Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays

It is Christmas and a toy store is in trouble after their holiday parade is disrupted by a sinister snowman.

A blizzard freezes things. The clock tower is haunted and Father Christmas is a grumpy actor.

This is just a regular length holiday special. Scooby Doo and Shaggy are fun and frivolous.

Velma has enough brains to figure out who just the baddie might be.

It was a tad easy to figure out the baddie but his plan was rather cool.

Sure, this is essentially just another run-of-the-mill Scooby-Doo adventure. And yes, it follows that exact recipe to the letter. But hey, that is the charm of the Scooby-Doo adventures and franchise, now isn't it? Sure it is.

I sat down in 2020 to watch the 2012 "Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays" for the first time. And I must say that we were both enjoying it, and I will say that this 2012 animated movie, while being only 22 minutes, was actually one of the more entertaining and wholehearted Scooby-Doo installments for my liking.

The villain in this particular adventure was rather cool - pardon the pun. Well, of course you know the outcome of the haunting from the moment the movie starts. But this particular villain had some nice tricks and effects, and it was definitely one of the more interesting of villains I have seen in the franchise for a long time.

The characters are the ones we all love, so you will feel right at home with the great voice talents of Frank Welker, Mindy Cohn, Grey Griffin and Matthew Lillard.

The animation style and drawing style is that classic Scooby-Doo style that we all have been growing up with, and I think it is a timeless classic actually.

My rating of "Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays" is a seven out of ten stars. This particular Scooby-Doo adventure is well-worth sitting down to watch, despite it being only 22 minutes.

Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays (2012) is a movie I recently watched on HBOMax with my daughter. The storyline follows the Mystery Gang at a toy store that is being haunted by a killer snowman. Can the Mystery Gang work with the shop owner's son to discover its origin and stop the Snowman?

This movie is directed by Victor Cook (The Spectacular Spider-Man) and contains the voices of Matthew Lillard (Scream), Mindy Cohn (The Facts of Life), Grey Griffin (Bumblebee), Frank Welker (Mortal Kombat) and Crispin Freeman (Hellsing Ultimate).

The animation for this is excellent and absolutely awesome. I loved the snowman opening and how he is depicted throughout the movie. The backstory on the snowman is pretty funny and the addition of Santa in this was entertaining.

Overall this is a very fun, short holiday animated picture that is a must see for Scooby-Doo fans. I would score this a solid 7.5/10 and strongly recommend seeing it once.

The music sounds like the transiberian orchestra which is beautifully dark Christmas music. The sinister snowman is very cool. He can shape shift into spideys and even a 3 headed snowman. No annoying voices. Nothing annoying at all which is surprising of some scooby movies. Love the music. I like the old clock too, reminds you of Germany's. What they threw into this one is only occasionally done in other movies, but when they do it i just love it. What's a christmas movie with Santy? And yes there's a grouchy Santa impersonator on here which yeah okay whatever but then they get a surprise later when they meet the real Santa. I'm in my 30's. I still believe. Love this movie! Watch it every month, but watch it with my Mom at Christmas along with Silent Night Deadly Night.

As a child, this reviewer was a huge fan of Scooby Doo. At 24, she still is. While 'Haunted Holidays' may not be Scooby Doo at his best, it's still incredibly entertaining with all of the ingredients that makes the franchise so loved present and is one of the better direct to video Scooby Doo specials.

There really is not much to criticise here with 'Haunted Holidays'. With the inclusion of all the standard Scooby Doo tropes, parts of the special does feel very predictable. Velma has also had a much less likable personality since 'Mystery Incorporated', she isn't quite as bitchy or annoying here as she has tended to be in recent years and her main function of being the brains of the group has been maintained, but she has been more caring and resourceful before.

However, the animation is great with a nice mix of classic Scooby Doo and new Scooby Doo. It is very vibrant, atmospheric and beautifully draw, and attention to detail is typically meticulous. The music is groovy when appropriate and haunting when also appropriate, while the writing and jokes are typical Scooby Doo and range from very funny to hilarious with an endearing goofiness too at times.

While predictable, the story is efficiently paced while never rushed and diverting without being convoluted or simplistically obvious, the mystery is a solid one and entertainingly and atmospherically told in the classic Scooby Doo mould, Shaggy and Scooby's pivotal friendship is charming, funny and affecting and the villainous snowman is a very convincing villain, quite scary and cool (plus he can shapeshift, with the giant spider guise being one of the special's coolest and most visually striking moments).

Sometimes in Scooby Doo the perpetrator is a complete surprise and then there are other times when it is rather obvious as a result of a shortage of suspects (a common problem in the still entertaining 'Be Cool, Scooby Doo!', and even a couple of episodes of 'Scooby Doo! Where are You?' had this too). Luckily, 'Haunted Holidays' is a case of the former. Apart from some reservations with Velma, the characters are very engaging and drive the narrative and mystery very well. Shaggy and Scooby are particularly well done, while Fred and Daphne are similarly likable and the supporting characters are no less interesting.

Voice acting is terrific, Frank Welker, who has been voicing Fred since the beginning, is still going strong and his Scooby voice is growing on me. The standout is Matthew Lillard, who, when he first started voicing the character from the start of the post-Sander/Schwartz era, had big shoes to fill from the late Casey Kasem, which can't have been easy at all, and does a fine job.

All in all, very good holiday fun. 8/10 Bethany Cox