Rooby Rooby Don't! (Scooby Doo - Live Action Movie (DVD))

Member Name: marandina

Product:	Scooby Doo - Live Action Movie (DVD)
Date:	26/07/02 (276 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Just like the cartoon

Disadvantages: A story even thinner than the cartoon

"If it wasn't for those meddling kids." Groans the unmasked villain and so ends another Hannah Barbara inspired piece of cartoon mayhem involving a cross-section of American youth and including a large dog with a speech impediment.

Scooby Doo was part of the cartoon landscape when I was a kid. Even then I found it kinda formulaic with its goofy ghost chases culminating in the inevitable unmasking of the villain at the end. Ever the rebel, I often wanted the ghost to win just once. Perhaps in the same way, I wanted the Roadrunner to get eaten; Jerry the mouse to get it's come uppance and Scratchy the cat to execute a diabolical revenge on Itchy the psychotic rodent.

Scooby Doo is the latest in a long line of real action adventures intended to lift the cartoon version from its original genre and place it onto live action celluloid. It's a trick that's had mixed results ranging from the reasonable in the shape of 101 Dalmatians to the not so reasonable via the sequel (proving that you can have too much of a good thing) to the saccharine in the shape of Stuart Little.

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Director: Raja Gosnell
Cert: PG
Running time 87 mins

Main cast:
Freddie Prinze Jr ~ Fred Jones
Sarah Michelle Gellar ~ Daphne Blake
Matthew Lillard ~ Norville "Shaggy" Rogers
Linda Cardinellini ~ Velma Dinkley
Neil Fanning ~ Scooby Doo
Rowan Atkinson ~ Emile Mondavarious

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The plot isn't too much of a surprise. The opening scenes are of Daphne in the clutches of a mischievous ghost and the rest of Mystery.inc waiting to pounce and rescue her. In true cartoon fashion, the plan goes wrong with slapstick results but Shaggy and Scooby's incompetence still results in the ghost lying a heap of barrels only too vulnerable to being unmasked with no way out following the usual impeccable timing
of the arrival of the police. However, not all is well in the camp and the respective members of the gang go their separate ways. We're not really told why being left to assume that they're just fed up with each other. Scooby and Shaggy decide to retire to a life of beach bumming only to receive a mysterious invite to solve a further mystery 2 years on.

Anyone that's seen the cartoon will know that the intrepid duo are meant to be reluctant heroes preferring to run away so the only thing that gets them to commit to help is the promise of unlimited food (Shaggy and Scooby have unlimited appetites and live for food).

OK, so we're now back with the usual cartoon plot. Surprise, surprise the other members of the team have also been invited as they all...erm...bump into each other at the airport. A flight over results in the arrival at the island theme park called Spooky Island where teenagers arrive full of life only to leave like a refugee from the Stepford Wives. The island's owner, played by Blackadder himself, Rowan Atkinson, pleads with the gang to solve the mystery and ease his conscience. After that, cue very cartoonesqe shenanigans that stay faithful to the original cartoon format.

These probably aren't the most challenging roles this particular cast will ever get although some substance has been given to each of the main characters. Fred is now a bottle-blond narcissist who is forever preening himself and spends a lot of his time reading his book about his favourite subject - himself. Daphne is the perennial damsel in distress that always ends up getting saved albeit she rails against this stereotyping wanting more respect from her fellow man. Velma is a NASA scientist who is desperate to break from the shadow of the overbearing Fred. Scooby is the computer-generated clone of the cartoon same whilst Shaggy sounds eerily just like his cartoon counterpart even if he doesn't look like him.

Freddie P
rinze Jr. camps it up admirably as the dashing Freddy allowing him something of a departure from the teenage victim of I Know What You Did Last Summer. Sarah Michelle Gellar flicks her hair enough to convince as the adorable Daphne whilst Linda Cardellini looks just a little too attractive to capture the role of Velma. Possibly the greatest oddity in the film is Matthew Lillard as the inevitably grinning loon that is Shaggy. Can anyone be as constantly happy as he with no reference whatsoever to the original drug culture that spawned the basis for the potentially bulimic, cool hipster, Norville "Shaggy" Rogers? Struth, we even have some love interest for Shaggy in the shape of Isla Fisher as Mary Jane. There's a suitable level of innocent hand holding and staring into each other's eyes to provide a smokescreen for Mary Jane's inclusion in the comedic finale.

Raja Gosnell is best known for his work on Home Alone and Pretty Woman. That fast paced, tongue-in-cheek approach serves well for this harem scarem effort in his capacity as director.

David Eggby's cinematography allows some figure hugging camera work to capture the leading ladies in their best light. You could be forgiven for thinking that the camera is leering at times although the incorporation of the ghosts and ghouls does appear seamless. This movie is awash with colour to prepare your senses for a kind of visual miasma.

The film's greatest weakness lies in the apparent shallowness of the script. It's not hard to guess what's coming next and the reaction of the audience (predominantly kids) was muted. Even the apocryphal farting scene didn't get the belly laughs I expected having read about them in advance. The script plods too with little to trouble anyone with an intellect of over 8 years of age. The cinematography is kaleidoscopic with the Sunday Times referring to the main characters as colour coded pieces straight out of Cleudo hurtli
ng around the playing board at 100 miles an hour.

The film's not all bad. There's some obvious in-jokes including Daphne turning into a Mystery inc. version of Buffy the Vampire Slayer towards the end. The movie is mindless (and I mean mindless) fun that will keep the kids entertained for a couple of hours on a holiday afternoon. The close proximity of the movie to the original cartoon must have taken some doing with some nifty CGT effects to insert the various ghost/creature scenes even if it's not to hard at all to work out either who the villain is or the plot. Some of the humour makes its mark invariably revolving around Shaggy and Scooby e.g. Scooby stealing Shaggy's hotdogs at regular intervals, eating them with one large, Dysonesqe suck leaving his comedy foil to glance down at empty hands.

I can't help feeling that there will be a sequel after all. I'd give this one 3 stars and if you haven't got kids or aren't a big fan of the original cartoon I'd honestly wait for the video. If you like eye-candy then book your tickets immediately. (btw: You may never think of Scrappy Doo in quite the same way again).

Thanks for reading.

Marandina

Scooby Doo is showing nationally at movie theatres across the country.

Official movie site: http://promo.warnerbros.com/scoobydoo/home.html

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