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JonGordon [ 7.5 ]
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I was going to give this movie a regular review... but I thought it might be better summed up like this:
THE TOP TEN THINGS I NEVER THOUGHT ID SAY ABOUT
SCOOBY DOO: THE MOVIE
1. Velma is much hotter than Daphne
2. Warner Bros actually went away from the normal.... "All Parts of the Mystery is a Hoax" Mentallity
3. Pot jokes and kid humor can be nicely combined in the same film
4. Scooby actually LOOKS good.
5. Scooby actually SOUNDS good.
6. Freddie Prince Jr. still looks uncool
7. Scrappy wasn't used as a cheap marketing ploy
8. I really like Rowan Atkinson
9. Scooby can co-exist with the present day, non-seventies, world.
10. Matthew Lillard turned in a, dead on, accurate, and brilliant performance.
With that said, I'm having issues that I actually liked the film... I feel like I've let the general movie public down! Well, Rooby Freakin Doo. I liked it... and thats all there is to say.
I'm now leaving my desk to question the very exsitence of humanity.... my "Liking Scooby Doo Issues," are that deep. Years of counseling and maybe watching it another time might help!
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shanster [ 6.5 ]
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I fully intended to simply live my life without this one. I was so surprised that I actually liked it. I can't think of another movie that has taken cartoon characters and brought them to life so well. Cast is excellent, except Freddie Prinz does not work as the all-american blond WASP Freddy.
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chapter11 [ 5.0 ]
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Disappointing but watchable adaptation of cartoon hit is part redux potty humor, part fun kitschy 70's throwback. Not much of the Scooby gang is likeable here, but the CGI Scooby and Matthew Lilliard's shaggy are great fun. Extra kudos to Lilliard for having such remarkable chemistry with someone who wasn't there. It's not as good as it should have been, but then it's not as bad as it could have been.
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jasonkrueger [ 9.0 ]
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A hilarious and funny comedy.All the actors bring Shaggy,Scooby,Velma,Daphne and Fred to beautiful life.The movie is very funny and the ending is silly.A great family movie with humor to spare.I can't wait for the sequel that's all I can say!!!!
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Jeff_Wilder [ 1.0 ]
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I find myself reminded of one of the most famous scenes in Mel Brooks’s classic comedy "Young Frankenstein". The scene I am referring to is the one where Dr. Frederick Frankenstein has just returned to his late Grandfather's castle. He doesn't want to get caught up in the experiments of the late Dr. yet he finds himself pulled in that direction. So in his sleep he starts chanting "Destiny! Destiny! No escaping that for me!"
That's how most of us who don't have kids wound up seeing the 2002 movie version of Scooby-Doo. We'd heard plenty about how bad it was: yet many of us went anyway. Why? Was it nostalgia for a favorite cartoon from our childhood? Was it the rumors that Scrappy Doo would finally get his comeuppance (the little bastard!)? Was it a faint hope that Hollywood had finally managed to get a TV formula right when adapting to the big-screen?
I will only say that the last one turns out to be false, yet there's still no escaping seeing Scooby-Doo. But if you do find yourself getting pulled in its direction at the video store, do not hesitate to start chanting that classic Gene Wilder line.
The original Scooby-Doo cartoon was one that could be enjoyed in small doses. By small doses, I mean the format that it was intended as: a 30-minute cartoon. The original cartoon trafficked in slapstick type humor of the board-in-the-crotch variety albeit toned down for a pre-teen audience. This one continues offering that same type of humor along with a certain amount of flatulence-based humor, the most notable of which is a farting contest between Shaggy and Scooby. Unfortunately, it is not successful at all in getting the movie out of neutral.
Not to beat a dead horse here. But Hollywood still doesn't get it that it needs to stop with the damn TV Land/Saturday Morning Cartoon recycling. If anything, the two-fisted failure of Wild Wild West and Josie And The Pussycats should have served as adequate warning. For every Wayne's World, Charlie's Angels or Fugitive that does work on the big screen, you have ten Inspector Gadget's and I Spy's.
That being said there are two ways of adapting TV shows to the big-screen. The first is to spoof them; the second is to make a movie simply based on the formula of the show. At first, Scooby-Doo seems to be moving in the direction of the former, which is an encouraging sign. Unfortunately, it does not stay on that path for long and we are soon being treated to a feature length version of an old Scooby-Doo episode with a few bits of lampooning thrown in.
The question arises: Why couldn't it have been a full lampoon? Why did screenwriter James Gunn have to write the script this way? What the hell happened? Why do rice cakes taste like cardboard?
The answer is: the Warner Bros Executives.
