Scooby-Doo! et le Fantôme de l'opéra

Jinkies! It's a cartoon adaptation of 'Phantom of the Opera' with a cynical, yet often rather humorous, perspective on talent shows. You sure Simon Cowell wasn't the masked villain? Because he's still at large! Quick! To the Mystery Machine! For what it's worth, this isn't half bad. The classic Scooby-Doo formula is grounded with as much realism as possible, given the boundaries of a cartoon. No fantastical myths or legends. Just a masked caped "phantom" being a complete menace. A phantom menace as it were (you can have that...).

With Daphne finally confirming her undying infatuation for Fred, Velma naturally getting excited over a diamond and Shaggy and Scooby devouring the largest pizza ever created in just mere seconds. Someone living in the sewers for forty years whilst failing to understand mirrors, parodying the famous musical. Accompanied with a cutesy little title cartoon that introduces the voice actors. All harmless shenanigans, but the problem with this extended episode (I just can't class these as films), and the remaining straight-to-DVD features, is the imbalanced story. The mystery of the phantom itself literally only consumes a third of the plot. The other two thirds are filled with cartoonish antics for the sake of filling up the runtime. It loses focus and leaves my mind wandering as I wait for the predictable culprit to be revealed.

Sure the animation, minus the 3D computerised effects, and voice acting were consistently engaging as always. But there's only so much dawdling I can take. Oh, and a talent show ending on a tie? Two acts with the same precise number of votes (we're talking over thirty million here)? Impossibly improbable. But of course, the good ol' sympathy story always wins. What else can I say? It's an unnecessarily long Scooby-Doo episode that kids/fans are sure to love. Harmless as it is forgettable. The metal girl group should've won though. An American punk 'Babymetal'...

I watched "Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright" together with my 7 year old son as part of a Scooby-Doo animated movie marathon. And I must conclude that "Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright" is hardly among the best of the animated movies in the franchise.

With that being said, I am not saying that it is a bad movie. Far from it. It is, however, just similar to 90% of all other animated Scooby-Doo movies. And once you have seen one, you have essentially seen them all. Because they follow the same blueprint and doesn't stray from the generic build-up and Construction one bit. So take it for what it is, for better or worse.

The story is adequate, but it does suffer from being predictable and following the How-To-Make-A-Scooby-Doo-Adventure step by step. Certainly there is familiarity in that approach and the audience is familiar with the concept, but wouldn't it be nice for a change of pace and approach for once? With this animated movie sort of poking fun at the talent shows that constantly show on the TV screens, it does have some appeal. However, while it certainly was watchable and entertaining enough, it just was too much of a repeat of previous movies.

The voice cast in "Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright" is great, as it always is in the Hanna-Barbera cartoons. And it is always a delight to have Mindy Cohn, Grey DeLisle, Matthew Lillard and Frank Welker return to do the voices for Velma, Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby. Furthermore, Vivica A. Fox also gives voice to a character in this particular animated movie.

All in all, "Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright" is just your average, run-of-the-mill animated movie in the franchise. It is enjoyable if you are content with watching the animated movies of the Scooby-Doo franchise as they are and doesn't need change of scenery.

Fred (Frank Welker) and Daphne (Grey Griffin) are participating in a talent show and of course the rest of the gang, Velma (Mindy Cohn) and also the iconic duo, Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby-doo,(Frank Welker) come along to support them, as good friends naturally do. Yet again the gang will face a new mystery that will make their time spent there a little more difficult.

The whole film relies on the old but gold formula of investigating and then making the plan to capture the man behind the mask. It almost always goes the gang's way. But there are always those plot twists that keep the film's story fresh and ready for take-off.

The great thing about mysteries that the gang faces is the engagement that comes with viewing these films. The audience, along with the gang, is naming suspects and also counts the various clues that come up the gang's way. The anticipation as well as the excitement of unmasking the bad guy is clearly there, to excite and make the viewer be an active part of the film.

The various funny and also intimate moments of the film can't help but draw and greatly entertain the viewer.

The film is a great example of fun, intimate and also pleasant interactions between people that know they are destined to be in each other's lives, and they do so.

1 and 1 is 2, 6 and 2 is 8, come on baby don't you make me late....

Oh, can I really title this "An Honest Review" when it takes place in my city? Yeah? You don't approve of it? Well you're not from Chicago.

I love, in all caps, I LOVE the part at the start where Velma is reading off all the attractions in Chicago and Scooby and Shaggy are more interested in our pizza than anything else. Now if they threw in a hotdog joke to match the scene at the Pizza Parlor than I would be on cloud 9.

...Baby don't you wanna go...

Anyway, the parody of American Idol works from a humor perspective, it is really funny and you combine that with the pathological director, the reference to the Phantom of the opera and Disco and, well, you have one seriously funny installment...

And one that takes place in my sweet home, so...represent.

The only down side is that, yet again, the ending is a "meh." Almost like Scooby Doo just doesn't know how to end its movies. Not that it matters, the build up is enough to make it enjoyable.

My three year old loves Scooby-Doo. All the movies, all the tv shows, cartoons or live action, he loves Scooby-Doo. And this movie is by far his favourite. It has many funny moments for adults and has genuinely enjoyable twists. I pick up more little bits and pieces each time he watches it, there are so many little hints but it isn't as obvious as many of the others. I don't let him watch it in the mornings anymore because I get the songs stuck in my head all day! It really is very good.

The animation is beautiful too and the voice work is awesome. It has heart and a message too just to top everything off.