The tail is the staff of life.
Scoob! is an awaited reboot of a well-known Hanna-Barbera series about a bunch of teenagers with a dog solving different mythical situations and exposing costumed perpetrators who pursue their interests. The description of this film promises to show viewers the biggest challenge which Mystery Corporation has ever faced. This time it is about one of their own who needs to be saved in order to prevent the apocalypse.
To start with, it’s necessary to say that Scoob! has nothing to do with the original idea of these series. Instead of showing how the mysteries are solved and reproving masked men, Tony Cervone saddled a stereotypical superhero narrative. He created a reasonably real villain with a classic desire for wealth and power.
Needless to say, that everything looks unconvincingly and stretchy. First of all, Scooby-Doo was always about the teamwork, mutual aid and nice usage of features of each character. While in Scoob!, Fred, who is known for his leadership skills and an ability for building elaborated traps, shown as a dumb, selfish bad boy; Velma looks like a complete nerd while actually she is cleverly smart and does not show off her knowledge; Daphne is shown as a cheesy girl without a lot of knowledge and skills.
Moreover, Scoob! focuses on the story of Scooby and Shaggy while other team members do not have enough screen time. Even though the relationships between these two are shown heartwarmingly, and you can empathise them, the plasticity of other characters and their interactions make this cartoon soulless.
The same applies to the main antagonist – Dick Dastardly. His story and motivation look so contrived that it’s almost facepalming. He is simply miserable. The most striking element of how plain the cartoon is can be seen in a minor detail – Dick’s assistants are small deadly robots. So ”inventive”!
If there is something to highlight in this cartoon, it is humour and craziness. Starting with Simon Cowell’s cameo and ending with an iconic dialogue between Scooby and Dick, this film has something to giggle about for both younger and older audiences.
All in all, Scoob! just does not work. Even though it is produced nicely, it is hard to understand for whom this cartoon is made for – it is not following the classic narrative to make the fans happy. At the same time, it doesn’t offer anything new for general audiences to be excited about. Scoob! plays with nostalgic feelings, but quite soon they vanish of how soulless it is. What more can be said, if one of the plot lines is how the gang wants to make Mystery Corporation a business organisation…
3 stars
Image Credit: TheMovieDB