Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins

I give this a 7, because the acting is decent, the story is fairly original, and it's Scooby Doo! Now, for those who liked the first 2 live-action films, this is a cartoon network film, so while they are all Scooby movies, they have no other relationship to one another. That's not to say it has no faults. It's fairly campy, though not much, and it does stray from it's origins a bit. Scooby fans will know what I mean, once they see this. It does have good action, and CGI effects are well done. The story moves along without getting bogged down by trying to flesh out the characters. I think Hayley Kiyoko did an awesome job as Velma. It's hard to believe she's only 17. I recommend this one as a family fun film. Kids will love it, and adults will enjoy it as just as much.

Although I did read a few negative reviews beforehand, that didn't stop me from having high hopes for Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins I am a big Scooby Doo fan, and have been for a long time, so naturally I wanted to see this. Although it is not a perfect film, and I wasn't expecting it to be, I enjoyed it.

I can understand it when people say the basic story line of Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins is predictable. In a way it is predictable, and some of the middle could have been better paced. In all fairness though, I found the original cartoons, which I adored for its strong characters and funny writing, on the predictable side, likewise with a few other Hanna/Barbera shows, Yogi Bear for instance.

In regards to the story, I liked the ideas the movie brought forward, and the ending was cool. The writing was funny and a tad cheesy, in short quite like the writing of the original cartoons in the jokes and snappy lines. Some can have a tendency to be a little too silly, but I can sort of forgive that.

The costume and set design are spot on, very colourful and the photography and editing manage to be several notches above slapdash straight to video fare. The effects are above average too, not award-worthy but there are far worse out there.

The characters are still likable, and the acting is good enough. Scooby is very sweet and funny, exactly as he should be. The actors of Shaggy and Velma nail their roles, and Fred(his hair didn't bother me really seeing as this is a movie of how Mystery Inc. came about) is decent as well. The weak link is Daphne, she looks right for the part but overdoes it sometimes.

All in all, I liked it. 8/10 Bethany Cox

And it's not the Mystery Van....

The star of this movie is the scene-stealing Hayley Kiyoko, who has that sure-fire combo of a pretty face that's rubbery enough for broad comedy. There's no doubt that this DVD is her calling card to Big Things.

I like this iteration of the series despite its creaky gags, thin plot and underwhelming visual effects. The four human characters imbue the film with an infectious, bubbly chemistry.

The plot unfolds so rapidly you won't have time to fret over its flaws. Many of the gags, for instance, were old when they were done in Mack Sennett comedies. And some of the details may irk "Scooby" purists, such as Fred's dark hair this time around. On the other hand, there are a number of amusing back-story gags -- for instance, three of the characters are too young to drive. So guess which one has his license because he's been held back a couple of grades.

As for the special effects, the rendering of the title character puts him in the Salem the cat league ("Sabrina the Teenage Witch") -- cheesiness is part of the fun. When I caught this movie, I happened to be watching ABC's "Kingdom Hospital" miniseries, which features a remarkably lifelike anteater character. It crossed my mind that the money that went into creating that anteater was probably four or five times the budget for this entire motion picture.

"Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins" also provides a lot of material for drinking games here. Take a gulp every time you see Velma's knees, every time Shaggy says "Zoinks," every time you understand one of Scooby's lines -- you get the idea.

My brother & I probably watched every episode of the original Hannah Barbara Scooby Doo cartoons in the 80's and so I am very leery of all these newer versions that keep popping up. There was a certain feel in those originals that will never be reproduced and perhaps Scooby is best left in the 70's. I was pretty let down by the Freddie Prince Jr. movies which tried to update Scooby (like a lot of CGI updates, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Smurfs, Garfield, Transformers, etc.)with modern lingo & culture which for some reason means crudeness, krass jokes and even sexual innuendos. This movie was better in that sense, but is annoying when they stray from the original (Freddie is blond, ghosts are ALWAYS people in masks, etc.) And since we're making a "realistic" version, why is Scooby CGI? Why not just use a real Great Dane? Nick Palatas, though doing a decent impression of Casey Kacem's "Shaggy" voice comes across annoying and contrived after a while. Maybe I'm a purist...maybe I'm a grouch, but I kind of wish people would leave the old cartoons alone.

If you liked the cartoons you will like this movie. It is enjoyable and will keep the kids entertained. The story is simple the characters stay true to the cartoon ones and the best part is everybody loves Scooby Doo. This takes us back to when they first combine as an investigative group, having to defend their names at high school after some strange mishaps. I am not sure what the budget was on the film some simple effects have been used to keep production costs down. I give it a 6 out of 10 as it is lacking some substance, but still puts allot of bigger budget movies to shame. Overall worth watching with the kids and I hope they continue on and make more of this series.