Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf

You know a Scooby-Doo feature is bad when Scrappy seems benign relative to everything else. Actually the little guy for once does a good job of refraining from irritatingly hogging the spotlight in this one, but unfortunately we just might have been better off if he had.

The basic plot is that Dracula turns Shaggy into a werewolf and forces him to win an all-monster road race to have any chance of becoming human again. The race itself tries to cross the Wacky Races with the Coyote/Road Runner shorts but after the 527th failed effort to put Shaggy and Scooby out of the race and the 83rd time Dracula whines about things not going his way (with no end in sight), it gets just the tiniest bit tedious.

This (in conjunction with the concurrent "Pup" series) was the point where the Scooby-Doo franchise hit absolute rock bottom, and the cowardly great dane and friends went into a long-overdue semi-retirement.

I have a lot of fond memories of this as a kid.

I suspect a lot of people will scoff at how it abandoned the Classic Scooby formula by not having a mystery or how the fantasy elements are actually real but I actually quite like that. I also personally like Scrappy. Maybe it was because I hadn't been exposed to him that long or because I hadn't grown used to the classic series for there to be anything to ruin but I like the ensemble of Scrappy, Scooby and Shaggy, emphasising the comedy part of the series alongside a brilliant homage to vintage horror.

Dracula is our bad guy here and he is a stunning one that both commands threat and doesn't dampen that when he is used for more comic moments.

There's even a cute girl who's into shaggy. It maybe not have much of a "soul" but for those who aren't the Scooby purists this is a delightful adventure with much to bring to the table.

Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

Monsters from around the world gather at their annual car race but the werewolf is missing so Count Dracula demands that they get another. The Hunch Bunch decide to turn Shaggy into a werewolf so Dracula tells him that if he takes part in the race and wins that he'll lift the curse. Scooby, Scrappy and Shag's girlfriend must make sure he wins. SCOOBY-DOO AND THE RELUCTANT WEREWOLF is a fairly entertaining feature but the biggest problem is that it feels incredibly long at 91-minutes. When you consider that this here is close to five individual episodes of the TV series you realize that the subject is best served in smaller portions. With that said, outside the length this here contains some pretty big laughs including the highlight, which takes place during a drive-in horror movie where Shaggy first gets turned into a werewolf. The only problem is that he has the hiccups and keeps transforming back and forth but never realizing it. Another funny thing about the film is Count Dracula who is simply delightful. I really thought he made for some great jokes throughout and Hamilton Camp did a fantastic job with the vocals. The film features all sorts of monsters like Dracula, the mummy, Frankenstein's monster, swamp thing, the bride and various others. Fans of the genre should get a kick out of seeing all of these monsters together and packed into one film. I think the film really would have benefited from fifteen-minutes being shaved off but it's still entertaining.

There are three problems I have with this movie. One deals with breaking character. When we first see Shaggy in this film, he apparently now has a career as a race car driver. At first, I thought, "Oh, that's a cool professional for a non-conformist like him!" Then I remembered something: Shaggy is a self-professed coward. What coward would take on the dangerous line of professional auto racing?

The second problem is romantic. Who is this Googie girl? Why is she Shaggy's girlfriend? I would have much rather have had Daphne, or even Velma, in the role.

The third problem is boredom. Once the big monster car race gets started, it turns into an extended version of Hanna-Barbera's other show, "The Wacky Races", and is really very tedious.

I will admit, until I saw this for the first time yesterday since the last time I saw it 3 years ago, I never used to like this film. Seeing it yesterday actually changed my initial perception of Reluctant Werewolf. True the animation isn't always that great and the plot is a bit slow in places. I also didn't think much of the music, despite the admittedly groovy Tom Jones-sounding song playing in one scene, neither did I find the Hunch Bunch particularly entertaining. Still there is still a lot to like about it, namely a terrific voice cast, Casey Kasem and Don Messick are great as always, and Jim Cummings and Ron Paulsen stand out too. Best of all though was Hamilton Camp, who was gleefully enjoyable and was quite frankly born to voice Dracula. The characters in general were fun, even Scrappy wasn't as contemptible as people make him out to be. My favourite character has to be Dracula, he was charming and wickedly funny, especially with his line "I guess the bats were a little undercooked" in reference to the batburgers, the sunblock one was great too. When I saw it for the first time a long time ago, i didn't think much of the script, thinking it cheesy and unfunny. Boy was I wrong, most of the time it was the complete opposite. I also thought the monster car race was great fun though some of it could have easily been trimmed down. All in all, Reluctant Werewolf was much better than I thought it was. 6/10 Bethany Cox