I know the title sounds harsh and I really hope that you will bear with me when I say that I did not hate this movie. I just had some things I didn't care for. However, with all things "Meh" comes some good qualities which there were a few of here.
Starting with the bad first, to just get all that negativity out of the way!
The Trailers were deceptive.
That's right. The trailers were really fun! And made it seem like this movie was going to be an origin story with a mystery that ties a mystery from younger Mystery Inc. to the older ones. It seems like there is a mystery afoot as the Falcon Fury zaps Shaggy and Scooby into their ship! And the rest of the Mystery Gang has to find them.
However, this wasn't case. Which leads me to my next point
There was very little mystery.
The movie was advertised as a Scooby Doo movie, but gave off none of the Scooby mystery. The movie served as a way to set up a multiverse using cameos to establish other characters from the older Hanna-Barbara canon who may not have been as successful as Scooby Doo was. But it fell bland in some of those areas. It focused on more action-packed battles, and dramatic twists than it did on relying on the things that has made Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo...
Not to say that some of these characters were not fun to see. However.. Warner Brothers dropped the ball when it came to my next problem with the movie.
Captain Caveman
For those of you who don't have a clue who this is, I wouldn't blame you. He is one of the main characters in a mystery comedy series (much like Scooby Doo) that aired from 1977 to 1980 called Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels. Now this is not a bad cartoon or a bad character. But there are very specific details the movie just didn't follow. Captain Caveman was not the most literate character, and his catchphrase is very distinct! I am not going to bash Scoob's Captain Caveman voice actor Tracy Morgan. The man is hilarious and did what he could. But it wasn't true to Captain Caveman.
The Main Mission/Gate to Hades Story?
Not that this was a horrible story, but it seemed kinda redundant for that sacrifice to be made and gone through, only for it to have a cliche resolution at the end. And the mission to find skulls just sat weird with me, but it gives the main baddie a motivation which is not too bad.
SIMON COWELL'S CAMEO
I am all for a good Simon Cowell cameo. (Shrek is Life) But his cameo infuriated me. It was the entire setup for the story of the movie and the basis for the fights! Even if it wasn't truly Simon Cowell, I still can't shake the fact that it infuriated me. UGH.
Now that that is out of the way! The Good!
The Gang/ Voice Actors
Scoob! brought on new more A-List voice actors for the four teens in the Scooby Gang (Again, not from Buffy) as the movie probably had a bigger budget. And I had my doubts about them before I saw it. (except for Amanda Seyfried and Gina Rodriguez. I was sure those were perfect fits) But I was even more impressed with the way they sounded. Yes I am used to the voice talents of the animated shows, but these gave a new voice to them and made them sound like actual teenagers.
Fred's a huge goofball that is not very bright and even more of a jock than in the cartoons, but it mirrors his Mystery Incorporated/What's New/Be cool variations of the character so well. His love for his van, his eccentric behaviors. Zac Efron's voice behind him made this more believable. And I loved it.
Daphne seems to be the moral compass of the group in this. She is very in touch with her emotions and is actually one of my favorite characters in the film. She has that little side story with the vacuum-head robot friend which was so cuteeee! Amanda Seyfried did such a good job with her!
Velma! She's just as smart as usual, not really much difference here. Except that she uses her hacker skills more than she has in the past. I loved the fact that they gave the mystery machine some of the old features like a lab in the back where she can work. She has a few great one-liners in this one, in true Velma fashion. Gina Rodriquez also gives us a Velma that is Hispanic, which confused other fans but I actually liked it. It was something different.
Shaggy's voice, provided by Will Forte, threw me off the most, but his voice was pretty Shaggy. Aside from that he had an okay arc in the movie. It was a friendship arc and it was just okay tbh.
Frank Welker was the only voice actor from the show who was in the movie and his Scooby was perfect as usual.
All the Cameos from other Hanna Barbara characters
Blue Falcon (Sort of), Dynomutt, Dick Dastardly, Muttley. These were the on-screen cameos we got in this movie that I really enjoyed.
Blue Falcon in this isn't actually the actual Blue Falcon, but his son Brian, who is under the unapproving eyes of his father's old partners Dee Dee and Dynomutt. The whole growing into his own hero arc was a heartwarming thing to see as both Blue Falcon and Dynomutt had their own issues. (It would have been nice if it had happened in their own origin story tbh and not in a Scooby movie, but who am I to complain.)
Dick Dastardly and his dog Muttley were both from the show Wacky Races where they would cause hijinks and capers in order to cheat their way to first place but run into their just desserts each time. In the movie, Dick was an evil yet at points understandable villain. As he told the others his tragic backstory, we as the audience got a funny little side scene where we saw how it actually happened (very differently). But in the end, it's another side story about a boy and his dog. His somehow alive dog who is just trapped in Hades, who later steals gold and breaks him out of prison while he was actually arrested with him in the first place?! I don't know man. This movie...
Multiverses aren't always a good thing to be honest. Especially when you set it up in a movie bearing the name of a beloved franchise. This movie is a moderate 6 out of 10 for me, but it does have rewatchability I guess? O.O It hurts to critique a franchise I love so much, but I had to.
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