Scooby-Doo has been around for over 51 years, so the only way that a new theatrical movie about the kids in Mystery Inc needs to bring something new to win over fans.
With Scoob, Warner. Bros did just that and not only brought the first truly great Scooby-Doo theatrical movie but also revived and possibly created a new Hanna Barbara movie universe.
Possibly the smartest thing it did was make the film animated. That is not an insult to the original live-action Scooby-Doo movies, which had a great cast. However, for Scooby-Doo, animation just feels right.
Scoob starts out in the past when Shaggy was a friendless little boy who found his best friend in a stray puppy with no name that he named Scooby Dooby-Doo. The movie quickly moves to their first Halloween together where they met Fred, Daphne, and Velma, who helped them when some bullies took their candy and threw it into a haunted house.
This also led to Mystery Inc solving its first mystery and the rest is history. Following this was a great opening title sequence that mixed the original cartoon’s intro with the new animated characters. That was simply brilliantly constructed.
After the introduction, the movie introduces the world of Hannah-Barbara.
Too many kids today have no idea who the characters in Hannah-Barbara are outside of Scooby-Doo characters. The main characters introduced here are Blue Falcon and Dynomutt, but in a very different form. Also introduced here are Dick Dastardly as the bad guy, his sidekick Muttley, Captain Caveman, and a ton more in Easter eggs, including nods to Scooby-Doo‘s past.
The actual story of the movie starts with Mystery Inc knowing they need to start either finding a way to make money or they will have to stop their mystery investigation business. That is when a new finance possibly showed up in Simon Cowell (yeah, the American Idol guy). He mentions that Fred, Daphne, and Velma were integral to the group but he couldn’t invest with Shaggy and Scooby there because they brought the group down.
Shaggy and Scooby left and it seemed the group was splitting down the middle. However, when some robots attack and Dick Dastardly tries to abduct the two, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt saved them. This was one of the best parts of the movie. This was not the original Blue Falcon, but the son of the original who shares more in common with Shaggy and Scooby than his dad. It is a great, fresh dynamic that brings something new for old fans.
The mystery is why Dick Dastardly wants Shaggy and Scooby and how Mystery Inc can work with Blue Falcon to save them.
The movie itself is a great one for kids, and it has a lot there for older fans too. The lesson is typical for a kid’s animated movie — friendship conquers all. There is also a lot of winks and nods to adults who watched Hannah-Barbara as kids as well as some sly gags (drop the F-Bomb, Tinder, toxic masculinity) that most adults will snicker at and kids won’t even notice.
The animation in this movie is gorgeous. I can only imagine how great this would look on the big screen of a theater, and sadly, that might never happen thanks to the coronavirus. It is nice that Warner released it for audiences at home during the pandemic and it looked great on TV, the colors bright and vibrant, and the animation crisp and beautiful.
The voice cast is also great. There are some big names here and they sound just like the original voice cast. Will Forte is Shaggy, while veteran Scooby-Doo voice actor Frank Welker traded Fred for Scooby in this movie. The rest of Mystery Inc includes some big names in Gina Rodriguez (Velma), Zac Efron (Fred Jones), and Amanda Seyfried (Daphne). Other big names include Mark Wahlberg as the new Blue Falcon, Ken Jeong as Dynomutt, and Jason Isaacs as Dick Dastardly. However, the one voice actor that distracted from his character was Tracy Morgan as Captain Caveman.
There are a lot of people who won’t give an animated movie the benefit of the doubt and naysayers of Scoob are no different. However, this was a fun movie for the entire family that had a strong message and looked gorgeous. The story was solid and the action and humor was on spot. My 10-year-old gave it five stars and that says it all.
Scoob is a movie that brings the boy and his dog back to the big screen and it is very much worth a watch, especially for families with kids of all ages.
