By: Amanda Guarragi
Scooby Doo has been apart of pop culture since the early 70s and will always hold a special place in everyone’s heart. It doesn’t matter how old you are, you will always appreciate Scoob and the gang solving mysteries and unmasking bad guys. Scoob! gave audiences the origin story of Shaggy and Scooby, a story that we haven’t seen before, it made the transition to the gang, as adults, more effective. It was filled with nostalgia, it had the same humour and of course, it highlighted the power of friendship.
Scoob! directed by Tony Cervone, brought the gang together wanting to improve the business of Mystery Inc. Fred (Zac Efron), Daphne (Amanda Seyfried) and Velma (Gina Rodriguez) called Simon Cowell, to see how they could improve the team. Simon said that Fred was the muscle, Daphne was the empath and Velma was the brain, but Simon had an issue trying to figure out Shaggy (Will Forte) and Scooby’s (Frank Welker) place on the team. This little conversation tore the gang apart, it lead Scooby and Shaggy to find their favourite hero Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg) and Dynomutt (Ken Jeong). They ended up helping them find the evil villain Dick Dastardly (Jason Isaacs), who had plans to open the underworld.
Scoob! really incorporated all the stories from previous television episodes AND the live action films that we love. My favourite thing about the movie was how great the animation was. It was about time Warner Brothers started to use the Hanna Barbera characters again and what better way to bring them back to the big screen, than with Scooby Doo? It was so much fun from beginning to end, the writing was really strong and the journey of friendship was heartwarming. It was just so nice to see these characters interact again, with new content, new characters, and the same type of mysteries to solve.
The one thing Scooby and Shaggy’s friendship brought all of us, was light hearted jokes, interesting meals and loving your best friend. Shaggy had said, “Growing up doesn’t mean growing apart, it means growing together.” it’s such a great line and because they chose to show his journey with Scoob, it made them coming together at the end pretty emotional. Friendships are important and that’s always been the case with Scooby Doo, they might get annoyed with each other but in the end they always help each other out no matter what.
It’s one of the best family friendly films I’ve seen this year. The humour is definitely meant for the adults, but the kids will get a kick out of Scoob and his joyous spirit. They took the structure of the television episodes, the villains from the live action films and brought one of the best voice casts together to make a pretty fun movie. Scoob! will have you missing the gang the second you finish the film and naturally the ending is pretty open ended, so fingers crossed for a sequel.
Candid Cinema 