Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins (2009)

Plenty to Like, Plenty to Dislike

Great visuals, story delivers no surprises

Unshakable, witty and deeply felt, the film will be paying emotional dividends for a long, long time.

The movie's not perfect, but it sticks the landing of its message. It was engaging - thrilling at times - and I personally thought it was a great time.

I don't care what the bad reviews say I enjoyed this movie. The acting, the story and the music was absolutely perfect for the movie.So what if Fred isn't blonde? That doesn't mean the movie is bad they just want a different approach for the franchise. My favourite scene: When Scooby and Shaggy meet for the first time. Overall good movie and it had an amazing song "You and I" which I listen to a lot.

My brother & I probably watched every episode of the original Hannah Barbara Scooby Doo cartoons in the 80's and so I am very leery of all these newer versions that keep popping up. There was a certain feel in those originals that will never be reproduced and perhaps Scooby is best left in the 70's. I was pretty let down by the Freddie Prince Jr. movies which tried to update Scooby (like a lot of CGI updates, Alvin & the Chipmunks, Smurfs, Garfield, Transformers, etc.)with modern lingo & culture which for some reason means crudeness, krass jokes and even sexual innuendos. This movie was better in that sense, but is annoying when they stray from the original (Freddie is blond, ghosts are ALWAYS people in masks, etc.) And since we're making a "realistic" version, why is Scooby CGI? Why not just use a real Great Dane? Nick Palatas, though doing a decent impression of Casey Kacem's "Shaggy" voice comes across annoying and contrived after a while. Maybe I'm a purist...maybe I'm a grouch, but I kind of wish people would leave the old cartoons alone.

Although I did read a few negative reviews beforehand, that didn't stop me from having high hopes for Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins I am a big Scooby Doo fan, and have been for a long time, so naturally I wanted to see this. Although it is not a perfect film, and I wasn't expecting it to be, I enjoyed it.I can understand it when people say the basic story line of Scooby Doo! The Mystery Begins is predictable. In a way it is predictable, and some of the middle could have been better paced. In all fairness though, I found the original cartoons, which I adored for its strong characters and funny writing, on the predictable side, likewise with a few other Hanna/Barbera shows, Yogi Bear for instance.In regards to the story, I liked the ideas the movie brought forward, and the ending was cool. The writing was funny and a tad cheesy, in short quite like the writing of the original cartoons in the jokes and snappy lines. Some can have a tendency to be a little too silly, but I can sort of forgive that.The costume and set design are spot on, very colourful and the photography and editing manage to be several notches above slapdash straight to video fare. The effects are above average too, not award-worthy but there are far worse out there.The characters are still likable, and the acting is good enough. Scooby is very sweet and funny, exactly as he should be. The actors of Shaggy and Velma nail their roles, and Fred(his hair didn't bother me really seeing as this is a movie of how Mystery Inc. came about) is decent as well. The weak link is Daphne, she looks right for the part but overdoes it sometimes.All in all, I liked it. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Save your waking hours for something which might at least cause you to have a single original thought in the space of two hours, because this inane regurgitated pig swill will only ROT your brain and possibly cause you to stab out your own eyes and ears with blunt rusty scissors.See, this is why Tom Hanks' career is in decline... What with him squeezing the last rancid drops out of a movie franchise like this, (he has owned the rights since the first sequel), and choosing only to 'act' in Brookheimer crapfests like Angels and Demons...Tom, we used to love you... but for this we hate you... no more of this trash... PLEASE!