Scoob fan review: What did the fans think?

Scoob released this past Friday, May 15, so we thought it would be good to gather various opinions in a Scoob fan review.

Scoob released straight to digital on Friday, May 15, and as we love dog movies here at Dog O’Day, of course we reviewed it. But it also seemed fitting to do a Scoob fan review by seeing what other people thought of the detective’s newest cinematic adventure.

While not that familiar with the characters himself, Wesley reached out to various Facebook friends and Twitter mutuals to find out their thoughts on the Mystery, Inc gang’s newest showing, which Warner Bros is hoping to use to kickstart a Hanna-Barberra Cinematic Universe.

Lifelong Scooby-Doo fan Cody Carroll hasn’t seen it yet due to the rather high price point ($20 to rent for 48 hours, $25 to immediately buy a digital copy).

“It’s definitely on my list, though, once the price goes down,” he said.

“As a film, Scoob is on middle ground for me,” voice actor Coale Kirk summarized his thoughts. “The animation is great and has a nice stylish flow to it. The characters also look their part and I especially love the design for Dick Dastardly (Jason Isaacs). I wasn’t rolling on the ground laughing, but it most certainly gave me a ton of smiles.”

Kirk also generally enjoyed the casting choices.

“[Original voice] Frank Welker returning once again as Scooby-Doo is great as always, Zac Efron as Fred was also a nice choice, Amanda Seyfried had a great interpretation of Daphne, and mentioning Dick again, Jason Isaacs’ performance was top notch,” though as he admitted, “I’m a sucker for villains.”

Tracy Morgan’s role was one of the major exceptions, however. “His performance as Captain Caveman was uninspiring and felt like it was just Tracy being himself.”

Scooby-Doo expert and swimsuit model Andi Scaletta was less than impressed.

“It wasn’t really a mystery? It was made known super early on that Dick Dastardly was the villain in the movie, so there was no unmasking,” she said.

She also thought it was irritating that the main group was separated from much of the film, and that too much attention was given to Blue Falcon and Dynomutt (Mark Wahlberg and Ken Joeong).

“There was a lot of meme language thrown in that just seemed forced and unneeded,” Scaletta added. “I get they are trying to bring Scooby into this day and age but it seemed a little sloppy.”

She did like the inventiveness and originality of the plot, however, even though she disagreed on the choice of casting, wishing they would have used as much of the original cast as possible, and the writing of Shaggy’s (Will Forte) characterization felt “weak and lame” in her opinion.

Scott Brown, a contributor at our FanSided Network sister site Bam Smack Pow, was indifferent on the casting, and overall had a positive impression: “I really enjoyed it. It felt like classic Scooby-Doo in a lot of great ways and was very fun to watch because of that.”

Elements of this classic Scooby-Doo-ness include a willingness to have weird, cartoony moments where physics stop working during chase scenes, for example.

“For the most part, it doesn’t take itself too seriously and just allows itself to be weird and nonsensical, which is very much like many of the original series,” Brown said.

Brown wasn’t a fan of how the story felt more like a superhero parody, echoing Scaletta’s sentiments about Dynomutt’s inclusion.

Everyone polled in this Scoob fan review universally hated the cramming of pop culture references into the story, predicting that in a bid for relevance the film will date itself horribly through jokes around sharing Netflix passwords and such.

But in general, it was considered a decent film, though not for everyone, as it skews young in its intended audience, as Carroll pointed out.

“As long as the studio focuses on making great films and spurs new life into the expansive list of Hanna-Barberra characters, there could be a great cinematic universe that could join the ranks of Marvel’s dominating universe,” Kirk said.

“I liked the story, and I’m appreciative that after 50 years, Scooby is still getting major motion films about him,” Scaletta said.

Based on this Scoob fan review, are you going to watch it? Or have you already? Let us know what you thought in the comments below, or on our Facebook page at Daily Dog. Maybe your pup is cosplaying as Scooby or enjoying the BarkBox tie-in? Let us know on our Instagram at the handle @DogODayFS.

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