Wednesday 1 November 2017

Movie Review: Scooby Doo Mask Of The Blue Falcon (2012)

Scooby Doo Mask Of The Blue Falcon
2012
Cast: Matthew Lillard, Frank Welker, Mindy Cohn, Diedrich Badder, Jeff Bennett, John DiMaggio, Tara Strong, Billy West 
Genre: Direct To DVD Animated Superhero Action Comedy

Plot: The diabolical Mr Hyde has unleashed a horde of nightmare creatures on the Mega Mondo Pop Cartoon-a-Con where Shaggy & Scooby are planning to see the new Blue Falcon & Dynomutt movie. Now it's up to Mystery Incorporated to stop a mixed up madman, & save the day






'Hey, Scoob, Don't Be Afraid....'

Scooby Doo has been one of Hanna-Barbera's go-to major success stories insofar as their properties and franchises go; since its debut during the 1960s, the series has spawned numerous spin-off series and big budget & direct- to- DVD feature-length movies in both animated and live-action form with some of them where Mystery Incorporated team up with a well-known celebrity or another Hanna-Barbera character to help unravel and solve the case. In addition to capturing and unmasking the evil doers and foiling their ghastly plans as well.

Going into this film, I knew that I would like it, but never enjoy it fully: I'm not really into Scooby Doo a great deal, though I did enjoy the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo. Yet I so enjoyed the Dynomutt: Dog Wonder episodes that aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang channel, back in the 1990s. They were amusing and a whole of fun, courtesy of Dynomutt himself. The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt partnership is akin to Batman and Robin. I'm assuming here that Hanna-Barbera based their creation of Blue Falcon on Batman. Or to be precise, the '60s version of Batman as played by Adam West on the TV series. For those of you who haven't see it, it's a spoof on Batman and it's basically Scooby Doo meets Batman: the superhero theme mixed together with the mystery-solving antics of Scooby Doo and teenagers Shaggy Rogers, Velma Dinkley, Daphne Blake and Fred Jones. Some people like Dynomutt, like me, whilst there are others who don't enjoy it.

And so much to my pleasure and happiness, it turns out Scooby-Doo Mask of the Blue Falcon was an extremely entertaining and insightful Scooby cross-over animated movie. I also thought it was cool to make it more modern for the current generation, as well as include references to other Hanna- Barbera characters and being a fan of Hanna-Barbera's many classic shows, this brought a smile to my face. I also think this made the film even more enjoyable and as such, I became engrossed in the plot & the story held my attention all the way to the end.

The story's main location is that of a comic book convention where an attack is looming on the horizon by a mysterious villain in disguise by the name of Mr Hyde and who is one of Blue Falcon & Dynomutt's arch enemies. Owen Garrison is an actor who plays Blue Falcon, who becomes resentful and bitter over the TV producers overlooking him in favour of a younger actor & the newer & modern-looking Blue Falcon. Luckily, he still has Shaggy and Scooby as his loyal & dedicated fans.

Just like with the TV series, there are several red herring characters who are considered suspects and might be the real villain and have a motive for the crime, and yet turn out to be innocent and one character who is the eventual bad guy.

The voice acting is terrific and in hearing Matthew Lillard's character Shaggy & his voice properly, he was fantastic. But then he did put on a great impression of that character in the Live-action Scooby Doo movies, even though I am not keen on those films, and when Casey Kasem got older, Hanna Barbera turned to Lillard as his (long-term) replacement. He sounds so alike Kasem's Shaggy. You also have the great Frank Welker still lending his vocals as Fred & Scooby, as well as the talents of Jeff Bennett (Johnny Bravo), John DiMaggio & Billy West (Futurama), Tara Strong (The Rugrats) & Mindy Sterling, who you may recognise from the Austin Powers movies as Frau Farbissina, Dr Evil's right-hand woman.

I do wish for a bit more of Blue Falcon and Dynomutt; that being said, I so thoroughly enjoyed this one from start to finish. The idea of having a darker incarnation of Blue Falcon and Dynomutt was a good move that made it even more entertaining and with Blue Falcon, he is a superhero character who is very serious and eager to get things done and who doesn't mess about.

I liked all of the characters, but I was a bit mystified over Velma's uptight and negative attitude, which was not something I had expected from her and it did seem to be out of character. Yet for some reason, the writers decided to make her out that way, which kind of baffles me.





Final Verdict:

At times humourous but as a whole, this is a feel-good Scooby movie with a great story that became more and more engrossing as it went on. The Hanna-Barbera character cameos were a nice touch also and it does bring back memories of Cartoon Network and Boomerang of yesteryear, way before those networks went downhill with their programming.


Scooby-Doo Mask of the Blue Falcon is terrific Scooby- snacking fun and well worth it for any budding Hanna-Barbera, Scooby Doo or Saturday morning cartoon fan.


Overall:



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