SCOOB! SHOULD HAVE BEEN BETTER

Scooby Doo, where are you? No seriously, where are you?

Let's start with the positives. Frank Welker as Scooby, Zac Efron as Fred, Amanda Seyfried as Daphne, Ken Jeong as Dyno-mutt, Billy West as Muttley (who doesn't appear until the third act, and ain't in the film much), and Jason Isaacs as Dick Dastardly are all pretty good. The first 15 minutes sets up a nice tone (that the film then completely abandons). There are lots of references to the original Scooby Doo show (including a great recreation of the classic intro). There's also a nice attempt at keeping the theme of the film about friendship (it doesn't really work though, we'll get to why in a few).

As for the ok: Will Forte and Gina Rodriguez are fine as Shaggy and Velma, but their voices don't really match the characters. There is a clear attempt to nab an all-star cast for the film, but a veteran voice cast likely would have served the film better.

Now, onto the bad. Let's start with the plot. Scooby is revealed to be the last descendant of Alexander The Great's dog. Dick Dastardly plans on using him to open the gates of the underwold (Scoob is essentially the chosen one here) so he can steal the treasure within, unaware that the three-headed dog Cerberus is inside too. Brian, the Blue Falcon's son who has inherited the title but is conceited and bad at his job, tags along for the ride. So...yeah, far from a Sooby Doo plot. There is a lot of shoot-shoot bang-bang in the film (far too much for my tastes, and far too much for a Scooby film).

Scoob is also clearly committed to creating a Hannah-Barbara cinematic universe. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but all the chaos, violence, and bombast make this outing feel like far less of a Scooby film than it should. It also doesn't help that a good potion of the film deals with Shaggy and Scooby butting heads and potentially growing apart, as well as their desire to prove themselves (Themes that were covered in the two live-action Scooby movies). These plotlines annoyed fans then, what made WB think they wouldn't now?

The Mystery Inc. gang, along with Dyno-Mutt, Dastardly, and Muttley are all fairly true to their characters, but the movie they've been crammed into isn't all that good. This is a film that is trying way too hard. If it's not the "epic" story, then it's the piles and piles of pop culture references (some work, most don't. I'm looking at you distracting and unneeded Simon Cowell cameo).

In the end, Scoob is not a bad film. The animation is well done, and the voice cast is mostly fine...it just would have been better if the people behind the scenes were more focused on staying true to the tone and spirit of the original cartoons. Scoob is sure to please young ones, but for older fans of the beloved talking dog and his stoner friend...there's not much here. Scoob is a cute film, and not much else.

2.5 STARS