This has the reputation of being the worst Scooby-Doo! movie, so is it strange that I rather like it?
To be fair this is not your typical Scooby-Doo! movie for the main reason that Scooby and Shaggy are used as a framing device for two stories that don't feature them. The framing story involves Scooby and Shaggy getting their dream jobs by becoming food tasters for a Caliph. However naturally the guys eat all the food leaving none for the Caliph. To escape the Caliph's wrath Shaggy (disguised as a harem girl) must tell him stories. These stories are a gender bent version of Aladdin (with Yogi Bear and Boo-Boo as the genies) and Sinbad the Sailor (played naturally by Magilla Gorilla).
This film was at the time when shows like Animaniacs were dominating what was happening in American cartoons, and this movie certainly shows the influence of that type of humor. This movie has no monsters or mysteries but instead focuses on over the top cartoony slapstick humor. This is especially shown in the Sinbad the Sailor story as well as the wrap around scenes. I am a fan of old fashioned cartoon slapstick and the Sinbad the Sailor story has this in spades. The idea of Magilla as Sinbad is funny in and of itself. This movie however does all that it can with this idea, piling slapstick gag on top of slapstick gag, many of them quite funny. I admit to having laughed quite a bit at this story when I first saw the film. The wrap around segments while not as funny as the Sinbad story are filled with a great sense of slapstick energy and a wise guy attitude that is simply fun to watch. In contrast to the rest of the film, the Aliyah-Din story (despite the presence of Yogi and Boo-Boo) is played rather straight. Despite not being as funny as the rest of the movie it still had a certain charm that won me over (plus I always like seeing my friends Yogi and Boo-Boo). However I will admit the villain in the Aliyah-Din story is rather bland and forgettable.
While this may not be Zombie Island (which would be the very next Scooby movie), there is a lot to enjoy here and it is much better than the film's unwarranted negative reputation.
-Michael J. Ruhland
Yep, and they even had an "Animaniacs" composer score the music for the film, so the soundtrack acts more like musical sound effects instead of a traditional underscore, and it also uses many of the same sound effects "Animaniacs" typically used (and not enough classic H-B sound effects.)
ReplyDeleteAnd the way this final H-B production to feature the classic H-B (non-Flintstones) characters ends with Scooby saying "Scooby-dooby-dooooooo!" is like their equivalent to the Looney Tunes series closing out with Cool Cat's "So cool it now, ya hear?"