While I didn't abhor them as some fans did, Curse of the 13th Ghost and Return to Zombie Island were certainly lesser Scooby entries, and I have been eager for a return to form. I'm not sure I'm prepared to go that far with Happy Halloween, but it is passable. The visuals are good, and the tone is excellent. It's fun to see Scarecrow here, and the ominous Halloween vibe comes through strongly. The mystery is decent, though I wouldn't say it's as much of a focus as I'd like, and the solution is a cool one but comes out of left field. The side characters aside from Scarecrow simply aren't very interesting - I have absolutely no idea why Elvira continues to hang around, as she was absolutely useless, and if they're aiming for relatability, if I didn't know who she was there's no way kids today do. Mike and his daughter were throwaway attempts at comic relief, and Bill Nye was a cool idea but felt more like a shoehorned Guess Who appearance than a cohesive addition. As always, the main tension is on the characters, and the script for them is the biggest problem with the movie: the humor feels extremely forced, as if it's desperate to stay relevant and capture the attention of "hip" modern kids. Daphne, who has been my favorite character in several recent movie and show iterations (shout out to Be Cool Daphne, the legend), is mind numbingly stupid and pointless here. She does nothing at all related to the mystery, makes a bunch of ill-fitting jokes and slang trash talk, and then has a bizarre obsession with becoming Elvira I did my best to ignore. Fred is fine, and Shaggy and Scooby are undoubtedly the bright spots of the movie, as the only ones with comedic lines that actually work, as they highlight the absurdity of the situations. Velma isn't as grating as she has been in previous movies, and I appreciate that they try to develop some depth to her here, but the mind palace was overemphasized and the realization that Shaggy and Scooby can be good for something doesn't seem to hit home as well as the writers thought it would. The many easter eggs and throwbacks were lots of fun, I do really like the idea and tone, and the mystery was a great idea if just fine in execution. The character troubles (primarily Daphne and Elvira just being terrible) and lack of development of the mystery hold back what could've been a very good movie.
