Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery

Kane has returned to WWE City. There is a ghost bear monster. Shaggy and Scooby win a trip to WWE City and WrestleMania. The gang arrives to find a mystery to solve.

This is fine Scooby-Doo while incorporating WWE. I would like some more imaginative names for Scooby and Shaggy. I'm not up-to-date with some of the wrestlers but I do know quite a few of them. This is probably more for the WWE fans.

When I was a little kid I used to watch both Scooby-Doo and WWE on TV. Now, it's a pleasure for me to be able to watch a movie which contains those two things. Apparently, I'm not a child anymore, but that does not mean that I can not watch an animated movie mixing my favorite TV shows as a small fry. If I had seen that movie those past years, I would definitely be excited. However, even as an (almost) adult I watch that kind of films gladly! I bet you'll be delighted too.

Sometimes, I love travelling back in the past and that movie is a first-class ticket for that trip, don't you think so? Watching John Cena as a cartoon exploring with Saggy and Scooby the WWE City, that's cool. I didn't get bored at the whole movie, even if its length is 80 minutes. I mean that the Scooby-Doo episodes on the TV used to be like 30 minutes, but that's OK, I don't mind. Nevertheless, it could be shorter, and that means better.

If you remember the Scooby-Doo episodes, the movie is exactly like those: There's a strange monster and Scooby-Doo's clique has to chase it and catch it. At that particular film, they got help by WWE superstars, like John Cena, Sin Cara, Triple-H etc. I like it! So, people, give it a chance, it's totally worth it. You won't regret it (unless you are expecting to watch a masterpiece).

Hmmmmmm...

I really don't know how to feel about this.

I mean, I can see Scooby and Shaggy as being WWF fans. I can see them being the types of rubes that don't understand that it's all fake. that works.

But the Bear? Really, it doesn't fit for a big bad.

And the show is a bit over-the-top even for Scooby Doo. It is all a little bit too much and builds up to yet another forgettable ending.

It's a negative in oh so many ways. It doesn't work, especially as a Scooby Doo movie.

So there is all of that weighted against it....

BUT, it was funny and it had moments where it moved from funny to hysterical.

So even though it doesn't work as movie, it passes only on the strength of its humor.

OK. Despite being a longtime wrestling fan and frankly, of Scooby Doo too, I'm probably not the target audience that the film was made for anymore. That said, despite its wild view of how Wrestling works I thought it was passable.

Having won tickets to WrestleMania, by completing the hidden bonus dance at the end of a WWE game, Shaggy (Matthew Lillard), Scooby (Frank Welker) and the rest of the gang head to WWE City, where the shows emanate from and where the superstars work, train and (inexplicably) live. A ghostly bear appears and threatens to ruin the show, along with an old woodsman, who resents the WWE's arrival in his vicinity.

So, from a technical standpoint "WrestleMania Mystery" isn't great. The animation is cheap and occasionally a bit sloppy, particularly when it comes to backgrounds. The likenesses of the wrestlers is pretty good though, and there are a number of "legends" hidden in some scenes to pick out. The professional actors do a good job with their voiceovers, but some of the WWE guys aren't as successful. HHH particularly stands out as unnatural, along with the Miz - who's given a weird slapstick comedy role in proceedings.

From a Scooby Doo point of view it's actually a decent story. Well.... It's the same Scooby Doo story it always was, but I was convinced that one of the characters, who turned out to be a red herring, was actually behind it. From the WWE's point of view, I'm not sure why they didn't want it to be slightly more realistic; why they were happy to give the impression that everyone would live together, why they want to let any show, let alone a WrestleMania come from this tiny arena. The films production timeframe leaves some interesting selections, would Sin Cara, or AJ Lee have featured so heavily, if they'd have known how their WWE Careers would pan out. No Brock Lesnar, Randy Orton, Kofi Kingston. Bray Wyatt would have made a good foil for the gang.

There are some humorous moments though not enough that I'd recommend picking up the film.

Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery (2014)

** 1/2 (out of 4)

The latest mystery has Shaggy and Scooby winning a wrestling video game, which gives them the grand prize of a week at the WWE headquarters. Once there the gang gets involved with the mystery involving a giant glowing bear who is wrecking havoc on the place and plans to ruin the upcoming WrestleMania. The latest movie from Scooby-Doo isn't the greatest and in fact it's a major set back when compared to BIG TOP SCOOBY-DOO but there's no doubt that fans will still want to check it out. While the film remains entertaining for the most part, there's no question that it lacks a certain amount of charm. I'm not sure why on Earth the filmmakers decided to mix in the wrestling stars but it really didn't make for a good combination. I'm not going to lie, I stopped watching wrestling years ago but I thought they could have done a few interesting things with it. Sadly, that really didn't happen as we get the typical types of jokes that you'd expect and of course Shaggy and Scooby eventually have to face down one of the biggest people in the business. The film does have some good stuff in it including the monster bear, which looked excellent and made for a great villain. It's really too bad he wasn't used more. The animation is top-notch as you'd expect and there's no doubt that Scooby is always at the top of his game. The vocal work is good by all, which is another plus. The story itself is pretty standard and it's not too hard to figure out who's going to be behind the mask. Still, even with the flaws, the film manages to be entertaining.