REVIEW: Scoob!

The choice to move Warner Bros' Scoob!, directed by Tony Cervone, to digital is an understandable one, but the film remains haunted by the possibility of having been the launching pad that brought Mystery Inc back into the public eye through the big screen. In an alternate timeline where theater doors weren't shuttered, could this have worked? Very possibly. Not short on laughs or ingenuity, this film places Scooby-Doo and company in a new universe that has every opportunity to initiate a new generation into the longstanding Scooby-Doo fandom.

Having deployed their mystery-solving expertise for fifty years (in the film's universe only ten years), the Mystery Inc. gang is considering expanding their business into the larger market and going big. But doing so runs the risk of losing their tight-knit posse. Does the group need to sacrifice friendship on the altar of inevitable maturation? The question hangs in the air as Scooby and Shaggy are caught in the crossfire of superhero Blue Falcon (well, Blue Falcon's son, Brian) and the notorious Dick Dastardly, who seeks Scooby-Doo for reasons unknown. Fred, Daphne, and Velma soon embark on a quest to save their friends, while Scooby and Shaggy try to understand how they fit into this larger than life world of robots and superheroes (and by extension the world of Mystery Inc), and the team must figure out just how strong their friendship is.

The movie actually shows impressive thematic symmetry in that regard. This dichotomy, the naturality of friendship versus the cold hard utility of progress, is at work in some form among most of the major players in the movie, including Dick Dastardly who now commands an army of robotic servants to take the place of his own flesh-and-blood canine sidekick whom he now seeks to retrieve from the Underworld. As a consequence, the thematic through-line of the film rings true. (There's an inescapable irony at play, though. The film does, after all, capitulate to modern computer animation instead of the hand-drawn tradition from which these characters originate.)

Voice actor extraordinaire Frank Welker (who fun-fact voiced Fred in the original 1969 run of Scooby-Doo and has voiced the big canine himself since 2002) gives life to our signature pup, while the rest of the cast is filled with prominent A-list actors including Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, and Ken Jeong. This is done to pretty good effect as you're never really distracted by the celebrity behind the mic. Jason Isaacs in particular relishes his role as supervillain Dick Dastardly and I'm now convinced this is how he should have played Lucius Malfoy.

One of the biggest deviations from the source material comes with a genre shift. Here the Mystery Inc. gang isn't caught up in a mystery that needs to be solved so much as a world domination quest that needs to be foiled. The movie actually gets to dip into a range of exotic locales and sub-genres. Perhaps what we see here isn't so far out of their range. After all, between their various films and shows over the decades, we've seen them take on haunted houses, pirates, dinosaurs, and everything in between. There's still an unmasking at the end, but it's done more as a meta-textual gimmick than anything else.

It's here that the film handicaps itself the most. Even in a world as cartoonish as this, even with a cast as zany as the Mystery Inc. Gang, one does wish that the writers for this team had had enough faith in the emotional gravity of the property to play a few of the more emotional moments sincerely rather than ironically. Thankfully the movie isn't without pathos, but the film elects to lean into irony a little too hard a little too often.

The movie is at its best when the personalities of the characters, and our affection for said personalities, are allowed to shine through. Does one need to be familiar with these personalities to understand this movie? It may increase your appreciation for the brand, but the film is fairly user-friendly. Just YouTubing the 1969 opening title sequence is more than sufficient. (This film may or may not include a form of that very feature for your convenience.) This is as good an entry point as any. Should we be graced with further franchising from this creative team, the Scooby Doo world may rest comfortably in the arms of pop culture for many years more.

--The Professor

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