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Two
years after the members of Mystery Inc (or the Scooby gang
as they are better known) go their separate ways after a disagreement,
an eccentric millionaire reunites them to look into strange
goings on at his island funfair. Here, on Spooky Island the
rowdy children who turn up are being transformed into living
zombies...
The
movie starts in much the same way as the old cartoons concluded
- with a ghost being caught and unmasked. Then
the gang members realise they hate each others guts and decide
to go their separate ways, ignoring Scooby and Shaggy's pleas
to carry on the years of good work they have achieved. But
Daphne is sick of being captured by the ghosts and Velma is
sick of Fred taking all the credit when he is really a space
cadet and she is the brains of the gang.
Fast
forward two years and Rowan Atkinson's character gets the
gang to reform to tackle a problem on his island. Thankfully
Atkinson, playing himself, has only a small amount of screen
time. Matthew Lillard manages to impersonate the cartoon voice
of Shaggy so well that at times I was convinced that Casey
Kasem (who voiced the cartoon) had dubbed over Lillard's speech.
Linda
Cardellini also turns in a commendable Velma impersonation
while Freddie Prinze Jr.'s Fred is a complete dork - not the
cool level headed member of the gang as was seen in the cartoon.
And Sarah Michelle Gellar just plays Buffy the Vampire
Slayer.
After
a lot of speculation on whether the computer generated animation
for Scooby would be any good you'll be glad to hear that it
pretty impressive and manages to work well for the duration
of the movie. Also of merit are the animated ghosts which
run riot on Spooky Island.
There
is a great surprise for fans of the cartoon series in the
appearance of an old favourite (?) who provides a little light
relief for the adults in the audience. But there are not enough
adult jokes to keep anyone over the age of 13 entertained
for long. While the effects are above average and the story
line is passable for a kids movie there is very little substance
here.
In
fact there is very little original plot here at all (apart
from the surprise bad guy unveiling at the end). Spooky Island,
where the kids are transformed is a complete rip off of Adventure
Island in Poncho. And the rest of the movie is an amalgamation
of any number of the original cartoons formulaic scripts.
Look
out for cameo appearances from Pamela Anderson and Kristian
Schmid (who used to play Tod in Aussie soap Neighbours.)
DVD
extras include filmmaker audio commentary, cast audio commentary,
Unmasking the Mystery Behind Scooby Doo featurette, never
before seen footage and a music video.
The
kids will love it, but most parents will find little to laugh
at. In fact, if it wasn't for Matthew Lillard this would be
a hell of a lot more painful. I did enjoy the DVD release
much more than I did when I originally saw this at the cinema
and looking back it could have been a lot worse.
Pete
Boomer
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