DVD : Scooby-Doo in Where's My Mummy?

In association with Amazon.com

Rating:

- Scooby Doo - Still Standing At Chapter 9!
When "Scooby Doo On Zombie Island" came out in 1998, I doubt many people thought Scooby Doo would make it up to this 9th movie. Scooby may actually hold the record as far as good sequels go. This may be because there is the gang we all know and love for consistency, but there is a different adventure everytime. No one story is ever just repeated. The original "Star Trek" movies also did very well in this category, but even they only made it up to Chapter 6. If you follow my reviews, you know I think "Zombie Island" (# 1) and "Witch's Ghost" (# 2) were the two best. I didn't much like "Alien Invasion" (# 3) or "Cyber Chase."(# 4) I thought "Legend of the Vampire" (# 5) was really good. "Monster of Mexico" (# 6) was decent at best. "Loch Ness Monster" (# 7) was a decent watch. "Aloha Scooby Doo" (# 8) was surprisingly good. Well, onto chapter 9. It grabs our attention with a flashback of Cleopatra. This is a good technique. For not only does it set the mood, but it allows us some ambiguity. (Is the curse staged? Or is it possibly real?) Well, part of the curse seems real at first. Moving on, Velmah is off doing some work in Egypt with a friend, and of course in a typical Scooby fashion, she is reunited with her gang. After the initial ice breaking, we soon meet the antagonists of this story. (A team of so called archeologists who are really thieves. Yes. The famous Indiana Jones was often thought of as this, but we won't go there.) Well, this gang of thieves basically wants to loot the tomb of Cleopatra. Additional elements of Cleopatra's curse start to come true. (Real or not?) There are several old touches with new twists. Poor Scooby and Shaggy get lost, but in a twist of fate, they find their own fan club. At first we may think this is a silly irrelevant subplot, but in the end we see it certainly isn't. I can't say much more without ruining the movie for you, but even at chapter 9, Scooby gives us enough familiar things and enough new twists. The different subplots of the movie come together surprisingly well, and we are offered a surprise twist ending that will make us want to see the movie again with hindsight. I'll conclude by saing that I seriously doubt that any other series can boast of standing this strong at 9 movies. Scooby Doo, please come back for chapter 10 soon!

Rating:

- Great Scooby Movie for kids and adults
When my 3.5 yr old fell in love with Scooby, I decided to rent DVD's instead of buying (after purchasing every Thomas the Tank engine ones, that he no longer will watch...I learned :)

Anyway we rented this one and after having it for a week, we went out the very day we returned it and bought it. The story line is very good and truly I had no idea who the "bad guy" was. The music was good and the special feature rap video is hilarious.

After seeing all the Scooby movies so far, this is the one we just HAD to buy.

Rating:

- Good movie
My son likes this Scooby Doo movie. It's kind of scary for young children but older kids will like it.

Rating:

- A pretty good mystery
Okay, we understand that a Scooby-Doo mystery is not going to be in the same league as a Citizen Kane mystery. But Scooby has good movies and bad movies just like any other Mega-Star. I'm pleased to say that Where's My Mummy is in the former category.

Velma is assisting an archaeological dig in Egypt (on the Sphinx no less) when she finds a mysterious necklace which could be the key to Cleopatra's lost treasure. I've never heard of such treasure, but for the sake of the movie, we'll pretend it exists. The rest of the Mystery Inc. gang turn up to visit her but the site is promptly taken over by Amelia von Butch (Christine Baranski), a gun-ho Lara Croft-type and her band of cohorts.

Despite warnings of ancient curses she forces the Mystery Inc. gang and an obnoxious reality-TV host (Jeremy Piven) to enter the tomb with her to solve it's secrets and find the treasure. Immediately setting-off traps, Shaggy and Scooby are separated from the rest of the gang (not on purpose for a change) and get involved in their own mystery of a deranged Hotep (Ron Pearlman) and his followers who worship a strange God known as Scoobis and his servant Shagman.

Both stories are kept lively and entertaining until they merge into one. There's not a moment of boredom and, as usual, a couple of cool original songs too. But sadly, no new version of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You at all. To compare it with similar films like Indiana Jones, Tomb Raider or even The Goonies would be pointless. Yes, we've seen this kind of thing before but animation is a medium that present more opportunities than live-action and there's loads of inventive set-pieces and imaginative locations that have become the standard of modern Scooby-Doo outings.

And what do you know? It even manages to provide a rather surprising twist at the end. We know it's far-fetched and unbelievable as always, but it ties together pretty well, thus making the film a little bit better a little bit more.

As long as their is imagination behind this franchise, Scooby-Doo could go on forever. He may deliver a few duds from time to time (Monster of Mexico was extremely crap after all) but he still a very important character in modern animation and will always come out on top if we believe in him.

Or am I taking this too seriously?

The movie was storyboarded and framed at 1.78:1 but the DVD is unfortunately full frame. The Dolby 5.1 sound design is quite lively though. And the extras are minimal and aimed at the kids.

Rating:

- SCOOBY DOO'S BEST
I am a huge Scooby Doo fan. I watched it for years and this is the best one by far. The story line was great. I'll recommend it any day.

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