Scoob!

Scoob! fails to captivate the essence of the original gang and instead tries to make a superhero flick with Fortnite skins. The animation, art style, and writing are egregiously lazy, making the end result simply boring.

The humor in this film tries desperately to relate to kids in a hilariously artificial way. It took 7 people to write this film, and it feels like each one had a joke for each scene—and none of them were cut out. I admit that there were some laugh out loud lines and moments, but they are drowned out by the rough attempts to pander for younger audiences immediately following them. It feels like the writers cranked out a rough draft, throwing darts on a board of “current trends for youths” to see what to reference, and then turned it in to the studio to crank out an easy cash grab. Now, this film has had several speed bumps along the way, especially with the creative process and its original team leaving the project late into the production, making the new team completely revamp the story. The only assumption I can make is that Warner Bros. declared a strict schedule that they had to crunch through, which led to a downgrade in the animation and writing. The fact that this film released on the announced date during the pandemic instead of later on in theaters, probably proves this point even more. If this is the case, then it is impressive that the writers managed to get a passable script through this storm and actually have it animated. A majority of scripts in recent years aim for a passable, by-the-numbers result rather than a burning car crash of a film, and these writers did just that.

The story is not a Scooby Doo story. It is not a mystery, there is no looming wonder of what is real and what is fake, and there are no traps or reveals to who is working behind the mask. Everything on screen is taken at face value, it is what it is. There is no foreshadowing to twists in the road, nor is there any time when the Mystery Inc. team actually comes together to solve the case. They are a sideshow to an attempt at a superhero cartoon. Scooby and Shaggy are literally beamed out of the established world of Scooby Doo and find themselves in a comic-book style ship with superheroes in tights and fancy gadgets. The superhero, the blue falcon, looks like a Fortnite character and even dances throughout the film with dabs and pop music. By the third act, the gang is trapped in a cataclysmic situation with the underworld, and I am watching it all unravel thinking “I paid for a Scooby Doo movie, what is this?” If anyone remembers Penguins of Madagascar from 2014, this film is structured exactly the same way: familiar characters we pay to see are kidnapped out of their established world into a strange rendition of a superhero/spy story with a villain that wants to take over the world with a green smoke and tiny minions. No joke, they are the same story. What remains from the potential opening is only hints and winks of what could have been a movie with the Mystery Inc. gang. The rest is a safe, kid-friendly cartoon with sudden jokes about tinder and toxic masculinity.

Overall, with the mess that is this script, there are still some solid jokes and great homages to several Hanna Barbera cartoons. Scooby has some great lines, and most of what happens with Fred is pretty good. It was an interesting choice to make Velma hispanic, offering diversity to the group, but then the story never takes that anywhere (she says one Spanish word). The animation is rough to watch, and the third act feels like a knock off of a Thor movie. Does it feel like a Scooby Doo film? Not even close, but most people will still enjoy watching it.

Story Rating: 4/10

Character Rating: 3/10

Entertainment Rating: 4/10