This 2002 movie brings back the classic cartoon of Scooby the great Dane and the rest of his gang of they Mystery solving team. This is the first live action version of the cartoon and a damn good attempt at it as well. Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini and Rowan Atkinson. Scooby is the only character that remained animated in the bulk of this movie. It was made on a budget of $84m and was a success at the box-office breaking $275m. It was an American movie predominantly filmed in Australia and created a sequel and then various other spin off movies and shows. The critics were not so pleased with this movie mind you so if I tell you now that of the usual three my score is the highest by more than 20 points should tell you a lot. IMDb gave it 5.1/10 which was generous compared to the rotten tomato’s lot who have it way down at 30%.
We will move onto the plot shall we. The Mystery inc gang have finally got fed up with each other and are fed up with every mystery meaning they end up doing the same thing. Fred deciding the plan and getting all the glory. Daphne always getting kidnapped and Velma always solving the crime but never getting any of the credit. Whilst Scooby and Shaggy just eat everything and are really sad to see the gang going their own way. After a year or two Shaggy and Scooby get invited to solve a mystery on Spooky Island which they decline as they don’t really solve mysteries. Then they are offered the all you can eat buffet and agree. They bump into the rest of the team at the airport and they have all moved on to bigger and better things but rather than coming back together they now see the mystery as a challenge against each other. The gang arrive on the island and Shaggy has met a girl on the journey there which could cause some friction with Scooby. On the island the gang find some weird characters who could all be behind the mystery and they also find some demons as well. Will the gang come together, will they solve the mystery, will they uncover who the sinister figure from their past is, who has come back to break them all apart?
Oh, I feel I should apply to write the blurbs on movies that sell them to cinema goers ahead of movie releases, come on read that last line again. Fair enough I wouldn’t get the gig. I will however tell you right now I loved this version of the movie it was something out of left field for me as I really enjoyed the old Scooby cartoons, I cannot say I was a massive fan but I enjoyed them. And hearing they had made a live action version really didn’t appeal to my nostalgia cords. Please note I have said on many occasions that leave things alone. If it is good enough before then its good enough to stand the test of time. This was subtilty different in that I do not believe there was a theatre length version of Scooby out there. So, this was slightly different from the norm. What I liked about the movie was the casting they seem to have nailed the cartoon characters particularly with Matthew Lillard playing Shaggy was fantastic and a casting I was particularly worried about as I was sure it would be bad. He nailed it and so did Freddy & Velma, Sarah Michelle’s version of Daphne was passible. The spookiness was there and the jokes were funny and they poked a bit of fund at the original version but not enough to undermine the history of the show in my opinion. It spawned many movies and spin off’s since and I would recommend this movie.
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