I've been a Scooby fan since I was a kid, and I've seen about every Scooby movie (except the WWE wrestling ones) and I gotta say, this is the best Scooby DDV fiim in years. I'm gonna try to express my praise without spoiling any of the story so those who haven't seen it yet can watch it with fresh eyes.
The animation is very well done; it mimics the style from the original Where Are You series that the most recent series Guess Who has been using, and I think it looks great. The character animation is fluid and doesn't try to stay on model the entire time, which allows for some funny visual gags. The film also uses squash and stretch animation to its advantage, making the characters movements more dramatic and visually interesting. The color palette is really vibrant, and the background are great too. The backgrounds and characters do clash a tad bit, but hey, look at the original Where Are You series and tell me those didn't clash. Beyond that slight criticism, the animation looks great.
I thought the writing was very good for a modern Scooby film. The story itself does lean into the "meta" humor aspect, but I think it was well done. There were only two 4th wall breaking jokes near the end of the film that I thought were pretty funny, but overall it was very entertaining and didn't lean too much into the "wink wink nudge nudge" type of jokes that make some meta humor lazy and boring. That said, I do think the story might go over some kids heads. This movie seems more like it was made for long time fans of the series, especially with all the callbacks to Where Are You, and the plot can get a little confusing. I could follow the film pretty easily but I can see how it could lose the attention of kids who watch Scooby Doo. Otherwise, I think most kids who love Scooby will enjoy this movie as well. My only real criticisms are the pacing being a little off; with some jokes and scenes dragging on a little too long causing the flow of the film to slow down, and the fact that the antagonists don't get a lot of screen time. Other than that I have nothing but praise.
I thought the portrayal of the characters was spot on. Scooby and Shaggy are the easiest to get right; perpetually frightened and hungry, with their main goal in the film being getting the mystery over with so they can trick or treat and get some candy. Fred is forlorn over their lack of new mysteries and bad guys to unmask, and when they do finally come across this new mystery, his exuberance is very in character and he has some very funny moments. Daphne was a welcome surprise, with her own mini-arc in the movie being that she feels she doesn't get to contribute much to the gang, but by the end there's a great scene that resolves her frustrations and was nice to see as a long time fan. And of course, Velma, who, as most people know from the trailers of the movie, is smitten with the newly introduced character "Coco Diablo." Her bumbling attitude around Coco is pretty fun to watch and it's nice to see the series finally outright confirm what most of us fans have suspected for so long. And Coco herself was an interesting new character as well, although I won't say too much as not to spoil anything.
I think those who are angry about the "retcons" and "meta humor" in this film are being a little dramatic. Scooby Doo is over 50 years old, there have been countless retcons and reimaginings. The series has had more iterations than any other animated property I can think of, and personally I think the small amount of retcons in this film serve the story well and aren't really that big of a deal if you can suspend your disbelief for a while. And the meta humor is not as prevalent as some are saying. Yes, the film does play with the Scooby formula, especially near the beginning, but it's done tastefully and the film doesn't rely on it for the entire runtime. I thought the meta aspect was really well done and explored a novel concept thatvwe havent seen in any Scooby film so far. If you're a fan of Scooby Doo, I couldn't recommend this one enough. I personally think Trick or Treat SC is even better than Happy Halloween SC or any DDV SD movie in the past couple years.
The animation is very well done; it mimics the style from the original Where Are You series that the most recent series Guess Who has been using, and I think it looks great. The character animation is fluid and doesn't try to stay on model the entire time, which allows for some funny visual gags. The film also uses squash and stretch animation to its advantage, making the characters movements more dramatic and visually interesting. The color palette is really vibrant, and the background are great too. The backgrounds and characters do clash a tad bit, but hey, look at the original Where Are You series and tell me those didn't clash. Beyond that slight criticism, the animation looks great.
I thought the writing was very good for a modern Scooby film. The story itself does lean into the "meta" humor aspect, but I think it was well done. There were only two 4th wall breaking jokes near the end of the film that I thought were pretty funny, but overall it was very entertaining and didn't lean too much into the "wink wink nudge nudge" type of jokes that make some meta humor lazy and boring. That said, I do think the story might go over some kids heads. This movie seems more like it was made for long time fans of the series, especially with all the callbacks to Where Are You, and the plot can get a little confusing. I could follow the film pretty easily but I can see how it could lose the attention of kids who watch Scooby Doo. Otherwise, I think most kids who love Scooby will enjoy this movie as well. My only real criticisms are the pacing being a little off; with some jokes and scenes dragging on a little too long causing the flow of the film to slow down, and the fact that the antagonists don't get a lot of screen time. Other than that I have nothing but praise.
I thought the portrayal of the characters was spot on. Scooby and Shaggy are the easiest to get right; perpetually frightened and hungry, with their main goal in the film being getting the mystery over with so they can trick or treat and get some candy. Fred is forlorn over their lack of new mysteries and bad guys to unmask, and when they do finally come across this new mystery, his exuberance is very in character and he has some very funny moments. Daphne was a welcome surprise, with her own mini-arc in the movie being that she feels she doesn't get to contribute much to the gang, but by the end there's a great scene that resolves her frustrations and was nice to see as a long time fan. And of course, Velma, who, as most people know from the trailers of the movie, is smitten with the newly introduced character "Coco Diablo." Her bumbling attitude around Coco is pretty fun to watch and it's nice to see the series finally outright confirm what most of us fans have suspected for so long. And Coco herself was an interesting new character as well, although I won't say too much as not to spoil anything.
I think those who are angry about the "retcons" and "meta humor" in this film are being a little dramatic. Scooby Doo is over 50 years old, there have been countless retcons and reimaginings. The series has had more iterations than any other animated property I can think of, and personally I think the small amount of retcons in this film serve the story well and aren't really that big of a deal if you can suspend your disbelief for a while. And the meta humor is not as prevalent as some are saying. Yes, the film does play with the Scooby formula, especially near the beginning, but it's done tastefully and the film doesn't rely on it for the entire runtime. I thought the meta aspect was really well done and explored a novel concept thatvwe havent seen in any Scooby film so far. If you're a fan of Scooby Doo, I couldn't recommend this one enough. I personally think Trick or Treat SC is even better than Happy Halloween SC or any DDV SD movie in the past couple years.