Scooby-Doo

 Review

Common Sense Media says

Too scary for most kids, too dumb for most teens.
greenON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
yellowPAUSE: Know your child; some content
may not be right for some kids.
redOFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
not for kidsNOT FOR KIDS: Not appropriate for kids any age.

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Quality
 
Sometimes media can be age appropriate but a real waste of time. Our star rating assesses the media's overall quality.

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Parents say

Kids say

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that this movie has more intense, scary special effects than you'll find in the cartoon Scooby-Doo features. The characters are in frequent peril, though no one gets hurt. There is some drug humor (as "Pass the Dutchie" plays on the soundtrack, what appears to be marijuana smoke turns out to be something else) and some vulgar jokes and graphic bathroom humor. The girls wear very skimpy clothes.

  • Friendship and teamwork are less important here
    than in other Scooby-Doo features, as the gang tries to salvage their team
    dynamic; but their efforts are overshadowed by strange zombies and a
    madman's attempt at mind control. The action takes place on an
    island alongside partying college kids. These peers are more serious
    partiers than seen in any previous Scooby-Doo features -- and Velma getting
    drunk raises a big flag.
  • Since most of the characters in this movie are college age, expect
    activities like drinking, partying, the cruising of "chicks," and said
    chicks wearing tight clothes. Also watch out for a prolonged scene
    where Scooby and Shaggy have a belching and farting contest. Fred is painted as a womanizer, Daphne as materialistic.
  • Lots of toothsome, scary faces, zombies, evil men in charge of teens on an island. Lizard monsters and zombies chasing the gang, even inhabiting the bodies of Velma, Fred, and Daphne.
  • Fred is transferred into Daphne's body and says, "Hey! Now I can look at myself in the mirror!" Fred and Daphne kiss. Plenty of short skirts and tight tops that don't leave much to the imagination. Fred fashions himself as a womanizer and includes Pamela Anderson as one of his admirers -- though he does admit to Velma that "I'm a man of substance; dork chicks like you turn me on, too."
  • Besides "zoinks" and "jinkies," there are little slips, like "beeatch," booty, "your mom eats cat poop," and for the French speakers out there: "Voulez-vous couchez avec moi, c'est soir."
  • The consumption of food is the devoted past time of Shaggy and Scooby. Daphne is materialistic, carrying seven matching bags onto the plane. Telemundo is mentioned, so is NASA.
  • It is obvious that Shaggy is into pot, by the way the song "Pass the Dutchie on the Left Hand Side" plays while smoke rises from his van. But wait, they are just grilling some eggplant burgers in there. Sure. And Shaggy's love interest is named Mary Jane. "Mary Jane is my favorite name," he says dreamily. Velma gets drunk at a bar on a tiki drink.

What's the story?

The Mystery Machine crew has just discovered the secret of the ghost who captured Daphne (it's a man in a mask!), when their egos collide and they decide to go their separate ways. Two years later, they find out that each of them has been hired by Mr. Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson), whose Spooky Island theme park is a little spookier than he had in mind. Fred, Velma, and Daphne try to solve the mystery on their own, but find that they have to work together to find…well, this time it's not a man in a mask, exactly.


Is it any good?

 

By trying to reach younger and older audiences, this movie ends up somewhere between a live-action cartoon that is much too scary for most kids and Saturday Night Live sketch that goes on too long for most teens.

The young stars have the voices down perfectly and do the best they can to bring the characters to life, but that only emphasizes how sketchy and shallow the cartoon characterization really is. Freddie Prinze, Jr., who will hopefully someday find a movie that will show off his considerable talent, has his best moments when Fred becomes something like a hip-hop zombie. And as Shaggy, Matthew Lillard is at his best anytime he isn't challenging Scooby to a flatulence and burping contest.


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What families can talk about

  • Families can talk about why the friends broke up and why they got back together.

  • They might also want to talk about what has made Scooby and his pals so enduringly popular over the years. Which version of the show do you like best?


