SCOOB! (2020) A Review

Scooby Doo is by far my all time favourite cartoon show.  So when I heard they were making ANOTHER movie adaptation, I was excited but wary.  And from what I have been hearing, I had every right to be.

Certificate: PG

Director: Tony Cervone

Screenwriter: Matt Lieberman, Adam Sztykiel

Starring: Will Forte, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Isaacs

Genre: Animation, Adventure

Runtime: 93 Minutes

Rating: 3 Stars

Reviewed by: Pearl

Scooby and the gang face their most challenging mystery ever: a plot to unleash the ghost dog Cerberus upon the world. As they race to stop this dogpocalypse, the gang discovers that Scooby has an epic destiny greater than anyone imagined. – From IMDB

There were more Easter eggs in this film then in an Easter egg factory.  And they cram a lot of references to classic characters in here. I grew up LOVING Hanna Barbera cartoons, and Scooby Doo was my absolute favourite.  So in that respect I loved this film.  They have brought Scooby and Co right up to date, dragged them kicking and screaming into the 21^st century, and I don’t think it really belongs here. 

Out of all the HB properties, Scooby Doo is the one that people have really latched onto, with more TV movies, rebooted series and character reincarnations then you can count, but this one tries a little too hard to speak to modern audiences and forgets about the core aspects that people love about the franchise.

There are poor attempts at humour directed at everything from Tinder to Netflix to Social Media.  Most of these jokes fall so very flat that it is nothing but awkward.  The times where Scooby and Shaggy are just clowning around doing Scooby and Shaggy things are way more fun to watch, and had just the right hit of nostalgia.  I loved the remastered version of the ‘Where Are You?’ opening credits towards the beginning of the film.  But the times where the film tries to be modern and ‘hip’ it just doesn’t work.

The plot is a little thin, and suffers from the fact that we really don’t get a whole lot of the whole mystery gang on screen together, solving mysteries.  Which is really the crux of the whole series isn’t it?  Instead, While Velma, Fred and Daphne are dealing with Dick Dastardly, Scooby and Shaggy are on board a space ship with a team of superheroes.  Not exactly the standard Scooby Doo fare is it.  The ending of the whole ‘underworld’ plot was all to easily wrapped up.  It went from really sad and emotional to all wrapped up and back to happy hijinks really quickly.  I know it’s a kids film, so it was always going to end happily, but it was a literal ten second turn around.

As a Scooby Doo fan this one was a little disappointing to me.  There were things that I loved about it, but they were the things that harkened back to the old style movies and shows, rather than anything to do with this new incarnation.  I think if you haven’t ever seen Scooby Doo, you will be a lot less critical of this, but as a long term fan, It may let you down.

Scoob is available to Rent on Amazon Video now for £14.99