Scooby-Doo (2002) Reviews

• Scooby-Doo in Spooky-Island

  minra902018-04-28

  I don't understand why so many dislike this movie because I think it's the complete opposite. This movie has what you would expect to see in a Scooby-Doo show. I'm a huge fan of Scooby-Doo, and watched the animated series on Cartoon Network, so it's inevitable I would go and watch this, and I wasn't disappointed by it for the most part. Scooby-Doo was fun, entertaining and interesting from start to finish. It definitely had the mystery element in it especially once the gang headed into Spooky Island - that was my favourite part of the movie. I don't know about you, but this movie had me guessing right till the end, and I was very surprised to say the least. That's why I rate Scooby-Doo pretty highly. It's a good movie to watch when you're having snacks or "scooby snacks" or something.

• Underrated

  jason06-12007-04-05

  Scooby-Doo is a worthy live action film to a brilliant original T.V. show Plot: The Mystery Inc. gang have split up and are each off on their own, only Scooby-Doo (Voice of Neil Fanning) and Shaggy (Matthew Lilard) remain together and they own the Mystery Machine. They are called back into action when a strange man shows up and invites them to Spooky Island to solve a mystery. They are convinced when he mentions an all you can eat buffet and are on their way to the airport. There they run into the rest of the gang, Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Velma (Linda Cardellini), and Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar). Still resenting each other they refuse contact and once on the island they meet the owner, Emile Mondavariours (Rowan Atkinson) who informs them of the problem. He believes that somebody is casting a spell on the visitors who come to his resort. Starting off on looking for clues by themselves the gang realizes after a attack that they need to put their differences aside and team up if they ever want to solve the mystery. The Good News: This being the motion picture film to a T.V. series that spawned thousands of imitators it had a lot to live up to and it delivers. Since it was released people have bashed this film to pieces, but if you take a minutes and look at it closely it is a pretty underrated film. The actors all do an outstanding job at bringing the gang to life. At first glance Freddie Prinze Jr. may seem like the wrong choice, but he fills Fred's shoes amazingly well with adequate skill. Linda Cardellini portrays the brainy smart Velma we all know, but Linda plays her with a sensitive side which is new and a a nice choice. Sharah Michelle Gellar is the shining light here bringing warmth and believability to her character as Daphne, everyones favorite danger prone female who proves she is tougher than most think in one of the film's best scenes. Matthew Lillard plays Shaggy well and plays off of Scooby-Doo well even though there was nothing there during filming. Lillard's acting is a key success to the film. It doesn't matter how well the CGI Scooby is made Lillard really has to bring it to life by make believing that Scooby is actually there. The whole thing could have gone completely wrong, but luckily this escapes that. Now the question that most people are asking. How does Scooby-Doo stack up? Neil Fanning's has to be the best since the original and the CGI Scooby looks pretty convincing. The action is a big part of this film as it plays a huge part. There are plenty of action scenes to keep you interested. My favorite one probably has to be the castle scene, a ten minute romp where the gang uncovers clues and it all ends in a big bang, but there are many more to more than fulfill your attention. The screenplay keeps thing's nice and simple and so is the direction. Constant and flashy cuts would've gotten in the way here so the direction they took works the best. The film all ends with more action scenes, big bangs, and many great twists. This could've been a lot worse. The Bad News: The could've taken out the crude humor, but that's my only complaint Conclusion: See this at any cost if you are a hardcore Scooby-Doo fan and others will all so want to check this out. Recommend Rated: PG

• Try as I might I just can't hate it!

