The Hanna-Barbera name
has almost become synonymous with the idea of Saturday morning cartoons for
more than half a century. They have brought so many wonderful and colorful
characters to life and easily their most popular of them is their lovable
talking dog and his gang of meddling kids. Scooby Doo is back in brand new
animated film for this new generation of nostalgic revivals. This time he’s not
alone, as a ton of classic cartoon icons are also thrown into the mix of Warner
Animation Group’s Scoob!. For what it is, Scoob! is a solid and enjoyable attempt at bringing back the Mystery
Inc. Gang, despite taking some deviations of its original source material.
Unique
Fan Service Makes Up for Lack of Mystery
Scoob! brings back the
whole Mystery Inc. gang of Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, Velma and of course, Scooby
Doo. However, Shaggy and Scooby actually get separated from the gang as they
end up teaming up with the legendary Blue Falcon and his companion Dyno-Mutt:
The Dog Wonder. Their mission is to take down the evil Dick Dastardly, of Wacky
Races fame, and his plan to take over the world, through various hi-jinxes
and gags that these characters have been made famous for. As an adaptation of
the Scooby-Doo mythos, some fans might be disappointed that the whole mystery
aspect rather downplayed in the film’s story. It starts out with an excellent
set-up giving origins to how these characters met with a nice little tribute to
the original series from 1969. Though once that opening ends, it starts to do
its own thing that tends to be fixated on building a universe for Hanna-Barbera
characters.
With the characters
being separated, we don’t get that same comradery that we’re used to in most
Scooby Doo adaptations. While that does sound rather underwhelming for longtime
Scooby Doo fans, one thing to consider is that Scooby Doo is a franchise that
is the definition of formulaic. 90% of all Scooby Doo related media is almost
always “the guy in the mask” formula with typical gags and set pieces to be
expected. Of course there is a charm to a formula like this and sometimes the
execution can make it refreshing, however this formula being done so much can
be a detriment. Them not focusing on the mystery aspect isn’t seen so bad when
you considered how much they’ve relied on this repetitive mystery formula, so
it’s more so how this new take is executed. For the most part, this is handled
with serviceable effort with it being a showcase of a Hanna-Barbera universe
with still a lot humor in the mix. There are definitely jokes that miss the
mark and feel as they’re striving to be very trendy to be cool for the kids,
but it still manages to be enjoyable seeing some solid visual gags and even
some decent action set pieces. It can seem a bit off putting at first to have a
Scooby Doo story not as fixated on mysteries and crossover with different
characters. Yet, considering this is the same franchise that crossed over with
Batman and John Cena, Scooby’s new adventure is not too far off from what can
be expected from the series.
A Scooby Adventure With Some Neat Re-Introductions
As this being a reintroduction of some
very iconic characters, one can only hope that Scooby and the gang still feel
like their normal selves that we’ve come to know and love over the past 50
years. In the case of this film, they serve as fairly faithful renditions of
the original mystery gang. We still get decent moments with these characters,
though outside of Scooby Doo and Shaggy, we don’t see much of Velma, Daphne and
Fred as one would expect from a Scooby movie. But when we do see them, they
don’t seem too out of character with Velma still being the brains, Daphne the
fashionista, and Fred’s leadership still being intact. The film’s focus is on
the friendship of Scooby and Shaggy and their characterizations are fairly
faithful. The downside is that the voice acting, while not bad, doesn’t feel as
up to par as other series. Will Forte’s rendition of Shaggy, while serviceable
and decent, still sounds more like an impression and the film also has an odd
direction of having Frank Welker’s Scooby Doo saying more full on sentences
than we’re used to from him. Despite that though, the characters are written
fine and the voice actors deliver the dialogue well. One of the biggest
drawbacks on the script end is that the character relationships are bogged by
some clichéd conflicts and misunderstandings that have been done in a ton of
kids movies before. It is meant to add tension, but here it feels rather hollow
and is just there to stall the plot. Still, the friendship between Shaggy and
Scoob still feels believable with a nice amount of fun moments with the
characters, especially with their meeting in the beginning of the film.
One
aspect that helps makes the film an entertaining ride are the new renditions of
longtime Hanna-Barbara characters that haven’t been around for decades.
Characters like the Blue Falcon and Dyno-Mutt serve as great new renditions of
lesser known characters, being the type of over the top superhero we would
expect from a world like this. Yet the highlight regarding Hanna-Barbera
characters is easily Dick Dastardly. He is every bit of a mustache twirling
villain like the original in a way that’s completely appropriate in this
universe. He provides some of the film’s funniest jokes and most memorable action
set pieces. Considering he is a cartoonish villain, he works very well against
all the other cartoony characters the film has to offer. If there is a sequel
to, hopefully they’ll be able to have
more unique lesser known characters in the limelight again. Though for now, Scoob serves as a decent set up to what
may come in the future.
Fitting Animation Style
Done Better in Other Films
Seeing this is the first CGI adaptation of
Scoob and the gang, fans can be rest assured that the animation in this film
does serve as one of the film’s highlights. It goes the typical route of mixing
2D designs and overtly exaggerated characters with detailed computer animation.
The characters look fantastic with so many of them still as cartoonish as we
expect them to be, and with today’s modern animation techniques, they’re able
to have more life in them now than how they were in the original series. The
movement and variety is especially apparent during the action sequences where
they manage to do a lot with the camera movements and effects. The downside
though is that there are some moments where the animation can be a bit lacking.
Some of the human designs for the extras and even some of the backgrounds can
look bland in the less expressive parts of the movie. Despite that, it manages
to be a stylistically good-looking animated film with both good character and
background animation, giving the film to cartoonish and fun personality it
strives to be.
Far
From Fantastic But Serves as Fine Fun
Scoob! is not a
flawless revival of an iconic cartoon series. Its lack of focus on the series’
most well-known aspects and its clichés in terms of plot do hold it back from
being something truly outstanding, but it as a nice little adventure featuring
some great characters including some lesser known ones, Scoob! still manages to be a very cute film. As a film to introduce
kids to Scooby Doo, it manages to be a serviceable and pleasant adventure with
Scooby Doo and friends.
