[.ca] Scooby-Doo (Widescreen)

Amazon.ca:
Le chien le plus peureux de l'histoire de l'animation, Scooby-Doo, comptait parmi les derniers héros animés à n'être pas encore apparu au grand écran. C'est désormais chose faite avec ce long métrage produit par les studios Warner. Les batailles d'ego ont eu raison de l'agence Mystery et Cie, pour laquelle travaillaient Scooby-Doo et sa bande. Sammy (Matthew Lillard), l'estomac sur pattes, Daphné (Sarah Michelle Gellar), la jolie écervelée, Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), le beau gosse imbu de lui-même et Vera (Linda Cardellini), l'intello binoclarde, sont désormais séparés. Lorsque le propriétaire de Spooky Island, croyant son parc d'attractions hanté, les invite individuellement pour résoudre ce mystère, l'amitié reprendra vite le dessus. Grâce à une assez bonne personnification des héros, Scooby-Doo reste fidèle à un esprit de bande dessinée plutôt sympathique. Le rythme dynamique, les couleurs vives et le climat “surnaturel” rendent ce divertissement tout à fait digeste. En revanche, les effets spéciaux pas toujours réussis (notamment l'animation du personnage de Scooby-Doo) et le formatage pour préadolescent feront sourciller les nostalgiques. Scooby-Doo est à prendre tel quel, au premier degré. --Helen Faradji

From Amazon.com:
Sometimes it takes a Scooby scramble to satisfy an entire family, and in the peace-to-all holiday spirit, that's what's on offer here. Winter WonderDog spans the Scooby generations. We scroll through a splattering of Scrappy, where the hotheaded little hound hooks up with Scoob and Shag for a few fits of mystery-free bad-guy nabbing, but the classic Mystery Machine players also pull up for several episodes. In "That's Snow Ghost" they meddle at a spooky ski lodge where a mechanical abominable snowman look-alike's on the loose, and "The Nutcracker Scoob's" lineup links the entire groovy gang minus Velma for an investigation into the ghost of Christmas present, who's spooking an orphanage. It's the snowcapped, red-and-green Scooby-snack wrapped, all-era caper-scraper that'll see Scooby fans of all stripes circling the tube. The sort of spirits it ushers in may not be standard issue, but the jinkies-generating snooping and sleuthing are. --Tammy La Gorce

Scooby Dooby Doooooo!:
After a classic Scooby Doo mystery being solved, Velma gets tired of Fred always taking the credit for her work and quits the gang. Fred and Daphne follow suite and the now lonely duo of Shaggy and Scooby go off on their own. About a year or so later, they meet up again at the airport where, unbeknownst to them, they are all invited to the newly opened Spooky Island theme park to solve a mystery. Each person vows to solve the mystery on their own, but once they get to their destination, they realize that they must work together once again to solve the mystery of what is changing the vacationing college students from normal teenagers into zombie type strangers. Shaggy meets a girl who becomes a sort of love interest and sort of casts Scooby off for his new interest. When Scooby realizes there is more to Shaggy's new friend than meets the eye, Shaggy refuses to listen and causes Scooby to become a willing, but unknown participant in the evil doer's plan to take over the world. Loaded with great special effects, computer animation and a great cameo starring the puppy everyone loves to hate, Scrappy Doo, this movie is great. The characters all kept the same aspects that made the cartoon great. However, there are some things that kept me from giving this movie 5 stars. In the cartoon, Velma never seemed resentful of Fred always taking the credit, Daphne was more than a spoiled selfish brat, Fred did not act stupid even in the least. If you enjoyed the old cartoon series, you will surly like this live action movie.

great harmless fun for the whole family:
to me,this is is a fun,harmless film that's fun for the whole family.i really enjoyed it.i don't think it's a cinematic masterpiece,but it's not supposed to be.it's silly of course,but very funny.the casting is good particularly Matthew Lillard,who does a bang on impersonation of "Shaggy".and you cannot go wrong with Linda Cardellini as Velma,who is a good actress and really looks the part.Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar are good as Fred and Daphne,respectively.Rowan Atkinson also has a small role in the film.much of the comedy in this movie is of the pratfall,physical type,so there are lots of stunts,which i thought were well done.the fight scenes are over the top,and fun.i was also impressed with how well the actors interacted with the CG Scooby Doo.those scenes looked pretty real to me.the ending was different than i expected,in a good way.finally,as far as i know,the movie is pretty faithful to the cartoon.overall,i really enjoyed the movie.it's a pretty entertaining way to kill 88 minutes.

