Scoob!
By Quinn Marcus
(2020)
Age: 5+
45/100: Sour
So What’s The Story?
Scoob! has many different, unnecessary plots, but here’s what I got from it. As a child, Shaggy meets Scooby-doo and makes other friends. Together they solve their very first mystery in about 20 seconds and then we cut to them being adults. As adults Fred, Velma and Daphne want to start a business out of Mystery Inc. However, Shaggy and Scoob get upset with the idea and leave. Later, Shaggy and Scoob get beamed up after being chased by killer scorpion robots led by a villain literally named Dick Dastardly. Fred, Velma and Daphne (almost absent the entire movie) get in their van to go after Shaggy and Scoob. Meanwhile because Scooby-doo has superheroes now, Shaggy and Scoob meet Blue Falcon and his team of heroes. That’s the beginning of the movie just so you know.
Is It Worth Your While?
Try as it might, Scoob! tried to capture the heart and soul of the original show, but came out a bland, overstuffed movie with like five different plots. Before I really get into the negatives, let’s start with a few positives. 1. The movie is a great distraction for young children, the animation is generic but colorful and some jokes just might get to them. 2. The voice cast was actually not bad (we’ll get to that later). 3. There are a few moments in the film, where the story actually works and the jokes are funny. That’s about it for the pluses of the film. Oh wait I almost forgot about the most memorable moment of the movie. When Dick Dastardly repeatedly shouts that his name is in fact Dick into Scoob’s face. That’s the one thing that stuck with me through this movie, and I think I will horrifyingly remember that for the rest of time.
Did you know that they needed four people to write the script. Maybe that’s why the movie had so many storylines. It’s perfect, we have the guy who wrote Rampage (2018, 40% sour), the guy who wrote the new Addams Family which is literally one of the worst animated movies of all time. The man, the legend, who wrote nothing except Scoob! Actually, make that two people who have written nothing besides Scoob! To be fair, some jokes in the film were written very well, and there was a little heart there, but it just didn’t fit together. By the way, I was very excited for this film, I walked out of the room so disappointed in what I had just seen. The story is so distorted and messy, it’s basically just scene after scene of pointless action and a few quick jokes. I know this is a Shaggy and Scooby origin story, but they couldn’t have come up with a better excuse to get the rest of the gang pretty much out of the movie? Critics have been split on this film, the Rottentomatoes score currently rests on 54%. There are the fans of Scooby-doo who will adore this film and there are the other fans who will feel nothing but disappointment. Overall Scoob! is a mostly failed attempt to re-light the fire of Scooby-doo with bad jokes, less then average writing, a frantic set of stories and generic animation.
How About The Cast?
The cast was probably the best thing about the film, the voices of Will Forte as Shaggy, Mark Wahlberg as Blue Falcon, Jason Issacs as Dick Dastardly and the rest of the cast including Zac Efron. While these people didn’t have much to work with, their voices were delightful, funny and clearly expressed their commitment to this film. If Scoob! proves one thing, it’s that all of the cast have the capacity to be great voice actors. Even if they were practically wasted in the movie. Although Blue Falcon’s character didn’t really matter to me, Mark Wahlberg gave the best performance of the movie having all of the good jokes. I think the writers forgot that it’s supposed to be Scooby and Shaggy who are the hysterical ones, but their voices were still spot on.
Aging ‘Shaggy and Scoob’
Scoob! is absolutely perfect for children as young as five years old. There is very tame violence, lasers, explosions etc. There is a giant ghost dog which is in no way scary, in fact there’s nothing in the movie that is remotely frightening. There’s a very faint message of friendship and standing up for yourself and your friends. This movie is perfect if you have nothing else to do but sit back on your couch and watch the insanity at play.
