Scoob! [Blu-ray] [Standard] [2020]

I enjoyed the movie very much, but i felt the storyline was overshadowed by too many characters that really did not add to the movie.

There are probably more avid fans out there than I, but as someone who grew up watching the TV show and have the live action movies from a few years ago, I did enjoy this. I would have seen it in theaters, but COVID changed that and I don't stream so the BluRay was my first viewing. This is supposedly the origin story, but that part took only 12 mins out of the movie, with the rest being a pretty typical adventure. One difference is that the supernatural elements are usually revealed to be faked but this time they were real. The movie contains a lot of homages to other Hanna-Barbera characters and properties as well, so that may make this more interesting to devout H-B fans. (I noticed a quick background reference to Johnny Quest.) As far as extras (bonus features) are concerned, there is the normal deleted scenes (mostly just story-boarded) and bloopers (mostly video of voice actors blowing it) but not much else. The disc, like most (all?) of the latest Warner Home Video releases jumps straight to play all the bonus features when the movie is done (though you can go to Main Menu and select them individually).

I could not believe the negativity around this movie. While I'm a life-long Scooby-Doo fan, I am more than capable of watching each entry into the ever-expanding Scooby library with a critical eye. And while there have been some ups and downs, to me this was one of the better releases. The story, on the whole, is pretty good, and there are a number of little (and big) easter eggs in the picture to reward long-time fans. While I do prefer the hand-drawn look for these characters, the CGI was beautiful and for the most part the voice actors hit the mark. The most difficult thing for me while watching this was how much more talkative Scooby was - he's pulling off whole sentences which takes some getting used to. Hopefully, this is the first of many more full-length features!

The movie missed the big screen so far. I actually asked the theaters to bring it now that they are being opened. Fred's hair was actually blond & they are not in the same time period as the original cartoon. The part where Shaggy & Scooby meet is cool. I like them going over how the group met. I liked the one scene about that that was deleted also. The opening song is icky. They do get to the Scooby song in the film. The one lady was actually part of Captain Cave Man's group. They did not do a good replication of Dasteredly. His dog looked just like the original though.

CGI creates a decidedly new look, but characterizations for the Mystery, Inc. team are spot on compared to TV shows and other movies. Having the crystal skulls at the center of the plot look like carnivorous dinosaurs is a nice touch. So are the modernized versions of other Hannah characters. Dick Dastardly seems a more believable villain here than in the cartoons, (The quick glimpse of a stuffed pigeon in his memorabilia closet is another nice touch.). Having Dick run away when the supernatural Cerebus in Greek armor shows up seems very in character. All in all, a satisfying addition to Scooby Do’s story.