Scooby-Doo
Anyone that grew up a kid in the 70s or 80s are probably familiar with the material and happily it can be said that this film adaptation maintains the tone and feel of the original material, staying just irreverent enough to make us feel we’ve haven’t crossed over into pretentious “epic” material. With the exception of a couple of bits that seem out of place (ie, the farting contest), this is perfectly acceptable for all kids and has enough cheerful goofiness to keep adults entertained as well. It’s far from perfect though. Freddie Prinze Jr. is ALL WRONG for Fred, and outside from his bleach-blonde hair, has nothing that makes me connect to the character as I remember him. Linda Cardellni certainly captures the essence of Vilma, but, I don’t remember ever finding Vilma so, well, sexy. Atkinson is wasted as the owner of Spooky Island. The dipshit in the Led Zeppelin t-shirt should have died a quck death. The CGI is all a bit much, though theoretically it’s the only possible way to bring the Scooby character to life. Too much CGI has ruined plenty of movies (see Van Helsing), and maybe using a real-life dog and using the FX to make his mouth move would have been more effective. In addition, the director gets a bit carried away with using all kinds of songs on the soundtrack to show just how “hip” the movie is. On the other hand, it’s nice to see the legendary Miguel Nunez get a small but insignificant part, Isla Fisher brings plenty of cuteness to a hippie girl Shaggy falls for, Geller gets a few nice moments as Daphne (though there was NO need to have a graituitous kung-fu sequence so we can be reminded that it’s Buffy The Vampire Slayer playing the role), and then there’s Matthew Lillard. How he got every nuance of Shaggy down just right, just perfect, right down to the voice, is absolutely amazing (at times I almost thought he was being overdubbed by the original voice actor). Lillard deserved at least an MTV Movie Award for this, perhaps the most accurate live-action performance of a cartoon character ever. That, along with the “big reveal” of the mystery villain being a nice wink to fans of the show, combine to make this worthwhile family entertainment…
7/10