Thoroughly relaxing but not very stimulating

Tucked away in our childhood memories is that one perfect buddy–loyal, dependable, affectionate, warm... and a dog. If we didn’t have one, oh how we wished we did!

A dog is a child’s best friend, even more than a grown-up’s. There’s something spontaneous about dogs and children coming together. Perhaps because they share an openness, innocence and the great capacity for sweetness in their own way, it seems quite natural for children and dogs to revel in each other’s company.

Best-selling British children’s author Enid Blyton knew this compatibility well, so she always made sure dogs played stellar roles in her timeless children’s adventure and mystery series like The Famous Five, The Secret Seven and The Five Find-Outers.

Charles Schultz immortalized this attraction, too, in his Peanuts comic strips which also became feature animations. Snoopy’s relationship with the Peanuts gang is one of the reasons behind the strip’s enduring popularity.

So if William Hanna and Joseph Barbera hit a goldmine in children’s hearts with their TV cartoon, Scooby-Doo, they did so simply by playing up what has long been held dearly by kids – that childhood is far from a dog’s life when you have a dog to share it with (just ask the makers of the Lassie and Beethoven movies, too).

Twenty-first century technology has made it possible to bring the TV cartoon Scooby-Doo to the big screen in an eponymous film starring real-life sweethearts Freddie Prinze Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar. Even if they are touted as two of their generation’s biggest stars, the film’s main draw is still the Great Dane Scooby-Doo, so convincingly, three-dimensionally rendered in this film, one forgets he is totally computer-generated.

Painstaking attention to detail was apparently taken in creating Scooby-Doo; why, one can even make out his fur! When he walks or runs about, he has a shadow just as the "real" actors do. And dig this–he doesn’t only move about and howl his signature "Scooby-dooby-doo!", he can walk straight up dressed as a grandmother and yes, even enagage in a barf and fart fest with Shaggy.

True to his cartoon self, Scooby-Doo in the film is as zany, playful, naughty, gluttonous, and cowardly as ever, but when push comes to shove he will never leave his friends, especially his best pal Shaggy (played by Matthew Lillard, who is more engaging here than the other characters). Some of the film’s best scenes are those showing Scooby-Doo’s loveable side–when he licks Shaggy in delight when danger is over, or when he and Shaggy spends quality buddy time, going one-on-one downing food and guzzling drinks.

The film has moments that are as fun and riotous as its lead dog (Sugar Ray cutie Mark McGrath does a cameo as a band singer in the mysterious island). But somewhere in the crowded maze and din of special effects, the characters’ frenzied running around and the creators’ need to create a "feel" that remains steadfast to Scooby-Doo’s cartoon roots, one gets the sense that a good opportunity has been lost.

Children love Scooby-Doo because he is the dog they always wanted to have, and one wishes the writers and producers had utilized this identification–and the fondness that springs from it–to the hilt. Devoting as much time to the characters’ relationships as much as to Scooby-Doo’s cute antics would have helped bring this about.

True, there is always the inherent difficulty of "translating" two-dimensional cartoon characters to the big screen (Daphne as played by Sarah Michelle Gellar is strenuously fashionable here, coming across as a cartoonish impersonation of Alicia Silverstone in Clueless).

Yet, one wonders–how could the film’s creators have okay-ed a script where Scooby-Doo epitomizes the "pure-hearted" being the bad guys in the story so badly want to offer as sacrifice, yet forgotten to exploit this same "pure-heartedness" which children easily recognize and identify with? How one wishes, then, that more scenes were devoted to Shaggy and Scooby-Doo’s, and for that matter the other characters’ and Scooby-Doo’s, warm friendship, rather than the reels and reels showing them simply pulling one over one fiend or another.

There will be those who will counter, aw shucks, let’s not get too serious here–this is based on a cartoon! Yes, but Scooby-Doo is a film, and one can do a lot in films that one can’t in a cartoon.

This is not to say that Scooby-Doo is a disaster; it is in fact as fun as an afternoon in the mall can be–thoroughly relaxing but not that stimulating. The production design, soundtrack and costumes are funky, and it’s great seeing Rowan Atkinson (Mr. Bean) back on the screen again, although he isn’t allowed to shine here–another good opportunity lost. The film is an enjoyable romp if one simply wants to chuck one’s cares away–with a caboodle of children giggling and laughing along for good measure (talk about returning to one’s childhood!). Scooby-Doo is a riot, and so is his best pal, Shaggy, who in his endearingly unkempt, carefree, and cowardly ways is really just the child in us grown-ups.

A caution for parents bringing their kids to watch, though: Prepare your parental guidance and/or explanation of what a cult is, since the plot revolves around the mystery of why young people change radically after staying in Spooky Island, supposedly only a theme park. Cult members play contravidas here, and it is up to Scooby-Doo and the gang, a.k.a. the Mystery, Inc. to solve the mystery.

A sequel is said to be in the offing. In that case, one hopes the producers top themselves and elevate the film from being just a romp. Here’s wishing they would develop and showcase Scooby-Doo the dog–and his friendship with each Mystery. Inc. member–in deeper, more endearing ways. Lest one scratches one’s head again and wonder (as Shaggy is wont to wail) about the idealized dog-as-best-friend, "Scooby-Doo, where are you?"