Sommerleigh Pollonais – Senior Writer
SCOOBY!
(baby talk, baby talk, baby talk) SHAGGY!
(baby talk, baby talk, baby talk)
THAT’S CRAY-SEE! (favorite thing to say while sounding like a surfer dude)
(baby talk, baby talk, baby talk)
DOOOOOO! – trying to sing-a-long to the theme song
10 mins later………………………………………………
“Grammy I want yogurt!” Runs off to play and eat yogurt.
The preceding was brought to you by my two and a 1/2 year-old nephew and is in my opinion a perfect review of Scoob!
Honestly, I don’t think I would’ve watched this if it had been released in theaters as planned. But it’s slim pickings these days and you can only binge so much Netflix before your mind goes numb, so I figured, what the hell?
Sadly, Scoob! while having a few fun moments here and there, misses the mark on what made the Mystery Incorporated Gang so much fun.
The good stuff first. The movie has a strong opening, with a young Shaggy meeting his future best friend for the first time. The updated version of the original opening theme for the cartoon is very well done and fans will be singing along for sure. There are a lot of nods to other famous Hanna-Barbera cartoons, both in the foreground and background, so if you loved those growing up you’ll have some fun Easter Eggs to look for. And the voice cast is pretty good (mostly, we’ll circle back to this). Also, there are a few jokes that land well and both adults and fans of the original series will probably catch themselves grinning when they hear them.
Then the story begins and this is where Scoob! starts to fall apart. They split up the gang early on and we find ourselves spending more time with Shaggy and Scooby than Fred, Daphne and Velma. There’s no mystery at hand, a big no-no if you ask me, as it’s more of a space adventure than anything else, with Blue Falcon and Dynomutt helping Scoob and Shag figure out why Dick Dastardly wants Scooby so badly. It’s too convoluted and rarely ever funny and with an animation style that lacks that “it” factor, you’ll find it hard to stay invested to the end.
The voice work as I said isn’t too bad, but why would you replace the perfect casting of Matthew Lillard (Shaggy in the live action movies) with anyone else!?! It’s not like he wasn’t available or anything! Will Forte isn’t that bad but he struggles to nail Shaggy the way Matthew did/does. Everyone else was okay, with the only true standouts being Zac Efron as Fred (he does a great job) and Ken Jeong as Dynomutt. Frank Welker can do no wrong so that goes without saying but why not just having him voice Fred? HE’S THE VOICE OF FRED IN THE DAMN TV SHOW PEOPLE!
So long story short, your kids (the really young ones) will dig this. At least until they get bored and then demand you give them yogurt. After that, you’re on your own folks!
Rating: 5 out of 10
For my Quick Bite review of Trolls World Tour you can click here.