Scooby-Doo! and The Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019)

Note: Usually I try to avoid spoilers when I write about a movie, but I can not talk about my feelings for this film without giving away a plot twist, so be aware that this review is going to give away a lot of the story.

I know it may be strange to say but my favorite Scooby-Doo! series is The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo! (1985). Yes, I actually like that show more than the original series. That is why I am split on this movie. As a standalone film I like it, but as a conclusion to a TV series I really like I don't like it at all.

First to look at this as a standalone movie. The humor here is well above par from the average Scooby-Doo! movie. There are many jokes that made me laugh quite a bit, such as Fred and Valma's reactions to their teammates' adventures without them. Vincent Van Ghoul's love of grim puns is hilarious, poking fun at the series as well as paying tribute to it. This is especially funny when the other character's reactions are added. Flim-Flam is highly enjoyable in his supporting role and steals each scene he is in. Fred trying to bribe Scooby is Shaggy made me laugh out loud. I am not fully on board with leaving Scrappy out of this movie. I am one of the few people who kind of likes him, thinking he brought a fresh bit of fun to the Scooby-Doo! formula (besides by the time of this show, he had been toned down since his first appearance. Despite this I did get a good laugh at the line "What's a Scrappy?" The animation is excellent here, as has become expected for these current Scooby-Doo! movies. The car chase action scene is very exciting and benefits from this great animation.

Now to this movie as a follow up to a great series. Viewed as this the film couldn't be more disappointing. What fans of the series (myself included) wanted was to see the gang face off against the ultimate most powerful ghost out there. So why should this film lead to little more than the average guy in a mask Scooby-Doo! story? However it is true. First off through the majority of the movie, the ghost doesn't seem especially powerful or scary. The fact the whole series would lead up to a pretty average ghost itself is extremely disappointing. I am not saying that this character should have been actually terrifying to see (after all lots of kids are going to watch this movie), but he should have felt like a bigger threat than anything we saw in the series. This however is hardly the worst of it. The worst of it is that the ghost is fake. The movie still states that it is possible that the last 12 ghosts were real but that isn't the point. I am not angry at this film for retracting anything from the series, but rather for not living up to what was built up to do. Making the last ghost fake is downright insulting for fans of the show.

All in all this is an enjoyable movie on its own, but a terrible follow up to a great series.

-Michael J. Ruhland