The Lurker

Scooby Doo

I'd heard a lot of bad things about Scooby Doo, but for some reason every time I saw a review, advertisement, or snide remark, I found myself really wanting to see it. I saw it tonight with Lou, Ben and David, and it was really good.

There was a dumb review in The Age on Saturday. Now The Age only makes their articles available for free for two weeks, so I'll summarise here:

"Look at me! Here I am with these other incredibly witty journalists, junket-slutting our way from Cannes to Crete to watch a children's movie! And, shock horror! It's not very deep!"

It seems Scooby Doo is "a very bad film". I would have expected a little elaboration on this point, but I can't find it.

The children at the Crete premiere enjoyed "every fart gag" (I hate fart jokes as much as anybody, but it was just one scene). The Director said something about giving familiar characters real "human issues", but there was little sign of anything beyond the superficial in the film. OK, but that's a criticism of the promotional hype, not the film itself; I'll keep looking. Hmm, five paragraphs on Freddie Prinze jr's comic collection... the visual effects, the look of the film... what's this?

The Lord of the Rings production crew apparently had more respect for Tolkien's work than the Scooby Doo team. Y' know, Lord of the Rings practically defines the fantasy genre, and Scooby Doo is a frickin' cartoon that ran for ten years on a single plot. Only one of the actors (Linda Cardellini, playing Velma) had any communication with the original cast, we're told.

Now, Matthew Lillard's Shaggy is just spot on. Whatever he did do, it worked brilliantly. I find it interesting that the review doesn't mention this, since everyone I know picked it up from the trailer. Maybe the reviewer isn't a fan, and there's nothing wrong with that. But it would be nice if she realised that getting the feel of the cartoon right is more important than meeting the people who made it.

Oh, I was looking for reasons why it is a "bad film" — no, a "very bad film" — wasn't I? Only a couple of paragraphs left, and they're about how Scooby fans will respond to the film. So the only noteworthy bad thing about this bad film is a fart joke scene.

Actually, I think I agree with that. Maybe it's not such a bad review after all.

Related topics: Movies