Product Details

• Actors: Robbie Amell, Nick Palatas, Frank Welker, Kate Melton
• Format: AC-3, Color, Dolby, Dubbed, Subtitled, Widescreen
• Language: French (Dolby Digital 5.1), German (Dolby Digital 5.1), English (Dolby Digital 5.1), Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1), Italian (Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo)
• Subtitles: English, French, German, Italian
• Aspect Ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
• Studio: Warner Home Video
• DVD Release Date: September 22, 2009
• Run Time: 82 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B002FGTPRQ
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #26,669 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)

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  Movies & TV > Animation > Characters & Series > Scooby Doo > Live-Action Movies

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

How do four teens as different as Fred, Velma, Daphne, and Shaggy, and an overenthusiastic dog named Scooby-Doo meet, become friends, and join forces to form an investigative team? The live-action, CGI animated film Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins travels back in time to the fateful days when Shaggy first meets Scooby-Doo and Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy all ended up in detention together at Coolsville High. The football-obsessed Fred, glamorous Daphne, science-brain Velma, and misfit Shaggy couldn't be more different, but a common interest in mystery novels, combined with an otherworldly visit from some local ghosts, draws the teens together and sets in motion a joint investigation that will forever change their relationships with one another. Ripe with Velma's scientific theories, Daphne's air-headed comments, Fred's sports-inspired tendencies to call the plays, and Shaggy's and Scooby's bumbling ineptitude, the film also takes a comical look at some iconic Scooby-Doo! references like how Scooby got his name, who invented Scooby snacks, and the origin of the mystery machine. These classic references are oddly juxtaposed with decidedly modern details like texting and the use of cell phones in school, but somehow the tongue-in-cheek humor of old mixed with new just adds to the fun. While it will always seem strange to see the Scooby-Doo gang in anything but full animation, this live-action film is amusing and scores higher marks than its predecessor Scooby-Doo: The Movie because the characters are much less one-dimensional. (Ages 6 and older) --Tami Horiuchi

Product Description

What brings best friends together? For Daphne, Velma, Fred, Shaggy and Shaggy’s spunky pup Scooby-Doo, it’s a mystery! The feature-length live-action Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins original movie takes you back to when four teenage sleuths (plus one dog detective) first met. Unjustly accused of staging a spooky practical joke complete with ghosts, the kids are suspended from Coolsville High. To clear their names, they team to solve the supernatural mystery…and head straight into nonstop laughs and adventure. Special fun, special friends and extra-special effects make this “how-it-all-began” story – from boy-meets-dog to the first trip in the Mystery Machine and more – a doggone great time!

-Exclusively on Blu-ray: Pop-up trivia track with factoids and video
-The Scooby-Doo Coolsville High Video Yearbook
-The Scooby-Doo Mystery Inc. Personality Quiz
-Visit the set
-Anarbor "You and I" music video (in high definition)
-Gag reel

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Pretty cool straight-to-DVD prequel, September 15, 2009

By	MovieGeekFeed.com (Grand Prairie, TX) - See all my reviews

First, I want everyone to know that I love the first two Scooby-Doo live action films. I thought the casting was done well, the stories were fine, and they looked good. I thought the second one was a little cooler because it had a lot of the "monsters" from the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? series coming to life.

With that being said, I was a little concerned with this third entry in the series. Usually a movie with this many red flags spells absolute disaster and almost guarantees a turd of a film. Let's spell out the red flags: its direct-to-DVD, it's a prequel, it's totally recast, and it's got a new director. Wow. That's a lot to have going against a movie. Interestingly enough, it didn't prove to be true for this flick.

Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins somehow rises up above the crowded direct-to-DVD sequel / prequel cesspool and actually is successful at being entertaining and not completely cheap-looking. You can tell that director Brian Levant really wanted to escape the stereotype that these types of movies get and show that he was serious about the subject matter and franchise. Warner definitely played it smart with Levant, being that he is responsible for bringing to the big screen some very successful family movies and iconic animated TV shows like Beethoven, The Flintstones feature films, Jingle All The Way, and Are We There Yet?

The casting was done pretty well. All the actors fit the parts, although not without a few minor problems. Robbie Arnell would have completely been convincing in the part of Fred, except that for some reason he wasn't made to bleach his hair blond for the film. What was the reasoning behind that? I mean, he did take the part of an iconic blond character. The least he could have done is bleach his hair out to put the finishing touches on the role. My only other problem was with Nick Palatas' performance as Shaggy. He was really good and definitely looked the part. It just seemed like he was going a little overboard with the cracking squeaky voice sometimes. It seemed a little forced at times. I thought it was cool that they kept Frank Welker as the voice of Scooby-Doo, as he has been doing the character for the past seven years in different series and movies.

Even the special effects were done well. The ghosts all looked just as good as any of the ones in the two movies they released in the theaters. I have to say, though, that there were scenes of the Scooby gang that were missing Scooby-Doo that felt kind of awkward. It almost seemed like they cut him out of the scenes to save money on their CGI budget. There were some parts with Scooby that looked a little less than stellar and where it looked like the actor in the shot with him was having trouble interacting with an invisible dog. They were all minor problems, though. It shouldn't take away from your viewing pleasure.

Overall, I have to say that I was pretty impressed with this movie. It was kind of fun to see the gang paint The Mystery Machine, meet each other, and solve their first crime together. If you're a Scooby-Doo fan, I'm pretty sure this movie will live up to your standards.Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins (Blu-ray/DVD Combo + Digital Copy) [Blu-ray]

0 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Funny! Entertaining!, September 28, 2009

By	Shalla DeGuzman "Schriftsteller, Abenteurer, ... (Bamberg, Germany) - See all my reviews

This movie has a great cast--pretty much unknown actors but they're good... I even like Shaggy a lot--he pulls that special laugh of his pretty well...

The plot is nice, it's interesting how they got together.

I'm practicing my German, my Spanish and my French, so this is wonderful, this one CD has all those languages to choose from along with the subtitles.

So, I've watched it in English and German so far and it's funny! Cute! Scooby 'ist wunderbar!'

Highly recommended to those who love Scooby--it's a must! (I'm crossing my fingers that they'll make more :)