equivalents between three men and their dog partners. Cline noted, “But the filmmakers forgot that what made their nuttiness so enduring was the way they always debunked the magic. In addition, Scooby's distinctively silly speech-patterns have been blandly modified. And some side figures feel oddly shoehorned in, such as a random encounter with Captain Caveman (Tracy Morgan).”

Little kids will love the general insanity, but adults might get bored with the highly messy silliness, because the rambunctious story doesn’t try to make sense. Cline ended his review by saying, “The film is fast and frantic, but the story feels made up as it goes along, with pointless melodrama and overwrought action that feel like a distraction from the more endearing character comedy. The studio clearly thinks escalating spectacle is what makes a franchise, but it's the zany slapstick that will bring audiences back.”

Personally, I felt that this movie was a nice, fun movie for families to watch together. Just to see that they, possibly, added other famous Hanna-Barbera characters that I have never heard of must have been nice. Scooby-Doo was famous for doing a lot of crossovers, especially in the specials with guest stars of cultural icons that were famous at the time. I would say it wouldn’t hurt to see it, so check it out if you’re an old-school Scooby-Doo fan.

Thank you for joining in on tonight’s review. Check in the morning for my next review on “Police Story Month.”