Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery

It's Kiss World and we're all just living in it. Kiss World is an amusement park based on the band. There is a witch haunting it. Mystery solvers are called in. Kiss fan Daphne decides to volunteer the group's services without an actual invitation.

The Kiss boys are basically cartoons themselves. So this is very natural to the band. There is a disconnect in that they are flying around in a superhero movie whereas the Scooby gang is still grounded. I would have preferred having the Band maintain their human scale. They could solve the mystery Scooby style. This just goes off the rails but that is Kiss in essence. It's ironic that it's all caused by drugs. The other missed opportunity is Daphne's fandom. She should be in her Kiss makeup throughout the movie. This does have the band's great songs. This is still fun but it is a bit of a mess.

As a huge Scooby Doo fan, Scooby Doo! And KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery may not be one of the best of the Scooby Doo films in the way Witch's Ghost, Zombie Island, Big Top, Mask of the Blue Falcon and Goblin King are, but it is hardly a lesser effort (Monster of Mexico is my personal least favourite) and is definitely worth a watch.

The animation is great, some of the most imaginative and funky of any Scooby Doo film. 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. Even better, and perhaps the best thing about the film, is the terrific rock and roll soundtrack filled with a mix of KISS' biggest hits and songs every bit as catchy, KISS fans will be in KISS heaven almost certainly.

Scooby Doo! And KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery is a smartly written and funny film as well, with some endearing goofy slapstick and jokes, great inside jokes with KISS and witty digs at Fred's taste in music and commercialism in the business. The story is always diverting, love the over-the-top strangeness of the KISS scenes and it didn't feel too much of a KISS rock video and while the ending did feel rushed, not quite explained enough and the identity of the villain a little obvious the mystery is fun and suspenseful.

The characters all engage, Scooby and the gang are true to personality, fun to watch and have an easy-going chemistry, Velma is more likable than she has been in some of the more recent outings and Shaggy and Scooby's friendship is charming as always. KISS are great additions and have really interesting personalities, while the villain is an appropriately spooky one. The voice work is very good, the Scooby Doo regulars (especially Matthew Lillard) are spot on and KISS are a very pleasant surprise and sound more than comfortable in their as themselves roles.

All in all, not Scooby Doo at his best, but Scooby Doo! And KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery is never less than a rocking good time, and at its best it's an absolute blast. 8/10 Bethany Cox

I mean...come on, you get what you're expecting. If you saw the clips of "KISS Saves Santa" on "Family Guy" and thought that'd be fun to watch, you pretty much get that here. The campiness, the corny humor, the band members having fun voicing themselves, etc.

HOWEVER!!!! There is a musical scene in this movie, one in particular, that is so over-the-top and so bad-ass that you will be a KISS fan if you weren't before, and something that made me take such a deep dive into a band's discography is something I cannot rank any lower than an 8. I am glad I live in a reality where this can exist.

Scooby-Doo and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery (2015)

*** (out of 4)

Scooby and the gang are headed to a KISS amusement park for a big concert but once they get there they are saddened to learn that it has been canceled because a phantom is stalking the park. The group agrees to help the band try and find out who the phantom is and why she's there.

As a life-long Scooby-Doo fan, I've been disappointed with the last couple movies but this one here gets things back on track and it's really a nice little throw-back to the Scooby Doo Movies, which had the gang teaming up with various famous people for one hour episodes. This movie here has some of the best animation from the series and there's no doubt that the use of the KIiss music is a major plus. I won't ruin which of their songs are played here but they certainly help punch up the action and especially the song playing over the title credits.

As far as the story goes, it's actually fairly interesting, although the mystery is pretty much a disaster as it's obvious who the bad guy is going to be. In fact, it's easy to figure out why they're doing it. The story itself has some pretty wild stuff going on including various winks to other Kiss songs and album titles. The villain, for the most part, is a good one and the look of the costume was quite good as was the red fog that follows her. Scooby and his boys are in fine form here and I thought the animated Kiss members were a lot of fun.

SCOOBY-DOO AND KISS: ROCK AND ROLL MYSTERY isn't the best movie of the series but it's certainly has some fresh moments and the music is great. At just 72 minutes the film moves at a nice pace and makes for a solid entertainment. Plus, seeing Scooby and his buddies in full Kiss make-up was quite fun.

Content: Super-Awesome. Other than 1 or 2 of the McFarlane action figures and a handful of the McFarlane comic books, I really have never owned any of KISS's stuff. I neither loved nor hated their music, but admired their merchandising strategy and as someone who spent the 90′s working in a Heavy Metal record store, we made sure to order every crazy KISS item we could.

But after watching this movie it is hard to not be a KISS fan. I found myself singing Rock N Roll All Night while cutting open the packaging. KISS songs are peppered throughout the movie and they all sound great. The cartoon versions of the band are thinner and younger than their real-life counterparts and possess super-powers. Everything the band does in this movie is mind-blowingly cool.

The Scooby Doo end of this movie is spot on and done to perfection. And when Shaggy and Scooby take The Demon's advice, I cheered very loud because it was super-cool. Fred and Daphne have some great stuff with 2 love triangles involving The Star Child and the scientist lady that makes Fred pull out his creepy evil smile at one point. Velma gets some one-on-one time with The Spaceman as she grips tightly to hold on to her skepticism.

Only having read a few of the Psycho Circus comics, I am not sure what lore other comics created for KISS, but this movie expands the mythos surrounding the band in exciting, imaginative and fairly logical ways. The titles of Songs, Albums and more take on deeper meanings. The movie keeps pushing the boundaries on what you could possibly expect from it.

Bruce Kulick did tweet a post about how this movie does give a shout out to past members of KISS. There is a screen-shot and if you are familiar with the lore of KISS, it is right there.

Special Features: Good. KISS Cut-Ups is just out takes of KISS doing some promotion for this movie. The finished version of which is not on this release. These bloopers are not really funny.

Are You A Scooby or a Shaggy? is KISS, Abby from NCIS and Jay & Silent Bob saying if they relate more to Scooby or Shaggy. Points to Thayer for his out of the box answer, even if he can't land on the exact name.

Trailers: Nothing new. Opens with Legos: DC Heroes: Attack of the Legion of Doom. (first seen on Tom & Jerry vs Jonny Quest) and Tom & Jerry vs Jonny Quest. In the Special Features section trailers for Scooby Doo vs WWE and Lego Dimensions which may be a video game, but the trailer features Joel McHale. (Amazon has 2 different trailers, one feat. Christopher Lloyd as Doc Brown.) (BTW DC Lego movies have more action and less dumb comedy than Star Wars Lego movies.)

Blu Ray special features also include 2 episodes from the 3rd season of Scooby Doo Where Are You (Part of the Scooby Doo/Dynomutt Hour) S03E04 To Switch A Witch and S03E11 The Diabolical Disc Demon.

Buy/Don't Buy: Yes. Buy. This movie does not disappoint in any way. I want more. This is a great format for KISS. Our passport to the KISS realm is the Scooby gang so KISS gets to be mysterious. I would love it if Warner Animation created a Hanna Barbera-style cartoon series for Cartoon Network with a group of Mystery Solving Teens who summon KISS whenever they find themselves in trouble. Like the Godzilla Power Hour with the trouble alert.