Judging from watching the 'The New Scooby Doo Mysteries' episode "A Nutcracker Scoob" over and over as a child (still think that episode is one of the better ones of that Scooby incarnation), Scooby and Christmas seemed like a match made in heaven.
There is a good deal to like about 'A Scooby Doo! Christmas' and it is watchable, but many fans are likely to find themselves wanting more (this reviewer was). Worse has come out from the franchise, but 'A Scooby Doo! Christmas' is not quite good enough to be up there with the classic Scooby Doo.
Starting with the good things in 'A Scooby Doo! Christmas', it is very well animated, adopting the 'What's New Scooby Doo?' style (no wonder as 'A Scooby Doo! Christmas' is an episode of that show). The colours are sharp, bright and colourful, the wintry landscapes and atmosphere evoked are striking and rich in atmosphere and festive cheer, everything is very meticulously detailed and all the characters are drawn well. The music, in a quite nice more contemporary style, is breezy and energetic with some sense of atmosphere without being obvious. The main theme in 'What's New Scooby Doo?' is also one of the franchise's most memorable. For my money though, a couple of the more energetic/chase scenes are over-scored.
'A Scooby Doo! Christmas' has some nice writing, love the charming friendship between Shaggy and Scooby (which can be seen as the heart of the franchise) and the endearingly goofy and often very funny jokes. The slapstick looks good and induces a number of good chuckles. The characters are engaging, still love the gang and the snowman is a deliciously creepy villain and benefits from some imaginative visuals and wonderfully sinister voice work from Frank Welker. The voice acting is very good, Casey Kasem still has it as Shaggy and succeeds in making him funny and lovable, Welker is still going strong as Fred and does a fine job as the snowman (his Scooby voice, this was when Welker first started voicing him, takes some getting used to, and while it has gotten better he's no Don Messick) and Mindy Cohn is a convincing Velma, who has likely had more voice actor replacements than any other Mystery Inc. character.
On the other hand, 'A Scooby Doo! Christmas' also could have been better. The story is fun and diverting, if not as suspenseful or as surprising as before. There are a few draggy moments and because there are so many typical elements it does get predictable at times. The reveal and ending are incredibly disappointing. The reveal suffers from the same problem this reviewer had with 'Scooby Doo Mecha Mutt Menace' from three years ago. It is rather too obvious who the perpetrator is once they're introduced, despite some nice attempts in the story throwing suspicion elsewhere, and mostly down to deducing by common sense that they couldn't have been where they said they were. Their motivation is one of the oldest ones too, not just for Scooby Doo but for mystery solving in general.
Unfortunately it doesn't get much better after they're revealed. 'A Scooby Doo! Christmas' has an ending that is a complete cop out and seemed to only be there to either do something different or that because it was Christmas and they were worried about being mean-spirited. Sentiment-wise it came off as forced and to me it was just so implausible for the characters to be so easily forgiving in a situation that is realistically un-condonable. As said, too, the more action-oriented chase scenes are a little over-scored and rushed.
In conclusion, was expecting more but watchable. 6/10 Bethany Cox
