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DVD Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico
Sooner or later, the Mystery, Inc. gang had to take on Mexico's legendary Bigfoot equivalent, El Chupacabra, and that's precisely what they do in this entertaining, feature-length, Scooby-style investigation into the paranormal. Taking the Mystery Van south of the border, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo celebrate Day of the Dead festivities, which become less festive when a towering, glowering Chupacabra monster turns up to terrify both tourists and locals. The young snoops smell a conspiracy, and as they chase down clues their search for the truth leads them into sundry Mexican antiquities--ancient tombs and temples--where danger increases exponentially. There are the usual rituals: Our time-warped heroes run like the wind during encounters with alleged ghouls--particularly best-buds Shaggy and Scooby, when they aren't stuffing themselves with delicious Scooby Snacks. The animation is slicker and smoother--and more pleasing--than some other, recent Scooby-Doo features. --Tom Keogh
Review(s): DVD Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico
You'll Figure Out One of the Villans Inside 10 Minutes....
....and you'll never even meet the other one. That said, this is a pretty weak Scooby film, but it does have some surprises to it and Warner seemed to have made a respectable effort on this film. The story begins with the gang going onvacation to Mexico to meet Freddy's pen pal for the "Day of the Dead" festival, sort of a Mexican Halloween. But when they get there they have a run in with "El Chuppacabara"(I think that's how you spell it), the Mexican bigfoot. The story takes a while to get interesting and the begining half of the movie is kind of slow an meandering. It is nice to see the original voice cast back together, and the WB has done a pretty good job of recreating the old HB atmosphere. It's just too bad the movie wasn't as good as the prepatation and cast. Not worth the money. Rent it.
A Decent Reunion At Best
The best way to begin is to show you where I stand. I think "Zombie Island" and "The Witch's Ghost" were excellent. I didn't much care for "Alien Invasion" or "Cyber Chase." I thought "The Legend of the Vampire" was a surprisingly good return to form. Onto chapter six. I can't really say this is one of Scooby's better movies. It kind of lacks the punch and surprises of "Zombie Island" and "The Witch's Ghost." Instead of the scarey surprises seen in the first two movies, this 6th chapter seems to rely more on silly chases. (But if you like the original episodes, you probably won't mind that so much.) Also, in my opinion, the script is weaker which means the movie seems very long and drawn out. ("Zombie Island" and "Witch's Ghost" don't seem to have many dull moments at all.) And, I won't say too much here, but when the mystery is uncovered and you really didn't get to know the culprit in the first place, a certain edge is missing. (In "Zombie Island" and "Witch's Ghost," we got to know the culprits very well in the 1st half of the movie, and therefore, there was a scarey sense of recognition when the plots were uncovered. The main reason I can give to watch this movie is that it was at least nice to the original line up from the early cartoons (Casey Kasem-Shaggy, Frank Welker-Fred, Heather North-Daphne, and Nicole Jaffee-Velmah) together again. The movie is worth some interest, but it's more of a long episode. If you like Scooby, this movie is watchable. But, don't expect the terror, intensity, and suspense of "Zombie Island," "The Witch's Ghost," or even "Legend of the Vampire."
Seething mad at this film...
Following a torrent of scooby movies to be released on video and DVD comes "Scooby-Doo an the Monster of Mexico," a film that highlights the legend of El Chupacabre, the Mexican Bigfoot. All the same, the Legend of the Vampire totally insulted the vampire myth, and so I didn't expect this new one to be any different. For that reason, I waited until it was being played on the cartoon network before watching...
Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico
Here's how it ranked...
Sound: 3.5/5
Like Legend of the Vampire, this movie used a lot of the songs from the original series, and a few new ones, but unlike Legend of the Vampire, the original songs in this series were stereotypical to the point of being annoying. Hence the additional half-point down from that film.
Graphics: 3/5
The same grade that I gave the graphics in "Legend of the Vampire" and for the same reasons. This movie uses graphics that were just not as good as they could, or logically should have been, and were barely even better than those seen in the original series.
Story Concept: 3/5
Slightly less cheesy than the concept in Legend of the Vampire, but no less cynical towards the supernatural. Scooby and the gang visit Mexico for no real reason except to be in time for a mexican halloween, where they encounter El Chupacabre, and find out that there's a plot brewing. But as in the last movie, and the series, there were no real monsters. This creature was really just some woman in an animatronic suit. That was annoying, and I'm glad I didn't spend any money on it for that reason alone.
Story Presentation: 3/5
Similar to Legend of the Vampire in presentation, cause and resolution, except that the pleasing scenes of Daphne and Velma hanging out as they did in that movie were dropped in favor of scenes of the entire gang as stereotypical (and somewhat insulting) mexican tourists. Like in Legend of the Vampire, there is no real monster, but to make things even worse, Velma makes some comments near the end about monster stories that really cheezed me off. Her acts of superhuman strength in mid-movie were balanced off by the fact that they spent that whole section of the film getting chased my monstrous stone statues and tourists; a part which had nothing to do with the rest of the movie, and was seemingly added just to extent the length. The words of many of the bit-part characters got on my nerves too. I simply found the movie distasteful. Yes, it's scooby, and like Legend of the Vampire, it's funny scooby material, but it was presented too much like an episode of the series, and not enough like something worth making a movie over.
