Scooby-Doo

"Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" was a fun part of my childhood. I pride myself on my impersonation of both Shaggy and Scooby-Doo. Back in 2002, there was no way I was going to miss the live action film. While it was not the best film in the world, it could have been worse. Matthew Lillard performance was spot on and many beloved characteristic of the original show are featured.

The opening sequence was nicely handled to exhibit clichés from the show and to introduce the live action cast. The filmmakers did some things right in creating a live action Scooby-Doo film and they also created a nice twist in the story for kids. In all of the classic Scooby-Doo episodes that I have seen, Mystery Inc. never suspects the real criminal when they first meet him/her. In the movie, they do suspect Mondavarious and he is taken aback by this. It is like the villain is saying "Wait, I not supposed to be suspected." That is some nice inside humor. The flashback that introduces Scrappy had me fooled when I first saw the film. I assumed that the reason for the flashback was to contribute to the plot line of Mystery Inc. reuniting after having broken up two years earlier and Scrappy was just a gag. I love the joke of Zarkos playing the piano that precedes the flashback. It comes as a humorous surprise thanks to the set up. Another funny joke was the running gag of Melvin Doo. It was a nice touch making Scrappy the villain because by doing so, Hanna-Barbera acknowledges that the character caused the cartoon series to "jump the shark" around 1980. The film was going to be PG-13 and poke fun at the series but after casting, the film was redesigned to be more family friendly. I support that because of how much I like the original animated show. The faithfulness to the cartoon is unfortunately the film's biggest flaw. It is hard to take the story seriously for example with the cartoony design and CGI. The casting is the film's best attribute. Some of the actors gave so-so performance while others were perfect in their roles. Many of the main actors have been in horror films previous to this movie. Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar were both in "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and Matthew Lillard is from the "Scream" franchise. It is funny how these actors must now tackle the spooky but kid friendly world of "Scooby-Doo". Lillard & Linda Cardellini are both fans of the original cartoon and their performances as Shaggy and Velma respectively are the best out of all the actors. The resemblances to the original voice work of Casey Kasem and Nicole Jaffe are uncanny. I also applaud Lillard's ability to perform so well with a popular character that was added later in post-production. I do not know how he accomplished such a great chemistry with an invisible character. His delivery of the beloved line "Scooby-Doo, where are you?" is flawless. To prepare for his role, he apparently watched any cartoon episode he could find. While the film as a whole received mostly negative comments by critics, they all praised Lillard's performance and rightfully so. Mike Myers wanted to play Shaggy at one point in production but that couldn't have worked. Myers doesn't have the physique that Lillard does. It is fitting that Buffy the Vampire Slayer portray Daphne. Because I never watched "Buffy" on TV, this was my intro to Sarah Michelle Gellar and also Isla Fisher who plays Mary Jane. Prinze and Gellar were dating during the making of this film and would later marry before the release of the sequel. They met when working on "I Know What You Did Last Summer" by the way. Neil Fanning is the best voice of Scooby-Doo with the exception of the original voice artist: Don Messick. Rowan Atkinson's sudden entrance is perfect because every kid knows him as Mr. Bean. I have seen this film in theaters twice. The first time was in the US when it first came out and the second time was a special family screening over ten years later in Canada. Both times, children had a positive reaction to Atkinson's appearance and it was well created. He did fine in playing the bad guy but we are relieved when we find out that he was not the true villain behind the evil plot.

Director Raja Gosnell was the editor of the first two "Home Alone" movies and director of the third film in that franchise so he was a good choice. However, "Scooby-Doo" does contain some bad examples of editing ironically. William Hanna and Joseph Barbera were executive producers on this show and this was one of the last projects that William Hanna produced before his death in 2001. He died before the film was finished. The film received negative criticism as mentioned but was successful at the box office, which led to the aforementioned sequel among other things. The movie is cheesy but kids will enjoy it. I can't get enough of Matthew Lillard. Even though the live action film has flaws, there is always the original cartoon show to enjoy.

3.5 Stars