Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

WWE is hosting an off-road race. Scooby and Shaggy are big fans and Vince McMahon gives them a food truck to operate. Gearhead Fred brings the girls. Vince McMahon asks the gang for help when a curse seemingly descends upon the race.

I know some WWE, but non of the new people. This is much more for WWE fans. The gang are being fans of the wrestlers. I don't know anything about wrestlers racing trucks. It seems more like Mad Libs exercise. I would think that WWE personalities are more set up for a haunted house adventure. There are also too many of them. There is a more basic issue. This is much more interested in the race than the ghost hunting. The racing is not compelling at all. The ghost hunting needs more non-WWE characters as suspects. I'm sure that WWE fans will like the cartoon versions of their favorite wrestlers.

I'm a Sheamus fan, and I enjoyed seeing him in an animated version in this movie. Hopefully Scooby and gang with have more WWE movies with Sheamus in it. All the Sheamus fans will enjoy it.

Being a huge 'Scooby Doo' fan for goodness knows how long, any new show, special or film would be watched with great anticipation. While 'Scooby Doo Where Are You' is still the jewel of the crown of the franchise, a vast majority of the 'Scooby Doo' films have a huge amount to like and are worth watching at least once.

The second Scooby Doo and WWE cross-over (after 2014's 'WrestleMania Mystery'), 'Curse of the Speed Demon' is not one of the best 'Scooby Doo' films. Not like 'Zombie Island', 'Witch's Ghost', 'Big Top', 'Goblin King' (am aware that this is not going to be a popular opinion) and 'Mask of the Blue Falcon', though find a lot to like about almost all the animated 'Scooby Doo' films (one of few exceptions being 'Monster of Mexico'). Actually too preferred 'WrestleMania Mystery' which felt more balanced in its components. For me, 'Curse of the Speed Demon' is one of the weaker outings.

Not because it's bad, far from it. It just felt a little unbalanced. For WWE fans, it is more successful, as they are much more prominent. The WWE sequences are exciting, fun to watch and well animated and choreographed, though there could have been more of them in action while a couple of their scenes are a little too prolonged. The characters entertain and are voiced well.

For Scooby Doo fans, like me (more so than WWE and more of the reason for viewing), 'Curse of the Speed Demon' doesn't fare so well. What there is of them is fine, the gang are true to personality and what they're given is charming and engaging. The chemistry between them is great, especially between Scooby and Shaggy (one of the franchise's biggest selling points in the first place), and the writing is endearingly goofy and amusing with a good deal of heart. The problem is that they are underused and feel too much like support characters when actually they should be the stars.

Likewise there could have been more mystery. It is slight, doesn't feature enough (playing second fiddle to the WWE) and the identity of the culprit and the motive are too prematurely foreseeable, knew who it was without trouble well before the reveal myself. It is also though fun, creepy and engaging with a good, well designed and pretty freaky villain.

On a visual level, 'Curse of the Speed Demon' is great. Everything is beautifully drawn and meticulously detailed, with rich, atmospheric colours and a lot of care and time clearly went into how the characters were drawn and move. The music is both dynamic and groovy, with a lot of energy and a haunting undercurrent.

Voice acting is also spot on from all, especially from Matthew Lillard, for a while he has filled big shoes in a more than worthy way and does Casey Kasem proud. It is amazing too at how it's been nearly 50 years since 'Scooby Doo' first started and Frank Welker is still voicing Fred and with no signs with being long in the tooth. His Scooby voice has taken a lot of getting used to, having grown up with Don Messick, but it has grown on me.

Overall, sort of a mixed-marginally positive experience for me. Liked enough aspects to stop me from rating it badly, but its disjointed and unbalanced nature stopped me from enjoying it more. 6/10 Bethany Cox

I didn't like the first WWE movie much at all, and this is certainly a step up in quality. We don't spend as much time getting into depth of clues and the mystery as I'd like, but there were plenty of red herrings and uncertainty in what was going on. The animation is solid, and the race sabotage is a classic setting that works well, a throwback to the What's New episode The Fast and the Wormious. The dialogue felt off and it doesn't feel like the gang is ever really together solving a mystery. Fred is presented as getting really into cars but then works on a car all night and sleeps through much of the action, ends up doing very little in the movie. This is a clear step backwards for Daphne as a well-realized and nuanced character, as she is presented as the traditional superficial Daphne of old. Her minor fights with Velma are silly and don't seem worthy of their screentime. Shaggy and Scooby definitely have the funny lines they always have (the bad toaster line and the accepting being called skinny man and dead meat were great) but several times their dialogue and animation looked a bit off. Shaggy was more of a scaredy caricature than usual (which says something), and in general they didn't quite have the energy I expect from them. We get introduced to a vast swath of WWE characters, and it ends up feeling like quantity over quality, as most are a one-dimensional caricature. It hits all the notes and feels like a regular Scooby movie, but I don't think it rises above a generic Scooby movie at any point, and the relative weakness of the gang's characters here keep it a 6 for me.

Cross-overs are part of 'Scooby-Doo' lore. They are part of the fabric of the franchise since all the way back with the 'New Scooby-Doo Movies' way back when.

Recently we've had the 'And Guess Who?' series that was of a similar ilk.

I think your enjoyment of them really comes down to whether you a) know the thing it's being crossed over with and b) know the people involved.

I'm not a fan of WWE or wrestling in general, so while I liked the 'Scooby-Doo' elements of this, the WWE bits went right over my head and I can't say I really engaged with it.

The animation is good, so are the voice actors performances, but this just wasn't for me.