g_j_bowley

I've been an avid Scooby fan in the last five years. Ive followed the great dane from Zombie Island to the live action movie. Now we join him at Vampire Rock. After four quite successful animated films I had high hopes for Vampire Rock. However this film is a drastic departure from those films, as Zombie Island was from the original series. There is a nod to those films present in the form of the Hex Girls and the Cyber Chase game, but thats it. The mystery machine is now the old van and Fred has his ascot back. All that the previous films had built up has gone. On the plus side Velma's orginal voice is back and sounds fantastic. Also worth a mention is the excellent reengineering of the old Scooby Doo Where Are You? incidential music. Overall the piece feels like it is pandering too much to the general populous' preception of Scooby Doo and this does stiffle the creativity. One last thing though please if there is to be another film could have Scoot Innes back as Scooby?

Having known little of the Harry Potter novels I found myself approaching this film as a novice. After watching it I can say I dont relish seeing any more.

The film itself stands very well. It has excellent music from John Williams, the speacial effects are very good and even some of the actors bring life to their characters. Robbie Coltrane deserves a mention as he is the only person in the film who gives us any humour. T

What lets the film down though is that the passage of time is not very clear. By the end of the film I found myself wondering how they were leaving Hogwarts after only a few hours? On a second viewing I realised the passage of time is noted by the seasons. Also the story itself is not very original. Pretty standard fare plot wise. There needed to be something more to warrant a film being made as oppossed to a TV adaption.

Harry Potter may have child appeal but beyond it do not be expecting too much.

This was a film I was curious about. My childhood has fond memories of the adventures of the brave little Gaul and his pals. This film was perfect in capturing those memories.

The essence of the film seems to be fun. In fact this one of a few films I would dubb a family movie. All ages can view this and come away with something. Personally the slapstick humour I enjoyed. Also the dub for English translation was excellent, hats off to Mr Jones.

The one bad point, and this is a minor point, is that the film is actually four books mixed together. If you know the books you can have a good idea about whats coming up, which is a bit unfortionate. An original script may have served the film better.

However overall it proved to be entertaining. May that little village in Gaul always remain free.