Scooby-Doo! et la Créature des ténèbres

I really enjoyed this movie. There were lots of laughs when Scooby and Shaggy got scared. Shaggy's hair would stand up and their faces would show distorted fear.

The animation was great. There was lightning and flash animation when characters would change in to monsters or back to themselves. The flashing of colors and the characters transformation is stunning.

The music was good too with the monsters singing and performing in a band. A skeleton on keyboard and more.

This is one of the better Scooby Doos. Not a lot of violence. Just a lot of running, flying on a broom and dodging goblins.

Casey Kasem as Shaggy, Frank Welker as Scooby and Freddie, Grey DeLisle, Mindy Cohn, Jay Leno, Lauren Bacall, James Belushi and more.

Well worth watching.

Striking visuals, great voice acting and a wild adventure. Very hack or hammy on the humour (more than usual) with a load of plotless nonsense, this one seems to miss the mystery I identify with Scooby Doo & the gang. The writers even had to knock out Velma for much of the movie so that she didn't try to apply any sort of reason to the goings on. Reminiscent of Tim Burton/Danny Elfman 'dead party' films at times, though lacking in a favourable soundtrack.

A part of me wants to love this. It really seems like they were trying to return to the old school Scooby Doo feel. The look was very New Scooby Doo Movies. Even the cover felt like the Scooby Doo everyone grew up with.

So, it really felt like they were throwing us old Scooby fans one massive cherry.

But then, it was really only Shaggy and Scooby and they can't carry it alone any longer, the movies are about Mystery Inc and the whole Scooby Gang and you feel robbed when they are paid that much lip service...

And then the plot never came together.

It felt too much like they were trying too hard to appeal to us old Scooby Fans and not hard enough to appeal to the people that came to love Scooby from these movies.

No, seriously, I really think that a Scooby-Doo movie going after a musical genre is a really good change of pace. Sure, it may not be as good as Zombie Island, and it may not live up as a Halloween musical classic the same way The Nightmare Before Christmas did, but it's still not bad for a beginner. The Halloween creatures are a big plus; they're absolutely creepy. Some of the musical numbers might need a little work, but at least they're something that you can't walk out on. But, man! Oh, man! I can never get over that ending! I'm not gonna tell you though; it'll just spoil the surprise. The bottom line: it's a delight for the whole family, especially if you're a Scooby-Doo fan.

Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King (2008)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Scooby and Shaggy go to a magic show with the gang when they call out a fake magician who in return turns Fred, Velma and Daphne into monster. Scooby and Shaggy must then enter the monster underground to find a cure but first they must go up against the Goblin King. This feature is pretty uneven and I'd probably call it the weakest I've seen so far. It's certainly not a bad movie and I'm sure fans of Scooby will be entertained but there were several moments where my son's interest (as well as mine) was not fully into the picture. I think the start of the film is a lot of fun as the gang are on a roller coaster ride with all sorts of scary monsters around. The ending is also a lot of fun as Scooby and Shaggy have to dress up as Velma and Daphne to get into the Goblin King's party. This here adds some nice laughs and there's another great sequence where the duo go to a monster party. The animation during this party sequence is great and there's a lot of good imagination going on with the various creature looks. The biggest problem is in the middle of the picture where it just seems like the writers didn't know where to take the material and we've got a lot of scenes that just drag without much happening. Still, fans of Scooby should at least be mildly entertained and we even have the likes of James Belushi, Tim Curry and Wayne Knight and Jay Leno adding some vocal support.