Scooby Dooby Doo!

My new post is a review for the children's film Scooby Doo The Mystery Begins, enjoy....

Shaggy is a lonely boy at school and has no friends, that is until a dog comes flying through his window and they instantly hit it off. Scooby is the dog and he and Shaggy come up with a plan to take him to school. On the school bus a fight breaks out and Shaggy, Daphne, Fred and Velma all end up in detention as they caused the school bus to crash and damage the vice principles car. It is when they are in detention they all discover that they are all fans of mystery books.

The friendship is about to become tested when two ghosts arrive in the library and the gang decide that they are going to have to try and find out where they came from and why they caused all the destruction so they can clear their names.

Can the gang work together to solve the mystery and just who is behind the ghosts?

I have never really been a fan of the cartoon series of the same name but decided to give the film a watch as I needed something easy and light hearted to watch, this film really did fit the bill and I think if I forget what I know of the carton then it was actually good. There were some big issues with the character if I look at the cartoon and it did not seem to gel as well but I think this is still a great film for children. The story was good although it was very predictable and right from the start both me and hubby had worked out who the baddie was.

The acting was pretty good but nothing special, the main role of Shaggy was played by Nick Palatas. He did a good job and looked very similar to the cartoon version of his character. I did find his voice was very annoying and he was overly scatty but he did bring some humour to the film which will appeal to the target audience of this film. The role of Velma was quite good, she was played by Hayley Kiyoko. I felt she came across in a good light and she did seem to know what she was talking about when it came to all the science things, she worked well with the others and there was a good bond between them. The role of Fred was a little strange for me, he was dark haired and in the cartoon he is blond, I think I would have liked him to have blond hair to make it more similar to the cartoon. He came across quite different from what I was expecting and I enjoyed seeing how he tried to take charge of the group and the spark which was present between him and Daphne. Daphne was played by Kate Melton and she was good but I don’t think she knew exactly where she wanted her character to go, she loved her beauty products and make up but then she would act quite inelegant and I don’t think the balance was quite right.

We did have some other quite good characters in the film but no real stand out performances. The one role which I did think was good was that of Scooby Doo, he was completely animated and there were times when I did actually forget this. He came across very well and the voice managed to bring him to life and I loved some of the expressions he had. He did bring the fun element to the film. I loved how the bond between him and Shaggy came across as they were actually quite similar. There were a few times when I found the animation was a little weak, this was when Scooby was interacting with the humans but these moments were only few and far between and overall the animation was good.

A big issue which I had with the film was the characters age, they were only supposed to have been 15, Shaggy was 2 years older as he had been held back twice but the actors all looked more toward the 18-19 age range, this was a bit disappointing and I don’t think children will be able to associate with them and the ages as I only picked this up when it came to the driving scenes and if you are not fully concentrating then you may miss it. I do think younger looking actors would have been better.

The film is set in the present day so no real effort was needed with the costumes, they are all pretty modern and worked quite well. The props and sets which were used all looked good and were in keeping with the film. We do have a lot of special effects in the film aside from the animated character of Scooby and I found them to be of a good high standard, the ghosts did actually look quite scary at times. The music was good but nothing special and I am now not able to remember a singly tracks and I also cannot recall hearing the theme music which we all know. I have asked hubby if he can remember if it was used at the end of the film or not be he too cannot remember.

There are no bonus features to speak about as this is a film only review. The running time of the film is 120 minutes and I do feel that this is slightly long as it is aimed at children. The rate is a PG and I do agree with this, the appearance of the ghosts may be a little scary for the very young viewer but there really is nothing offensive in this film at all. The DVD can be bought for under £5 now and I do think it is a good price.

I am happy to give this film 3 stars and recommend it. I did have a few issues with it but for the target audience who are fans of Scooby they will find this very entertaining and love watching it.