Skip to content
Paul Greenwood reviews
- Cert:
- Running time: 87 minutes
- Year: 2002
- Released: 12th July 2002
- Widescreen Ratio: 1.85:1
- Rating: 5/10
Director:
- Raja Gosnell
(Big Momma’s House, Home Alone 3)
Cast:
- Fred: Freddie Prinze Jr.
Daphne: Sarah Michelle Gellar
Shaggy: Matthew Lillard
Velma: Linda Cardellini
Scooby-Doo: Scott Innes
Emile Mondavarious: Rowan Atkinson
Mary Jane: Isla Fisher
Be wary of remakes, re-imaginings or reworkings.Having recently endured such atrocities asRollerballand The Musketeer, I have to admit I wasn’t looking forward to this.To give Scooby-Doo its due though, it’s merely mediocre instead of dire.
A fun prologue gives us everything we’d expect from an episode of thecartoon: a spooky setting, a crazed spectre on the loose, and theMystery Inc. gang ready with a plan to trap and unmask it in true “oldman Withers/meddling kids” style. Once this is mystery is solvedhowever, petty squabbles and jealousies (Velma is tired or Fred takingall the credit for solving the mysteries, Daphne is sick of playing thedamsel in distress) lead to the rather lame device of the gang splittingup, only to be reunited two years later by an invitation to solve amystery on Spooky Island by the island’s owner, Emile Mondavarious. Itseems kids have been arriving at the resort as lively, normal teenagers,only to leave bad-tempered and brainwashed and looking like they’ve beenmade to sit through a continuously looping DVD of Joel Schumacher films.
What follows is a loosely connected series of chases and fights,interspersed with the occasional farting contest and eating binge until,somehow or other, the mystery is solved, the de-maskings ensue andeveryone has learned the value of teamwork. Stirring stuff.
As a live action version of a children’s cartoon, expectations have tobe set low and Scooby-Doo is more than happy to meet theseexpectations. What’s good is very good: Lillard was born to play thebewildered stoner Shaggy, his voice and mannerisms practically note-perfect.The production design is fantastic – reminiscent of Dick Tracy- and puts the likes of the drab Tomb Raider to shame. The great CGI danehimself, contrary to reports, is delightfully animated and voiced andhis antics made me smile on several occasions. Plus, there’s an overallgoofy charm that manages to shine through despite the paucity of thescript.
Unfortunately, the bad threatens to outweigh the good. Until now I’vemanaged – quite deliberately, I might add, and this also extends to AdamSandler – to almost entirely avoid the films of Prinze Jr. (with theexception ofI Know What You Did Last Summer,which I unwittingly watched, although thankfully both he and the film have allbut melted from my memory banks). I can now drop to my knees and thankthe movie Gods that I’ve performed this feat because, mercy me, this guy is bad.
Sarah Michelle Gellar isn’t much better and neither of them seem to know they’re in acartoon, such is their eyebrow-straining intensity. Linda Cardellini is good,but she’s far too pretty to totally convince as brainiac Velma. Theaforementioned script contains too few laughs for non-kiddies, but thisis after all a kids movie and, as such, its target audience probablywon’t be let down.
Review copyright © Paul Greenwood, 2002.E-mail Paul Greenwood
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.