It’s been a while since the last Scooby movie, hasn’t it? Yeah. Sorry about that. No excuses. But I’m back with the next in the series. One that I really liked. No reason to wait any longer let’s jump to it.

“Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur” is a fun movie. It has a lot going for it, that I will get into later. Before that, I just want to point out that this movie came out September 6th, 2011. The first movie we looked at was  “Scooby Goes Hollywood” which came out December 12, 1979. That means that these movies have spanned 5 decades.  That doesn’t seem right, but it is. 70s, 80s, 90s,00s, and 10s, that’s five decades.  It’s really only 32 years but 5 decades sounds better.

It’s amazing how much these movies have changed over the years. Back then this show wasn’t big, or willing/able to pay, enough to hire TV stars like Penny Marshall and Henry Winkler. Now they land people like Matthew Gray Gubler, who co-stars in “Criminal Minds”.  The animation has improved leaps and bounds since then as well. But, you ask, what about the story?

Here’s a surprise, this movie opens (Check out the opening above. It has a some cool animation and uses a style completely different from the norm.) with the gang arriving at a new town. Has there ever been a Scooby story, out side of “Mystery Inc.”, that didn’t open with the gang pulling into a new location? Zombie Island began with the gang separated but that is the only one I can think of. Wait, there’s also Scooby goes Hollywood (But the gang aren‘t really the gang in that one) and Reluctant Werewolf (That‘s a Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy movie, so does that count?). Anyway, where are we in this movie? After an especially scary case the gang has taken Shaggy to a south western town to visit La Serena Spa, run by a hippy/new age type named Mr. Hubley. When this movie opens Shaggy basically has PTSD. He’s seen too much shit and needs some serious down time.

After a big meal Scooby and Shaggy are lagging behind the rest of the gang who have gone to see a paleontological dig. The site is under the overview of Professor Svankmajer, she gives the gang a tour. Scooby and Shaggy show up later and Scooby runs into the Phantosaur. What, you ask, is a Phantosaur? Think of it as cross between a ghost dinosaur and a mythological native creature.  This encounter isn’t good for Shaggy.

I wonder what they see in each other?

Back at the dig Velma meets Winsor, Matthew Gray Gubler, and the two hit it off instantly.  This isn’t lost of Fred and Daphne.  Later at the Spa, Mr. Hubley attempts to calm a very shaken Shaggy with aroma therapy. It seems to work until Mr. Hubley tells him the legend of the Phantosaur. The legend is simple, Native American’s summoned it to fight Spanish Conquistadors and then it turned on them. The animation in this scene is great.

With Shaggy worse than before Mr, Hubley has a suggestion. He has an overly complex hologram assisted hypnosis machine. Anyone with an ounce of forethought would just walk away from this obviously bad plan. The gang is all for it, they aren’t the brightest…well anything really. But I’m very happy about that because what results is the best part of this movie.

Fearless Badass Shaggy is disappointed in you.

Mr, Hubley uses his machine to program Shaggy. Whenever he hears the word Bad he will turn from a coward to a Fearless Badass and vice versa. Fearless Badass Shaggy is the star of this movie. Every time he’s on screen you won’t be able to not smile. It’s going to spread itself across your face and there’s nothing you can do, not that you’d want to, to stop it. There is one issue with the procedure, why wouldn’t there be? Mr, Hubley was affected by the machine and can’t remember the word. This results in random and unstable transformations. 

The other great part of this movie is Love Struck Velma. She’s so taken by Winsor that she actually misses a clue. The gang is back at the dig to figure out the mystery of the Phantosaur and Velma walks right past some very obvious footprints. 

 How can you not love Fearless Badass Shaggy?

Elsewhere, Scooby and Shaggy are at an all-you-can-eat restaurant. Can you imagine how many of those places these two have put out of business? While there a gang of Bikers show up.  Someone utters the word “bad” and Shaggy goes into Fearless Badass mode. Seeing Shaggy, of all people, taking out a bunch of bikers is marvelous. 

That's a 'take no shit' Hippie. The best kind of Hippie.

When the leader of the gang, Tex, arrives he challenges Shaggy to a motorcycle race around Dead Man’s curve. Shaggy agrees only for Tex to say  he won’t kill him ‘bad’. That snaps Shaggy out of his Fearless Badass (from now on shortened to ‘FB’) mode. Now normal Shaggy has to deal with the fall out of his alter ego‘s actions. 

