kylehaines96
Day 4 Of My 31 Days Of Horror 2.After the financial success of Scooby Doo and Scooby Doo 2 Monsters Unleashed Cartoon Network decided to release a prequel to the 2 films. They said if you loved the first two you will enjoy this. I highly disagree with that statement.The film follows Fred played by Robbie Amell Daphne played by Kate Melton Velma played by Hayley Kiyoko Shaggy played by Nick Palatas and Scooby Doo voiced by Frank Welker as they meet up with each other for the very first time. Thats about it.I do not really hate this movie but I was very let down. I love the performance done by Nick Palatas as Shaggy and I love the chemistry that Scooby Doo and Shaggy have in this film. But the performances done by Amell, Melton and Kiyoko are very poor and are seeming like they could just care less. Also the story in this film is very bland and uninteresting. I certainly hope the next one is better, Rated PG For Mild Peril.1hr 22min/82min.**/****
TheLittleSongbird
Although I did read a few negative reviews beforehand, that didn't stop me from having high hopes for Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins I am a big Scooby Doo fan, and have been for a long time, so naturally I wanted to see this. Although it is not a perfect film, and I wasn't expecting it to be, I enjoyed it.I can understand it when people say the basic story line of Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins is predictable. In a way it is predictable, and some of the middle could have been better paced. In all fairness though, I found the original cartoons, which I adored for its strong characters and funny writing, on the predictable side, likewise with a few other Hanna/Barbera shows, Yogi Bear for instance.In regards to the story, I liked the ideas the movie brought forward, and the ending was cool. The writing was funny and a tad cheesy, in short quite like the writing of the original cartoons in the jokes and snappy lines. Some can have a tendency to be a little too silly, but I can sort of forgive that.The costume and set design are spot on, very colourful and the photography and editing manage to be several notches above slapdash straight to video fare. The effects are above average too, not award-worthy but there are far worse out there.The characters are still likable, and the acting is good enough. Scooby is very sweet and funny, exactly as he should be. The actors of Shaggy and Velma nail their roles, and Fred(his hair didn't bother me really seeing as this is a movie of how Mystery Inc. came about) is decent as well. The weak link is Daphne, she looks right for the part but overdoes it sometimes.All in all, I liked it. 8/10 Bethany Cox
marksman619
I loved the cartoons growing up, I hated scrappy Doo. So obviously I loved Spooky Island. It stayed very true to the story and the cast of Scooby Doo. I liked Monsters Unleashed but to a lesser extent. I thought this was going to be a great addition to the live action Scabby Doo movies. I went in expecting less in the way of plot and acting, since it was cartoon network and no namers... I was actually surprised with the abilities of some of the cast. The movie was a bust for me though because it defiled the origins of scooby doo when it was meant to revisit them. In the original, the mystery van was Shaggy's. He was a hippie stoner with a avocado green van to match his shirt and it had flowers on it because thats what pacifist hippie love children were all about. (spoiler begins here) Here they tell us its the Gardner's van from Daphne's Dad's Estate which she will get as her first vehicle when she learns to drive. What the Hello Kitty? Daphne in the original is a clumsy bubble head who is too overly concerned about her appearance to notice the danger going on around her and the only time she contributes is through some accidental slip up. The new Daphne is a rich débutante, who for some reason rides the bus to school, and is in the drama club, thinks jocks are stupid and is pretty intelligent. Shaggy... OK.. he's just how he's supposed to be. Good job on shaggy! Velma... also great job. True to the original character. Fred in the original movie was Daphne's male equivalent. He was all about looking good and not the sharpest tool in the shed. He also was too into himself to ever really take notice of Daphne in s sexual way. The new Fred is a Jock, but very sensitive and concerned about others. He's into Daphne and there's a sexual tension between them as he feigns disinterest. The original Scooby was named after Frank Sinatra's add lib scat lyrics at the end of "Strangers in the Night" He was adopted by shaggy as a puppy and shaggy and scooby had an inseparable bond only a dog and his master could share and they know each others thoughts and feelings. The new scooby is a pound dog reject and his name is Scoobert. Shaggy finds him when he's a grown dog, and basically doesn't know scooby any longer than the rest of the gang does. New Scooby is also far more brave than the original. Original scooby snacks are mass marketed boxed dog biscuits that can be purchased at the store. The new scooby snacks are hand baked confections created by Shaggy using dog kibble and coco... COCO is poisonous to dogs! WHAT IDIOT CAME UP WITH THAT? not only does it destroy the concept of scooby snacks, but if anyone tried to follow that recipe for dog treats they would kill their dog! Also please note that there's no way on gods green earth that those actors can pull off being sophomores in high-school. Even shaggy being held back 2 grades can't pull off being the age of a 17 year old.
