A fun prologue gives us everything we'd expect from an episode of the
cartoon: a spooky setting, a crazed spectre on the loose, and the
Mystery Inc. gang ready with a plan to trap and unmask it in true "old
man Withers/meddling kids" style. Once this is mystery is solved
however, petty squabbles and jealousies (Velma is tired or Fred taking
all the credit for solving the mysteries, Daphne is sick of playing the
damsel in distress) lead to the rather lame device of the gang splitting
up, only to be reunited two years later by an invitation to solve a
mystery on Spooky Island by the island's owner, Emile Mondavarious. It
seems kids have been arriving at the resort as lively, normal teenagers,
only to leave bad-tempered and brainwashed and looking like they've been
made to sit through a continuously looping DVD of Joel Schumacher films.
What follows is a loosely connected series of chases and fights,
interspersed with the occasional farting contest and eating binge until,
somehow or other, the mystery is solved, the de-maskings ensue and
everyone has learned the value of teamwork. Stirring stuff.
As a live action version of a children's cartoon, expectations have to
be set low and Scooby-Doo is more than happy to meet these
expectations. What's good is very good: Lillard was born to play the
bewildered stoner Shaggy, his voice and mannerisms practically note-perfect.
The production design is fantastic - reminiscent of Dick Tracy
- and puts the likes of the drab Tomb Raider to shame. The great CGI dane
himself, contrary to reports, is delightfully animated and voiced and
his antics made me smile on several occasions. Plus, there's an overall
goofy charm that manages to shine through despite the paucity of the
script.
Unfortunately, the bad threatens to outweigh the good. Until now I've
managed - quite deliberately, I might add, and this also extends to Adam
Sandler - to almost entirely avoid the films of Prinze Jr. (with the
exception of
I Know What You Did Last Summer,
which I unwittingly watched, although thankfully both he and the film have all
but melted from my memory banks). I can now drop to my knees and thank
the movie Gods that I've performed this feat because, mercy me, this guy is bad.
Sarah Michelle Gellar isn't much better and neither of them seem to know they're in a
cartoon, such is their eyebrow-straining intensity. Linda Cardellini is good,
but she's far too pretty to totally convince as brainiac Velma. The
aforementioned script contains too few laughs for non-kiddies, but this
is after all a kids movie and, as such, its target audience probably
won't be let down.
DVDs reviewed by the editor are watched on a Panasonic TXW32R4 32" widescreen TV
connected to either a Creative Dxr2 DVD-ROM player or Microsoft Xbox and
played through a Sony STR-DB930 amplifier.
PC games reviewed by the editor are on:
Since Nov 2005: Intel Pentium D 830 3.0Ghz, 1Gb RAM, 128Mb nVidia GeForce 6700XL, Windows XP
Since Aug 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.66Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb GeForce4 MX440 graphics, Windows XP
Since May 2003: Intel Pentium 4 2.6Ghz, 512Mb RAM, 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600TX graphics, Windows XP
Since Jun 2002: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, 64Mb ATI Radeon 8500LE
Since May 2000: Intel Pentium III 600Mhz, 384Mb RAM, Windows 98 SE, Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
