Scooby! – Scoob! (2020)

Directed by: Tony Cervone | 93 minutes | animation, adventure | Dutch voice cast: Huub Dikstaal, Jeske van de Staak, Roos van Erkel, Tara Hetharia, Pepijn van der Sman, Thijs Prein, Wiebe-Pier Cnossen, Alexander de Bruijn, Jop Joris, Jasthin Veldhuizen, Dewi Mentink | Original voice cast: Will Forte, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Isaacs, Gina Rodriguez, Zac Efron, Amanda Seyfried, Kiersey Clemons, Ken Jeong, Tracy Morgan, Frank Welker, Iain Armitage, Mckenna Grace, Pierce Gagnon, Ariana Greenblatt, Simon Cowell, Christina Hendricks , Henry Winkler, Harry Perry, John DiMaggio, Kevin Heffernan

The iconic cartoon series ‘Scooby Doo’ gets a welcome reboot in ‘Scoob!’. The characters still appear timeless and sympathetic, but the end product is a mediocre film, in which highs and lows alternate at the pace of Scoobs’ hunger attacks.

‘Scoob!’ starts off strong, with a real origin story. Always wanted to know how Shaggy and Scooby Doo found each other? And how did Scooby Doo get its name? The mystery is solved in the first fifteen minutes. How Shaggy’s circle of friends is suddenly tripled is also given a plausible explanation. It is only after the flash forward to the present that things go wrong. The intention of the studio is to start a Hanna-Barbera cinematic universe and ‘Scoob!’ is currently a flag bearer. So many characters have to be introduced, making the story effortlessly chaotic.

Over dinner, Daphne, Velma and Fred, along with Shaggy and Scoob, discuss their plans to move from Mystery, Inc. create a professional organization. The former even already have a potential investor, none other than “American Idol” judge Simon Cowell (why exactly he shows up is a mystery). This smooth talker immediately presents the friends with a choice: Shaggy and Scoob have no added value for the company, so if they want to say goodbye to them for a while, nothing stands in the way of a successful future. No sooner said than done.

That’s not fun, of course, but things get even more exciting for Scoob and Shaggy when they’re attacked in a bowling alley by robots belonging to the villain Dick Dastardly (a Hanna-Barbera character who is now appearing in a Scooby Doo movie for the first time). Fortunately, they are rescued just in time by Blue Falcon, Dee Dee Skyes and Dynomutt (also from the Hanna-Barbera stable) and Scooby is especially praised for his qualities. Something that has a negative effect on Shaggy’s self-confidence, which has already taken a big dent.

The plot of the story is not much different from other superhero/animated movies, where the antagonist shows megalomaniac traits and our heroes have to do everything they can to save the world from destruction. Been there, done that, but for the target group this is of course not an insurmountable problem. It is the incoherence of the story that is likely to kill young viewers. The obvious adult jokes are more annoying than the Hanna-Barbera references, but even more so, it’s such a shame that the group doesn’t just work together to solve a mystery. Velma, Daphne and Fred remain so underused and their characters hardly add anything to the story. From a commercial point of view it is understandable why this approach was chosen, but a better, compelling, screenplay could have saved this film.