Scooby-Doo

Washington Post Hank Stuever

You don't want to love this, but you will. Although Scooby-Doo falls far short of becoming the "Blazing Saddles" of Generations X, Y and Z, it is hard to resist in its moronic charms.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

No serious film fan could stomach the cheap gags and farting contests in this goofball tribute. I laughed myself stupid anyway.

Film Threat Ron Wells

At least the 20 people who saw it with me -- found it hysterically funny. On the other hand, they all seemed pretty stoned.

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Would I see it again? Not even for a Scooby snack.

Chicago Tribune Robert K. Elder

Knows when to take itself seriously and when to laugh at itself -- even if its audience isn't laughing along at every gag.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Bland, inoffensive, formulaic and occasionally amusing - just like the animated kids' show that inspired it.

Variety Joe Leydon

Just fast, frenetic and funny enough to amuse both new fans and longtime devotees of the characters who have inspired more than 30 years worth of animated TV episodes and made-for-video features.

Village Voice J. Hoberman

As this movie knows what it is, Scooby-Doo's a relatively painless 85 minutes.

New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman

The movie is so shiny, bright and noisy, the under-10 set ought to be sufficiently entertained.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

As live-action adaptations of cheap, unapologetically stupid cartoons go, this is top of the line: The cast is appealing, the sets brightly colored and fun to look at, the mystery as lame and goofy as any featured in the many inexplicably beloved Scooby-Doo cartoons.

San Francisco Chronicle Jonathan Curiel

Do you really want to spend money watching what is essentially marginality, or would those dollars be better used to see a better film or even buy a good book?

Time Joel Stein

The cast does great impressions of the original cartoon characters, and the computer-generated Scooby is convincing, but it turns out that what we liked about Scooby-Doo in the first place was that nobody was trying.

Charlotte Observer Mark Washburn

I took a 12-year-old along to Scooby Doo just in case I didn't get it. Our verdict: one paw up, one paw down.

Austin Chronicle Kimberley Jones

Scooby's just so dang cute, what's the point in grousing?

Boston Globe Christopher Muther

This dog will inevitably let down purists looking for the elusive combination of smart and funny.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

The film's technological selling point -- having a computer-animated Scooby in a mostly live-action world -- is strangely unimpressive. In fact, it's virtually unnoticeable: a testament perhaps to the audience's increasing knowledge that in today's CG-driven Hollywood, all movies are cartoons.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The antics involving ghosts, chases, and burping that divert the small fry don't mix with the jokey, tribute-band dialogue spouting from the Mystery, Inc. gang.

The New York Times Dana Stevens

Not entirely without charm.

USA Today Claudia Puig

It's unclear why the writers bothered to update the cartoon, unless it was to expand the possibilities for quips and jokey ideas. If so, they failed in their mission, as the movie elicits few laughs.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

The best thing you can say about Scooby-Doo is that Matthew Lillard makes a really, really good Shaggy.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Captures the essence of its TV inspiration, which is to say that it's not nearly as clever as it thinks it is. It also feels very, very long.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Mostly, the plot is busy and incomprehensible and the action sequences directed with all the art of a detonation.

Los Angeles Times Robin Rauzi

As reformulated by the aggressively mediocre director Raja Gosnell and screenwriter James Gunn, this Scooby-Doo is entertainment more disposable than Hanna-Barbera's half-hour cartoons ever were.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

This excruciating adaptation of the innocuous '70s cartoon show makes the film version of "Josie and the Pussycats" look sophisticated by comparison.

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Not only am I ill-prepared to review the movie, but I venture to guess that anyone who is not literally a member of a Scooby-Doo fan club would be equally incapable. This movie exists in a closed universe, and the rest of us are aliens. The Internet was invented so that you can find someone else's review of Scooby-Doo. Start surfing.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Scooby-Doo is bad. Let's just get that right out of the way. Filled with unclever quips, tired humor, a lazy silliness and bland execution, the picture is a tedious puff of nothing.

LA Weekly Ernest Hardy

Director Raja Gosnell apparently doesn't even try to pump life into this wan film version of the beloved Saturday-morning cartoon.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

Get out your pooper-scoopers. Doo happens June 14th, warn the ads for Scooby-Doo. And they say there's no truth in Hollywood.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

The gratuitous vulgarity is just one more reason that Scooby-Doo should never have left the pound.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Nathan Rabin

A work of Battlefield Earth-level miscalculation.

New Times (L.A.) Robert Wilonsky

Warner Bros. is presumably aiming this movie not at children but at full-grown dopers with bad munchies glued to the Cartoon Network. Dude, pass the Scooby snacks.