Before things go too off the rails here, I’m grandfathering this one in because I needed something to watch with my kids. Now, my brain is a funny place to be sometimes. It just latches on to something and runs in a particular direction. The other night I was watching “The Life of Chuck” which I had recently received on disc. I quite enjoyed it from beginning to end. I think they may have hyped it up a little much as this tremendous opus of Stephen King’s but it was a remarkable film that I thoroughly appreciated. I say that to note that there was one scene in the first act, which happened to be noted as the third act, that featured Matthew Lillard. I own a few movies featuring Lillard but realized there could be more in his filmography that I don’t own or haven’t entertained. Many times this is how my collection grows from the older end. I’m fairly invested in all things new but stumbling upon existing films gets harder and harder to do. Many times I’ll find things hidden in actors’ filmographies that I was unaware of or perhaps simply hadn’t picked up yet. I will say that I don’t believe I found anything particularly special in his catalog but I did realize I don’t own either of the live action Scooby Doo movies. Then I realized I never actually saw the first one. I think I may have seen clips or scenes. But I’ve never sat down and watched the movie. My kids are old enough that we dabble more heavily in PG-13 at this point but both kids can easily skew younger and my 11 year old is definitely still plenty kid at heart regardless. He’s not quite crossed the same line of fascination of all things older that my 13 year old has yet. So I found a 2-pack on Amazon for the blu rays and picked it up. It arrived today and so we popped the first one in for a Halloweenish treat to finish off the evening after a baseball game.
The other caveat I should own here is that I don’t know that this movie technically falls under any category on a streaming service that denotes it’s any kind of horror movie. I think Spirit Halloween the Movie was clearly listed as a Halloween movie so I let it fly under that banner. I did take another creative license in allowing both films to qualify, however, I have seen the second movie more than once so it was not new to me and therefore I tried my best to stay true to the cause. I know I don’t have much, if any, of an audience here but I will stay somewhat dedicated to the nature of whatever this little project is. I know I don’t always get to my review the same day as my viewing but as close to integrity as I can get while I’m doing this is what I’m striving for in the end.
The first thing I have to note off the top is that I feel like this is clearly a case where the sequel is much better than the original. I’m not going to just dump on this movie, and it has been a minute since I watched the sequel, but I do remember having a much stronger affinity for the second film than this one after having finally viewed both now. What I will say is that I still love the casting. There wasn’t an official core of these actors in the late 90’s and early 2000’s but between Lillard, Prinze Jr., and Gellar, there was enough overlap in multiple projects that they were a good fit all around. I mean heck, Prinze Jr. and Gellar tied the knot a good long while ago and are still kicking today. There was connective tissue between the Scream and Last Summer franchises with all three actors being tied to both late 90’s powerhouse horror flicks. So the three of them clicked quite well. Lillard is a natural Shaggy and has become the voice of the animated character in all the films over the last decade and a little more. Sarah Michelle Gellar is a natural fit for the role of Daphne in this iteration. Even employing her Buffy action skills to give her character a little more depth on screen as well. Freddie was tasked with undertaking Fred, a stretch I know, but he pulled it off. I will say that of the three of them, despite having the same name as his character, Prinze Jr. did seem the least like his cartoon counterpart. I never got a terribly superficial spotlight hog vibe from the cartoons. But I can’t say I was a faithful viewer with strict regularity, even being a rerun exclusive participant. It still worked and the character arc made for a nice conclusion in the end. The newcomer to all this was Linda Cardellini as Velma. This was the most significant upgrade in casting I think. Velma was always a bit frumpy and known strictly for her wit and intellect. She was the nerdy stereotype drawn in on the small screen for Mystery Inc. But while she maintains many of those personality traits in the film, Cardellini is a hard one to obscure her physical attractiveness and they didn’t seem preoccupied with doing so. While Shaggy is the spitting image of himself on screen and Fred isn’t terribly far away from his original representation, even featuring the iconic ascot, both Daphne and Velma are costumed a good bit more modern for their roles. I’m not knocking this at all. It’s hardly a detriment to the film and both ladies play their roles incredibly well despite their wardrobe divergences. And in the end, with the voice of Scooby being more than competent, the gang was well shown on screen and had a real chemistry that translated well.
