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'Scoob!': Movie Review

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SCOOB! is a new Scooby-Doo feature length animated movie that begins with an short origin story about how Scooby met Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma, then shows how they team up with Blue Falcon and Dynomutt to stop Dick Dastardly from opening the Gates of the Hell to retrieve a hidden treasure. SCOOB! is an exciting, funny, touching parable on friendship with lots of heart, but it also contains some double entendres and lots of cartoon violence featuring scary robots and a scary monster.

The movie begins in Venice, California with a young Scooby-Doo stealing a mound of gyros meat from a Greek café along the boardwalk. Hiding from a policeman, Scooby runs into a lonely Shaggy on the beach. They become fast friends when Scooby shares the gyros meat for a sandwich Shaggy has made. When the policeman shows up, Shaggy tells the policeman Scooby is his dog.

On Halloween, two bullies steal Shaggy and Scooby’s bag of candy and throw it inside the local haunted house. Fred, Daphne and Velma help them retrieve the bag. Along the way, they expose the owner of the house who’s been posing as a ghost to scare people away from his stash of stolen goods. The team all decide to start solving mysteries together.

Ten years later, Fred wants to upgrade Mystery, Inc., including his beloved van. He’s gotten an investor, none other than Simon Cowell, the creator of successful musical and talent contest programs. However, Simon says he won’t invest in Mystery, Inc. if the company keeps Shaggy and Scooby because they appear to do nothing but eat. When Daphne protests, “But they’re our friends,” Simon replies, “You can’t count on friendship. When you get into real trouble, friendship can’t save the day.”

Hurt by their friends’ rejection, Shaggy and Scooby retire to their favorite bowling alley. While bowling, they’re attacked by a bunch of shape-shifting robots hiding in the bowling balls and bowling pins. They escape outside, and, just when they’re about to be captured, they’re beamed up to the Blue Falcon’s flying machine. On the ship, they learn that the Blue Falcon has retired and been replaced by his son, Brian, but Brian is rather cowardly and not as smart as Dynomutt, Blue Falcon’s robot companion, and his father’s assistant, Dee Dee. Blue Falcon’s team is trying to stop Dick Dastardly from collecting the three skulls of Cerebrus, the giant dog guarding the Gates to the Underworld.

Another encounter with Dastardly and his robots leads to the information that Dastardly is after Scooby, not Shaggy, because he thinks Scooby is the key to finding the treasure trove of Alexander the Great. Alexander hid the treasure behind the Gates of Hell. Opening the Gates, however, will unleash the spirit of Cerebrus on the world, a real dogpocalypse.

SCOOB! is an exciting, funny, touching parable on friendship. The jokes and the adventure fly rather swiftly, so the pace never lets up. That said, the filmmakers know enough to pause the action just long enough to insert lots of heart into the story. Ultimately, friendship saves the day in SCOOB!, but the movie also contains some double entendres and lots of cartoon violence featuring scary robots and a scary monster. So, MOVIEGUIDE® advises caution for young children.

Check out the trailer below!

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About The Author

MOVIEGUIDE® was founded in 1985 by Dr. Ted Baehr, past president of the Episcopal Radio & Television Foundation and former director of the Television Center at the City University of New York. MOVIEGUIDE® is affiliated with the Christian Film & Television Commission® ministry (CFTVC). Both MOVIEGUIDE® and CFTVC are dedicated to redeeming the values of the entertainment industry, according to biblical principles, by influencing industry executives and artists and by informing and educating the public about the influence of the entertainment media and about how to train their families to become