Daphne, who rode a motorcycle when she was a kid (Rich people huh?), decides to give Shaggy lessons. Think about that for a second. Not Daphne riding a motorcycle (I tried to find an image of Daphne on a motorcycle and shockingly there were none of Deviantart. Can you believe that?), the other thing.  The gang doesn’t suggest hiding Shaggy, or leaving town. No, instead of getting their good friend away from danger they, Daphne, decide to send him to his apparent death. Why? Because there is a mystery to be solved. I blame Fred for this.

You know one of the cool things about these movie is all of the odd skills Daphne is getting. She’s not only a reporter (not canon), fashion designer, martial artist, and surfer but she can also ride a motorcycle. That’s a capable woman.

Cut to the race. Shaggy, terrified but still willing to race, shows up and faces of against Tex. During the race he hears the word ‘bad’ sending him into FB mode and he almost wins the race. He’s just about to when a Phantosaur shows. This leads Shaggy to think the word ‘bad’, as in “That ghost dinosaur thinks he’s so bad, but he fucked with the wrong Hippie!” (not an actual quote). That’s enough to snap Shaggy back to normal.

Time for the wrap up, seems early right? I’ll get to that. Turns out that there were two Phantosaurs, which were actually robots. Two mining engineers were behind the whole thing because they found silver in the mine.  So, movie over right? Nope. We’re only halfway through. This is one of those movies with a dual mystery. Not very often you see that.  I can only remember it happening in “Witch’s Ghost”.

Sadly, this is the best picture of the Phantosaur I could find.

With the first problem resolved it’s time for the fossilized shit to hit the fan. The gang goes back to La Serena only to find the Hologram Machine missing. They get attacked by a pack of Velociraptors and a fire breathing Phantosaur (great design for this thing).

                                  

                               

I trust her.

                         

There is a huge chase scene through out the town that is a lot of fun, it interrupts Velma and Winsor’s date.  The chase leads to the dig which brings us to the real reveal.  Professor Svankmajer (Who came up with that name?) and Winsor are the real ‘bad’ guys. The Professor, Winsor, and a few students used Velociraptor costumes, the Hologram machine, and a paint stripper to pull off the ruse. Why?  They found a complete Allosaurus preserved in crystal, the origin of Phantosaur legend, and wanted to take it away. The thing is they don’t come of ass true bad guys. They are played a bit more altruistic. The Professor didn’t want to sell the find she just wanted to keep it for herself. She’s still  a ‘bad’ guy but not a full villain. She isn’t a real ‘good’ bad guy but she isn’t as bad as some of the others. 

Got off track there. Sorry. Movie still isn’t done so let’s get back to it.

The bad guys have been revealed but Professor Svankmajer set a series of explosions, to free the crystal, through out the dig so now the gang and the villains have to escape before they are trapped underground.  Shaggy slips into FB mode until Daphne tells him he’s “not bad”. Scooby realizes that ‘bad’ is the magic word but since he pronounces it as ‘rad’ no one can figure it out. This means Shaggy has to save the day as his normal cowardly self, which he does with a little help from the bikers.

If that isn't a wig, Daphne is going to be pissed when she 

snaps out of it.

With the bad guys caught, Velma is heart broken but get’s over it, it’s time to get Shaggy ‘fixed’. I would have preferred Fearless Badass Shaggy to stay. Mr. Hubley proves his incompetence once again when he turns the entire gang into Shaggys. The movie ends with the gang, dressed as Shaggy, leaving in the rechristened Mustard Machine.

I really liked this one. It wasn’t your run of the mill Scooby movie. There was enough here to keep me entertained. The mystery was okay, it wasn’t what you would call a ‘head scratcher’ but it was fun none the less. The big selling points though are Fearless Badass Shaggy and Love Struck Velma.  From a story point of a view that is. The animation is even more of a draw. This movie is slick and looks great. The Phantosaur origin scene, Motorcycle race, and City chase are all fantastically animated.

The voice cast is great as well. The usual Scooby cast are firing on all cylinders, Matthew Lillard is a lot of fun when he’s doing FB Shaggy. There isn’t as much star power here as in some of the other movies, but when you have Matthew Grey Gubler, Fred Willard (Mr. Hubley), and Finola Hughes (Professor “I’m not typing that name again.”) there’s nothing to complain about.

This is more than just a solid Scooby movie. “Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur” is one I would recommend for lapsed Scooby fans. This is a legitimately fun film. Check it out.

8 out of 10.