The second thing I thought they did well was in how they kept it on that line between spooky and goofy. That’s an important piece in the Scooby Doo series. Balancing just enough fright with sight gags, pratfalls, and other physically comedic elements is what makes something that perfect blend of live action and cartoon origin. Kids will get a good laugh at the ridiculous nature of the characters with just a dash of terror to blend it all into a spicy little cocktail of enjoyment. Having the cast go to Spooky Island seems like the perfect destination for the gang to solve a mystery. Add in a few other compelling supportive cast characters in the aptly innuendo’d “Mary Jane”, the love interest for Shaggy, and the eccentric island owner played by Rowan Atkinson and things really come together well. The plot might be a little light but it comes together well enough in this first outing of Scoob and company that it works just fine.
Here’s where I’ll push back just a little bit when it comes to the overall story. I understand and appreciate that it’s a Scooby Doo movie and it’s not meant to be up for any awards. But what I will say is that I didn’t like the vehicle of the gang breaking up first thing over trivial differences and then being on their own for 2 years only to reunite suspiciously for this case. I didn’t like that as a plot device to drive the story. It worked okay in the end and it wasn’t the biggest deal in the world but it did feel a bit off to me. It is also worth noting though that this plot, as tame as it may be, pales in comparison to several of the things it would appear that James Gunn, author of The Suicide Squad and Peacemaker, had much darker and far more adult themes in earlier drafts of the script. The directors cut of this movie might very well be something that would not have been terribly appropriate for a young audience. There’s a part of me that is curious how that would have come across in the end. The actors in this film could have definitely pulled off a version of this film that was clearly aimed at an adult crowd as some homage to the original for fans that were of legal age by the time this movie hit theaters. But I will say that with it’s flaws, I do prefer this version to one that teeters between PG-13 and R for what it’s worth. Watching this with my kids was much more fun than attempting some tongue in cheek adult romp through a Scooby Doo mystery.
I’ll go ahead and put a spoiler alert here as well. Granted, this film is more than 20 years old I’m pretty sure so I feel like you’ve had plenty of time to check it out, but I’ll be polite and give you room to skip this part if you like. The villain of the film ends up being Scrappy Doo. That’s the other big problem I have with this movie. As I said, I wasn’t a faithful first time viewer when this show was on the air originally. I simply wasn’t old enough to have been alive then. So I was relegated to reruns. I’ve probably seen more episodes than I remember but I know I haven’t seen the whole show from beginning to end. That being said, Scrappy Doo was one of those characters that I’m pretty sure came along in later years to add in a little something that the show started to lose after a certain number of episodes. He was cute and rambunctious but hardly a foil to the gang in any serious capacity. Certainly not to the point of villainy. Gunn has come out and apologized as he didn’t realize Scrappy had as much of a fan base as he did. I think at the time it seemed like an easy pivot within the universe to utilize a character in a different capacity. I’ll give him points for some measure of originality, but if you do know the lore in any way and have an appreciation for Scrappy, its a truly hard pill to swallow that he would end up being that nefarious to the Mystery Inc. crew.
The only other thing I’ll note that is a detriment to the film is the CGI. I don’t really hold them too accountable for it. At the time, it was what it was. It’s far from Avatar or Pixar but for when this movie came out, I’m sure the graphic on screen representation of Scooby Doo and other fictional characters in need of big screen animating are just a little tougher to consumer 20+ years later. There’s just nothing you can do because you only have available to you what time offers. It doesn’t take away from the film or date it poorly any worse than having a cameo appearance from Sugar Ray, which I sheepishly did quite enjoy. I was waiting for Smash Mouth as they just seemed ripe for a film like this but they were probably occupied with Shrek at the time. I just felt like I should note that these things were what they were but also to say that they aren’t significant detractors. It’s just very clear that the CG is what it is unfortunately.
So I think in the end I can clearly say that my $12 for the two films on blu ray was a solid investment. I probably won’t revisit the first film any time soon. But having it on the shelf for subsequent viewings is not a wasted space in my estimation either. I think I can give this initial outing of these meddling kids a solid 5.5. It’s definitely better than middle of the road but I don’t feel like I can really go all the way up to a 6 for this movie. I suppose I could have split the difference and gotten in the 5.75 range but lets not start adding extra decimal points to the mix. It’s a fun movie you can watch this time of year that’s not distinctly tied to Halloween but certainly has the ghostly vibes that fit for spooky season. Even on my own I enjoyed the film for what it was. It made me just nostalgic enough for that bygone era and enjoyed the performances by all the actors. It’s a quick one at a run time of about 90 minutes or so which is easy to digest as well. So I can definitely recommend it if you’ve got little ones this time of year and are looking for family grade fare that fits a Halloween motif. With this review unmasked and Old Man Jenkins on his way to the slammer for haunting yet another abandoned amusement park precariously adjacent to a wharf, I’ll catch you on the flip side.
