Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins

I suppose you could see this as a companion piece to my ‘Phantom Menace’ review, another prequel no-one asked for. I’m not really sure anyone asked for ‘Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed’ either; one of the most unpleasant cinematic experiences I can recall in the past ten years. It was everything bad. I know that’s not a sentence, but it was all kinds of proper bad; insincere, illogical, condescending, and it haemorrhaged money all over the screen.

It was with some trepidation that I approached a return to the live-action Scooby Doo universe. And, surprisingly, I didn’t hate it. You could probably stop reading the review right there. But no, there’s more. It was, in fact, OK. I might even up that to a pretty good. Ask me in a few weeks.

The plot concerns the creation of ‘Mystery Inc,’ and the tale of how an awkward teenage boy found his perfect match, in the form of a dopey (talking!) dog. Oh, and the school, ‘Coolsville High,’ was built over another school which was destroyed by a flood many years ago. So obviously there are ghosts. Obviously.

The plot is a mish-mash of a bunch of other movies and shows (‘Poltergeist,’ ‘The Frighteners,’ every ‘Scooby Doo’ episode you’ve ever seen) but it keeps things simple. Hands up who liked the first ‘Scooby Doo’ movie when the bad guy was revealed to be Scrappy Doo on steroids? No? It’s the familiarity and innocence of ‘The Mystery Begins’ that works. The story doesn’t really matter because this is a kid’s movie, and unlike the other live action works, it doesn’t try to offer anything for the adults who are watching except shameless nostalgia. There are no obvious winks at the camera, no drug references, and no high-wire kung-fu. What we do have is a scene of someone pulling off a ghostly mask and revealing one of three suspects (yes, there are only like three suspects), plenty of comical disguises, and a healthy dose of “jinkies,” “zoinks,” and “Scooby snacks.” These are what you want from a ‘Scooby’ movie and this is what the film offers. With no extra padding. In fact, the story moves swiftly and doesn’t dwell on such trifle matters as ‘where do ghosts get off interrupting the big game?’ and ‘why is the dog walking on two legs?’

The performances from the unknown cast are pleasant, inoffensive, ‘High School Musical’ esque versions of the cartoon’s four characters, thankfully minus the cynical stunt casting of the previous films. Bearing in mind this is a children’s film, I would also have to commend the cast as role models. Shaggy’s a sensitive young soul, Velma shows that brains are more valuable than beauty, and Fred doesn’t beat the crap out of Shaggy once the credits start to role (because he’s a jock and that’s what movie jocks usually do). Daphne bothered me for channelling some Hilary Duff. (This review isn’t pretending to be highbrow affair by the way). The core gang get to know each other through a ‘Breakfast Club’ inspired detention sequence complete with all the usual high school movie clichés, but once we’re done with that, the group generally look out for each other and don’t seem fazed by the usual teen-movie hang-ups of social groups and appearances. The innocent banter between the group and the pro-active way they approach their mystery-solving extra-curricular activities were conducted sans whining and fighting and there weren’t any scenes of ‘so-and-so feels alienated so goes off in the other direction…’

Director Brian Levant has directed such family fare as ‘Beethoven’ (one of the finest dog-based family comedies) and ‘The Flintstones’ (uh oh) but he, and I hate to repeat a phrase, keeps things simple. The film is shot in bright, colourful, Nickelodeon-tween vision. The CGI ‘Scooby’ is quite terrifying to begin with (particularly in a slow-motion shot early on), but you get used to it and learn to embrace the animated-style. The film exists in a world where dogs talk so why shouldn’t the dog look a little unreal? If I had any real complaints, it’s that ‘Scooby’ was pretty superfluous considering the film was named after him, but this was obviously due to budgetary limitations as much as anything else. However, the always-reliable Frank Welker voices ‘Scooby’ and the familiarity of the voice is a nice reminder of the classic cartoons.

Also in the plus pile, the film managed to incite two genuine smiles from me (one ‘Kill Bill’ inspired slow-mo sequence in particular) and the ghosts would probably have been just the right side of frightening for the very young. They weren’t terrifying (and didn’t pose any real threats short of waving their arms in front of them) but they were mildly gruesome (and proceeded to take over toy aeroplanes from which they were able to shoot real bullets – amazing!).

Obviously, it’s not a perfect movie. The intrusive score plays like a cheap knock-off of the ‘Desperate Housewives’ theme tune and the film has ‘straight-to-DVD’ written all over it (particularly the re-use of shots and the obvious attempts to exclude ‘Scooby’ from as many shots as possible). The plot is simple and aimed exclusively at kids (or the ‘Scooby’ obsessives) and the lack of original ideas is glaringly obvious. But this film wasn’t made for me, and I reckon if I was eight, I’d sit down pretty happily for the 80 minute runtime.

The DVD offers an interactive personality test (I am ‘totally shaggified’ apparently) and a couple of short featurettes (none of which deal with the making of the movie) and the film is presented in 1.78:1 anamorphic widescreen with a clear picture quality and 22 chapter stops. Nothing to write home about content-wise but fine for the kids.

Ultimately, ‘Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins’ is a nice, innocent reboot of live-action ‘Scooby.’ Don’t rush out to buy this expecting a high-budget, high-quality affair, but pick it up as a perfectly fine Halloween diversion for young children (or the young at heart).