Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost Review

Yesterday for Scooby's 49th anniversary, I decided to do my typical Scooby mini-marathon of "What a Night for a Knight" and Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins. This year, however, I decided to also throw in the most recent Scooby film (which was released on Tuesday), Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost.

Before I give my review, I'd like to warn that spoilers are ahead!

Overall, this was a great movie and probably my favorite so far of the crossovers. The film had a really solid, interesting plot, and didn't overly focus on the guest stars at the expense of Fred, Velma and Daphne. In the past crossover movies, it feels like they have been ignored and not focused on enough. However, this movie seemed to have the perfect balance between the guest stars and the main characters.

I personally have always been fascinated with the history of America's beginnings and the Revolution, so naturally I really enjoyed that aspect of the film. The time-lapse opening was so cool, probably one of my favorite openings to any Scooby film. The historical feel of Rocky Harbor Resort provided a very nice setting.

Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about Bobby Flay being Fred's uncle. It seems odd, given how good of friends the gang is, that Fred would never mention he had a famous uncle. If Bobby Flay was my uncle, I would be telling everyone haha! Also, as a in-universe observation that the writers probably didn't even consider, Fred has a lot of uncles! Did his parents grow up in the 1900s were the normal amount of kids was like 13? lol

Bobby's cat Nacho was so cute! He's such a helpful little guy. :) I'm a huge cat person, so I loved that they included both of the chef's cats in the film. 

As for the other guest stars, for the most part, I liked Giada and Marcus. I have no idea how famous Marcus Samuelsson is in the chef world, but it seems like he really got the short end of the guest star stick. It felt like he was barely in the movie! 

One large complaint I had about the film was the humor. The jokes all seemed very cringeworthy, and none of them were particularly that funny. I hated Skip Taylor, it was painful to watch some of his scenes. I normally like characters who are bit silly or dimwitted, but this was just over the top.

Speaking of which, did anyone else find Fred's comment about TV personalities to be really strange? The part where he says "It's not like a TV personality to flake out of their responsibilities." in a super sarcastic voice? I mean, what the crap? lol

Another scene that really annoyed me was when Daphne gave Fred an angry look for clapping for Giada, just like everyone else was. The "Daphne is jealous of Fred" joke had its ship sail a long time ago, it's to the point where's it's not even remotely funny any more. It's just plain painful.

I really liked the Red Ghost in this film. He was genuinely creepy looking, especially the "shushing" pieces. It felt like something out of a horror film!

The mystery was pretty good, though it was relatively easy to figure out. From the moment we met Henry Metcalf, I knew he was the Red Ghost. It was pretty easy to put the pieces together that he wanted to preserve the image of Edward DuFlay after Noseworthy revealed that there was speculation that he was a British spy. I did not, however, guess that the realtor and Henry were the same person. That was a cool twist!

For the most part, this was a really solid Scooby movie which definitely gave me hope for the future of the franchise. The plot was excellent, and it was cool how they worked the history of the American Revolution into the film. There were some genuinely spooky moments in the film, and a fantastic mystery! My one complaint was that the humor was pretty poor, as the writers mainly relied on bad puns and slapstick humor for the film, which wasn't particularly funny.

Quick side note, I apologize for not including pictures in this post like I normally have for reviews. I decided to buy it digitally on iTunes, and apparently, you aren't allowed to take screencaps off of iTunes? The second I try, the screen grays out and I get a message saying that screenshotting any film from iTunes is no longer allowed. So sorry about that guys!