Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire

Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire (2011)

*** (out of 4)

Feature cartoon has Scooby and the gang solving a mystery and then heading down South to enjoy a vacation. They end up in Louisiana where there's a Vampire Fest being put on and sure enough they soon find themselves in another mystery. This time a vampire wants to make Daphne his new bride. SCOOBY-DOO! MUSIC OF THE VAMPIRE is actually a fairly entertaining film that manages to have a few good laughs, a couple nice throwbacks to the old TV show and of course there's even a little bit of TWILIGHT spoof thrown in. As you'd expect, the animation is really top-notch and we're given some wonderful visuals to look at. This is especially true with the darkness of the swamp, which simply looks wonderful as do the scenes inside the vampire museum. Another major plus is that the monsters themselves are all pretty good. I thought the vampires looked quite effective and especially the main leader who often finds himself flying through the swamps throwing fire balls. I'm sure these vampires will scare some really young kids as they're quite creepy. The vocal performances are also quite good with all of the main cast members doing a fine job and especially Matthew Lillard who has really perfected his Shaggy work. The film even turns into a musical as there are a couple songs played throughout and they're actually not too bad. They're certainly put to better use than some of those songs that were added to episodes in the second season of the original series. Fans of Scooby should certainly find enough here to keep them entertained and at just 75-minutes the film never overstays its welcome.