We can’t be surprised that those meddling kids have had many Halloween adventures. Episodes of series, specials and movies all set during the spookiest of months. But as we see with this little adventure Halloween isn’t as much about being afraid, it’s more than that. So let’s have a fun little adventure for the midpoint of the month.

The movie opens up with the kids solving yet another mystery, some kind of cat monster in Nepal. But while things are going their usual post capture routine with everyone else, the kids are instead taking a sample of the costume to analyse, finding out that their suspicions were true, all the villains they captured got their costumes from the same source! and after a quick sting operation the mastermind Coco Diablo (who Velma is instantly crushing on, the first clear depiction of her having an interest in women) is put behind bars… and that’s just the opening. Cue a funny take on the original “Where are you” opening but now featuring no costumed villains as the gang don’t have any mysteries to solve.

The movie is very meta. Most of its references pointed at the original “Where are you” series of Scooby Doo (well it’s 2 series, just in case you’re getting confused by an interpretation of my statement). In fact, given the events of the movie, it could be viewed as taking place between the original series and the Scooby Doo show (I may be wrong given some people seen near the end of the movie, but all references seem to point to that… outside of it just being a fun movie of course, you really don’t need to worry about any grand meta narrative, otherwise the Harlem Globetrotters would appear).

Obviously some mystery begins with a strange foe targeting the Scooby gang and decide it’s an idea to team up with the imprisoned Coco (primarily because of Velma is crushing on her still) to solve the case. But yeah it’s more a fun journey than a deep mystery. You can probably guess quickly who’s behind it like many a classic Scooby Doo and just enjoy the ride.

But it’s worth noting out of all the years of Scooby Doo (and that’s a lot of years) I’ve seen, this is probably the least Flanderised the cast have been, and without that being the clear goal by someone setting out to do that as a clear M.O. Fred while going nuts out of the lack of a mystery absolutely loves it when one is back, you have never seen him so happy. Scooby and Shaggy aren’t complete wrecks afraid of their own shadows, and care for their friends… I would rather go out trick or treating than be pulled into a big mystery. Daphne is a far cry from either making her completely useless or rebelling so much against that she’s soloing wrestlers. A part of the film is showing what she actually is in the team, and heads up, it’s not the money.

I Would say you only get the most out of this if you know about Scooby Doo… but then it’s Scooby Doo, who doesn’t know about Scooby Doo? Yes you may get more if you watched the original series, but it’s still a great funny adventure. And if you want a more clearly horror or mystery adventure, can’t go wrong with Zombie Island.

Rating: 🎃🎃🎃🎃