In the 80s, a trend began of bringing television shows to the big screen. As you can imagine, this was met with protests from many fans, as they didn't want to see their memories get destroyed. However, one facet of this that I found interesting occurred when a cartoon was transformed into a live-action. As the mediums were different, I wanted to see how the filmmakers would fare with taking 2-dimensional drawings and replacing them with flesh-and-blood actors. As the Scooby-Doo films show us, the results are inconsistent at best.

Scooby-Doo takes us right into the world of the old Saturday morning cartoons. Fred (Freddie Prinze Jr.), Daphne (Sarah Michelle Gellar), Velma (Linda Cardellini), Shaggy (Matthew Lillard) and Scooby-Doo (voiced by Neil Fanning) comprise Mystery Inc. (I never remember hearing them say that on the show), a group which solves supernatural mysteries. As the movie opens, the group has just cracked another case, but the strain of working together for years, and Fred taking all of the credit, has taken its toll, and they go their separate ways. Two years later, they all find themselves invited to Spooky Island, a resort for college students run by Mr. Mondavarious (Rowan Atkinson). It seems that the usually fun-loving tourists are acting too sedate and Mondavarious has brought Mystery Inc. back together to find out why. At first, the group shuns one another, but they soon find themselves falling back into their old patterns and working together to solve the mystery.

Scooby-Doo should be put in a vault and preserved for all time. Not because it's a good movie, but because it's a textbook example of how a TV-to-film translation can go wrong. The opening is fine, as it actually feels like a live-action scenes from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. But, once the "story" kicks in, things take a turn for the worst. The movie takes the characters out of their usual environments, and places them in a tropical theme park. The decision to have the characters disband at the opening isn't necessarily a bad one, but we then have to wait for them to reunite so that we can witness the classic group dynamics.

Instead of keeping things simple and just being a live-action version of the show, Scooby-Doo feels that it must bring in a lot of unnecessary things. The movie tries way to hard to be "hip", as it contains popular music (for the time) and random characters sporting "cool clothes" and saying "rad things". This was clearly an attempt to convince the young audience that the movie knew where they were coming from. The monsters here are way over the top and the supernatural storyline gets very muddled and convoluted. Bunny monsters, possession, and soul-stealing are all thrown into the mess and the story redefines overly-complicated. The attempts at humor fall flat and the movie drags.

The only good thing about Scooby-Doo is the casting. While Prinze is questionable, everyone else does a good job, especially Lillard who really throws himself into the role. As for Scooby-Doo, he doesn't look enough like his TV alter-ego for my taste.

Scooby-Doo does a great deal of damage to my childhood memories on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 23 Mbps. The image is fairly sharp and clear, but there is a mild amount of grain evident at times. There are no defects from the source material. The colors look very good, as the movie is filled with bright tones. The image is never overly dark or bright. The Disc carries a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track which runs at 48 kHz and a constant 640 kbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. The audio is OK, but of course, we want HD sound on a Blu-ray Disc. The stereo effects are nicely done, as are the surround effects, but they simply aren't as detailed as we would like.

The Scooby-Doo Blu-ray Disc contains quite a few extras. We begin with an AUDIO COMMENTARY from Director Raja Gosnell, and Producer Richard Suckle and Chuck Roven. This is followed by a second COMMENTARY with Matthew Lillard, Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, and Linda Cardellini. "Unmasking the Mystery" (22 minutes) is a making-of featurette which contains comments from the cast and filmmakers, as well as on-set footage. It's interesting to see the fake Scooby head which is used in place of the CG effect while filming. Production Designer Bill Boes takes us on a tour of the sets in "Scary Places" (4 minutes). "The Mystery Van" (1 minute) shows off The Mystery Machine used in the film. "Daphne Fight Scene" (2 minutes) shows Sarah Michelle Gellar preparing for her big fight scene. "Rain on the Set" (1 minute) shows us how rain affects film production. The Disc contains seven ADDITIONAL SCENES which run about 14 minutes and can be viewed with optional commentary. We get to see the animated opening sequence, which was probably cut because it would remind audiences of what they were missing. We get the MUSIC VIDEO for the song "The Land of a Million Drums" by Outkast. The final extra is the THEATRICAL TRAILER for the film. We do not get the cool teaser which made this look like another Batman film.

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed makes us say, "Hey, is that Alicia Silverstone?" on Blu-ray Disc courtesy of Warner Home Video. The film has been letterboxed at 1.85:1 and the Disc contains a VC-1 1080p HD transfer which runs at an average of 23 Mbps. The image is incredibly sharp and clear, showing no grain and no defects from the source material. The colors nearly leap off of the screen, and the image is never too dark or bright. There is a nice amount of detail here, as we can make out textures on objects and the depth is good as well. The Disc carries a DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 track which runs at 48 kHz and an average of 4.3 Mbps. The track provides clear dialogue and sound effects. This is a nicely done track as we get stereo and surround sound effects which show good separation. There is a lot of kinetic action in the movie and the various sounds mirror their placement on the screen. The subwoofer effects are impressive as well.

The Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Blu-ray Disc offers a decidedly mixed bag of extra features. We start with 7 deleted scenes, which can be viewed with or without audio commentary from director Raja Gosnell. These scenes offer nothing new to the story (?!) but we do get to see even more of the monster costumes in the museum. One unfinished scene has Lillard acting opposite nothing, as Scooby-Doo was never added to the frame. In "Triple Threat" (10 minutes), Scooby-Doo takes a video camera around the to explore the sets, stunts, and effects in the film. This short features a great deal of behind-the-scenes footage and interviews with production designer Bill Boes, stunt coordinator J.J. Makaro, visual effects supervisor Peter Cross, and effects supervisor Betsy Patterson. "True Ghoul Hollywood Story" (6 minutes) is a surprisingly in-depth spoof of E!'s famous show which takes a look at the lives of the criminals who were foiled by Mystery Inc. It's a great idea, but unfortunately, it's not very funny. We get a closer look at how Scooby-Doo was created in "Dancing Dog" (5 minutes). The extras are rounded out by two MUSIC VIDEOS, "Thank You Falletin Me Be Mice Elf" by Big Brovaz and "Don't Wanna Think About You" by Simple Plan.