SCOOBY-DOO, the motion picture

 

 

  Being a childhood fan of the Mystery INC. team I can say that I was familiar with characters and general history before entering. I almost wish I had come into this film a novice to the genre, because maybe it would have been better. Of course we must keep in mind that this is aimed and targeted at younger wee ones (namely children or those with like mind), so we will be objective.

 

 

   The story follows in the similar vein of the series, the four goofy teens and their mutant talking dog scampering around trying to find the answers to bizarre mysteries involving some odd creature or whatever. However, right off at the start we have strife within the ranks, the group becoming jealous and bitter at each other (except the pure hearted and loving Scooby...more on that later). The team goes their separate ways with only best friends Scooby and Shaggy remaining, who go officially out of the mystery business.

 (Shaggy always hated getting mixed up with crime solving anyway, so without his peers he could finally ditch it.)

 

  Well, a couple years go by and we assume the gang is living productive lives without each other, and they even say so, but they still aren't content. They won't admit it, but they miss each other. They all receive summons to come to some mysterious theme park island (gee, where have we seen this before? Oh, in about THIRTY of the episodes!), where the owner (the guy who plays Mr. Bean) says that his customers are being brainwashed and turned into sort of zombies, with no emotion and seemingly no souls.

 

  Yeah, so far pretty common Scooby-Doo stuff. This is where it gets interesting, and some could say goes deep six. The gang breaks up on the island, determined to solve the mystery themselves. Velma, the gang's brain, finds a crazy tattooed man claiming there are demon beasts that are angry because of the tourists disturbing their home, and that none are safe. Daphne, the unwilling maiden in distress who always gets captured by ghosts, meets a voodoo guy who warns her not to go up to this forbidden castle. Well, DUH! What do you think she's gonna do? Yeah...

 

   The guys go to the castle and discover that there's a load of traps and so on. But I could go on forever. Let's briefen this. Their three main suspects are the tattooed dude, the voodoo man and the park's owner. Shaggy meets a babe who like to wear chest-revealing clothing and starts falling like a load of bricks for her, not knowing that she's really inhabited by a demon. Yeah, you heard right. A DEMON. This is the biggest departure this movie takes from the series. In this the creatures and beasts are real, where before they were always costumed freaks, which made more sense.

 

    But it turns out that the tattooed guy and the park's owner are working together to try and capture Scooby, because he has something no human has...a pure soul. They need this, because the park's owner has been sucking the souls of people from their bodies and collecting them in a fountain to put in this old artifact, which will give him unimaginable power. The only thing needed is a pure soul to dissect, as mentioned Scoob's.

 I ain't gonna say how it ends, though if you're actually reading this you've probably already seen it and just want to see another perspective.

 

  Now, story aside, what things could we take from this film? Well, there's no real language to be considered, so on that level it's remarkably good. The acting is campy, but that's how it's supposed to be so it works. The special effects are pretty weak, considering where computer animation has come over the last decade, but hey, it's a cartoon so it might as well be that way. The humor and the story are really the death blows here.

 

  While some of the comedy is funny, it's not funny funny. It's stuff that mostly only little kids will register as funny. And some of it is pretty gross. Example, Shaggy and Scoob have a burping contest, which turns into a one minute long passing contest. Yuck. And beside that, the story just seems like a blown up episode with a bad writer.

 

   It's not the worst comic/cartoon adaptation ever, but it certainly wasn't "the biggest movie of the summer" as the commercials touted. It don't even scratch the surface. I stress, it could have been worse, but hey...why couldn't it have been better?

 

  Special effects: at the most

 Story: (there was a story?)

 Acting: Keeping in mind it was supposed to be campy,

 Sexual content: 1/2 (Shag's demon girlfriend makes Brittany Spears look well dressed)

 Language:

 Heart enlightenment factor: 1/2

 Soundtrack: (the best thing in the movie if you ask me)

   

 Overall: of 5 MAX on this puppy (no pun intended)