Review: Scooby-Doo (2002)

I think critics were unfair to this movie when it first came out.  It was critically drubbed to such a degree that it sits at a sad 32% on Rotten Tomatoes, with an audience score that is almost as low.  And while it might not be the greatest film ever made, I thought it was fun enough, with some fun performances from the main cast.

The movie opens with the humans of Mystery Inc (Freddie Prinze Jr as Fred; Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, and Linda Cardellini as Velma) solving a case and quickly breaking up to go their separate ways after.  Only Shaggy and Scooby-Doo (voiced by Neil Fanning) stick together while the others go to find and improve themselves.  2 years later, they are all called to Spooky Island to solve a mystery with the expected tension.

Now, again, this is not the greatest film ever made.  The CGI for Scooby wasn't particularly great in 2002, and it's aged about as well as one would expect - and that's without mention the many other CGI creatures scattered throughout.  Aside from the main four, no cast members stand out (although Rowan Atkinson as Spooky Island owner Mondavarious is obviously having fun) despite having a few notable actors like Isla Fisher and Miguel Nuñez Jr.  The plot gives about as much information as the original Scooby-Doo cartoons, but spreads it out amongst the 86 minute running time and makes you realize just how compact those cartoons were in comparison.

But dammit, I enjoy this movie all the same.  Prinze Jr plays proto-himbo Fred with just enough charm to make you forgive the character's more boorish behavior, Gellar is having fun as a Daphne who is trying her best not be a damsel yet constantly finding herself in trouble, and Cardellini and Lillard are pitch-perfect casting even before you get into the meat of their performances, which are great.

I love just how late 90s/early 00s this movie is, from the colors to the hairstyles to 'bad slang' to the cameo from the band Sugar Ray.  The jokes are dumb, but they are told well and with energy, and there are enough that aren't for the kids that you don't have to rely on the juvenile ones for entertainment - although those juvenile ones work for me as well.

Hell, there is an extended burp/fart contest between Shaggy and Scooby that is just as sophomoric as it sounds, but I'll be damned if Lillard's facial expressions and the sound of that last, partially-contained fart when Daphne catches them doesn't make me laugh out loud every time.

All in all, this is a fun movie - light and thin and the equivalent of cotton candy in film form.  But you know what?  Cotton candy has its place, as does this movie.

7.5 out of 10