| 70 |
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.
|
| 70 |
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.
|
| 70 |
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.
|
| 63 |
Philadelphia Inquirer
Carrie Rickey
Would I see it again? Not even for a Scooby snack.
|
| 63 |
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.
|
| 63 |
Baltimore Sun
Chris Kaltenbach
Bland, inoffensive, formulaic and occasionally amusing - just like the animated kids' show that inspired it.
|
| 60 |
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.
|
| 50 |
Village Voice
J. Hoberman
As this movie knows what it is, Scooby-Doo's a relatively painless 85 minutes.
|
| 50 |
New York Daily News
Elizabeth Weitzman
The movie is so shiny, bright and noisy, the under-10 set ought to be sufficiently entertained.
|
| 50 |
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.
|
| 50 |
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?
|
| 50 |
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.
|
| 50 |
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.
|
| 50 |
Austin Chronicle
Kimberley Jones
Scooby's just so dang cute, what's the point in grousing?
|
| 50 |
Boston Globe
Christopher Muther
This dog will inevitably let down purists looking for the elusive combination of smart and funny.
|
| 42 |
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.
|
| 42 |
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.
|
| 40 |
The New York Times
Dana Stevens
Not entirely without charm.
|
| 38 |
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.
|
| 38 |
Miami Herald
Connie Ogle
The best thing you can say about Scooby-Doo is that Matthew Lillard makes a really, really good Shaggy.
|
| 38 |
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.
|
| 38 |
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.
|
| 30 |
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.
|
| 25 |
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.
|
| 25 |
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.
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| 25 |
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.
|
| 20 |
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.
|
| 20 |
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.
|
| 10 |
Washington Post
Michael O'Sullivan
The gratuitous vulgarity is just one more reason that Scooby-Doo should never have left the pound.
|
| 10 |
The Onion (A.V. Club)
Nathan Rabin
A work of Battlefield Earth-level miscalculation.
|
| 10 |
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.
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