Remember Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and his semi-articulate dog Scooby Doo, those pesky kids who, as Mystery Incorporated, solved mysteries and unmasked villains? Hollywood obviously does, and has re-imagined the old TV cartoon as a feature length movie. Revisiting older material from a new perspective has the potential to produce something refreshing and witty (witness the unexpectedly sublime 'The Brady Bunch Movie'), but it also risks resulting in an adaptation as second-rate as the programme which inspired it (e.g. 'Charlie's Angels'). The most obvious change in the development of 'Scooby Doo' from television to cinema is its appearance, with the original hand-drawn animation now replaced by a combination of live action (for the human characters) and computer-generated graphics (for Scooby, Scrappy, and the supernatural).

In its introduction, a ghost is trapped by the gang, and revealed to be none other than Old Man Smithers in a mask. This scenario will be familiar from any episode of the TV cartoon, but is quickly given a bizarre, postmodern twist, as it emerges that the would-be-ghost's motive involves Pamela Anderson (appearing briefly as herself) not requiting his love, despite his 'George Clooney proportions'. Then, still before the film has properly begun, the gang's own celebrity drives them to disband, and it seems for a fleeting moment that they are going to deviate altogether from their cosy TV relationship into newer cinematic territories - until, only minutes later, they are reunited by the mystery of Spooky Island, and remain in their tired old TV roles for the rest of the film. The one (ingenious) exception is Scrappy Doo, introduced late into the film, as he was into the TV series, and radically reinterpreted as a megalomaniac antagonist; for everyone knows (filmmakers included) that Scrappy Doo's arrival in the TV series meant the end of everything good in it. I'm not entirely sure what this film has to offer for adults, apart from its endless (and at times aimless) pop-culture references, and the general pleasure of nostalgia; but the kids in the audience clearly loved the CGI-animated Scooby, and Shaggy's burping and farting.

Anton Bitel, 07.2002