Video/DVD Review: Scooby-Doo

By Nell Minow

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What Parents Should Know
Parents need to know that this movie has more intense, scary special effects than you'll find in the cartoon Scooby-Doo features. The characters are in frequent peril, though no one gets hurt. There is some drug humor (as "Pass the Dutchie" plays on the soundtrack, what appears to be marijuana smoke turns out to be something else) and some vulgar jokes and graphic bathroom humor. The girls wear very skimpy clothes.

Families can talk about why the friends broke up and why they got back together. They might also want to talk about what has made Scooby and his pals so enduringly popular over the years.

The Mystery Machine crew has just discovered the secret of the ghost who captured Daphne (it's a man in a mask!), when their egos collide and they decide to go their separate ways. Two years later, they find out that each of them has been hired by Mr. Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson), whose Spooky Island theme park is a little spookier than he had in mind. Fred, Velma, and Daphne try to solve the mystery on their own, but find that they have to work together to find…well, this time it's not a man in a mask, exactly.

By trying to reach younger and older audiences, this movie ends up somewhere between a live-action cartoon that is much too scary for most kids and Saturday Night Live sketch that goes on too long for most teens.

The young stars have the voices down perfectly and do the best they can to bring the characters to life, but that only emphasizes how sketchy and shallow the cartoon characterization really is. Freddie Prinze, Jr., who will hopefully someday find a movie that will show off his considerable talent, has his best moments when Fred becomes something like a hip-hop zombie. And as Shaggy, Matthew Lillard is at his best anytime he isn't challenging Scooby to a flatulence and burping contest.