‘Scoob!’ Review

As a kid, I enjoyed watching Scooby-Doo. It’s a fun cartoon with creative characters trying to stop a bad guy who is usually dressed up as a ghost or some type of monster. The best part about each episode was usually solving the mystery along with some slapstick comedy. The characters are very memorable, especially Shaggy and Scooby-Doo. 

Throughout the years, there have been many reboots of Scooby-Doo, such as A Pup Named Scooby Doo, which was all of the characters as kids. There has even been 2 live action Scooby-Doo films made, which I watched a lot as a kid.

Plot

Scoob! is the latest iteration in the Scooby-Doo franchise and it is the first one using CGI-animation. The film focuses on the gang as they join up with other Hanna-Barbera characters including Blue Falcon and Dynomutt to try and stop Dick Dastardly. Dick needs Scooby-Doo for his evil plan and the gang tries to figure out what exactly he is trying to do and Scooby’s role in all of this. 

Review

Scoob! has a very starstruck voice cast, with Zac Efron as Fred, Amanda Seyfried as Daphne, and Mark Wahlberg as Blue Falcon. The cast does a decent enough job, but the main standouts are Frank Welker as Scooby-Doo and Jason Isaacs as Dick Dastardly. Isaacs seems to be the only one really putting in a ton of effort and is clearly enjoying playing such a ridiculous character.

The strength of this movie is easily the friendship between Scooby-Doo and Shaggy. The film opens with them meeting for the first time and their instant connection is really sweet. They work really well off of one another and have some funny lines. I even got a little bit emotional from their friendship towards the end. 

I also did like Dick as the villain as he is just very over the top. His motivation throughout the film is actually somewhat understandable. The animation is also top-notch, as it is very fluid, bright, and lively. Some of the action sequences are fun as well, especially one that takes place at an abandoned amusement park.

The comedy in the movie is very hit and miss. It is definitely meant for kids, but there are some jokes that adults can probably get a chuckle at. I wasn’t a huge fan of a lot of the pop culture references that the film made as it will make the film feel dated in later years. The film makes references to Netflix, the Hemsworth brothers, even The Shallow from “A Star is Born,” which just came out of nowhere.

The film’s biggest weakness is that it just does not feel like Scooby-Doo. I know this is nit-picky, but it feels like they did not use these characters correctly. For one thing, there is no mystery. While I recognize that this movie is better than the live-action versions, the live-action versions at least actually had a mystery. The characters spend a lot of time investigating and we don’t know who the villain is until the end of the movie. 

Here, the film tells us the villain is Dick Dastardly at the beginning of the movie. There is nothing to figure out so it basically just turns into a superhero movie where our heroes need to stop him from whatever he is planning. The ending brings in a very convoluted plot for Scooby-Doo, which is supposed to be very simple. 

The scene that feels the most like Scooby-Doo is in the beginning when we see them all meet as kids and start to solve mysteries. That had a lot of the heart of the original cartoon.

Secondly, the film suffers from trying to make a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe. The film doesn’t really focus on the mystery gang, to the point where Scooby and Shaggy are separated from the gang for the majority of the movie. It’s hard to really care about them all when we never see them interact. The film is too focused on making a crossover between various Hanna-Barbera franchises, which makes the film feel unfocused. 

Warner Bros. already made this mistake once with their DC universe. It is trying too hard to be a modern-day superhero film that will set up future movies. Like I said earlier, I thought that a lot of the modern references didn’t work for me and often felt awkward. It was like a dad who was trying too hard to look cool for his kids.

Final Verdict

Overall, I would agree with the overall consensus for this film. It’s average. If you have kids, they will definitely enjoy it, and you can have a fun enough time watching it. If you are a big Scooby-Doo fan, you will probably be disappointed with this. 

It is not a good representation of what the original cartoon was. It’s just something cute to watch during this pandemic. It’s only about 90 minutes so it’s a quick watch and you won’t feel like you totally wasted your time in the end.

Final Grade: 2/5