Scooby-Doo where are you?
Making kids love what we loved when we were kids is everything that is kids cinema. Warner Bros have had success with this in recent history with the Lego movies, although Lego is widely popular it felt good to see a resurgence due to one of the best animated films of recent history. Next up though is the beloved Scooby-Doo and Mystery inc gang but that’s the issue with this new Scooby Doo…there’s no mystery and its ruff.
Scoob! Is the new animated Scooby-Doo movie which follows the story of well a lot. Scooby and Shaggy feel like they’re being forced out of the gang after Simon Cowell says he wont help fund Mystery inc if they’re in the gang. Yes you read that correctly. Scooby and Shaggy end up being attacked by Dick Dastardly (Jason Isaacs) and then saved by their favourite superhero the Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg). Scooby and Shaggy join the Blue Falcon and his team on a mission to stop Dick Dastardly’s plan while Fred, Daphne and Velma go on a search for their lost friends Scooby and Shaggy.
Yes, Simon Cowell from Shrek 2 makes an appearance in this movie and it’s weird. Scoob suffers from a few main issues, the main being trying to accommodate to the old and new fans. Whilst the movie would be great to introduce your kids to your beloved Scooby-Doo, after the movie is over it is clear that after the first half of the film the old fans are out of the window and the focus is now on the new.
Now this can be seen in the change of animation, the lack of a lot of Scooby-Doo themed music and hijinks but also in the overall mystery. There isn’t one. Mystery inc. is are attempting to get funding to become a business because they can’t do it for free anymore yet in this film they’re essentially following a villain they know about the entire time. Don’t expect the usual movie magic resolution, this animated film is on a more superhero scale.
Speaking of superheroes, Scoob is more of a Blue Falcon movie then it is a movie about Mystery inc. While Scoob joins the Blue Falcon on his quest to save the world, Scoob is merely a just a part of Dick Dastardly’s plan. It’s upsetting because it would’ve been great to see well a kids thriller film. What a great introduction for kids to the world of Scooby-Doo, with mask reveals and all.
What made Scooby-Doo cool to me was the fact that it was so and so using something or rather to create something scary. It wasn’t Dick Dastardly with a giant flying ship trying to take over the world. It was spooky scenarios that took the imagination and ideas of this group to solve.
The animation varies in terms of good and bad. Sometimes there is great detail and sometimes most characters look like the Barbies in the Toy Story films. The film is colourful yet missing the colours that made Scooby-Doo different, the greens, purples, oranges and spooky blues. Warner Animation is trying to find the animation that suits Scooby-Doo best but they just quiet haven’t nailed it yet, other animated films really stand out but Scoob doesn’t.
It’s not all bad news, despite the film having action sequences to resolve every situation every ten minutes, there is a lot of great character moments. The new voice cast is great with Will Forte (Shaggy), Zac Efron (Fred), Amanda Seyfried (Daphne) and Gina Rodriguez (Velma). Fred, Daphne and Velma have great moments together with Daphne and Velma having a lot more to say and do then usual and being written in a better way, it’s just a shame they’re minor characters in the Blue Falcon and Scooby-Doo movie.
My last experience that I remember of Scooby-Doo is James Gunn’s Scooby Doo films from the early 2000’s. Yes those movies may have been bad themselves but they are the good type of bad, they’re the type of bad that you enjoy and laugh both with and at. Scoob makes you laugh on occasion but loses itself while trying to recreate itself for modern kids. Yes they are the Main audience but who is to say that kids wont like a film made like the original Scooby-Doo with animation, with a higher budget, to match. It is a risk but it’s a risk I’d say is worth taking one. It’s a risk that might’ve made the title of this review ‘Those meddling makers did it!’ Instead I sit here thinking how are they going to make a Wacky Racers movie when they’ve used the main villain in this…Scooby-Dooby-Doo I miss you.