According to some information I got from the Internet Movie Database, a very large part of Gunn's original script wound up on the cutting room floor. So I think we can safely assume that Gunn had originally wanted to spoof the old Scooby stories.
Unfortunately he met resistance from the Warner Bros execs who said to him "Spoof schmoof. This won't sell tickets. We need to make a movie based directly on the old show so we can sell millions of tickets and get the mindless sheep people to baa their way in here so we can sell tickets and merchandise and get enough to make a sequel (Yes. A Scooby Doo 2 is planned for 2004). So re-write it or else you will have to find a real job!"
So what Gunn did was go back and whittle the lampoon part down to a bare minimum and re-did the script exactly the way the Warner family wanted. In the process, he also threw in many product placements and a slew of pop culture references, many of which were as old as Vanilla Ice by the time Scooby-Doo made it to video. There's a reference by Shaggy to the 2001 Moulin Rouge remake of Patti Labelle's "Lady Marmalade" and Sarah Michelle Gellar's Daphne does a Charlie's Angels spoof at one point.
The screenplay, as it is, borrows the basic plotlines from the original episodes of Scooby-Doo and throws in many scenes that seem like they were borrowed from the Indiana Jones movies.
One thing that is different about this movie is the fact that in most cases I find myself reaming the producers for not putting enough effort into the script and way too much into the special effects. In this case, the lack of effort is clear all around. The CGI Scooby is about as lifelike as a stuffed battery-operated one. The other effects are just as cartoonish.
As far as acting goes, what can you expect from the likes of Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar and Matthew Lillard. None of them put any real effort into their performances and it shows. As for Rowan Atkinson as the owner of Spooky Island theme park, let me just say that his performance looked very much like the one from Rat Race where he played a narcoleptic man, only this time he came off as a narcoleptic man on valium.
At this point, anymore ranting will be beating the proverbial dead horse. So I will stop now. What I will say is this: Do not do the Doo. If you want a good family movie, I can think of two: Shrek and Monsters INC. If you want a good funny spoof, the aforementioned Young Frankenstein fits the bill. If you do find yourself with the urging to head for the Scooby section at Blockbuster, do not be surprised to find yourself alternating between chants of "Destiny! Destiny! No escaping that for me" and "Baa!" Makes me wonder if maybe the Warner execs have studied mind control techniques.
(One final note. Rice cakes taste like cardboard because they are made out of cardboard.)
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Stitch [ 2.0 ]
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Not much to like about this. I knew going in that it probably wouldn't be very good, but I wanted it to have some kitsch, some good nostalgic hit, some fun. But it has none of it. First of all I need to comment that the casting was ok with one glaring exception, Freddie Prinze Jr. There's nothing wrong with Freddie in general, but why did they have to cast some so obviously NOT the Fred character. He didn't work in any aspect of the role. I'm thinking they cast him as a favor to Sarah Michelle Geller than for any other reason. Ok, enough about him. Why did they have the scooby gang break up at the begining of the film, for TWO YEARS? I thought they were trying stay true to the original cartoon (and there is ample evidence everywhere of that), but the cartoon gang would never have broken up, let alone for two years. Just dumb. Ok, so they are thrown back together after two years, very reluctantly, and are now out to solve a case on Spooky Island (I kind of liked that throwback to the show). I've never been a Scrappy Doo fan and when he showed up my limited patience with this "movie" almost reached its end. (How I managed through the whole thing I'll never know). And (SPOILER AHEAD for those who actually care) making Scrappy the bad guy in a robot suit and looking like the real Spooky Island owner, was just inane. Isn't Scrappy Doo supposed to be Scooby's cousin or something? So why is he suddenly evil and poweful? Just dumb. One bit of continuity weirdness that I have to mention. When the real owner is released from his cave prison, he has a long, scraggly beard. When everyone emerges from the cave moments later to find the police ready to arrest the culprits, the real owner is clean shaven. I'm wondering when he had time to shave? Ok, now you may be asking, "why give it a 2.0?" Well, to be honest I didn't mind the CGI Scooby and the Shaggy impersonation that Matthew Lillard accomplished. The CGI Scooby wasn't terribly well done but it had some charm. Watching them eat hot peppers had its fun. But they're the only redeeming part of this mess.
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Edwards [ 0.0 ]
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Sweet jesus...anyone who finds this movie funny should be quarantined from the rest of society and forced to watch movies of its kind like The Pacifier, Are We There Yet, Son of the Mask, et al forever. It's a special category of movies that appeal to children because they are even stupider than them. I would lament the tarnishing of a good TV show's reputation, but it was 'Scooby Doo'...it deserved b-movie former teen star couple Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar
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| Weighted Rating | : 5.1 |
| No. Ratings | : 12 | |
| No. Reviews | : 8 | |
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