Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is The Shaman of Animation and welcome back to Scooby-Doo month! With Scooby-Doo Monsters Unleashed not meeting Warner Bros. box office expectations, any plans for the 3rd film was scrapped and Mystery Inc's live action days seemed to be over. That was until September 13, 2009 When Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, a made for TV movie celebrating Scooby's 40th anniversary, premiered on Cartoon Network. How is it? Let's dive in and find out!
If the title doesn't give it away, The Mystery Begins is a prequel explaining how the gang met up and became the mystery solving team we know and love. When two ghosts begin haunting Coolsville High and causing wreckage within, the four teens accused of these activities: The outcast with a big appetite Shaggy, The quarterback Fred, the brainy Velma, and Daphne, the rich girl along with Shaggy's dog Scooby, must solve the mystery behind this and clear their names, or face expulsion.
Researching this film, I've seen some sites (specifically the ever so trustworthy Wikipedia) dub this as Scooby-Doo 3 although nothing I've seen points to that being the case. The only connection that this movie and the previous 2 have is David Newman, who composed for those 2, is back as composer for this movie; and while I made the mistake of not giving him his props in those films, I enjoyed his work here. While some of it is a little stock, when it's time to do the "scary" stuff, there's a really fun energy to it. The reason I talk about it is because there's...not really much to talk about this film.
Now before I dig into the big problem I have with this film, I will say I thought the cast did fine with what they were given with. Nick Palatas was a fine Shaggy, even if I personally think he's doing his best Matthew Lillard impersonation. Robbie Amell and Kate Melton worked as Fred and Daphne respectively. But the real star of the cast was Hayley Kiyoko who I think, at the risk of sounding creepy, is just adorable as Velma.
Look at that face! Don't you just wanna hug her?
To me, the biggest problem with The Mystery Begins lies within its mystery and the fact that very early on, you can tell who was the one behind everything. Now that isn't inherently a bad thing, but in a story where the mystery is the biggest driving force and the reveal is basically the conclusion of said story, to tip your hand so quickly and have the villain be so obvious drags it down.
Because the villain is so obvious, I'm left looking at the rest of the film and to sum it up, this movie's The Breakfast Club but with Scooby-Doo and more boring; and by more boring I mean it goes through the same drivel you'd probably expect from a kids' live action TV movie. You've got a generic bully ripped right out of the first Sam Raimi Spider-Man movie. You've got your brainy girl thinking Fred, the jock, is a neanderthal. A janitor who hates his job and a comically strict principal. It's all stuff that I'm sure by even 2009 was getting old and all it does is make me yearn for Ned's Declassified.
So as a normal film, this is a little on the bland side, but how does it handle the Scooby elements? First of all, I will admit, the idea that Fred, Daphne, and Velma having a shared love of mystery books being something for them to connect over was a cool idea and the mystery solving for the most part is pretty standard stuff within the franchise. As for The Great Dane himself and what he brings to the table, I feel it's stuff that I don't think meshes well with the rest of the film. The CG (Which I honestly can't tell if it's better or worse than the big screen movies) aside, the movie tries to have these super cartoony sound effects in spots and it just doesn't work and instead it takes me out of the movie.
And this is also the first time in anything Scooby related that I've questioned people being able to understand Scooby talking. This is because there's nothing else interesting going on in it so my mind started to wander. Maybe it's because this is a more modern live action take on the gang so because of this it made me ask: 'Are there other talking dogs like Scooby?', And 'If he can talk, why haven't more people tried adopting him (By the way, in this he's a dog who's in a shelter)? Sure, he's a handful, but he's a talking dog!' 'Also, how and where did he learn to talk?'
The biggest sin of Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins is that it's just a chore to get through. The scenarios and characters are ones you've seen before in other pieces of media, almost all the jokes flat, and it's so painstakingly obvious who the villain is, it feels like the movie is just dragging to the finish line to get to that non reveal. I get that it's just for kids, but I personally think there are much better options. My recommendation? Skip it.
Well, after a movie like this, you can only go up right? Tune in next time as we take a look at the sequel to this: Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster. Til then folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation.
Take Care...
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