  thumper_svx2003-07-29

  When I first heard about Scooby Doo being turned into a movie, I will confess to being rather reticent about seeing it. I am just old enough to remember the original Scooby Doo cartoons on rerun, and was at the high end of the right target age group when Scrappy Doo hit the scene, and of course remembered Scooby Doo with a certain love. Of course, the cartoon was actually pretty terrible; the writing was bad, the cliches came in at a rate of knots, and the animation was second rate... but that's what we all expected of Hanna-Barbara cartoons. I digress: I had heard about SD the movie on the Internet quite early in production and let out a groan; my childhood was being raped again for a buck in Hollywood. Why? Why bother??? Then when I heard Scooby was going to be CGI I actually groaned again. Of course, there is no other way you could have pulled Scoob off on-screen without CGI, at least not realistically... but CGI... that's just so passe any more! I still enjoy the artistry in modern CGI, but to me it felt like SD was going to be done just to prove that it COULD be done with modern technology... not to tell a story. So it came, I read a few online reviews that panned it and failed to be surprised. I caught the trailers and failed to be inspired. I steadfastly avoided the movie theatres and just didn't go see it. Fast forward to July of 2003; SD is playing on Cinemax (I think) and I've got some time to kill. Aw, what the hell... could be good for background noise if nothing else... So having sat through SD the Movie, what do I think? Well, as much as I wanted to hate it because it was Hollywood raping my childhood, I just couldn't. I'm not going to say I loved it because that wouldn't be true, but I'll be darned if I can't admit that it was a whole hell of a lot better than I expected. Let me fill you in; The cast is incredible. They have a real on-screen chemistry that really makes the movie for me. Especially Matthew Lillard as Shaggy... if he hasn't just completely NAILED the character as perfectly as you could in live action, then I'm the queen of France. There's the romantic attraction between Daphne and Fred that comes out on-screen pretty much throughout, and of course the distant attraction Velma had for Fred is right there too. But do I detect a little bit of an attraction to Shaggy? Don't remember that in the cartoon... but I can accept that. The story? Well, it's a hell of a lot better written than the cartoons! Yes, it borrows heavily from them (and borrows from some of the SD animated movies that have been made in the interim), but still it's an interesting story with a nice twist at the end that had me actually laughing out loud. Not Shakespeare by any stretch of the imagination... but a fun and engaging story that keeps your attention. So what about the CGI Scoob? Wow is all I can say! I don't know what makes it more, the quality of the CGI or the way in which all the actors really made me believe they were sharing the screen with a 6'5" intelligent dog. The interactions were believable, and not once did I catch anyone making the mistake of looking in the wrong place on-screen (which is clearly evident in many instances where CGI characters are used). The personality is captured perfectly and translates Scooby from the two-color animation of my youth to a perfect rendition of how I envisaged him in my minds eye. I'm sure many have heard about them already, but there are plenty of in-jokes that pepper the movie for those willing to pay attention. I won't say they're all laugh-out-loud funny, but they are amusing... and it was obvious pretty early on that the film-makers didn't like Scrappy Doo either (I know I didn't... I didn't even like him as a kid), but rather than pretend he never happened (*cough* Galactica 1980 *cough*) they actually bring him to life in this movie too... and actually he has one of the lines that made me laugh out loud (to those who have seen it, it's the line he never finishes saying...) So did I love it as much as I loved Scooby as a kid? No. The movie was definitely not without flaws, and it did depart from the cartoons in some pretty major ways; for example one of the nice things about the cartoon (looking at it now from an adult's perspective) was that at the end of every episode it was reiterated however lightly that there are no such things as monsters, ghosts, ghouls etc. and that we as people are always responsible for these things. This is something I picked up on as a kid but didn't understand until I was an adult; and kids should be given that reassurance early in life that there are no monsters. The movie departed from that part of the formula... so personally I couldn't recommend the movie to younger (under about 8 or 9) children. However, even with these kids, recommend that a parent watch it with them... but of course there's plenty of adult-type humor in there too that will completely pass the kids by. To me that's the mark of a great kids movie these days; the ability to appeal to all ages. Overall, I'd say a 7 out of 10.

• Scooby rocks!

  jim_99992002-06-16

  I watched Scooby Doo, the cartoon, only with medium level interest as a child, so I went (with my wife and kids) mostly as a kick. Matthew Lillard is brilliant as Shaggy (how is that possible? His impersonation skills were flawless!). The cartoonimation of Scooby and Scrappy Doo were interesting but were so 3-D rendered that they did not match the original 2-D versions very well. The plot was reasonably interesting and twisted. No mere disgruntled janitor in a spooky disguise-- there's some evil genius at work. There were some minor plot issues with Velma, Fred, and Daphne having much greater insecurity issues than in the cartoons, but experimenting with such ideas is very cartoon-like. The set and cast worked very well. There's some biological humor with Shaggy and Scooby that I did not expect, but the last bit that they did helped. If you're prudish about gas-passing and belching, there are about 4 minutes you can do without, but they seem very much in character.

• Great movie

  WeAreLive2018-01-07

  I remember watching this movie when I was about 7 and I really loved it. This movie is defiantly a good joy ride for new and old Scooby Doo fans. I haven't seen this movie for ages so bare with me if I can't remember everything. The best parts where when the creatures attacked the house, the flashback with scrappy, when a guy was about to sacrifice a chicken and the last scene. Overall it's an adventurous movie and I would recomand it.