Film

Scooby-Doo (2002)

Director: Raja Gosnell

Movie review

From Time Out Film Guide

Although its breezy CGI ghosties and many fart jokes are clearly aimed at the junior audience, this live action update of Hanna-Barbera's early '70s animated TV series will be best appreciated by fans of the original. The film-makers have latched on to its mild scares, teenage sleuthing and food-obsessed canine anti-hero with unpretentious affection. While the jaunty computer-generated Scooby doesn't wholly convince, it's fun seeing humans meld into the cartoon roles. Vapid poster-boy Prinze is all too credible as cravat-sporting, self-proclaimed gangleader Fred; Gellar struggles to make flouncy Daphne more than a squealing damsel in distress; Cardellini plumbs unexpected depths of smart-girl resentment as bespectacled Velma; while Lillard is uncannily excellent as Shaggy, down to the quavery vocal inflections, dopey flower child sincerity and the telling instinct for pioneering sauce combinations. The plot? Well, you don't go to a Scooby-Doo movie for the plot. After an acrimonious split, the team reunite when they're summoned by magnate Emile Mondavarious (Atkinson, slippery but not quite sinister) to his Spooky Island resort, where dark forces are turning visitors into soulless zombies.

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