In Scooby-Doo, a Hanna-Barbera TV kids’ cartoon show, the Mystery Inc. gang consisted of four teenagers and a talking dog, and they investigated and debunked supernatural mysteries. In Scooby-Doo, the live-action film adaptation, the filmmakers decide that it would be better for the mystery to actually have supernatural elements. It is already hard to expand a TV show that is less than a half hour into a feature length movie, but once a film completely departs from its narrative framework and aims for a postmodern take on disillusionment of relationships instead of using our pleasure in the strength of their relationship (they are the Scooby Gang for goodness sakes), the results of Scooby-Doo are unsurprisingly dreadful and predictable. I guessed the big reveal pretty early in the film.
I probably added Scooby-Doo to my queue because previews promised that Daphne, played by Sarah Michelle Geller, would kick butt, and I’m a Buffy fan. She does…briefly. Everyone knows that Linda Cardellini is always amazing even in this piece of doo. Matthew Lillard was the real standout in Scooby-Doo and really kept things moving as Shaggy. It is not easy to do your best, but Lillard does even though he is reacting to nothing-Scooby-Doo isn’t really there, but added post-production. Freddie Prinze is also in Scooby-Doo.
Scooby-Doo lives up to its name-the latter part after the hyphen. I can’t believe they made a sequel. WHY!?!