Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown

I've been a Scooby Doo fans for as long as I can remember. I've seen all the movies etc. I will not over-analyze a children's movie, but to keep it short; the movie got a nice plot, the animation is beautiful and the gang is back together! I do hope they will keep making movies (or revive Mystery Inc. Show) with this kind of animation for many years to come.

This time the Scooby gang heads out to the wild west and deal with a ghost outlaw.

Animation looks beautiful and keeps the bright colors they've been using over the past few years.

The plot was a bit hit-or-miss however. Don't get me wrong, the main plot with the ghost and Shaggy being a descendant of him works. Velma also has this recurring bit about something that bugs her, but I won't spoil it as it's pretty funny. There are also some funny lines sprinkled throughout. However, lot of scenes seem arbitrary and don't add much. Not enough time is spent on action and hijinks. They could have cut down on some of the suspects who can be pretty irrelevant. The weird family and the cook are funny, but the sisters and producers were unnecessary. They also try something a little different from the traditional catching of the culprit conclusion, but it just isn't exciting as the elaborate trap and unmasking.

Of course, I'm probably over-analyzing a children's film. For parents, it'll keep your children entertained and should bare repeat viewings without driving you crazy.

I enjoyed it very much probably the best movie in animation

Scooby and the gang head out to the Wild West. Of course, when they get there they find the town is being terrorised by a ghost - outlaw Dapper Jack, who (wouldn't you know it!) turns out to have been an ancestor of Shaggy's!

The story's good. There are some hilarious lines and situations (Fred trying to shoe a horse with a car-jack, and Shaggy and Scooby's ridiculous rock-side plunge are two that stick out), as well as some touching ones. The artwork and animation are excellent. And whilst I'm not a huge fan of the western setting, the movie makes the most of it with just about every cliche you can think of (and I mean that in a good way!). Even the title music has more than a hint of Ennio Morricone.

There are a couple of issues. 1) There are way too many featured characters who contribute absolutely nothing to the story. They have a lot of lines, but serve no purpose whatsoever. And 2), the movie really hits a slump around the 60 minute mark, with a dragged out rodeo/parade sequence, and a completely shoehorned mini pop concert by one of those pointless characters. It's as though the makers suddenly found themselves five minutes under the 77 minute runtime and had to start padding. Once it gets back on track it soon picks up, but that slump definitely robs the 'big reveal' of some punch. Thankfully, Frank Welker, Grey DeLisle, Matthew Lillard, and Kate Micucci bring it as they always do, with solid support from the rest of the voice cast. And there's a nice little surprise scene just before the end credits.

Without the time-wasting this would have been an easy 8/10. Fortunately, what's good still gets it a 7.5.

Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown (2017)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Scooby and the gang head out West for a vacation. This vacation spot is the location of Shaggy's relative who was a notorious outlaw. Sure enough, right before the gang shows up a ghost of the outlaw shows up terrorizing people. Now it's up the the gang to track down the bad guy.

SCOOBY-DOO! SHAGGY'S SHOWDOWN isn't the greatest film in the series but it's certainly a step up from the past few titles. I was really nervous going into this one because, to be frank, a couple of the previous movies were pretty darn lazy, boring and just not all that interesting. This one here is pretty much standard material but it's at least fun and worth watching.

I really liked the bad guy this time out. It's a gunslinger ghost but he glows green and shoots out green fire from his gun. I really thought the animation was very good on the bad guy and he was just a fun villain to root against. Scooby is given a pretty good part here and Shaggy is forced to do some stuff he doesn't normally do. In fact, I enjoyed seeing them two having to take action and be brave for a change.