Acting: 5/5
Perfect grade here, because who plays Velma, Shaggy, Daphne and Freddy like their original voice actors? Like in Legend of the Vampire, the original actors returned, but again, it's a shame they had to pick a film like this to lend their voices to.
All in All: 3.5/5
I enjoyed this movie more than alien invaders, but less than Legend of the Vampire, because honestly, Legend of the Vampire at least had A LITTLE nostalgia to it and didn't go overboard into cheesy behavior and unforgivable puns like this movie does. However, this movie had no thrills at all, and was really just a silly little romp through a country which was, at best, a caricature of a real one. Frankly, I wanted more from Scooby, but it would be a lie to say I had EXPECTED more. This film is most comparable to Legend of the Vampire in general mood, pace and result, but it's sillier and less respectful, so if that's your cup of tea, have a ball. Otherwise, you may join me in a boycott of this movie. Toodles.
Related DVD's Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico
While vacationing Down Under, the mystery-solving quintet decides to head into the Australian outback to take in the sights and a rock festival competition held at Vampire Rock. But, of course, that is not to be. "Vampires" have been swooping down from the craggy cliffs and abducting the talent, forcing the detectives to go undercover as a rock band. (Their song? Predictably, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?") The aboriginal myth of Yowie Yahoo is thrown in, along with two aboriginal characters. Adults may have trouble keeping the glam-rock musicians separate from the vampires, but kids will follow enough of the complex plot and high-tech resolution. This 70-minute movie is a contemporary take on the vintage television series with Casey Kasem repeating the honors as the voice of... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Scott Jeralds DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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I have been a big time critic of most of the recent Scooby films because the characters didn't act the same as they normally did, and the stories were either stupid or didn't fit the Scooby theme. For example, "Zombie Island" didn't seem like the Scooby I've grown up watching, "Witch's Ghost" was just dreadful in every way, "Alien Invaders" was too much like "Star Trek" and "Monster of Mexico" was very slow and easy to figure out. This movie is more like the cartoon we've all grown to love.
In this movie Scooby and the Gang travel to Scotland to visit Blake Castle, the home of Daphne's cousin and many of her ancestors, for the Highland Games. But on the road Shaggy thinks he sees something in the water, and when they get there Daphne's cousin tells them all about how the Loch... More Info about this DVD DVD Release Date: Released the 22 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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This show looked awful. If you can stomach the weak computer animation. These cartoon clones that lack and charm and the warm funny jokes of the earlier Scooby Doo films, and realize that this came from the same film studio that gave us the awful live action Scooby Doo films, then that says it all. The Warners dvd disk of this film is also awful with both a lousy cartoon and their version of bonus features looks like some of the same cheap artists who did the JLU and Teen Titans cartoons on DVD, also did this. It make me sick. I think it would make anyone who grew up watching Scooby Doo, yearning for the days when Bill Hanna and Joe Barbara were doing them. They at least knew what they were doing. More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Frank Welker - Casey Kasem Director(s): Tim Maltby DVD Release Date: Released the 08 February 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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As in Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, this animated feature takes the finest ingredients from the Saturday morning TV series--the original Scooby gang (minus Scrappy-Doo) and their groovy exclamations ("Zoinks, jinkies!")--and updates the proceedings with a modern recipe. In this adventure, the gang's past exploits are immortalized in a video game. Due to an evil computer virus, however, they get sucked into that very game! It consists of several levels, including a Roman Colosseum (shades of Gladiator) and a prehistoric jungle (shades of Jurassic Park). To move from one level to the next, the gang has to find the box of Scooby Snack. With the irrepressible, ever-hungry Shaggy and Scooby--and their cybercounterparts--part of this intrepid crew, how can... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Scooby Doo DVD Release Date: Released the 01 June 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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A lot has changed since the original '70s-era gang of Scooby-Doo fans gave way to today's followers of the hipster mystery cartoon series. For one, nowadays kids don't have to wait around for the half-hour Saturday morning show- -they can pick up a copy of Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders. All the familiar elements are here; even the groovy green Mystery Machine makes a comeback, but it isn't as reliable as it used to be. At the outset of Alien Invaders, it breaks down, leaving the crime-solving crew stranded in a creepy desert town overrun by aliens. From there, the plot unwinds faster than Scooby can down a box of his namesake snacks. A band of swollen-headed purple and green space guys--Zoinks--send the terrified teens scrambling for cover, but it's not long... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Jim Stenstrum DVD Release Date: Released the 03 October 2000 Usually ships in 24 hours
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