This week’s Scooby movie did something few of those movies have. It doesn’t spoon feed you who the bad guy is. For a good part of this movie I had no idea who the villian was. How often does that happen? Let’s see what else this movie did right and if it did anything wrong.

“Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare” has a pretty simple setup. The gang is on the way to Camp Little Moose where Fred spent his childhood summers. Fred constantly talks the camp up while ripping on the rival camp, Camp Big Moose.

Prior to the gang's arrival, as always, things went wrong. One of the camp’s legends has come to life. These attacks by the Woodsman have left it empty. This is where the gang comes in. The owner of Camp Little Moose,  Burt, is about to take the advice of Ranger Knudson and close the camp when three kids show up. These kids (Luke, Trudy, and Deacon) and the gangs arrival lead Burt to change his mind.  Mystery Inc. is now on the case and on the clock.

Before we get into the plot proper, let’s go over the characters. First is Burt the head counselor/owner of Camp Little Moose, next is Forest Ranger Knudson, then the three kids and finally Jessica. Jessica is the head counselor from Camp Big Moose.  This isn’t a huge cast but as I said the movie does a good job of keeping you guessing as to who the culprit is.

The next day the gang, now working as Camp Counselors, take the kids up to Big Moose Lake. While there Scooby and Shaggy discover an entire city at the bottom of the lake. Above the water the rest of the gang and the kids are attacked by the Fishman, a ’Creature From the Black Lagoon’ look alike.

That night the gang is visited by Jessica. An RV filled with sonar equipment is missing from camp Big Moose. Why a camp needs that type of gear, I don’t know.  Velma is able to track the RV and everyone splits up. Fred, Daphne, Jessica and Luke head to the lake to check out the underwater city while everyone else searches for the RV. Velma, Scooby, Shaggy, Trudy and Deacon track down the missing RV to a place called Shadow Canyon. Both groups are soon attacked. At the lake Fred and the others are confronted by the Fishman while a new monster attacks the second group. Velma, Scooby, Shaggy and the kids have to deal with the Spectre.

Both groups escape and meet up at Camp Little Moose. Once there Deacon tells everyone he has had enough and wants to go to Camp Big Moose. This is where we get out first view of Camp Big Moose. I’ve never been to summer camp, and am happy about that. But if I ever had to go to one it would be this place. Camp Big Moose is amazing.  Fred needs pull his head out of his ass and accept that Little Moose is a dump by comparison.

The gang decides to find out more about Big Moose Lake. Turns out the lake is man made. There was a town, Moose Creek, there that was evacuated so a Dam could be built to make the lake. The gang also learns about a criminal named Ricky Larue who may have buried his loot in the town before it was flooded.  Larue died in prison but not before he told his cellmate about the buried treasure. They figure out that the bad guy or guys are planning on destroying the dam so that they can go after the loot. Doing this would flood Camp Little Moose, hence the attempts to get the camp to close.  The bad guys are on a timeline though. They need to empty the lake by the summer solstice or they’ll won’t be able to find the treasure. Of course summer solstice is tomorrow so shit is about to go down.

Everyone heads back to Camp Little Moose only to find it destroyed. The Woodsman was there and wrecked it. Burt, Trudy and Luke were at the camp but hid. Which means that the Woodsman thought the place was empty. I don’t know why he felt the need to mess the Camp up when he was just going to flood it anyway.  Everyone realizes that since the camp looked empty there was nothing stopping the bad guys from blowing the dam. Which happens next.  Time for the big reveal and wrap up.

With Moose Creek above water everyone heads there and it’s time for the climax. Who is the bad guy? Is it Burt? Ranger Knudson? Jessica the head counselor of Big Moose Lake? Surprisingly it’s one of the kids. Deacon turns out to not be a kid, but the gangster Babyface Boretti.  He was also helped by Ranger Knudson who was the Woodsman, Fishman, and Spectre.

Deacon revealing himself to be the bad guy was pretty cool. We get a big chase scene and the Gang captures Boretti and Knudson.

But what about Burt?

Camp Little Moose is gone, what is he to do? He now has a lake but no camp, while Jessica has  a camp and no lake. The two decide to merge their camps and we create Camp Little Big Moose.  The gang s around to work as councilors for the rest of the summer.  The End. Oh, we also get an after credit scene where we learn the Spectre is real.

This movie had a few good things going for it. The mystery and reveal were both pretty good. The animation and visuals were top notch. The underwater city looked great and the flood scene was cool. Still this one was a little underwhelming. It’s all about the setting. A summer camp isn’t an interesting back drop for a Scooby Mystery. Sure it does allow us to get a bit of fan service, which you’ve seen throughout this post. But the backdrop doesn’t work for a story this light. If this was darker and the mystery was spookier than this could work. Given the three monsters and the bright tone it just didn’t have any weight. Imagine a Scooby movie with the spooky ambiance of Zombie Island but in a secluded wooded area. That could work.

Still this wasn’t a terrible movie. How can a movie that has Mark Hamill (Deacon/Boretti) and Tara Strong (Trudy) in it be bad? All though this movie had Phil LaMarr in it and wasted him on a character so unimportant I didn’t even need to mention him.

So, good animation, good voice acting, and interesting mystery but a little flat. Not the worst Scooby movie and not the best.  It gets an extra point for Deacon/Boretti.

7 out of 10

Next Monday is the Pull List. See you then.