It’s been a while since my last “Scooby-Doo!” post. This is mostly because I’m lazy and these posts don’t bring in many, any, hits. There is another reason though. I was doing five movies at a time. And it just so happened that the first of the next set of five was a very hard movie to talk about.  So I’m just going to do that movie in this post to get past it. So click on for my review of “Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!”.

Why, you may ask, is this movie hard to talk about? Well the answer is an easy one. This movie is dull. Very dull. It’s not bad, bad is easy to talk about,  it’s just there. I’ve described some of these movies in the past, as being just like random episodes of a Scooby series. This one feels like an episode of “What’s New Scooby-Doo!”.  That’s not a good thing.

The plot of this one is simple. The gang is on vacation in France but Scooby and Shaggy have yet to show up. It turns out they were scammed by a famous hunter named  Alphonse LaFleur. Alphonse promised the two cheap airfare but once they were on the plane he took them to the Himalayas to use them as bait so that he can kill the Abominable Snowman.

That’s the basic set up. There is, of course, sub plots and a few other characters. When the movie opens we see a man, Professor Jeffries, being led by a Sherpa named Pemba. The Sherpa doesn’t want to lead the Professor any further as that would go into the Snowman’s territory. That, however, is what Jeffries wants, so he races forward on his own.  Jeffries disappears from view and Pemba catches a glimpse of the Abominable Snowman, who I may sometimes refer to as a Yeti.

In France Fred, Velma, and Daphne are enjoying  their vacation but are wondering where Scooby and Shaggy are.  They get a short call from a frantic Shaggy and decide to track his phone using GPS. Once they see he is headed to the Himalayas they are off to the rescue.

Shaggy made the call after learning that LaFleur had tricked him. At this point he and Scooby were inside and equipment crate and being pushed out of the airplane.

One of the few interesting things about this movie is Alphonse LaFleur. The guy is damn near blood thirsty.  He makes no bones about his goal. He want’s to kill a Yeti. This isn’t like “Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster” where the bad guys want to ’catch’ the monster. LaFleur wants to kill, KILL, this thing.  I liked that. No beating around the bush, just setting it on fire.

When they, Scooby and Shaggy, land we learn a few things. First Professor Jeffries, despite his own stupidity, is fine as is Pemba and that the locals are evacuating the area because they fear the Yeti.  We also meet the rest of the cast for this movie, The High Lama, Minga (Pemba’s little sister), and we learn about a local DJ. Pemba urges Minga to leave but she refuses.

Scooby and Shaggy, and us by extent, learn that the only phone is at a Weather Station, where the DJ is, and that the village is protected from the beast by a statue of the creature holding a large crystal.  We also find out that Minga has a huge crush on the unseen DJ. Before we go on, quick spoiler, the DJ is Dil Chillman from the Loch Ness movie. I got the impression that Dil was in his mid 20s from that movie. He had to be old enough to A) own a Van and B) travel to a different country. Not to mention that he had to have accumulated enough money to do those two things. Now here he is in the Himalayas working at a Weather Station.  He has to be, at the very least, over 18.

I bring this up because Minga comes off as a teenage girl with a teenage crush. This makes the ending a little questionable. But I’m getting ahead of myself.

Lafleur shows up just as Scooby and Shaggy, led by Pemba and accompanied by Jeffries, are about to head to the Weather Station. He decides to accompany them. It isn’t long until Minga joins them. She warns the group of a snow storm but she has ulterior motives for tagging along, mainly meeting her crush.  The group spots a dark cloud on the horizon and decide to make camp.

That night Jeffries goes off on his own with a bunch of dynamite.  Later the Yeti attacks Scooby and Shaggy. Lafleur tries to catch the creature but his traps back fire. Scooby and Shaggy escape the beast but get lost in doing so. They aren’t lost for long as Dil finds them and takes them to the Weather Station.

