In Venice Beach, California, a stray dog steals a hunk of meat from a restaurant. Fleeing from a bicycle cop, the dog hooks up with Norbert "Shaggy" Rogers, a lonely kid who eagerly adopts the dog and gives him a name: Scooby Dooby Doo. Sometime later, Shaggy, dressed as Blue Falcon, and Scooby, dressed as Blue Falcon's dog Dynomutt, are out trick-or-treating when some bullies steal their candy and toss it into a haunted house. Unwilling to risk the ghost, they are about to leave, but then Fred, Daphne, and Velma appear. They insist on retrieving the candy, but do indeed find a ghost! Well, not really. The first case is solved and the team is formed. Then follows a montage that repeats the events of the opening credits for the cartoon. Present day, the now adult crew have a meeting with Simon Cowell, who wants to fund Mystery Inc. as a business, but he thinks Shaggy (Will Forte) and Scooby are deadweight. The duo head to their favorite bowling alley to mope. It is then that the bowling pins come to life and attack!
The movie isn't merely a return of the 'meddling kids.' This is a Hanna-Barbera revival. Blue Falcon (Mark Wahlberg) and Dynomutt come to rescue against the bowling pins. Unlike the cartoon, Blue Falcon has a pilot for his jet: Dee Dee Skyes. Dee Dee was one of the Teen Angels with Captain Caveman. Does her appearance foreshadow the formation of the Teen Angels? The bowling pins prove to be the minions of none other than Dick Dastardly (Jason Isaacs), who has a grand plan to recover his missing dog, Muttley. Finally, all the groups converge in the bowels of a frozen mountain where an ancient race of cavemen still live, Captain Caveman (Tracy Morgan) among them. Of course, I watched all these characters as a kid, so it was entertaining to see them all return.
Fred (Zac Efron) comes across as something of a doofus. Though the leader in the cartoon, he has morphed into the butt of jokes. Though described as the 'tank' of the crew, he fails every time he is called upon to be the tank. Velma is the brains of the outfit, as is usual in her modern incarnation. Like Fred, Blue Falcon is also a doofus, but that is in keeping with the cartoon. All bluster and bumbling while Dynomutt, Dog Wonder saves the day.
Fun, especially for those who watched these shows on Saturday mornings back in the day.
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