Even tho Scooby-Doo has a proven track record with animated properties Hollywood seems to think that live action is where the franchises future lies. As they really keep on trying to make a live action Scooby-Doo movie that's actually good and yet they all keep on getting worse and worse with each passing entry with the very film that i'm going to be talking about today being one such an example of why this franchise works best in animation and so then join me as I review the film that really didn't need to be made with the film in question being called simply just "Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins" enjoy.
The plot of this film is when they are unjustly suspended Shaggy , Fred , Daphne and Velma set out to prove that there school really is haunted and put a stop to the hauntings once and for all. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual, plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad with the plot of the film being really obvious with all of the films major plot points really being seen coming a mile away which makes the plot of the film including it's twist ending really predictable with this not really being helped by the fact that the plot of film had the potential to be really good it just needed some decent writers to write it and a decent director to help to bring it to life with the plot of the film being really rather entertaining and also really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this film is Nick Palatas as Norville "Shaggy" Rogers , Robbie Amell as Fred Jones and Hayley Kiyoko as Velma Dinkley. Also starring in this film is Kate Melton as Daphne Blake , Shawn Macdonald as Principal Deedle , Daniel Riordan as Dark Specter , Gary Chalk as Vice Principal Grimes , Leah James as Prudence Prufrock , Brian Sutton as Ezekiel Gallows , C. Ernst Harth as Otis The Janitor , Lorena Gale as The Librarian and voice acting and Scooby-Doo legend Frank Welker as The Voice Of Scooby-Doo.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual film that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. As alot of this films cast are quite clearly trying to make this films terrible and cliche ridden script work for them but none of this films cast can turn in a good performance as the script just isn't that good even for a live action Scooby-Doo film which typically don't have good scripts in them the script for this film was just plain awful with the only good actors in this film being both Frank Welker and Nick Palatas with the acting in this film not really being helped by the fact that the script for this film is just so bad that it gives none of the cast absolutely nothing to work with interms of what it is that there respective characters personality is even meant to be in this film and that is something that really does effect the overall quality of the acting in this film and as a result of that is the fact that we get some really bad acting.
Doing the CGI for this film is Animation Picture Company , Stargate Studios , Digiart Productions and SFX Studio. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that;s actually featured ;/ presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad which in some ways does make sense as this film most likely didn't have that big of a budget when compared to the theatrically released live action Scooby-Doo films but this films CGI is still really bad with Scooby-Doo himself being really weird looking and bad looking as well as he's meant to be the cartoon design done in live action but the issue is tho is that that design doesn't work in live action and as result we get an ugly looking Scooby-Doo design with some painfully bad looking CGI on top of all of that.
This film is meant to be prequel film but it's hard to say what it's a prequel to as the second live action film established that the characters had met each other pretty much since they were kids and it's not a prequel to the original show as this film has lots of modern day technology. Which does make it hard to say which one this film is a prequel as it can't be a prequel to either of them without seriously retconning alot of things from both the original show and the second live action movie as a result it would be better of if this film was set in it's continuity as that would mean that they could then just go ahead and do there own thing and not have to worry about it messing up with established continuity and yet because it doesn't do any of that and heck it even ends with them teasing what would be the first episode of Scooby-Doo Where Are You which is a nice little easter egg but at the same time it also makes hard to work out which one this is a prequel to at the exact time.
For some reason this film chose to have alot of cartoon logic moments in it all of which just don't work at all. As it's something that asks us the audience to suspend our disbelief just a bit to far and yet if this film was an animated thew cartoon logic would work as that disbelief is already being suspended due the fact that it's animated and here we have an animated CGI character in a real world but he's acting and doing things that would and could only work in cartoons this was something that for better or for the worse the Raja Gosnell films understood as while yes they did have Scooby acting like a cartoon character it was done very sparingly and so you could give them credit for it but here it's done all of the time and while it's funny when they do it once it's not that funny when they do it several times in a row with no break inbetween and that just hits home that the while the writers of this film might have been fans of the show they don't understand that what worked in the show might not work when it comes to doing it in live action.
To give this film some sort of credit they do try to create a somewhat good mystery however with that being said when you think about this mystery for even a second the whole mystery just starts to fall apart. As there are alot of moments that the characters weren't there for that they now can suddenly hear all because of the fact that the plot demands that that character be a suspect and when you add in the fact that the films villain really isn't all that good or threatening as it's really easy to work out who the main villain as all you have to is see who the film isn't strongly hinting is the main villain but at the same time he's reason for being evil is unique as he's only evil because he wants to get a unique stamp which is something that hasn't been done in previous Scooby-Doo media but at the same time he's a villain that really did need to more threatening just to sell the fact that he could be a serious threat to the characters and yet they don't do that for some rather unknown reason and that does make him feel like he's an after thought or at best a really forgettable Scooby-Doo villain that was only there just because of the fact that they needed a villain and really nothing all the more then that.
Now then this film has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and twenty minuets and seven seconds. Which is a solid running time for this film to have as when you really get down to it this film really doesn't have alot of plot there to cover anything longer then that and while it would have been nice if this film did indeed have a much more longer running as that would allow them to flesh out the gangs personalities alot more and it would also allow them to make the villain an actually scary villain it would also be stretching the films plot even thinner then what it already is but it would have been nice if the film was shorter just because of the fact that it would mean that alot of the films faults would seem alot more smaller then what they already are as we the audience wouldn't be forced to really focus on them all that much as we are now and the plot of the film really would also be alot more focused then what it is now but I will admit that the film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that means that I have to actually talk about the actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / Presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really bad. As apart from maybe one or two moments with Shaggy and Scooby early on in the film there's nothing that's all that funny in this film as this film has alot of painfully unfunny jokes in it that not even the films target audience of little kids would most likely find to be all that funny and while yes the original films didn't have that many funny jokes in them either those films at least tried to be funny where as with this film it came across as if the makers of the film really just couldn't be bothered to come up with anything funny in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall while yes this film could be enjoyable in some aspects it also fails in alot more other aspects as well and heck this film is so bad that it makes the directors previous two Hanna-Barbera films The Flintstones and The Flintstones In Viva Rock Vegas look like masterpieces by comparison in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very review really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 4.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Scooby-Doo fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very film that I used in this very review being Google Images simply just due to the fact that alot of the images that are on Google Images are all really fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.