Scooby Doo And The Goblin King is an animated family mystery film directed by Joe Sichta. The plot sees Shaggy (Casey Kasem) and Scooby (Frank Welker), go on a magical quest to defeat an evil Wizard and save Halloween.

Unlike others, that have strayed too far from the formula, I think this film benefits form ditching the standard story structure of a Scooby Doo film and going fully out there. I enjoyed seeing Scooby Doo fully explore the concept of magic, I liked seeing classic creeps like The headless horseman make an appearance and I appreciated the larger world and mythology this film tried to set up; I would like to see it explored further at a later date.

When I heard that Tim Curry was returning to voice a character in this film I was immediately expecting big things, he was after all one of the best things about The Witches Ghost. So, I was saddened when he only had a small part. He does his best with what he is given, and he does make the Goblin King memorable.

The villain is okay, serviceable enough to keep the plot running in one direction but not strong enough to carry any real weight. I feel the story itself buckles under all it is trying to do and crosses a line where it becomes more spectacle than anything else.

Overall, this was one of the better Scooby Doo films of this era (the late 00’s), it is up there with Zombie Island and Witches Ghost, however all that it tries to do weighs the film down a bit too much and it just can’t live up to its high ambitions.

Pros.

Tim Curry

Fully going for the supernatural

The headless horseman scenes

It is a lot of fun

Cons.

Tim Curry only has a very small part

The film becomes spectacle and falls apart after a point

4/5

Reviewed by Luke

Chill Out Scooby Doo is an animated family mystery film directed by Joe Sichta. The plot sees the Mystery Gang’s holiday in Paris hijacked when Shaggy (Casey Kasem), and Scooby (Frank Welker), get kidnapped and taken to the Himalayas to act as bait for someone looking to trap the abdominal snowman.

So, I will admit I love the yeti/abdominal snowman so yes I might view this film a bit more favourably that I otherwise would have, though I have tried to control my bias of course for the purposes of this review.

This film feels like a return to the old ways of Scooby Doo, there is just one monster, there are no attempts to be meta (though in moderation those are a good thing), and there are no needless cameos. It is just the gang hunting a monster and then demasking it at the end.

Hell, I’ve reviewed quite a lot of these at this point and I have to officially say I have gone full circle. I started off apricating the Scooby Doo formula, then I grew sick of it and now after seeing how badly a lot of the Scooby Doo films turn out that don’t stick to the classic structure I am back to apricating it once again.

An issue I had with this film is the side story stuff. The High Lama felt crammed in to pad out the runtime, if done well this could have been like an extended version of one of the classic episodes, but no they had to stuff more in. Furthermore, as has been a recurring complaint, the Tibetan characters are little more than stereotypes and character cliches, which just feels irritating and lazy.

Overall, it has strong parts and weak parts, at its best it is a return to the classic formula and its worst it is still using the same old stereotypes and can be consider a bit offensive.

Pros.

The yeti

A return to the classic form

An interesting and not obvious mystery

Cons.

The stereotypes

The side story and characters

3/5

Reviewed by Luke   

Scooby Doo In Where’s My Mummy directed by Joe Sichta. The plot follows the Mystery Gang as they head to Egypt to meet up with Velma (Mindy Cohen), who has been restoring the Sphinx, however as they arrive they realise that something is a foot and they find themselves in the centre of a century’s old supernatural mystery.

I have to say this might be the only Scooby Doo film that didn’t have a clear-cut monster, or a guy in a suit. Yeah they have a generic villain, but they are side-lined and ignored so much that you forget the film even has a villain. In the end when you have the big reveal scene you are left confused with only a vague remembrance of who the baddie even is.

Though I am impressed they didn’t go the generic route and have the monster be a mummy, I feel like the film as a whole might have been better served if they had gone that route, rather than have this confusing conspiracy angle that really doesn’t come together.

The only real positive I can give this film is that it does not make the Egyptian characters stereotypes, they feel like actually characters. This is hollow praise as this should just be standard, but some of these Scooby Doo films do like to throw out cultural stereotypes here and there.

Overall, a very confusing, bland mess.

Pros.

They didn’t go for the obvious

Cons.

