Scooby Doo und der widerspenstige Werwolf

Okay, okay ... first the good stuff. Some of the colors here are very cool, particularly the intense greens and blues in Dracula's castle. But that's not what Scooby-Doo is about, right? It's about corny jokes, frightened squeals and Ghostbuster-style monsters. And there's plenty of that here, if that's what you want. Many of the usual cast -- Fred, Velma and Daphne -- are Missing In Action, but that isn't necessarily a bad thing.

But for those of us who aren't huge fans of the cartoon, there's really not much appeal. The monster race takes up about 50% of the movie, simply Shaggy and Scooby driving along while Dracula continually thinks up new ways for him and his cronies to stop them. As soon as they get past each of the obstacles, they're straight in the lead again. And that's pretty much what this movie has to offer. Well ... I say 'movie' ... really it's just an extended cartoon episode. There's nothing here to suggest that it's a departure from that, aside from the running time. Don't get me wrong -- I don't mind Scooby in small doses, but ninety minutes of this was just about all I could take without my brain melting.

Good for big fans, and maybe for kids, but not much appeal for anyone else.

I have a lot of fond memories of this as a kid.

I suspect a lot of people will scoff at how it abandoned the Classic Scooby formula by not having a mystery or how the fantasy elements are actually real but I actually quite like that. I also personally like Scrappy. Maybe it was because I hadn't been exposed to him that long or because I hadn't grown used to the classic series for there to be anything to ruin but I like the ensemble of Scrappy, Scooby and Shaggy, emphasising the comedy part of the series alongside a brilliant homage to vintage horror.

Dracula is our bad guy here and he is a stunning one that both commands threat and doesn't dampen that when he is used for more comic moments.

There's even a cute girl who's into shaggy. It maybe not have much of a "soul" but for those who aren't the Scooby purists this is a delightful adventure with much to bring to the table.

This tv movie is only slightly funny because of Scooby Doo and Shaggy. They actually have an interesting plot and very surprisingly, Scrappy Doo doesn't ruin it. The monsters are also amusing. Certainly not Scooby Doo's best, but much better than Ghoul School or Boo Brothers.

Following up "Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School," the Hanna-Barbera studio churns out another made-for-TV Scooby-Doo movie for their "Hanna-Barbera Superstar" series, "Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf!" This looks different from the two previous films, but that might be because they used a digital coloring system and some cheap computer graphics here. This film seems like a cross of "Scooby-Doo," "Fangface," "Wacky Races," "The Groovy Goolies" and "Drac Pack." It is a pretty funny spoof of those old werewolf films. However, Shaggy doesn't really look much like a real werewolf (the one that "retired" at the beginning of this film (as well as Scooby's wolf mask) looks more like the Wolfman from "Van Heisling"). Plus, in this film, Scrappy-Doo is a bit useful, and not as annoying as he is in his earlier appearances! However, we could have done without Shaggy's cheesy girlfriend and have Fred, Daphne and Velma with them. The animation is sometimes a bit corny, and the various monsters in it (Dracula, Frankenstein, Crunch and Brunch, the mummy and skeleton and slime monsters) might remind you of the cast of "The Groovy Goolies!" However, I LOVED some of the jokes in it, most of them coming from Dracula himself. This is actually quite enjoyable and much better than the newer Scooby cartoons!

I will admit, until I saw this for the first time yesterday since the last time I saw it 3 years ago, I never used to like this film. Seeing it yesterday actually changed my initial perception of Reluctant Werewolf. True the animation isn't always that great and the plot is a bit slow in places. I also didn't think much of the music, despite the admittedly groovy Tom Jones-sounding song playing in one scene, neither did I find the Hunch Bunch particularly entertaining. Still there is still a lot to like about it, namely a terrific voice cast, Casey Kasem and Don Messick are great as always, and Jim Cummings and Ron Paulsen stand out too. Best of all though was Hamilton Camp, who was gleefully enjoyable and was quite frankly born to voice Dracula. The characters in general were fun, even Scrappy wasn't as contemptible as people make him out to be. My favourite character has to be Dracula, he was charming and wickedly funny, especially with his line "I guess the bats were a little undercooked" in reference to the batburgers, the sunblock one was great too. When I saw it for the first time a long time ago, i didn't think much of the script, thinking it cheesy and unfunny. Boy was I wrong, most of the time it was the complete opposite. I also thought the monster car race was great fun though some of it could have easily been trimmed down. All in all, Reluctant Werewolf was much better than I thought it was. 6/10 Bethany Cox