Strictly average movie

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

A part of me wants to love this. It really seems like they were trying to return to the old school Scooby Doo feel. The look was very New Scooby Doo Movies. Even the cover felt like the Scooby Doo everyone grew up with.So, it really felt like they were throwing us old Scooby fans one massive cherry.But then, it was really only Shaggy and Scooby and they can't carry it alone any longer, the movies are about Mystery Inc and the whole Scooby Gang and you feel robbed when they are paid that much lip service...And then the plot never came together.It felt too much like they were trying too hard to appeal to us old Scooby Fans and not hard enough to appeal to the people that came to love Scooby from these movies.

Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King (2008)** 1/2 (out of 4) Scooby and Shaggy go to a magic show with the gang when they call out a fake magician who in return turns Fred, Velma and Daphne into monster. Scooby and Shaggy must then enter the monster underground to find a cure but first they must go up against the Goblin King. This feature is pretty uneven and I'd probably call it the weakest I've seen so far. It's certainly not a bad movie and I'm sure fans of Scooby will be entertained but there were several moments where my son's interest (as well as mine) was not fully into the picture. I think the start of the film is a lot of fun as the gang are on a roller coaster ride with all sorts of scary monsters around. The ending is also a lot of fun as Scooby and Shaggy have to dress up as Velma and Daphne to get into the Goblin King's party. This here adds some nice laughs and there's another great sequence where the duo go to a monster party. The animation during this party sequence is great and there's a lot of good imagination going on with the various creature looks. The biggest problem is in the middle of the picture where it just seems like the writers didn't know where to take the material and we've got a lot of scenes that just drag without much happening. Still, fans of Scooby should at least be mildly entertained and we even have the likes of James Belushi, Tim Curry and Wayne Knight and Jay Leno adding some vocal support.

How can any Scooby-Doo fan not take offense that the main premise of Scooby-Doo was to show children that monsters do not exist, and now they use monsters without any premise of trickery in all the latest films.Seriously, this is not the Scooby-Doo that had been made famous years ago. They have taken the name and done what they want with it.I have little problem with cartoons about monsters and the like, it is only when the premise of a great show for children is completely reversed that I take offense.I would love to see the original concept of Scooby-Doo restored so that future generations may come to enjoy Scooby-Doo the way that it was originally intended to be enjoyed. This is NOT Scooby-Doo, this is the complete opposite of Scooby-Doo!

This is the first post-Sander Schwartz Scooby-Doo made-for-video movie. And it's a good one, too! Because when Warner Bros. Animation originally began producing the made-for-video Scooby-Doo movies 10 years ago, starting with "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island," they broke away from the typical "fake ghost and monster" formula and broke new ground, using real ghosts and monsters. (This wasn't the first time they did so either, they did so back in the 1980s with "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" and a few TV movies.) "Zombie Island" and the following "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost" (the best of the "real monster" movies) were much darker compared to the older Scooby-Doo cartoons. But when Sander Schwartz took over in 2002, he made them switch back to fake monsters and ghouls, the first two were good ("Legend of the Vampire" and "Monster of Mexico") which were practically like 70-minute episodes of "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?", and after that it would vary. They basically became 70-minute episodes of "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" and typically focused on Fred and Daphne. But beginning with "Scooby-Doo in Where's My Mummy?" they began toying around with the old formula again, which somewhat became the norm for the later films, which started to get better over time. Now that Sander Schwartz is gone from Termite Terrace (thank god!) I guess they decided to experiment again. Bringing back real ghosts and monsters helped liven up this recent installment in the Scooby-Doo made-for-video series of movies! It also helped put a bit of creepiness back into the Scooby franchise, something that "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" and the 2001-2007 made-for-video Scooby movies completely avoided. (Even the original "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" had quite a bit of creepiness in it, too.)However, now it's on to reviewing the actual movie itself. Even though this was probably the umpteenth time they did a Scooby-Doo story that revolves around Halloween (such as "The Headless Horseman of Halloween," "To Switch a Witch," "A Scooby-Doo Halloween" and many others), I still enjoyed it, mainly because Halloween is my favorite holiday! And I really liked that fairy princess. I guess that proves not all real supernatural creatures in this movie have to be bad! The real ghouls and dark setting helped bring this movie up to "Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost" level. As far as voices go, we still have the same voice cast from "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" and the other past made-for-video movies. And I am so glad that Casey Kasem was still able to voice Shaggy, because I won't go into details on Scott Menville's crappy Shaggy voice in the "Get a Clue" series. Frank Welker has improved a little on his Scooby-Doo voice. It's starting to sound less like Brain from "Inspector Gadget" and more like Scott Innes's Scooby-Doo voice! It seems Mindy Cohn's Velma voice changed a little, and Grey DeLisle's Daphne voice hasn't changed a bit since 2001. The music is pretty good, too, with a bit of lively musical numbers by the monsters! At that part it seemed to remind me of "Scooby-Doo and the Boo Brothers." As far as the sound effects go, they haven't changed them much since 1998. They only use the classic H-B sound effects for exaggerated comedy scenes with Scooby, Shaggy, the goblin guards and Krudsky the Magician, similar to when Warner Bros. Animation was making the Cool Cat cartoons for WB/Seven Arts 40 years ago. And this may be a minor gripe, but the people at WB STILL haven't used the Haunted Castle Thunder sound effect like the classic Scooby-Doo cartoons did! This annoys me mainly because the crappy "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue" series used it, so why not have the made-for-video movies use it? They're MUCH better than "Get a Clue!" Instead it sounds like they just sent the Foley editor into a real storm to record the thunder. But speaking of "Get a Clue," now on to the animation. The characters are thankfully not drawn in that ugly "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue" style, and the animation is quite decent, though not as good as the animation in "Zombie Island" and "Witch's Ghost." There are also extensive uses of CGI effects/animation in this movie, which I don't think the previous direct-to-video Scooby movies even attempted! And as far as the classic character personalities go, Scooby and Shaggy have never changed since 1969. Daphne did not complain at once about her hair or clothes in this film, and it was nice to see a more intelligent and serious version of Fred again (after dumbing him down in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" and "What's New, Scooby-Doo?"). Velma fainting at the sight of a real fairy was just hilarious! I'm surprised she didn't do that at the real monsters in the late-1990s made-for-video movies! My only main complaint about this movie is that they STILL didn't dedicate any of the recent Scooby-Doo movies, including this one, to Joseph Barbera! Since he died before this film was even thought up, it would've been nice to dedicate the movie to one of Scooby-Doo's creators. But nevertheless, they still insisted on using that zooming "1970s Hanna-Barbera" logo at the end, which is still completely inaccurate and has been since 1998, since Warner Bros. Animation produced the movie, and now that both Bill and Joe are gone, it makes no sense to have another company's logo (even if it's owned by WB) at the end of a WB movie! Imagine seeing it at the end of a Looney Tunes cartoon of the 1950s, and it'd be just as weird, if not weirder.However, this is admittedly better than the 2004-2007 made-for-video Scooby movies, and it's WAY better than "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!" I highly recommend this one, especially if you loved the 1998-2001 Scooby-Doo movies!Oh and P.S., the werewolf Scooby-Doo and Shaggy come across when first entering the monster world is AWESOME!