"Scooby Doo"
Starring Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini
Written by William Hanna, Joseph Barbera, Craig Titley and James Gunn. Directed by Raja Gosnell
3 of 5 stars
"Scooby Doo" might be a kids movie, but it's good for a few laughs even if you grew up watching the original.
As the film opens, Shaggy, Scooby and the gang get into a huge fight after solving a mystery, and the gang splits up.
The five friends reconnect at the request of Mondavarious, (Rowan Atkinson, a.k.a. "Mr. Bean.")
Mondavarious owns "Spooky Island," a huge amusement park island that is the hottest destination for college spring breakers. But the kids on the island are acting strange, and Mystery Inc. is there to find out why.
But the plot is not important. The most important thing for this film was to have accurate depictions of Scooby and the rest of the characters. Thankfully, the casting of Fred, (Freddie Prinze Jr.) Daphnie, (Sarah Michelle Gellar) Shaggy (Mathew Lillard) and Velma (Linda Cardellini) were dead on.
Most impressive was Lillard's voice of Shaggy. It was right on. The costumes (easily highlighted by Gellar's tiny purple Daphnie dress) were very well done also. Though I don't ever remember seeing as much of Velma's cleavage in the cartoon version.
Another nice touch is the old-school cartoon sound effects sprinkled throughout the film.
Not so cleverly veiled to adults in the film's audience are funny drug references. Fred pleading to Shaggy to "Talk me down man! Talk me down!" is a sure highlight.
This may not be high art, and it may be made for eight-year-olds, but after you roll out of your own Mystery Inc. van with that Shaggy friend of yours, what could be more fun before heading off to eat away those "munchies"?
Reach Adam Kress at jtreered@aol.com.
