Review of Scooby Doo & The Cyber Chase

Introduction

Zoinks! For those of us of the Wayne`s World generation, the adventures of the every hungry Great Dane and the Mystery Inc. gang were a weekly staple alongside the Banana Splits and the Tomorrow People. Every week, that nice old gentleman you never suspected of doing anything nasty would have got away with it if it wasn`t for those meddling kids!

The original Scooby Doo series was a pastiche of the old Cat and the Canary style comedy horrors of the 1940`s, the sort of thing Paulette Goddard and Bob Hope would appear in. Hanna-Barbera, the animation team behind Tom and Jerry and latterly The Flintstones brought the genre up to date in 1969. Made for television on a limited budget, the company used a number of animation tricks and shortcuts known as limited animation to keep running costs down and in the process gave a distinctive look to the show which turned it into an instant classic.

A few years after the initial run of adventures, a revamped series was launched introducing Scooby`s nephew Scrappy-Doo and other members of the Doo clan. The less said about the series the better.

Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase is a brand new, feature length adventure for the classic Scooby gang that has been released straight to video (and DVD). Since Disney raised the bar for television animation in the 1990`s, this new version of Scooby Doo has benefitted from the renaissance that animation has undergone. The movie has all of the stylistic virtues of the classic series but none of the vices. The animation is snappy, expertly done, and includes some trickery that is quite impressive for traditional hand-drawn animation.

Time has moved on for the voice talents and a completely new group of artistes are providing the voices for Scooby and the gang. Scott Innes provides the voices for Scooby and Shaggy (mimicking the original Don Messnick and Casey Kasem respectively). In among the voice talent is Frank Welker doing blond, square-jawed Fred - a surprise as one might have expected him to do Scoob - Welker is one of the top vocal talents in Hollywood. If it squeaks, barks, chirps or grunts Welker usually does the noises for it. He did the little noises Gizmo made in "Gremlins".

While Scooby and the gang haven`t aged a second since the original series, they have changed clothes and there`s a wonderful sequence when they meet their original counterparts in Cyberspace. There is a subtle but distinct difference between all the characters that is picked up in the special features section "Virtual Detective".

Video

Jinkies! This is a spotless transfer in full frame 1.33:1. Colours are sharp and vivid without being overpowering. Unfortunately, the inking around the characters (the black boundary lines) suffer from the technical constraints of DVD compression and sometimes look a little steppy. However, if that`s the kind of thing you worry about watching DVD then maybe this movie isn`t your cup of tea (or pack of Scooby Snacks).

Audio

Bimblewimble! (I know, but I`ve used up all the cartoony exclamations from the series, so I`ve borrowed this from Harry Potter). The soundtrack is in Dolby Digital 5.1, and is very nicely modulated. Being made for TV (or video), the sound mix isn`t terribly adventurous.

Features

There is a behind the scenes promo featurette which is fascinating to see as you can put faces to the voices other than the characters (and nobody looks remotely like their character). There is also a music video "Scooby and Shaggy Love To Eat" and the trivia section "Virtual Detective". There is a trailer and DVD-ROM material.

Conclusion

This will keep the kids amused in winter and for us kiddy-nostalgia freaks is a blast from the past. It`s good, silly, undemanding entertainment and will fill a long felt want until the live action Scooby Doo movie with Sarah Michelle Gellar comes out in 2002.