Lego Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach Bash

Being a huge 'Scooby Doo' fan for goodness knows how long, any new show, special or film would be watched with great anticipation. While 'Scooby Doo Where Are You' is still the jewel of the crown of the franchise, it was interesting to see 'Scooby Doo' rendered in Lego.

There have been two feature-length Lego 'Scooby Doo' films, the first one being 2016's 'Haunted Hollywood'. This second outing from 2017 is to me the superior film. 'Haunted Hollywood' is certainly worth watching if very flawed, but 'Blowout Beach Bash' had the better executed mystery, was better paced, had more content (whereas 'Haunted Hollywood' felt overstretched, thinly plotted at times and padded. Neither are among the best 'Scooby Doo' films, not like 'Zombie Island', 'Witch's Ghost', 'Big Top', 'Goblin King' and 'Mask of the Blue Falcon', the rest are decent to very good with only 'Monster of Mexico' of the feature films disappointing ('Arabian Nights' is terrible but was made for TV).

'Blowout Beach Bash' could have been executed a little better. Daphne is still somewhat bland and her Lego design is still not doing much for me. A few of the songs are not particularly great or memorable, despite some clever nods to past beach films. Was not hugely surprised by the reveal, though it wasn't blatantly obvious. Although the mystery and pacing are much better than in 'Haunted Hollywood', not everything felt necessary.

However, the mystery has the classic fun and spooky feel that makes me love 'Scooby Doo' in the first place, with a great sunny atmosphere on the beach and creepy villains. The pace is lively and crisp, the gang interact beautifully together, they have far more distinct personalities that are true to their original ones generally (whereas only Scooby and Shaggy came off well properly in 'Haunted Hollywood', only Daphne could have been done well) and the supporting characters are generally stronger (though nobody is as memorable as Drella Diabolique in 'Haunted Hollywood').

Animation-wise, animation is very nicely done. It's very colourful and atmospheric, with some of the visuals also being inventive. The music is both dynamic and groovy, with a lot of energy and a haunting undercurrent.

When it comes to the writing, 'Blowout Beach Bash' is smart and endearingly goofy, particularly with Shaggy and Scooby, and it also feels very quirky and nostalgic in both classic and current 'Scooby Doo' fashion. Thrills and scares are aplenty.

Voice acting is very good. Frank Welker shows no signs of being long in the tooth despite voicing Fred since the very beginning way back in 1969, so nearly 50 years and he is going strong. His Scooby voice took some getting used to, having been so accustomed to Don Messick since forever, but it's definitely grown on me. Matthew Lillard is a worthy successor to Casey Kasem, a very difficult feat that he pulls off with ease, he is hilarious and an immensely likable goofball.

Kate Micucci does well as Velma, sounding positively adorable, and Grey DeLisle makes a valiant effort doing as much as she can with Daphne.

In summary, fun and the better of the two Lego 'Scooby Doo' films. 7/10 Bethany Cox

As far as Scooby-Doo movies go, this one's pretty good. The gang heads to the beach to take a well-deserved vacation and get roped into a mystery involving the ghosts of evil pirates. Shaggy, Daphne and Scooby are upset that Velma and Fred can't pass up the chance for a good mystery and the pair try to prove they can let their hair down.

The mystery in this one is a little more complicated than you typically get from most Scooby-Doo media, which leads to a really good reveal scene at the end where the layers of who did what, where, and how get peeled back bit by bit.

My only question is: why did this have to be Lego branded? Lego stuff barely comes up. Every now and then characters will gesture at the idea that their world is made out of bricks, but almost nobody ever uses legos as legos. There's maybe two whole scenes in the entire thing where it actually matters.

This could have just been a normal Scooby-Doo movie and it wouldn't have lost very much.

I'm kinda torn on this. On the one hand I have trouble getting into 'Lego Scooby' as a thing, and the story here is really pretty lame; but on the other, there is some very funny dialogue from Scooby and Shaggy. And of course, the regular voice cast of Frank Welker (Scooby/Fred), Grey DeLisle (Daphne), Matthew Lillard (Shaggy), and Kate Micucci (Velma) bring the magic as always. I'm gonna go with 6/10 overall.

The gang is taking a break at the Blowout Beach Bash after solving another mystery. Fred and Velma are determined to prove that they are able to have fun. Once there, they find the vacation spot being abandoned and haunted by a ghost pirate.

This is fine for a Scooby-Doo Lego movie. It would work better if Velma is alone after being accused of not having fun. It works better for Velma than it is for Fred. The hair flipping also works better with Velma than with Fred. Her hair is iconic. Fred is about his ascot. A lone Velma would be a compelling character growth story although that may be asking too much for a simplistic cartoon movie.

Lego Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach Bash (2017)

* 1/2 (out of 4)

When Fred and Velma are accused of being no fun, the gang heads down to Blowout Beach where they're going to let loose and have a blast. When they get down there they realize no one is there and apparently there are some pirate ghosts that have chased everyone away.

You know, I've loved Scooby-Doo since I was a kid but over the past couple of years I've quit buying the movies and instead I just rent them to see how they are. I'm not a huge fan of the Lego movies and this one here is probably the weakest that I've seen. I'd also argue that it's one of the weakest Scooby-Doo movies that I've seen and it's really too bad that they're changing the series up so much.

I say "changing the series up so much" because do you remember when these cartoons used to be dark and creepy? It seems they just keep getting away from that and instead going for bright colors and really bad humor. Even worse is that the story here is pretty darn weak and I think even a toddler will be able to find out who the guilty party is. The jokes are rather weak and in all honesty the film drags pretty badly even though it's only 77-minutes.