Scooby-Doo! Durchgeknallt im All

I sat down here in 2020 with my son, whom is a big fan of the Scooby-Doo animated movies, to watch the 2015 "Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness".

First of all, I do like the movie's cover/poster, as it was interesting and definitely kept within the classic feel of the "Scooby-Doo!" franchise. And the storyline also had some appeal to it.

Well, the storyline told in "Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness", while it was definitely within the realm of your archetypical "Scooby-Doo!" adventure, just failed to stand out and be overly noteworthy in the endless sea of animated "Scooby-Doo!" movies out there. Yeah, the storyline just lacked that spark to make it unique. Sure, the movie was watchable, but it was just a plain, old generic and run-of-the-mill "Scooby-Doo!" animated movie. Nothing outstanding here really.

What does work out for "Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness" is the animation and the art style, because it is very true to the classic rendering of "Scooby-Doo!" and it is that unique style that makes the franchise.

And of course, the voice acting. It is always a blast to have the voices of Frank Welker, Mindy Cohn, Grey Griffin and Matthew Lillard in these animated movies, because that is just familiarity and they have the voices that personifies Scooby-Doo, Fred, Velma, Daphne and Shaggy.

But it gets better, believe you me, because the voice cast also includes the iconic voices of Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell, and that was just such a treat to have in this 2015 animated movie. It definitely added something great to the overall enjoyment of it.

However, my rating of "Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness", sadly though, settles on a mediocre five out of ten stars. Because that was exactly what this 2015 animated movie was - mediocre. Watchable for the true fans of the franchise, but for us casual viewers it just didn't make the cut.

As a big fan of Scooby Doo since forever, of the pro-Sander Schwartz Scooby Doo films- the ones since Chill Out Scooby Doo!- Moon Monster Madness was for me one of the weakest(although none of them are at all bad, even the weakest Music of the Vampire, two of the best Scooby Doo films- Big Top and Mask of the Blue Falcon- came from this period actually). That said, it's still worth watching, and Scooby Doo fans should find much to like.

The animation is great, with bold use of colour, colourful and atmospheric backgrounds and while not the smoothest animated Scooby Doo film out there it's nicely drawn with a nice mix of classic and modern Scooby Doo. The music fits very well and has a really groovy vibe while also using music and scoring appropriate to the mood, may it be light-hearted or suspenseful. On the most part, the writing in the Scooby Doo films is most enjoyable and Moon Monster Madness is not an exception. The dialogue is goofy without being too silly and good-natured, with some nice homages(like Ellen Ripley from the Alien films) with some very funny and sweet moments with Shaggy and Scooby. The story is not without its faults, but it's diverting still and has a solution that's not too obvious or over-complicated as a result of being too predictable or trying to do too much(Stage Fright was a good example of the latter).

On the most part it's fun and with some nice suspense, Shaggy and Scooby's friendship is one of the franchise's joys and it's as ever charmingly done here, the film also uses its unique(for Scooby Doo) space setting very imaginatively. Shaggy and Scooby are funny and endearing, Fred's likable and there are some fun supporting characters, Sly and Ridley being good examples. Not to mention the alien, it's very coolly designed and has a genuine creepiness without being too scary, to the extent where you'd start to think that it was a real monster. Great also is the voice acting, the gang are beautifully voiced(Matthew Lillard being the standout, though Frank Welker shows remarkable consistency considering he's the only one who was there right from where Scooby Doo began) and Malcolm McDowell and Jennifer Hale are particularly good in the supporting roles, Mark Hamill's a nice addition too.

Moon Monster Madness does have some erratic pacing though(but not all the time), with some scenes chaotic and others dull. The scene after the reveal for my tastes went on for a little too long and felt like padding, but the biggest issue for me was the friction/jealousy between Daphne and Velma, it didn't feel necessary and a little clumsily handled, Velma also came over as annoyingly bratty rather than resourceful, like a few of the Scooby Doo films made around the Mystery Incorporated period and after. In conclusion, good fun but not one of my favourite Scooby Doo films(Witch's Ghost, Zombie Island, Big Top, Goblin King). 7/10 Bethany Cox

This has the vibes of "Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo!", despite predating it by seven entire years. Nothing really seems to matter and the logic behind jokes seems to change on a whim.

So the setup for this one is that the Scooby gang wins free tickets to be among the first people to take an interstellar cruise and end up stranded on the moon as they are hunted by a not-quite-Xenomorph.

One ongoing joke is that Fred thinks his space suit is really cool and refuses to take his helmet off; the joke being that he can't hear people with the helmet on. Except... sometimes he can? And whether or not Fred can hear someone or not changes completely at random. Those kinds of extremely dumb, low-hanging fruit jokes are all over this thing.

Nobody in this movie seems to enjoy it. Velma's skepticism comes off as being a nagging buzzkill in the worst ways. She's constantly being harassed by a paparazzi TV show host and jealous that one of the space crew seems to think Daphne is the smartest member of the gang. And that whole plot point, that Daphne is somehow smarter than Velma, is obviously never going to stick in a series that's 60+ years old. And Fred falls back into the role of everyone barely tolerating his dopey antics.

Most of the supporting cast is annoying, too, from the Steampunk-themed Elon Musk stand-in, to the paparazzi guy, the sports star, and the alien conspirator. A lot of them are written to be funny, but they come from the class of being annoying as a substitute for comedy. It's a lot of facepalm humor.

Also on the list of frustrations: Jennifer Hale playing two different characters and doing the same voice for both of them, barely an octave apart.

There are honestly a million ways to pick this movie a part. At least the animation's pretty decent, and the alien attack scenes are fun. But when it comes to the rest? Not much of a fan, and I'm starting to wonder if I'm the problem, or if most of the people who put these movies together just don't care.

Sly Baron (Malcolm McDowell) is starting space tourism with a round trip to the moon. He reserves five seats for some lucky lottery winners. The gang happens to win the lucky tickets. When they land on the moon, there be monster.

The spaceship and the moon hotel seem excessive. This is the first try at moon tourism. I doubt the first hotel on the moon would be a five star affair. It's Moon Vegas. It's too much. The modern Scooby Doo is trying too hard when the original is simply the kids solving silly little mysteries.

The Scooby Doo franchise was started in the 70s and created persona and atmosphere that all Scooby Doo movies and TV shows should live up too. Over the years the TV shows have changed a little and become more modern, but this movie forgets the entire Scooby Doo legacy. It is just like a few of the new and "improved" Scooby Doo TV shows. Its like the writers and director never even watched the other scooby doo movies. The atmosphere that the good TV shows and movies portray are gone. The heart and soul of Scooby Doo is nowhere in this new movie. It is a totally and utterly bad Scooby Doo movie. BRING BACK THE HEART OF SCOOBY DOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!stop making these so called improved movies. If it ain't broke, DON'T FIX IT!!!!!