After many years of solving mysteries from childhood into adulthood, Shaggy (Will Forte), Scooby Doo (Frank Welker), Fred (Zac Effron), Velma (Gina Rodriguez) and Daphne (Amanda Seyfried) are looking to expand Mystery Inc. into a business and when their backer (Simon Cowell playing Simon Cowell) tells Shaggy and Scooby that they bring nothing to the table, the duo are then swept up in a globe-spanning plot by Dick Dastardly (Jason Issacs) to kidnap Scooby. Their only help comes in the form of Shaggy and Scooby's longtime hero The Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg) and his long-suffering teammates Dynomutt (Ken Jeong) and Dee Dee (Kiersey Clemons). As Scooby and Shaggy progress in their journey, their friendship is pushed to the absolute limit.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Scoob!, originally slated for theatrical release on May 15th, has been released via Video On Demand. I watched it on Early Access late Thursday because I had been looking forward to this movie for a while. Even though I had reservations about some of the casting, the story itself looked like it could be at least somewhat interesting. As a kid, I used to watch Hanna Barbera cartoons as frequently as I would Looney Tunes, Disney or any of their contemporaries.
There is plenty to enjoy in this movie. The animation by Reel FX Animation Studios is fluid, cartoonish, and bright. The design of Scooby and Shaggy are spot on, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt are well designed, Dick Dastardly looks both nefarious and goofy as he should. The action was well done and there's a genuine mystery that differs from the typical Scooby Doo formula of greedy real estate developers or thieves in gaudy costumes. Scooby and Shaggy's friendship is shown faithfully and it's always nice to see The Mystery Machine in action. There are many callbacks and easter eggs to other Hanna Barbera properties like Magilla Gorilla, Atom Ant, Grape Ape, as well as characters referencing the original Scooby Doo cast like Casey Kasem, Nicole Jaffe and Don Messick.
That being said, this isn't entirely a Scooby Doo movie. Scooby is the titular main character, Shaggy is right there with him and he is important to the story. But there are a LOT of moving parts and a lot of characters for the audience to get acquainted with and get to know. For someone like myself, it's not too difficult to get a feel for the characters because I grew up knowing these personas and their respective shows. In this instance, however, there are some variations, in particular a dynamic duo's, for lack of a better term, dynamic is inverted to a surprisingly effective degree. The problem is that many kids these days (said the old man, sucking on a werther's original) don't know or are not necessarily familiar with Hanna Barbera's more esoteric properties.
A running theme with this movie is basically the typical story about a boy and his dog. In this case, Scooby and Shaggy, Blue Falcon and Dynomutt and Dick Dastardly and his criminal canine companion Muttley. The relationships displayed with each shows their commitment, as well as their occasional exasperation with one another, as can happen sometimes when things change wildly out of anyone's control. Dynomutt bemoans Blue Falcon's apparent apathy and fear towards superheroism. Shaggy struggles to find himself useful not just to Mystery Inc but to Scooby. Dick Dastardly goes to any lengths to be reunited with his partner. All of these relationships have one thing in common: devotion to their friend no matter what and it's a beautiful thing to have in one's life.
Earlier I had said that this isn't entirely a Scooby Doo movie and, for the most part, it's true because the Blue Falcon/Dynomutt subplot takes up a bulk of the movie. Scooby and Shaggy kind of just tag along while others are being much more active in unearthing Dastardly's plans. The same goes for the rest of Mystery Inc. Fred, Daphne and Velma spend a majority of the film either captured or away from the plot until it swoops back around and realize, "Oh shit, they're supposed to be in this, too!" It's a shame that they spend so much time away from Shaggy and Scooby, especially since they are supposed to be the pair's best friends. But sadly, for this supposed Scooby Doo movie, the main characters feel like they're riding along in someone else's story. Their inclusion in the Blue Falcon/Dick Dastardly plot feels incidental. Fred, Velma and Daphne are given very little to do aside from catching up to where the superheroes are in terms of the plot and providing exposition.
While I'm on the subject of Mystery Inc, I think I'd be remiss if I didn't bring up their voice actors. Gina Rodriguez and Amanda Seyfried for as little as they have to do in the movie are decently cast as Velma and Daphne, respectively. Whenever they have a chance to shine, they can pull off the characters well. Jason Issacs sounds like he's having a blast as Dick Dastardly, providing the appropriate levels of ham a story like this needs. Mark Wahlberg gives an easy, dudebro approach to Blue Falcon to mix with Ken Jeong's straight-dog Dynomutt. Kiersey Clemons's Dee Dee is a nice addition to the Blue Falcon team but she seems just as underused as Daphne, Velma and Fred, speaking of which...hoo boy.
Fred Jones over the decades has had some changes in his personality and his role in Mystery Inc. In the beginning he was as much of a sleuth as Velma but was more of a planner and a leader of the rag-tag group of misfits. This, to many, somehow translated to him being boring or without a personality. Some incarnations have Fred being a well-meaning, if a bit dorky engineering prodigy with a bit of a sleuth in him, while some have decided to just have him be a complete idiot in love with the Mystery Machine. As for Zac Effron, I didn't really feel he had a chance to put in any sort of personality into Fred aside from how he's written here, a lovable, if somewhat vanilla, doofus.
And then there's Will Forte as Shaggy. Hearing that Matthew Lillard wouldn't be reprising the role he's now famous for was a bit disheartening. The others not reprising their roles and being effectively replaced with "name" actors was enough of a misstep despite the good work from Amanda Seyfried and Gina Rodriguez. Forte's Shaggy feels more like an impression than a performance. It's not an especially bad impression, and Forte, from what I've seen, can be funny. But he doesn't hold a candle to Lillard or Kasem, in my opinion. It just didn't work for me, personally.
I really wanted this movie to be more than just "pretty good" and hoped for more expansion of the Hanna Barbera properties into, perhaps their own movies somewhere down the line. I would hope we get movies like Hong Kong Phooey or a full-on Blue Falcon/Dynomutt film that explores the possible mythology of the mantle passing from generation to generation. I certainly wouldn't turn down a Frankenstein Jr or Space Ghost movie. Maybe even a Captain Caveman movie without Tracy Morgan playing him as just Tracy Morgan.
