I didn't think it was possible but this film actually made less sense than any Scooby Doo episode. I was a first generation Scooby fan, watching it every Saturday morning year in and year out in the early 1970s, until Scrappy Doo drove me away. We got to know and care for those characters. Amazingly, they're not here. Who are these people, this redhead, blond and brunette? They're certainly not Daphne, Fred and Velma. Freddie Prinze, Jr. was simply channeling Owen Wilson. Helium-voiced Sarah Michelle Gellar is all wrong for stunning Daphne. And Linda Cardinelli was too whiny to be calm, collected Velma. I'm not even going to ask about all the sudden techno-wizardry and the fighting skills. Not to mention the original Mystery Machine gang NEVER went up against actual ghosts, not even once. They always exposed the ghosts to be a fraud. This wasn't Scooby Doo. It was Ghostbusters meets Buffy the Vampire Slayer. The only good thing about this movie was Matthew Lillard, who was the only cast member to truly capture the spirit (and voice) of the cartoon character.
If you want to see a good kids' monster movie this Halloween, I would suggest "The Monster Squad" from 1987 instead. It was a much better and sadly overlooked film.
If you want to see a good kids' monster movie this Halloween, I would suggest "The Monster Squad" from 1987 instead. It was a much better and sadly overlooked film.