The story is a rather standard Scooby-Doo! affair. Velma gets a call from her mother about there supposedly being a griffin attacking the magic school her sister, Madelyn is attending. Velma and her sister don't always see eye to eye despite being much more alike then either realizes. Madelyn meanwhile has a major crush on Shaggy believing him to be the bravest and smartest guy in the world. The school is struggling to get by as the griffin scares off student after student and it looks like the owner may have to sell. But before he resorts to that, the gang has another mystery on their hands.
There is a lot to enjoy about this movie. Written by two of Warner Brothers Animation best writers, Alan Burnett and Paul Dini (his only Scooby-Doo! movie, though he had been a writer on the TV series, The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show (1984) (which Alan Burnett was also a writer for)), as well as real life magician, Misty Lee (also Paul Dini's wife), this is a rather clever script that while adhering to the Scooby-Doo! formula. Madelyn is a great new character and her believing Shaggy to be such a brave and intelligent person and how none of the obvious moments of Shaggy's cowardliness change her mind is a great running gag and it is great to see how much Shaggy enjoys this praise. Daphne trying to prove that she is not just some accident-prone klutz when Fred gets a crush on a talented female magician, brings some delightful humor as well.
The story is rather predictable and the mystery was easy to solve. Still the Scooby-Doo! formula is popular for a reason and there is a real charm to the simplicity of this formula that shines through here and helps make the film so enjoyable.
The character design in this movie goes back to the more detailed, less cartoon-y look the characters had in Scooby-Doo! on Zombie Island and Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost. Despite this Abracadabra-Doo is a lot less dark and daring than those films.
This is not the best of the Scooby-Doo! movies, but judged on its own merits, it is quite delightful.
-Michael J. Ruhland
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