It's A Mystery To Me Why People Hated "Scooby Doo".

Scooby Doo (2002)

Rated PG

Starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, Linda Cardellini, Rowan Atkinson, Isla Fisher,

Directed by Raja Gosnell

The Story:

Mystery Inc. is no more! The gang has gone their separate ways, but the call for them to return to Spooky Island grudgingly reunites the team as they investigate the strange goings on at the request  of Mondavarious (Atkinson). By the time the gang solves the mystery, they will have faced the most evil villain Mystery Inc. has ever encountered!

Of all the attempts to bring Hanna Barbera animated classics to life, this is the best of the bunch.

It gets more than its fair share of ridicule, but really, time has been pretty kind to this one.

I will confess that I do own a copy, but I happened to notice it as a newly added title on Netflix recently and thought, why not.

Hehehe.

It was still pretty darn funny.

As the credits began to roll, here's a main reason why the movie was so good:

Written by James Gunn.

Yep, the same guy that brought Guardians of the Galaxy to life, wrote the screen play and all that was fun about this movie, a giant kudos goes to Gunn.

That said, don't discount the performances by the leads of Mystery Inc.

Prinze and Gellar do admirable with their stints as Freddy and Daphne.

But this movie belongs to Cardellini and Lillard who encapsulate everything we've ever seen with Velma and Shaggy and bring those characters to life straight out of the cartoon. Lillard especially channels the voice and mannerisms and just seems like a perfect cartoon counterpart to Scooby.

When it was all over, I was pleased to have watched it again, probably for the first time in nearly 15 years.

I remember being amused then. I was still amused now.

Can't really ask more than that from a movie, can we?

Now streaming on Netflix as of this writing.

Final Grade:  C+ / B- range