Voices of Frank Welker, Will Forte, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Isaacs, Gina Rodriguez, Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, Kiersey Clemons, Ken Jeong, Tracy Morgan, Billy West, Henry Winkler, Simon Cowell

(5-Okay Film)

Bright. Reworked. Inferior.

Young Shaggy: We’ll go in the Haunted House this one time. But we’re not going to make a habit of this, right, Scoob?

Scooby Doo, as I knew it, was a gang of young people-Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and their dog, Scooby- traveling from place to place in a van, solving mysteries. Velma did most of the sleuthing, Fred played leader, Daphne provided the Scooby snacks, Shaggy and Scooby ate the food. That formula was classic. Consider that the show started in 1969, and thirty years later, kids, such as myself, were still watching and loving it. But now, here we are, fifty years later, and apparently Scooby Doo needs a makeover. Scoob! is a big budget animated picture meant to be the first of Warner Bros.’ planned Hanna-Barbera shared-universe. Out go the haunted houses, the whodunit mysteries, and the unmaskings. In come superheroes and meta humor. Scooby and co. team up with Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, and co. to take down Dick Dastardly. I suspect its target audience will enjoy this stuff. The animation is bright and there’s enough humor and action to keep the movie engaging. I was mostly uninterested. Old Scooby Doo fans like myself are likely to be disappointed.

-Walter Tyrone Howard-

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