Scooby-Doo: Mistério na Lutamania

OK. Despite being a longtime wrestling fan and frankly, of Scooby Doo too, I'm probably not the target audience that the film was made for anymore. That said, despite its wild view of how Wrestling works I thought it was passable.

Having won tickets to WrestleMania, by completing the hidden bonus dance at the end of a WWE game, Shaggy (Matthew Lillard), Scooby (Frank Welker) and the rest of the gang head to WWE City, where the shows emanate from and where the superstars work, train and (inexplicably) live. A ghostly bear appears and threatens to ruin the show, along with an old woodsman, who resents the WWE's arrival in his vicinity.

So, from a technical standpoint "WrestleMania Mystery" isn't great. The animation is cheap and occasionally a bit sloppy, particularly when it comes to backgrounds. The likenesses of the wrestlers is pretty good though, and there are a number of "legends" hidden in some scenes to pick out. The professional actors do a good job with their voiceovers, but some of the WWE guys aren't as successful. HHH particularly stands out as unnatural, along with the Miz - who's given a weird slapstick comedy role in proceedings.

From a Scooby Doo point of view it's actually a decent story. Well.... It's the same Scooby Doo story it always was, but I was convinced that one of the characters, who turned out to be a red herring, was actually behind it. From the WWE's point of view, I'm not sure why they didn't want it to be slightly more realistic; why they were happy to give the impression that everyone would live together, why they want to let any show, let alone a WrestleMania come from this tiny arena. The films production timeframe leaves some interesting selections, would Sin Cara, or AJ Lee have featured so heavily, if they'd have known how their WWE Careers would pan out. No Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston. Bray Wyatt would have made a good foil for the gang.

There are some humorous moments though not enough that I'd recommend picking up the film.

Whereas "Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery" is, of course, a children's cartoon, then it was still fun to watch, having grown up with both the Scooby Doo cartoons and wrestling on TV during the 1980s (I stopped watching (and outgrew) wrestling before it become WWE), then it was fun to watch this 2014 animated feature.

Storywise, well, then it is as any Scooby Doo cartoon goes. Basically, once you have seen a single episode, you have seen them all. Something foul and strange is afoot, and it is up to the gang to get to the root of the mystery that is plaguing the WWE city.

The animation in the movie was smooth and it was just like the cartoons I remembered from back in the 80's, except for some minor updates, such as tablets and smart phones and such. But great to see that the show is progressing and staying in tune with todays day and age.

As for the voice acting, well people were doing good jobs putting themselves, their talent and souls into the characters. Now, I can't really claim to be familiar with the stars of WWE, so I really can't put much comment on their part.

The enjoyment in "Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery" was good, and there is something for the entire movie to watch here when sitting down all together to watch this.

Reviewed by: Dare Devil Kid (DDK)

Rating: 3.9/5 stars

Fantastic nostalgia all the way through. Fans of the old Scooby-Doo animated series will love this. It has all favorite mystery solving gang back in familiar pseudo-ghost territory, doing what they always do best. And keeping them company are everybody's favorite WWE stars – past and present. This makes it a combined trip down memory lane.

But make no mistake, this is a Scooby vehicle all the way and the WWE stars are present only to add additional chutzpah to the proceedings (after all its a combined Warner Bros. and WWE Studios production). It has all the ingredients of the classic animated show we grew up with and came to love so dearly. Everything from the mystery van, to the archetypal character traits of Scooby and his pals, to outlandish plots and villains masquerading as diabolical urban legends are there to make it a fun-filled adventure ride.

What's more, these elements are presented with careful development, madcap planning, and precise execution, reminiscent of some of the crime busting gang's most famous TV episodes. The Director, "Brandon Vietti", and the writer "Michael Ryan", merit special praise for this. Even the gang's most famous dialogues such as "Jinkies!", "Nice work Scoob!", "Zoinks!", "Let's split up gang", and "Scooby-Doo, where are you?" are thrown in for added measure. Yet, the characters themselves take a few amusing digs at some of the more obviously silly parts of the show, like how they never change their attire. Along with the brilliant scripting and direction, the animation flows seamlessly considering the constraints of a direct-to-video feature.

In true Scooby-Doo fashion, I'll sign off by saying that this is one of the mystery gang's "grooviest" adventures yet, and while it's a must- see for all those who enjoyed the show, even neutral fans are bound to enjoy this full-length, animated, direct-to-video feature to the hilt.

Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery (2014)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The latest mystery has Shaggy and Scooby winning a wrestling video game, which gives them the grand prize of a week at the WWE headquarters. Once there the gang gets involved with the mystery involving a giant glowing bear who is wrecking havoc on the place and plans to ruin the upcoming WrestleMania. The latest movie from Scooby-Doo isn't the greatest and in fact it's a major set back when compared to BIG TOP SCOOBY-DOO but there's no doubt that fans will still want to check it out. While the film remains entertaining for the most part, there's no question that it lacks a certain amount of charm. I'm not sure why on Earth the filmmakers decided to mix in the wrestling stars but it really didn't make for a good combination. I'm not going to lie, I stopped watching wrestling years ago but I thought they could have done a few interesting things with it. Sadly, that really didn't happen as we get the typical types of jokes that you'd expect and of course Shaggy and Scooby eventually have to face down one of the biggest people in the business. The film does have some good stuff in it including the monster bear, which looked excellent and made for a great villain. It's really too bad he wasn't used more. The animation is top-notch as you'd expect and there's no doubt that Scooby is always at the top of his game. The vocal work is good by all, which is another plus. The story itself is pretty standard and it's not too hard to figure out who's going to be behind the mask. Still, even with the flaws, the film manages to be entertaining.

When I was a little kid I used to watch both Scooby-Doo and WWE on TV. Now, it's a pleasure for me to be able to watch a movie which contains those two things. Apparently, I'm not a child anymore, but that does not mean that I can not watch an animated movie mixing my favorite TV shows as a small fry. If I had seen that movie those past years, I would definitely be excited. However, even as an (almost) adult I watch that kind of films gladly! I bet you'll be delighted too.

Sometimes, I love travelling back in the past and that movie is a first-class ticket for that trip, don't you think so? Watching John Cena as a cartoon exploring with Saggy and Scooby the WWE City, that's cool. I didn't get bored at the whole movie, even if its length is 80 minutes. I mean that the Scooby-Doo episodes on the TV used to be like 30 minutes, but that's OK, I don't mind. Nevertheless, it could be shorter, and that means better.

If you remember the Scooby-Doo episodes, the movie is exactly like those: There's a strange monster and Scooby-Doo's clique has to chase it and catch it. At that particular film, they got help by WWE superstars, like John Cena, Sin Cara, Triple-H etc. I like it! So, people, give it a chance, it's totally worth it. You won't regret it (unless you are expecting to watch a masterpiece).