If you were to ask me what my favorite cartoon of all time, Scooby Doo would probably be my answer. Growing up on Cartoon Network, I would watch the countless reruns of the talking dog and his adventures in solving mysteries every day. It remains to this day as one of the most popular and successful animated series to date, inspiring multiple spinoff shows and movies, so it only seems logical that a live action feature film be produced. When I first saw this film I absolutely loved it. Ten years later, nostalgia convinced me to watch it again to see how it held up after all this time.
In short: this movie is bad, really bad. I still can't wrap my head around why I liked it so much as a kid. There is so much wrong with this film that I almost feel ashamed that I watched it. Then again, I was naive and thought lots of bad movies were good at the time. Is it as horrible as people say it is? It's pretty close, but surprisingly there are some good aspects about.
For starters, Shaggy and Scooby are very well portrayed. Matt Lillard was the perfect choice for Shaggy and Neil Fanning does a great job of getting the voice down for Scooby. The chemistry between the two of them is also handled very well; it's clear that these two are best friends and the movie does a great job of showing that. Velma is also done very well, maintaining her book smart personality paired with a science geek charm, although Linda Cardellini may have sounded a bit too nasal at times. Unfortunately, Fred and Daphne are not so great as they feel completely out of character in moments. Granted, they didn't have that much personality in the original show, so it's understandable to try and make them more interesting, but they come off as egotistical and full of himself in Fred's case and overly annoying in Daphne's.
Even though Fred and Daphne are not entirely too likable, there are some great moments with them as well as the rest of the main cast where they poke fun at their roles in the original show. Bringing up things such as exactly how they always get lured into a spooky location and how Fred always chooses Daphne first when splitting the group up provide some nice nostalgic context for those who grew up with the show. It's a shame that these are not used more often in place of the humor that is used, but it's still nice to see them when they appear.
Finally, the set pieces and location designs are done very well. When the gang goes to the abandoned dark ride castle, it really gives off an ominous, threatening and creepy vibe. That scene alone is in my personal opinion the best scene in the movie because it is at that moment that the movie feels most like the original cartoon. There's also a lot of creativity throughout the island itself, which is a welcome sight to see.
Unfortunately, that's just about it for the good in this movie, and it's not enough to overshadow what is wrong with the film. The humor contains pop culture references and flatulence jokes used to please today's generation of kids. I have nothing wrong with this convention if used in an original film, but to put in a scene where Shaggy and Scooby have a belching and farting contest, a scene I absolutely detested, just seems wrong. Also, do most kids even know who Pamela Anderson is? I found her cameo in the beginning particularly confusing. Most of the bad humor can be credited to the poor writing. The dialogue is absolutely terrible. I can only imagine how idiotic Freddie Prinze Jr. must have felt when he said "dorky chicks like you turn me on" to Velma. It seems scary, but you could probably find better written dialogue in a Scooby Doo fan fiction.
The plot itself is kind of interesting, but it's not executed well at all. The gang, minus Shaggy and Scooby, doesn't have any many legitimate reasoning for separating, save for Daphne hating the damsel in distress routine, and this even gets pushed aside because they reunite literally ten minutes after. Then they claim they're going to solve the mystery individual only to reunite again ten minutes later to work together. It would have made more sense for them to remain separated for a longer period of time only to then realize how much they need each other and reconcile towards the end. The film tries that but it doesn't come through in the end.
Ultimately, the main thing wrong with the film is that it doesn't really feel like a Scooby Doo film. The tone is all over the place, going for overly comedic with only having few genuinely creepy moments. The original show blended the comedic and spooky aspects perfectly, but the film is so concerned with being "hip and cool" that anything genuinely creepy is lost. The interactions between some of the characters doesn't feel natural and the mystery itself doesn't seem so compelling. The Mystery Machine only appears twice for maybe a total of ten minutes, which is understandable because of where the story takes place but still really disappointing. On top of that, without spoiling anything, the main villain is laughably terrible, as if the writers just got really lazy and decided to throw it in out of nowhere.
There are so many other things that are wrong with this film, in which case I might make a video to better portray my opinion of it, but overall the film just doesn't work. There are so many good ideas here that are just executed poorly, and the film suffers for the need to modernize a timeless character. If you are looking to feed your nostalgia for Scooby Doo, just watch the cartoon and avoid this film at all costs.
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