Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost

If U watch the original scooby Doo cartoons, the very first ones, U would know why this was given a ten.

Its because if that original group had ever made a cartoon movie, it would be THIS movie. The voices, the animation, the story line--its all as if the original masters have been teleported from way back to this time to make a movie

OUTSTANDING JOB

Fred has been invited by his celebrity chef uncle Bobby Flay to come to the opening of his New England colonial inn and his cooking TV show. He and his friends arrive to find it haunted by the Legend of the Red Ghost. The gang uncovers a ghostly revolutionary history.

This is a fun Scooby-Doo adventure with all the standard reveals. The difference is the real life food personalities like Bobby Flay, Giada De Laurentiis, and Marcus Samuelsson. They give this a fun reality punch. I like it when they join in the goofy running around and hiding. I wouldn't mind if they do more cooking. I like the look of the cartoon food. All in all, this is a fun addition to the standard Scooby-Doo.

Scooby and the gang travel to New England, where Fred's uncle, celebrity (apparently?) chef Bobby Flay (voicing himself), has inherited a historic colonial inn and turned it into a state-of-the-art culinary resort. But as the grand opening approaches, it seems the ghost of Bobby's ancestor has other ideas, scaring away workers and sabotaging high-tech food preparation equipment. Good job a gang of 'teenage mystery solvers' are on hand!

Beautiful artwork and animation, very good story, atmospheric setting, and one really creepy looking ghost. Flay does well, as do fellow celebrities (?) Marcus Samuelsson, Giada De Laurentiis, and Maya Haile, all of whom voice themselves. Regular voice cast Frank Welker, Grey DeLisle, Matthew Lillard, and Kate Micucci are, of course, note perfect.

One gripe, sound mixing. A few times the tail-ends of comments made by the leads are lost to fade, or other speech/sound drowns them out. I had to replay them a few times to catch what was said. But the script is good. Shaggy and Velma get some great one-liners. At 77 minutes long, it could have done with another five minutes. But this is a solid entry in the Scooby-Doo canon (using that word loosely!). 8/10.

Scooby-Doo! And the Gourmet Ghost, literally Scooby-Doo! And the Food Ghost 👻 .. the gang show up to solve a mystery behind Fred's relative's gourmet cuisine .. an ancestoral torment with a goofy ghost dressed up by someone as always .. the story of this film is a bit typical, some extra salt would work better 😂. Whose causing trouble amuck and how they're doing it is what it is ..

I thought that this latest "Scooby-Doo" movie was pretty enjoyable. As far as "Scooby" films that feature celebrities go, I thought that this was probably the best one the franchise has done yet. Whereas the two WWE crossovers mostly felt like wrestling commercials, this one feels much more like a real movie, even if it has its flaws.

I may be a bit biased here, since I am a huge fan of The Food Network. Getting to see Bobby Flay and Giada de Laurentiis be a part of the adventure and working with the gang was pretty fun, and we got some decent humor out of them. I liked the idea of Fred being Bobby's nephew.

The storyline was fairly interesting with some good fictional lore thrown in there. The film is really well-animated and the atmosphere is pretty nice. I also enjoyed seeing a lot of tasty looking food on screen.

As for negatives, I wouldn't say that all of the jokes hit. The "shhhh" gag that ran throughout the movie, in particular, was beaten into the ground. I found Shaggy and Scooby rather annoying in this one (as to be expected from "Scooby-Doo" movies these days), and the film kind of dragged in some places.

All in all, I mostly enjoyed this one. It's far from the best movie in the "Scooby-Doo" franchise, but it's also pretty far from the worst. Recommended to fans of the franchise and fans of The Food Network.

RATING: B