Scooby-Doo 2002

Glenn Lovell, San Jose Mercury News: The movie Scooby is a delight -- by turns lovable, charming, conspiratorial and snooty. Read more

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: A knowing, funny big-screen version that's more entertaining than you might expect. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: A tiresome, repetitive film that is in no way going to hold up to repeated viewings, neither for kids who think flatulence is hilarious nor young adults desperately seeking camp. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: The acting is stiff, the story lacks all trace of wit, the sets look like they were borrowed from Gilligan's Island -- and the CGI Scooby might well be the worst special-effects creation of the year. Read more

Susan Stark, Detroit News: It may ... work as a jaunt down memory lane for teens and young adults who grew up on televised Scooby-Doo shows or reruns. Read more

Robert K. Elder, Chicago Tribune: Scooby-Doo knows when to take itself seriously and when to laugh at itself -- even if its audience isn't laughing along at every gag. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: The obnoxious special effects, the obligatory outbursts of flatulence and the incessant, so-five-minutes-ago pop music on the soundtrack overwhelm what is left of the scruffy, dopey old Hanna-Barbera charm. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: By embracing the original series' tacky elements and inserting just enough self-mockery to avoid smugness, the movie manages to fulfill basic expectations. Read more

Tom Keogh, Seattle Times: Throws scraps to different audience constituencies and ends up with a muddle. Read more

Eleanor Ringel Gillespie, Atlanta Journal-Constitution: Comes off as a harmless but limp vehicle for a lot of product tie-ins. Read more

Christopher Muther, Boston Globe: The novelty of seeing these characters on the big screen is occasionally fun, but this Scooby-Doo is no Great Dane. Read more

Robin Rauzi, Los Angeles Times: Entertainment more disposable than Hanna-Barbera's half-hour cartoons ever were. Read more

Houston Chronicle: Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Ruh-roh! Romething's really wrong with this ricture! Read more

Liam Lacey, Globe and Mail: A frenetic, cluttered $100-million worth of haphazard plotting, fart jokes, computer-generated monsters and visual chaos. Read more

Tom Maurstad, Dallas Morning News: An uneven and sometimes inappropriate mix of entertainment gambits. Read more

Ernest Hardy, L.A. Weekly: The source material here is flimsy to begin with, and neither Gunn nor Gosnell seems to know how to flesh it out. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: The movie drags, and the occasional bursts of mirth and self-referential humor can't save it from bogging down. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I feel no sympathy with any of the characters, I am unable to judge whether the live action movie is a better idea than the all-cartoon TV approach, I am unable to generate the slightest interest in the plot, and I laughed not a single time. Read more

Andrew O'Hehir, Salon.com: Any thinking, reasoning human being with an appreciation for cinema would reject it as the vilest trash. Needless to say, it cracked me up the whole way. Read more

Jonathan Curiel, San Francisco Chronicle: Do you really want to spend money watching what is essentially marginality, or would those dollars be better used to see a better film or even buy a good book? Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Peter Howell, Toronto Star: Lillard gives the flick its manic energy, and the rest of the gang holds its own. Read more

Derek Adams, Time Out: Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Not that the TV show was so riveting, but most of the half-hour plots were more compelling than this lackluster warmover. Read more

Joe Leydon, Variety: Much funnier than it has any right to be, and filled with just enough inside jokes to please longtime fans of the cartoon franchise. Read more

J. Hoberman, Village Voice: As this movie knows what it is, Scooby-Doo's a relatively painless 85 minutes. Read more