Running time: 87 minutes
Starring: Matthew Lillard, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Freddie Prinze Jr., Linda Cardellini, Scott Innes, Rowan Atkinson
Rating 4 out of 10
Having taken more than 30 years for Scooby, Shaggy and the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang to make the transition from TV to the big screen, it's hard to believe Warner Bros. couldn't have come up with something better than this lame, humourless yawn. One puzzle the gang of Mystery Inc. would struggle to solve is who exactly Scooby Doo is targeted at. Unlike many films primarily aimed at kids, there's little to amuse anyone over the age of 10, and little that's appropriate for those under. That's unless a farting competition between Scooby and Shaggy is your idea of entertainment.
For fans of the cartoon series, it's slightly disconcerting to see the characters come to life, but not as troubling as the abandonment of the original's bumbling charm, replaced as it is by a cruder, racier approach. The filmmakers deliberately left out any overt allusions to Shaggy's implied pot smoking, or Velma's dubious sexuality at the risk of receiving a more restrictive rating. Strangely this puritanical policy didn't extend to Daphne's outfits, the crude language or the scary scenes that have far greater impact when rendered with computer rather than ink.
One other problem that was never satisfactorily resolved is the question of the what era to set the film in. Scooby Doo's blending of animation with real action seems to have confused director Raja Gosnell and writers Craig Titley and James Gunn. While the rest of the world and those in it seem contemporary, Shaggy (Matthew Lillard), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Velma (Linda Cardellini) appear to have stepped straight out of the 1970's. It may be churlish to make such criticisms, after all it's only Scooby Doo we're talking about here, but it's indicative of the film's lack of conviction.
The flimsy plot centres on Mystery Inc. being reunited by the owner of Spooky Island, Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson), who has hired them to find out why the normally boisterous youngsters visiting the island for Spring Break develop strange symptoms that render them miserable and surly. Naturally though, neither Mondavarious or the Eden-like island setting are quite what they first seem and Scooby and the gang soon find themselves in trouble.
In its praise, Scooby Doo has boundless energy, an engagingly vivid, cartoon-like appearance and an enthusiastic cast, but it's not enough. Long before the end it's clear there's little point giving the characters a pulse if the film doesn't possess one.
For fans of the cartoon series, it's slightly disconcerting to see the characters come to life, but not as troubling as the abandonment of the original's bumbling charm, replaced as it is by a cruder, racier approach. The filmmakers deliberately left out any overt allusions to Shaggy's implied pot smoking, or Velma's dubious sexuality at the risk of receiving a more restrictive rating. Strangely this puritanical policy didn't extend to Daphne's outfits, the crude language or the scary scenes that have far greater impact when rendered with computer rather than ink.
One other problem that was never satisfactorily resolved is the question of the what era to set the film in. Scooby Doo's blending of animation with real action seems to have confused director Raja Gosnell and writers Craig Titley and James Gunn. While the rest of the world and those in it seem contemporary, Shaggy (Matthew Lillard), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.) and Velma (Linda Cardellini) appear to have stepped straight out of the 1970's. It may be churlish to make such criticisms, after all it's only Scooby Doo we're talking about here, but it's indicative of the film's lack of conviction.
The flimsy plot centres on Mystery Inc. being reunited by the owner of Spooky Island, Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson), who has hired them to find out why the normally boisterous youngsters visiting the island for Spring Break develop strange symptoms that render them miserable and surly. Naturally though, neither Mondavarious or the Eden-like island setting are quite what they first seem and Scooby and the gang soon find themselves in trouble.
In its praise, Scooby Doo has boundless energy, an engagingly vivid, cartoon-like appearance and an enthusiastic cast, but it's not enough. Long before the end it's clear there's little point giving the characters a pulse if the film doesn't possess one.
