Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword

A lot of nods to Bruce Lee's Enter the Dragon. Great animation. The usual excellent performances from the regular voice cast (this was Casey Kasem's final performance as Shaggy - Matthew Lillard took over the following year). Guest voices include Kelly Hu, George Takei, and Brian Cox (the awesome actor, not that astronomer). Not the best Scooby movie by a long shot, but better than I expected. 7/10

ZOINKS! YEAT! JEEPERS! JENKYS! DAME DA NE!!! Yeah. Search up Fred's new catchphrase and you will find it. Also this movie is decent. Typical scoobydoo movie.

Scooby-Doo! And the Samurai Sword (2009)

** (out of 4)

The gang travels to Japan so that Daphne can take part in a karate tournament but before long the entire thing is ruined by a group of ninjas who plan to bring back the ghost of The Black Samurai. Obviously the gang tries to determine what's really go on and what led to the supernatural being able to take over. It seems most fans of Scooby-Doo are mixed on some of the latest movies to be made and I must say that this one here didn't win me over. My kid, on the other hand, really enjoyed it but the idea of Scooby and ninjas in the same movie won him over before the thing even started. With that said, when it was over he immediately wanted to watch it again so obviously the film worked for its target audience. I just really didn't enjoy the characters and I thought the villain was also rather lame and didn't add up to much. Like most of the recent movies this one here wants to be more funny than anything else. While some of the jokes worked (like the gang and their catchphrases) the majority of them just fell flat for me. The animation is quite good throughout the picture and I really liked the visual look of the villain as well as the darker tones given to most of the scenes that he was in. I really wish the characters had been better written and this is especially true for Fred, Daphne and Velma. They just never really came to life and for that matter Scooby and Shaggy weren't at the top of their game.

Daphne is relevant...she has a place that is more than bait, more than Fred's arm candy, more than a damsel in distress....in fact, Daphne is Bruce Lee.

Daphne has Entered the Dragon.

The juxtapose of her character is just too awesome to pass by. I can't remember seeing a Daphne like this before. I likely won't see one like this again.

For that reason alone it's worth watching...but like so many others, the ending doesn't exactly live up to the start and falls flat compared to the build up.

The plus side is, even at the end, Daphne has Entered the Dragon. So despite the lackluster finish that seems of so common with the Scooby Doo movies, you still get to see Daphne doing her Bruce Lee impression in a film that wonderfully parodies the master's break out film.

I appreciate the fact that Samurai Sword builds up to the traditional Scooby-Doo unmasking reveal only for it to come less than halfway through the movie and it using that to double down on its premise as a "things just got real" moment.

It opens feeling more about Daphne's accomplishments (the movie kicks off with her competing in a karate tournament) that gets completely pushed by the wayside because Shaggy and Scooby are the two you actually came to see.

And, honestly? I never really connected with the "Ultra Instinct Shaggy" meme (hello, I am massively dating this review here) but for those true believers, Samurai Sword ends up having a couple of weirdly relevant plot developments on that front.

Strange movie, otherwise. Casey Kasem's last role, and you can tell for how significantly more haggard he sounds compared to Frank Welker, who as always continues to sound exactly like Frank Welker has since 1969.

Also, just to get it out of the way: for a 2009 animated movie about Japanese culture, you expect it to be a little ignorant about non-Americans as a matter of course, but you truly won't be prepared for the swerves this movie pulls in its stereotyping of foreign peoples.

Overall, the movie is pretty mid, but you could do a lot worse.