The obvious might have been better than what we got

The villain is forgotten about and ignored

It is dull

It is not fun to watch

1/5

Reviewed by Luke   

Happy Halloween, Scooby Doo is an animated family mystery film directed by Maxwell Atoms. The plot sees the Gang’s Halloween become interrupted by evil mutant pumpkins. Can they solve the mystery and salvage the night.

This film is not a Scooby Doo film, there should not be explosions and battle scenes in a Scooby Doo film, maybe Atoms wanted to make a different animated film, but they gave him this instead. Either way it does not understand what Scooby Doo is at all and it shows at every turn.

The mindless action lacks all the plot and story of previous Scooby Doo films that gave us memorable character moments that last the test of time. I knew something was up when they put in Scarecrow (the Batman villain), in for no real reason at all. I know Scooby Doo (Frank Welker), has teamed up with Batman in the past but this just feels random and done for no purely for fan baiting. I also disliked immensely how the film felt the need to reference as many Justice League characters as they could- Warner Brother you really need to get better with this in film product placement.

Likewise, the pandering to Bill Nye is obvious as hell. He was mildly in the popular culture a few years ago, but because executives don’t understand what kids like and are always out of date, he is all over this film and it is painfully cringe whenever he is on-screen. It feels like one of those bad Simpson’s episode when they centre the story around a trendy celebrity for a slight boost in relevance.

Overall, a badly thought out film that doesn’t seem to understand what a Scooby Doo film is, what the kids want, or who is trendy in the year of 2020.

Pros.

It is good background noise

Cons.

It is not a Scooby Doo film

It is dumbed down

It tries to hard to be trendy

It relies wholly on a celebrity cameo that most of the kids watching won’t know

Why is Scarecrow in this?

0.5/5

Reviewed by Luke

Scooby Doo Pirates Ahoy is an animated family directed by Chuck Sheetz. The plot sees Scoob (Frank Welker) and The Gang be invited on a cruise by Fred’s (Also Welker) parents to celebrate this birthday, the cruise is mystery themed and the gang make quick work of all the fake baddies, then they stumble upon some real evil; ghost pirates

I enjoyed this quite a bit, I enjoyed the metaness of it. I found the idea of the gang going on a mystery cruise to be quite humours and I liked how they handled it. I thought unlike some of the other animated Scooby Doo films this one had far more life, soul and warmth to it, which is always a good thing.

I enjoyed the pirate theme and thought the sea shanty esque soundtrack was used to great effect and really gave the film a nice sense of personality. I thought the ghost pirates themselves were well done and scary enough villains, however it was super obvious who they were and why they were doing it.

Another minor issue I had with this film was that it felt too busy, as well as the pirates there was a lot of other stuff going on and from time to time I would be slightly confused as it if I had missed something.

Overall, a very enjoyable Scooby Doo film that was brimming with warmth and charm. The pirate theme is used to great effect and I had fun with it.

Pros

The metaness

The comedy

The warmth

The pirate theme

Cons

A little overstuffed

Very predictable  

3/5

Reviewed by Luke

Aloha Scooby Doo is an animated family film directed by Tim Maltby. The plot sees Scooby (Frank Welker) and the gang be invited to Hawaii, as Daphne has been offered a job, of course not long after they arrive a vicious tiki spirit starts to wreak havoc.

I have written at great length about the Scooby Doo formula and this might be the best example of it, and the harmful effects of it on the films themselves.       My issue with this film is that it is clear from the off who the bad guy is, it is so obvious and predictable. This is a result of how strictly this film sticks to the formula, its like clockwork.   You will know exactly what is going to happen and when if you have ever seen a Scooby Doo film before.

There is no charm in this feature either, a little warmth might have made the glaring flaws a little less noticeable. Also the jokes don’t land and are often painfully unfunny, and the characters themselves are particularly likeable and that stretches to the gang as well.

The one thing I will give this film props for is that it doesn’t reduce the Hawaiian characters to stereotypes, as often happens in these films.

Overall, an incredibly by the numbers affair that is soured by the lack of charm, humour or surprise.

Pros.

The minor Adam West role

The Hawaiian characters don’t feel like clichés and stereotypes

Cons.

The humour doesn’t land

It is painfully predictable

It is joyless

Even the gang themselves aren’t very likeable here.

1/5

Reviewed by Luke