Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown

Let's be real for a second, Scooby-Doo movies are not high art, and that's perfectly okay. Thankfully the people over at Warner Brothers are aware of this and have never taken the franchise too seriously.

I've not seen many of these movies but this one was pretty okay. The animation looked like classic Scooby-Doo which I'm sure would please die hard Scoob fans, but it didn't really do much for me.

The plot is the standard Scooby-Doo affair, you can more or less figure out what's going on in the first half an hour. The main stand out of this film however is the humour. Velma's anger at a website font choice, Fred debating which net to use to catch the ghost, a 12 year old YouTube rapper doing a concert at a rodeo in a ghost town? Hilarious. It doesn't sound funny but goddamn most of the jokes land really well.

Unfortunately they try to cram too much into this movie, there were a bunch of throwaway gags and characters that served no real purpose and overall the story and animation were pretty bland.

So if you want a funny Scooby-Doo movie that you can watch with your brain turned off, go for it. If you're looking for something with an engaging western story, go watch High Noon.

This was definitely one of the more interesting and entertaining of Scooby-Doo stories, despite it following the same recipe as exactly every other Scooby-Doo adventures.

But it was actually nice to see some background for Shaggy.

The villain in "Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown" was good ,but again turned out to be essentially the exact same as in every other adventure.

As always, then there was some nice voice acting from a good cast, which included Frank Welker,Grey Griffin, Matthew Lillard and Kate Micucci.

If you enjoy the adventures of Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Gang, then you will definitely get some entertainment and enjoyment from the 2017 "Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown" addition to the Scooby-Doo legacy.

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.

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'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.