So, what about the rest of the gang? Well, they have just arrived at the now empty village. They pick up Shaggy’s tracks and end up at the camp site from the previous night. Velma notices a few clues about the nature of the Yeti here.  The group also find Pemba who is stuck in one of Lafleur’s traps. Minga is nowhere to be seen. So they decide to split up and look for everyone. To recap at this point Scooby, Shaggy, Lafleur, Minga, and Jeffries are all ‘missing’.

Back at the Weather Station, Dil leaves Scooby and Shaggy alone and they are promptly attacked by the Yeti. Lafleur shows up and it’s here were we really begin to question if he is actually a great trapper/hunter. He tries to catch the Yeti only to fall of a cliff to his apparent death.  Which would be a very Disney ending for a villain.

Scooby and Shaggy, while running from the Yeti, find Shangri La. This part of the movie is weird. Wikipedia notes that this isn’t one of the Scooby movies where the supernatural is real. I have to question that. There are a few moments in this movie that are clearly unexplainable. Shangri La itself for instance as well as the fact that we see a now much younger High Lama here.

Let’s wrap this one up now.  Del meets up with the rest of the gang and finds his Weather Station destroyed and some helium tanks missing. Daphne and Pemba locate a large cave that they deduce the Yeti has been living in.

Back in Shangri La Scooby and Shaggy are again being chased by the Snowman.

Everyone meets up in an old mine where Jeffries is mining crystals, like the one from the statue earlier. He, if you haven’t guessed, is our Red Herring.  The gang pins him as the Yeti only for the actual Snowman to show up.

You know what happens next. It’s time for the big climatic chase/trap scene.  Which ends with the revelation that Minga is the Abominable Snowman.

Why?

This was all done to keep Del from leaving.  My god is that stupid. Let’s just think about this for a second. A cute girl wants to keep a lonely guy from leaving an isolated area. Should she befriend him? Seduce him? Regale him with tales of the Abominable Snowman? No, what she should do is create an elaborate Yeti suit, that for some reason  is capable of flight, and use it to terrorize the locals (her friends and family). I know Del is only working at the Weather Station to find the Yeti, but this is not a good plan.  Del, however, finds this all very romantic. 

This, by the way, is another Scooby Movie where the bad guy isn’t bad. Although Minga wasn’t good intentioned, she was just fucking stupid.

Anyway, Lafleur shows up. He may or may not have been saved by the actual Yeti.  Jeffries is taken to jail for illegal mining, or whatever.

The movie ends with the Gang, minus Fred, with Del and Minga in France. Del and Minga are now dating. This is what I was talking about. Maybe, I missed something that showed how old Minga was but she came off as pretty young to me. So this scene was a little odd.

You’re probably wondering where Fred is? He got on the wrong flight and ended up in the Amazon. Which means the vacation is once again put on hold.

As I said there isn’t anything wrong with this movie. It just lacked a bit of energy.  I think it was the setting. All of the snow just dragged it down a bit. The best part of the movie, for me, were the scenes in Shangri La. Aside from that this just felt flat.

The animation was fine, the voice acting was good, (Alfred Molina voiced Professor Jeffries and The High Lama was played by James Hong) but overall this was a miss.  I can happily tell you to skip this one. Nothing will be lost.

5 out of 10.

Just a quick little Bonus. I just watched an episode of “Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!” called “Sorcerer Snack Scare”. It documents the creation of the Scooby Snack. This episode encapsulates why “Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!” is quickly becoming my favorite Scooby series.

Not only is it funny, this episode is hilarious, but it’s also smart. The use of the ‘Scooby Snacks’ brings about an interesting question. Daphne, odd choice, questions the ethics of bribing your friends. Which is what Fred does throughout the episode. Velma sees the entire thing as an experiment, which Daphne also points out isn’t a cool thing to do to your friends.

The episode ends with a bit of a revelation from Scooby and Shaggy that shows just how smart they actually are.

This was a great episode of a great series. If you’re a Scooby fan and haven’t checked it out yet, what are you waiting for?

That’s it for today. I’ll try to have at least two reviews up by next Monday. Unfortunately, there‘s no one to bribe me with Scooby Snacks so, no promises.