This race to get the scepter by midnight is hollow. There isn't a lot of suspense and it's unclear what the consequences are for not getting it by midnight. The chase turns into the Scooby-Doo! tradition of the musical chase-montage. This time it's a song called "Goblin Oogie Boogie" by James Belushi. Sigh.
The voice casting is top rate and should have made this a more entertaining feature. In addition to the usual voice cast, they've added Hayden Panettiere as an annoying faerie, Wallace Shawn, Jay Leno, Tim Curry, Lauren Bacall, James Belushi, and Wayne Knight as the put-upon magician, Krudsky (not too far from his Jurassic Park character). If only the money spent on this talent had been used on writers!
The movie continues with seemingly one dead end after another. But at each turn, "magic" is used to get them out of their trouble. It's really frustrating. I won't reveal the end but suffice it to say, there isn't a "mystery" here. That's the real problem with the whole picture. I loved the original series and most of the direct-to-video releases because they existed in more of a "reality." The monsters were guys in masks - the phantom was the mayor. Here, the magician is fake but the goblins and faeries are real. The characters just don't work well in that format and it's been proven over their history. I wanted the fun of "Mystery, Inc." that I found in Chill Out, Scooby-Doo. What I got was a misguided film that tries to force its scares and instead just bores. This series has shown that it can appeal to all ages and this effort may not end up appealing to any.
The DVD has a bonus feature called "Scooby-Doo: You Believe In Magic?" that shows how some basic magic tricks are done. It's an interesting diversion especially considering how uncharacteristically cruel Scooby and Shaggy were to The Amazing Krudsky.
I've been entertained enough by this series in my life to know that even when I'm faced with Scrappy-Doo, eventually they'll return to their roots. Until then, I'll wait for release number 13 next fall - hoping we'll leave Coolsville behind and just return to the mysteries.
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