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Although expectations were low, a pleasant surprise in the humor and campiness of this film. Very much sticks to the gospel of the cartoon.

Best bits of the film, of course, were the animated Scooby Doo and real-life Shaggy, played by Mathew Lillard. With his already widely recognizable slackard appearance and a wicked, dead-on Shaggy voice and mannerism, he brought the cartoon to life. I initially thought the cartoon took too much away from the film, but Lillard and the animators found a groove that makes one almost believe this huge dog is there doing the antics portrayed. As in the cartoon, these two are really two halves of one character.

I'm not sure where the twist was to make Fred so vain, and Daphne so vapid, but Freddie Prinze, Jr. and Sarah Michelle Gellar played them well. The cartoon had them as more the Ken and Barbie pair who front for the gang, while the others did the hard work, and the movie changed them into the vain muscle and vapid damsel in distress. The DVD extras show some excellent scenes that expand and explain their new personalities better, and they probably should have remained in the film. Of course, the surprising acrobatics Daphne kicks late in the movie would have been less dramatic had we seen her flashback in the release.

Also, I don't remember Velma being so insecure, but ER's Linda Cardellini played this Velma better than she does the moody single-mom on ER. She does that well, too, and her character's quirky shifts in personality are probably the writer's fault.