‘SCOOB!’ – A Non-Spoiler Review

SCOOB! is the first film in the Hanna-Barbera shared cinematic universe (not joking), and brings the Mystery Inc. gang back to the big screen in their first fully animated feature.

The film is directed by Tony Cervone in his feature directorial debut, and written by Adam Sztykiel, Jack Donaldson, Derek Elliott, and Matt Lieberman, from a story by Lieberman. Scoob! serves as essentially a soft reboot of the franchise, and tells an all new story featuring other classic Hanna-Barbera cartoon characters like Dick Dastardly, Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, Dee Dee Sykes, and Captain Caveman. Initially intended to be released theatrically, the film was dropped straight to video on demand because of the COVID-19 pandemic, and quickly became #1 in streams.

As someone who was very excited by the trailer of this movie, it brings me no joy to report that Scoob! is a mixed bag. “Ruh Roh Raggy!”

The direction from Cervone is hit and miss at times, but overall serviceable. The pacing to start the film is very fast, and we get a new origin for the Mystery Inc. gang. After they all join together, which is one of the better sequences in the film, the time flashes forward and the main plot of the film begins. The opening sequences are directed very well and help to establish a very classic Scooby-Doo tone, but once the jump to the present day is made and the second act begins, the film is turned on its head. Sadly, SCOOB! is a movie that can’t quite decide what it wants and a lot of that falls on the direction.

The tone is very inconsistent and jumps from an Avengers-style superhero movie, to a bizarre meta-commentary on filmmaking, to an absurdist comedy complete with outdated and often cringey jokes. What’s lacking in these tones is any semblance of a Scooby-Doo story. The opening and first act really work, but the disjointed nature of the second act is hard to follow. Once the initial shock of the bizarre story and tonal choices wears off, the third act actually comes together and is quite enjoyable. The Mystery Inc. team finally gets to act like their characters and the story starts to resemble that of a classic Scooby-Doo episode. Overall, the directing of the tone and story is strange and disjointed, but a strong opening and closing almost outweighs it.

One of the film’s biggest strengths, if not the biggest, is the animation. SCOOB! is an absolutely gorgeous film and the way that the classic two dimensional characters and are brought into three dimensional animation is fantastic. Similarly to that of Blue Sky Animation’s Peanuts film, the animators succeed in recreating the characters in a new medium, but still keeping the classic look and style of the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series. Additionally, the different scenery of the various locations the characters travel to is breathtaking. SCOOB! is somewhat of an adventure story and the characters visit many different interesting and visually appealing locations. The animators do a phenomenal job of creating these worlds and keeping them in the stylings of the Scooby-Doo cartoon. All in all, Warner Animation Group did a wonderful job of bringing the classic Scooby-Doo world to life in CG animation.

The voice acting in SCOOB!, once again, ranges from great to very weak. The most notably poor voice acting comes from Will Forte as Shaggy. Shaggy has such an iconic voice and Forte barely scratches the surface of what he is intended to sound like. It’s especially upsetting when you learn that Matthew Lillard, the actor behind Shaggy in the live action Scooby-Doo films, was extremely interested and willing to reprise his role. Lillard had done a fantastic job voicing Shaggy and has gone on to take over the role in the current animated series. It’s baffling to me why Warner wouldn’t offer him the role when Forte’s performance is so weak.

Frank Welker keeps his iconic role of Scooby, and, unsurprisingly, he’s fantastic. There’s a reason he’s been voicing the famous canine since 2002. Zac Efron, Gina Rodriguez, and Amanda Seyfried are all good in their respective roles of Fred, Velma, and Daphne as well. Jason Isaacs is quite strong as the moustache twirling villain, Dick Dastardly. This is the first time the Dick Dastardly character has made a theatrical appearance, as he is most famous from the Hanna-Barbera series Wacky Races.

While the voice acting was mixed, the characters were written wonderfully. SCOOB! absolutely nails the classic cartoon characters of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby. They all have the iconic character traits that made them so famous, as well as wonderful chemistry together. This film is very much a Shaggy and Scooby-centric story, but the rest of the Mystery Inc. crew is given just enough to keep audiences involved in their story. The film also creates a sympathetic villain in Dick Dastardly. His backstory is engaging and emotional, so you understand why he behaves the way he does, even when he is behaving most nefariously. The other Hanna Barbera characters in the film, mainly Blue Falcon, Dee Dee Sykes, and Dynomutt, are all given interesting character quirks and backstory. The character development and choices made with them are most definitely a strength in SCOOB!.

As alluded to earlier in this review, the plot of SCOOB! is a tonally inconsistent and bizarre attempt at creating an Avengers movie in the Scooby-Doo universe. Tons of information is thrown at you quickly and the audience must pay close attention to have an understanding of what is happening. Without getting into spoilers, the story follows closely to the structure of an Infinity War type movie. The heroes must get the thing before the villian does or else the world is doomed. It’s a pretty well established comic book genre cliche at this point, but never did it cross my mind that a Scooby-Doo film would attempt this type of story. Subsequently, it doesn’t really work. There are moments in the plot that have genuine heart and interest, but it doesn’t change the fact that it’s majorly confusing that this takes place in a Scooby-Doo movie. Scooby-Doo is such an iconic and established franchise that fans and the general movie-going audience have an idea of what they’re about to watch. While it’s bold to attempt to do something different with the source material, the risk just doesn’t pay off in this case.

SCOOB! is a very strange film and one that I’m still puzzled by after sleeping on it. Many aspects of the film work, mainly the characters and the beautiful animation, but the humor and messy plot really bring it down. I will say that even though SCOOB! is a misfire of sorts, I’m still very intrigued at the idea of a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe. The shared universe concept hasn’t been attempted in theatrical animation, so I’m interested to see where this goes from here. The Hanna-Barbera characters have slowly fallen into obscurity with today’s youth, but there are still genuinely good characters and stories that they could bring back to the forefront. As it stands though, the first entry into the HBCU is a strangely cobbled together mixed bag.

5.5/10

Did you have a chance to see SCOOB! ? What did you think?

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