Premise - After their most recent successful case, Mystery Inc. (Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Velma (Linda Cardellini), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby (Neil Fanning).) decide to go their separate ways. Two years later they are all invited to 'Spooky Island' to try and solve a mystery involving brainwashed teenagers. Scooby-Doo is not quite as bad as I thought it was going to be. It is really bad, just not as bad as it could have been. The film has two saving graces, Matthew Lillard and Scooby-Doo himself. The rest of the film is a festering pustule on the foot of cinema. If the film had got Shaggy and Scooby wrong then it would have nothing going for it. As it stands Shaggy and Scooby is the only thing they did get right. Matthew Lillard is a revelation as Shaggy, he 'IS' Shaggy, it's that simple. The walk, the voice, the look, all perfect. It's like the character of Shaggy jumped of the TV screen and took over Lillard's body, it really is quite uncanny. I liked Lillard in Scream, but he's done nothing since to convince me that Scream was anything other than a fluke. Scooby-Doo suggests that Lillard may be of some worth to humanity after all. The filmmakers have gone CGI for Scooby-Doo ahead of a cell drawn look ala 'Roger Rabbit'. I was initially hesitant of this move, but the interaction between Scooby and the other characters just wouldn't have been possible at the level it is here if traditional animation had been used. Like Lillard, Neil Fanning has got Scooby's crazy voice down to a tee. The animators have stayed true to the original cartoons and the writers have kept the old Scooby that we know and love. Shaggy and Scooby interact well and share the films only laughs. The film comes alive when these two are on screen and dies when they are nowhere to be seen. Truly, Shaggy and Scooby are the best thing in the film, the only redeeming factor in an otherwise horrible viewing experience. The problem with the rest of the film is that the writers have tampered with the original cartoons formula to such a degree that the characters and story bear no resemblance to their cartoon counterparts. The first ten Minutes of Scooby-Doo are quite encouraging. Why is this? Because it's like an episode of the cartoon. The gang are together, working as a team. They are up against some guy pretending to be a ghost and Shaggy and Scooby goof off and inadvertently capture the goon. The goon is cuffed by the cops and says, 'I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids.'. End movie, or it should have been. Instead the film goes on to break up the gang, trying to add 'depth' to the characters. Newsflash, Scooby-Doo didn't work because the characters had depth, it worked because the formula was simple and the characters were likeable. The second you try and make Velma sexy, Daphne tough or Fred a smarmy git you lose the spark that made the cartoon such a success. The makers should have looked at what they had in the first ten minutes then stretched it to a 90 minute movie. Sure, that's maybe a stretch. So how about adding a touch of Brady Bunch postmodernism? Have the gang as they were in the cartoon, but have the rest of the world as a normal place? Sounds a whole lot better than what they cooked up here. Freddie Prinze Jr. is terrible. Just awful, he is a black hole of acting sucking other actors ability into his endless abyss. Sarah Michelle Gellar, whom I think is a capable actress is hopelessly miscast here and ends the film somehow managing to morph in to a sub-par Buffy. Linda Cardellini is again a fine actress, but is also miscast and what's up with that accent? It sounds nothing like Velma. Rowan Atkinson is a disgrace, the best thing this guy has ever done is 'Blackadder'. Everything else he touches turns into crap. In the cartoon the gang were always up against some guy in a suit scaring people to get to hidden gold buried underneath an amusement park, or whatever. The ghouls, ghosts and monsters were never real. So why did the makers of the film feel the need to have actual, real monsters running around? It kills the charm that the cartoon had. And so finally to my last beef with the film. Scrappy-Doo. They have made Scrappy-Doo into the main bad guy of the film. What? How does that work? Sure, Scrappy sucked and single handidly destroyed the cartoon, but to punish him by portraying him as they do in the film is just plain wrong. I was reminded of the US remake of 'Godzilla', where they turned Godzilla into the bad guy. Sorry, it didn't wash and ruined what could have been a cool movie. Scrappy-Doo being the bad guy has a similar effect here. Scooby-Doo as a film had potential if it was handled correctly. Unfortunately it hasn't been handled correctly and we are left with a giant mess saved only by Matthew Lillard and a faithful rendition of the mutt himself. Sure, go and see it for Lillard's stunning turn as Shaggy, but be wary, the rest is dire.

3/10 for Scooby-Doo. Poster Quote - Scooby-Doo-Doo.