Okay at best, but it doesn't beat the original series:
"Scooby-Doo" is okay. It's not that great of a film and it's not that bad. As much as I despise him, I have to say that Matthew Lillard does an excellent job as Shaggy. He's the best character in this flick. Linda Cardellini is good as Velma, but she has a couple of lines(ex. "Let's get jinky with it") that are just atrocious. Freddie Prinze, Jr. wasn't necessarily miscast as Fred, but the character was portrayed in a way that doesn't really reflect the character from the original show. Sarah Michelle Gellar was annoying as Daphne. Nevermind the fact that she pulled out the old kung-fu ala "Buffy," she's just not convincing enough in this role. The CGI Scooby was just that, a CGI Scooby. He looks fake, but dogs can't talk either, so I'm okay with that. His character is actually pretty good. The best part of this film is the opening scene with the Luna ghost. It looked as if it were straight out of the old series. Everything heads south from there. The characters, excepting Shaggy and Scooby, are weightless. The nasties are just plain silly and the jokes resort to sophomoric humor. I'm sure every thirteen year-old boy in the crowd got a laugh from the farting contest between Shaggy and Scooby. A few cuss words were thrown around, and Daphne puts a whipping on a wrestler-type baddie. Overall, this film works well with kids between the ages of eleven and sixteen. Younger kids MIGHT get scared by the bad guys, and the language can get a little rough for the really young'uns. For us older folks who grew up with the series, it's nice to see Scooby and the gang in a live-action format. However, I feel that this movie tries too hard to make itself appeal to all age groups. I also think that the director should have decided on whether he was making a nostalgic flick, a spoof, or an updated version using potty humor. It's watchable and somewhat funny, but you might want to rent this one before laying any money down for it.

Igg hee-hee-hee-hee-hee!:
This movie is campy, but it had some decent moments in it. Matthew Lillard does a surprisngly good Shaggy, but he seemed to have struggled witht he part as you can see from the strain in his neck when pulling off the impression. Velma was decent. Freddie Prince's Fred looked a little too effiminate, but even worse is Daphne. Sarah Michelle looks the part of Daphne but she was struggling to subdue her inner Buffy. What happened to the "Leapin' Lizards!" I supposed they did have to spice up the Daphne role in this one because in the cartoon she just stands around, hand on hip, blinking away. Not too bad, but not great either. The campiness of a cartoon classic is hard to tranfer into live action. This is why only the CGI scooby kept some of its original character. Can you imagine the disaster of the movie if it did like 101 Dalmations remake and used a live dog to play Scooby? There's only so much barking you can take.

A Failure:
First of all, my apologies, as this review is based entirely on my personal hopes of what this movie was going to deliver. Other viewers may have found lots of their expectations realised on the screen, but sadly, mine weren't. The makers of the Scooby Doo movie didn't really have to get a lot of things right to make this film a real laugh, yet they managed to do everything wrong. I was really looking forward to seeing my favourite cartoon come to life, but they messed up on all the basic rules of this classic show. First off, the main characters all only have one set of clothes, but the costume designers for the film couldn't even stick to the simple designs of the cartoon, instead they went for hopeless approximations that just look ill-fitting and careless. Worst offender is Daphne, done up in all sorts of lurid fashions and hairdos, looking nothing like the animated original. Same goes for poor Velma with that odd long lanky brown wig and shapeless sweater. Even Fred had several changes of costume and the wrong hairdo. Only Shaggy came across as the real deal, which is probably more of a tribute to Matthew Lillard's dedication rather than the designers. Next rule: There must always be a chase down a never-ending hallway with the same scenery going past over and over again. I think there were some chases in the movie, but nothing that brought this much loved (and much lampooned in the past) feature to the forefront where it should have been (Unless it was during a sequence when I dozed off). Next rule: The monsters must be dumb and easily fooled. Most monsters in the cartoon just went "Graaagghh!" and swiped their arms in thin air as Scooby and co. slipped away from them just in time. The movie monsters are actually quite frightening demons that fly through the air, taking possession of innocent holidaymakers. Frightening is good, but it doesn't belong in this context. Another thing that spoils the mood is surrounding the characters with hundreds of extras and other actors. It just shows up the implausibility of the whole gang ever passing for real people. This could have worked hilariously as a parody (a device that worked beautifully for the Brady Bunch Movie), but here it just makes the characters look thoroughly underdeveloped. They can't possibly interact with naturalistic "real-life" characters, only with similarly 2-dimensional ciphers like cackling crones, disgruntled sherrifs or sinister butlers. Next up, the characterisation. Again, Matthew Lillard steals the show as Shaggy, and truly breathes life into the part. Fred and Velma are boring and under developed, but that kind of reflects the cartoon, so no big deal there, although Velma could have been given more to get her teeth into. Worst of all, again, is Daphne, demonstrated by the insertion of the blatantly inappropriate "Daphne does martial arts" sequence. If Sarah Michelle Gellar can't stay away from playing Buffy, she shouldn't be considered for other movies. She certainly shouldn't bring the character with her. A huge mistake. Finally, Scooby Doo himself. Considering the possible options for bringing a talking dog to life, the movie version is actually quite successful. I thought the interplay between Scooby and the human mambers of the gang worked pretty well, and his character really came through. Shame that the animators decided to give him those bizarre big, bright, human style eyes which the cartoon version never sported. Weird and a bit creepy. As the the plot, its just far too busy. Anything and everything is thrown in making it clear that the makers could not decide what angle they were going for. They dabble in playing it true to the cartoon (very, very briefly), playing it for modern (Animal House-type) laughs, playing it as a parody, and playing it as a "what if the characters went in this direction?" kind of update. Too many styles, no substance and no chance for the audience to engage with any one mood. A real mess. As I said at the start, this is only my personal disappointment. I can't tell if other moviegoers had a similar experience, and lots of people seem to have found the film to be a riot. But as far as I'm concerned, it's a serious letdown and a huge wasted opportunity. I'm now waiting to see the second one to see if any of this gets put right...I really hope it does.