I actually found Scooby-Doo: Franken Creepy to be one of the better entries of the recent DTV movies. The animation is more or less the same but the humor is great, include some fun in-jokes and a strangely stylistic direction style seemingly inspired by Edgar Wright’s The World’s End (and a couple others that I can’t remember).
Scooby-Doo: Franken Creepy
(2014)
Genre(s): Animation, Comedy, Crime, Mystery
Warner Bros. | NR – 74 min. – $24.98 | August 19, 2014
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MOVIE INFO: Directed by: Paul McEvoy Writer(s): Jim Krieg (written by) Voice Cast: Frank Welker, Mindy Cohn, Grey DeLisle Griffin, Matthew Lillard DISC INFO: Audio: English (DTS-HD MA 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 2.0), Spanish (Dolby Digital 2.0) |
THE MOVIE – 3.75/5
Plot Outline: Scooby-Doo and those “meddling kids” Shaggy (voiced by MATTHEW LILLARD), Fred (FRANK WELKER, who also voices Scooby), Daphne (GREY DELISLE-GRIFFIN) and Velma (MINDY COHN) are back!
Velma discovers she’s inherited her great-great Uncle Dr. Von Dinkenstein’s cursed castle in the terrifying town of Transylvania… Pennsylvania. Just when the gang persuades Velma to go claim her inheritance, the ghost of Von Dinkenstein Castle blows up the Mystery Machine as a warning! Now the crew must spring back into action, but this time it’s personal.
Who’s responsible for the Von Dinkenstein monster? What family secret has Velma been hiding? Will Fred recover from the loss of his beloved Mystery Machine? Can any helpless snack survive Scooby and Shaggy’s monster-sized appetite?
Quick Hit Review: All told, I’ve probably seen over a dozen of these Scooby-Doo animated movies (and have reviewed six, seven including this one) and although they are inconsistent in quality, for the most part I have enjoyed them. Now, the latest, and the second one released in 2014 following Scooby-Doo: Wrestle Mania (a clear ad for the WWE), Scooby-Doo: Franken Creepy is a fun flick with some nice twists and even callbacks to the old “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?” television series.
Once again, the voice talents are what make this group work. Yeah, Casey Kasem was a master voicing Shaggy but Matthew Lillard really has made an impression and done the voice of our favorite hamburger eating hippie justice. Frank Welker, the veteran of the group, returns as Fred (who he voiced in the original series) and Scooby while Mindy Cohn and Grey DeLisle Griffin once again voice Velma and Daphne respectively. The animation style is basically the same as the other recent animated movies where, although the main characters have the same wardrobe, the character designs are modernized and look quite good.
As far as the story goes, Franken Creepy actually is one of fun plots recently. You’ve got some good “creepy” atmosphere, some actual character development (light as it is) and the humor works so well. And in an odd twist, apparently the director took his inspiration from Edgar Wright’s The World’s End with many quick shot cuts (you’ll know what I mean when you see it). It’s an entertaining movie and for once, even with a short running time, the pacing was near pitch-perfect.
SPECIAL FEATURES – 0.5/5
This release comes with a semi-glossy and reflective slip cover. Inside is a DVD Copy and a redemption code for the UltraViolet Digital Copy.
Unfortunately, once again, we only get 2 Bonus Episodes, this time ‘A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts’ and ‘To Switch a Witch’.
VIDEO – 4.0/5
Scooby-Doo: Franken Creepy spooks onto Blu-ray shown with a 1.78 widescreen aspect ratio and a 1080p high-definition transfer. As with other of the recent Scooby DTV movies, colors are generally bright for some shots while darker scenes are nice and stark. It’s not what I would call a “fantastic” looking picture but it’s a solid enough transfer with no noticeable artifacting or pixilation; if there was a flaw there were some minor banding issues.
AUDIO – 3.75/5
The 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio track is satisfactory enough providing clear dialogue levels coming from the center channel while the front and rears are mainly used for the music, ambient noises and even the occasional explosions. It’s not a dynamic track and sometimes the depth is inconsistent yet for a DTV animated film, not all together bad.
OVERALL – 3.0/5
Overall, I actually found Scooby-Doo: Franken Creepy to be one of the better entries of the recent DTV movies. The animation is more or less the same but the humor is great, include some fun in-jokes and a strangely stylistic direction style seemingly inspired by Edgar Wright’s The World’s End (and a couple others that I can’t remember). The Blu-ray released by Warner Home Video has good video/audio transfers but, not surprisingly, the features are basically non-existent.
The Movieman
Published: 08/16/2014