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

Whatchoo Gonna Doo, Brother? "Scooby Doo! Wrestlemania Mystery"

Scooby Doo! Wrestlemania Mystery (2014)

Not Rated

Starring Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Mindy Cohn, Grey DeLisle, John Cena, Triple H, Michael Cole, Kane, The Miz, A.J. Lee, Vince McMahon

Directed by Brandon Vietti

The Story:

Scooby (Welker) ends up winning a contest on a WWE video game and wins a trip to WWE City!  Shaggy (Lillard) an Scooby beg for the gang to tag along, bringing much persuasive evidence that they've never asked for anything in return and have always been used as bait to solve mysteries. 

Point: Scooby & Shaggy!

So they head to WWE City and meet the superstars.  But with a mysterious ghost bear plaguing the town, and Scooby apparently the prime suspect in the theft of the WWE Championship, it's up to Shaggy, Fred (Welker), Daphne (DeLisle) and Velma (Cohn) to clear their canine companion and lay the smackdown on the mysterious bear!

Hanna Barbera teams with WWE Studios to make a movie that's fun for the whole family.

WWE Wrestlers have been compared to cartoons over the years, so it makes sense to go animated.

Hook kids to the fun of WWE, and you might have a fan for life.

Worked on me.

:)

And the WWE offered up some of their best, A-listers John Cena, Triple H and even the Chairman himself, Vince McMahon!

Other wrestlers, like Sin Cara (who is instrumental to the movie) are shown but not given any dialogue.

The wrestlers do quite fine for themselves as voice actors, given the respective size and importance of their roles.  I would say The Miz comes out as the wrestler who seemingly has the most fun in the movie, and has the best lines.

But first and foremost, as the title suggests, this is a Scooby Doo cartoon.

Frank Welker leads the team, still as the intrepid Fred but now also pulling double duty as Scooby.  He is able to differentiate between the two nicely, and I like when the voices are distinct enough that you don't realize it's the same voice.

Lillard was perfectly cast as a live-action Shaggy when Scooby Doo came to the big screen years ago.  He does the memory of Casey Kasem proud as he brings Shaggy to life for a new generation.

While I mentioned in my Scooby Doo review that the main cast did voices for years, eventually they all get replaced.

:(

DeLisle has become the latest Daphne, and I was amused to see that Cohn has taken up the mantle of Velma since the early 2000s.  Yes, Natalie from The Facts of Life.

My childhood is converging as I am now an adult!

Overall, I thought it was pretty well done, and I'm looking forward to the next 45 years of Scooby Doo!

Final Grade: Solid B

Rewatchability/Purchase Factor: Hey, I liked it.  I would watch it again. :)