This review was written by Nell Minow
Kid, 13 years old
April 11, 2011
 
Scooby-Dumb not Scooby-Doo
A horrifyingly bad Scooby-Doo movie. Rude humor, some scary scenes (for young viewers). It's idiotic, unfunny and a real mess alongside awful acting.

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Kid, 12 years old
May 7, 2010
 
Scooby-Doo Review
Rating: OFF 2+ for violence, adult content, language, consumerism, drugs, messages and role models "no kids under 2.5 may watch this"

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Adult
November 20, 2010
 
PG-13 should be
totally PG-13 both of the films they're good

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Kid, 11 years old
April 17, 2011
 
just bad
A reason why scobby doo is losing poupularity,rude,crude,volient a awful script , a horendous and cliched script and plot and some truly chessy acting

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Teen, 16 years old
November 3, 2010
 
This movie is rated off for younger kids
It was pretty scary at a hotel because monsters came in. Some characters traded voices with each other and that was so weird. A man's skin on his head got pulled off and looked like an ugly robot afterwards. Scrappy-Doo peed on another character and that was so groce. When he characters were in the plane, there was some punching going on. This movie was dumb and scary.

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Teen, 15 years old
September 10, 2010
 
Shaggy.
Not the best Scooby, but it works. Pretty adult.

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Kid, 13 years old
July 12, 2010
 
Good movie
I think its good movie buts its not appriote for young viewers when they whick bodies.

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Adult
July 10, 2010
 
Disgusting, Yet Good!
Although I don't recommend this movie for those under ten, this movie is a great watch! The part when Scrappy urinates on Daphne cracks me up every time!

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Teen, 18 years old
October 7, 2010
 

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Parent of 5 and 10 year old
August 28, 2009
 
It seems like other raters including CommonSense Media didn't actually watch the movie! I only saw the last half, maybe less, and it was awful. It was scary and violent for young children, but to me that wasn't the worst part. Many girls were dressed in very skimpy clothes (extremely short shorts, lots of cleavage showing, etc.). After reading the CommonSense Media rating, I let my 8-year-old daughter watch the movie with her father because she likes Scooby-Doo. As only one other rater seemed to notice, there was a part where Fred and Daphne's bodies were switched. Fred, inside Daphne's body, said very happily/sexily: "Hey, I can look at myself naked!" while he (she) looked down and smiled at Daphne's breasts/cleavage. Then Daphne, in Fred's body, watched Fred (in her body) touch himself and said "get your hands off me!" but Fred was very disrespectful, wouldn't listen to her and kept touching her body (which he was in). Later she said "Fred keeps touching me!" There was also one subtle reference to drugs/being high that I noticed, when Fred's character says to Shaggy (in a paranoid voice like someone who is high and hallucinating), "Listen Man, someone must've spiked my root beer last night!" Then he assumes it's a bad trip and he's high and asks Shaggy to help him come down from his drug high he thinks he's on: "Talk me down, man, talk me down"!

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This review was written by Nell Minow
Topics:adventures, friendship, monsters, ghosts, and vampires
Studio:Warner Bros.
Director:Raja Gosnell
Cast:Freddie Prinze Jr., Linda Cardellini, Sarah Michelle Gellar
Genre:Family and Kids
Run time:86 minutes
Theatrical release date:June 14, 2002
DVD release date:October 11, 2002
MPAA rating:PG
MPAA explanation:some rude humor, language and some scary action.

This review was written by Nell Minow
 

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About our rating system
ON: Content is age-appropriate for kids this age.
PAUSE: Know your child; some content may not be right for some kids.
OFF: Not age-appropriate for kids this age.
Learning ratings
BEST: Really engaging, great learning approach.
GOOD: Pretty engaging, good learning approach.
FAIR: Somewhat engaging, OK learning approach.
NOT FOR LEARNING: Not recommended for learning.

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