Movie · Prime Video · 2002
Scooby-Doo
The gang that will not leave a frightened friend is the good idea. The movie is cruder than the idea.
The old idea is sound and worth telling a child: the frightening thing usually has a person inside it, and you do not have to look alone. This picture keeps that idea and piles on gags that have nothing to do with it. The friends reuniting is the part that scores. The rest is a theme park of its own.
A child who already knows the gang can watch the unmasking with you. Skip ahead to it if you must. Say that being scared together is allowed, and that someone is usually benefiting from the fear.
The eight
Industry
4/10
Mystery-solving is a job they are bad at separately and all right at together.
Household
4/10
Friendship is the household. It is real, and it is also a punchline.
Piety
3/10
The mask comes off, which is a small reverence for the truth.
Courage
5/10
They go into the scary room for each other.
Republic
4/10
A park full of tourists. The public is mostly a crowd to frighten.
Temperance
3/10
The jokes go low. The story did not need them to.
Truth
6/10
The monster is a man who wanted something. That is the right kind of reveal.
Stewardship
4/10
Loyalty is what they hand each other. The film hands you a sequel.
Live historicallyWhen a child is frightened of something in the house, look at it together until it has an ordinary name.