Description
New direct-to-video feature-length movie. Scooby-Doo and the gang visit a friend in Mexico to celebrate the Day of the Dead (Mexico’s version of Halloween). Unfortunately, a monster appears and begins terrorizing the town.DVD Features:
Audio Commentary
DVD ROM Features
Featurette
Outtakes
Photo gallery
Theatrical Trailer
Amazon.com
Sooner or later, the Mystery, Inc. gang had to take on Mexico’s … More >>
Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico
Tags: day of the dead, day of the dead mexico, feature length, Halloween, Mexico, Monster, monster of mexico, Mystery, scooby doo, ScoobyDoo, video feature
#1 by K. Ostrowski on April 24, 2010 - 11:58 pm
Following a torrent of scooby movies to be released on video and DVD comes “Scooby-Doo an the Monster of Mexico,” a film that highlights the legend of El Chupacabre, the Mexican Bigfoot. All the same, the Legend of the Vampire totally insulted the vampire myth, and so I didn’t expect this new one to be any different. For that reason, I waited until it was being played on the cartoon network before watching…
Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico
Here’s how it ranked…
Sound: 3.5/5
Like Legend of the Vampire, this movie used a lot of the songs from the original series, and a few new ones, but unlike Legend of the Vampire, the original songs in this series were stereotypical to the point of being annoying. Hence the additional half-point down from that film.
Graphics: 3/5
The same grade that I gave the graphics in “Legend of the Vampire” and for the same reasons. This movie uses graphics that were just not as good as they could, or logically should have been, and were barely even better than those seen in the original series.
Story Concept: 3/5
Slightly less cheesy than the concept in Legend of the Vampire, but no less cynical towards the supernatural. Scooby and the gang visit Mexico for no real reason except to be in time for a mexican halloween, where they encounter El Chupacabre, and find out that there’s a plot brewing. But as in the last movie, and the series, there were no real monsters. This creature was really just some woman in an animatronic suit. That was annoying, and I’m glad I didn’t spend any money on it for that reason alone.
Story Presentation: 3/5
Similar to Legend of the Vampire in presentation, cause and resolution, except that the pleasing scenes of Daphne and Velma hanging out as they did in that movie were dropped in favor of scenes of the entire gang as stereotypical (and somewhat insulting) mexican tourists. Like in Legend of the Vampire, there is no real monster, but to make things even worse, Velma makes some comments near the end about monster stories that really cheezed me off. Her acts of superhuman strength in mid-movie were balanced off by the fact that they spent that whole section of the film getting chased my monstrous stone statues and tourists; a part which had nothing to do with the rest of the movie, and was seemingly added just to extent the length. The words of many of the bit-part characters got on my nerves too. I simply found the movie distasteful. Yes, it’s scooby, and like Legend of the Vampire, it’s funny scooby material, but it was presented too much like an episode of the series, and not enough like something worth making a movie over.
Acting: 5/5
Perfect grade here, because who plays Velma, Shaggy, Daphne and Freddy like their original voice actors? Like in Legend of the Vampire, the original actors returned, but again, it’s a shame they had to pick a film like this to lend their voices to.
All in All: 3.5/5
I enjoyed this movie more than alien invaders, but less than Legend of the Vampire, because honestly, Legend of the Vampire at least had A LITTLE nostalgia to it and didn’t go overboard into cheesy behavior and unforgivable puns like this movie does. However, this movie had no thrills at all, and was really just a silly little romp through a country which was, at best, a caricature of a real one. Frankly, I wanted more from Scooby, but it would be a lie to say I had EXPECTED more. This film is most comparable to Legend of the Vampire in general mood, pace and result, but it’s sillier and less respectful, so if that’s your cup of tea, have a ball. Otherwise, you may join me in a boycott of this movie. Toodles.
Rating: 3 / 5
#2 by Inspector Gadget on April 25, 2010 - 2:34 am
Back again in the brand new slicker animation form, the Mystery Inc gang head down to Mexico to visit Fred’s e-mail pal but get caught up in the Chupacapra mystery as said beast begins terrorising the locals. It’s not very good as the plot is practically discarded in favor of endless running around scenes and over-indulgence in set pieces.
The recent Scooby Doo feature-length animations have had decent stories, nice atmospheres and a couple red-herrings. It’s very post modern and has certainly help revamp the franchise. But Monster of Mexico feels very dated and 60’s. The gang are back wearing their old clothes instead of the modern gear they wore in the first four animated movies.
The ending is no surprise and completely unsatisfying. I don’t like it. I wish for the next one to be a little more sophisticated. I mean children are intelligent and they deserve intelligent entertainment. Monster of Mexico may have been okay back in the 60’s but in the modern day it’s quite poor.
The DVD has a great 1.33:1 picture and a rather good Dolby 5.1 soundtrack. The extras are rubbish apart from the commentary by Shaggy and Scooby which is actually a really neat touch. I was excited at the Batman: Mystery of the Batwoman trailer featured here but it’s 20 seconds long and shows you nothing. What’s the point?
Rating: 2 / 5
#3 by videogamemaster on April 25, 2010 - 2:49 am
Yeah, this really is a great movie! I’m a HUGE fan of the series
and let me say, Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico is NO dissapointment to the series.
Rating: 5 / 5
#4 by Bradley Headstone on April 25, 2010 - 4:48 am
The best way to begin is to show you where I stand. I think “Zombie Island” and “The Witch’s Ghost” were excellent. I didn’t much care for “Alien Invasion” or “Cyber Chase.” I thought “The Legend of the Vampire” was a surprisingly good return to form. Onto chapter six. I can’t really say this is one of Scooby’s better movies. It kind of lacks the punch and surprises of “Zombie Island” and “The Witch’s Ghost.” Instead of the scarey surprises seen in the first two movies, this 6th chapter seems to rely more on silly chases. (But if you like the original episodes, you probably won’t mind that so much.) Also, in my opinion, the script is weaker which means the movie seems very long and drawn out. (“Zombie Island” and “Witch’s Ghost” don’t seem to have many dull moments at all.) And, I won’t say too much here, but when the mystery is uncovered and you really didn’t get to know the culprit in the first place, a certain edge is missing. (In “Zombie Island” and “Witch’s Ghost,” we got to know the culprits very well in the 1st half of the movie, and therefore, there was a scarey sense of recognition when the plots were uncovered. The main reason I can give to watch this movie is that it was at least nice to the original line up from the early cartoons (Casey Kasem-Shaggy, Frank Welker-Fred, Heather North-Daphne, and Nicole Jaffee-Velmah) together again. The movie is worth some interest, but it’s more of a long episode. If you like Scooby, this movie is watchable. But, don’t expect the terror, intensity, and suspense of “Zombie Island,” “The Witch’s Ghost,” or even “Legend of the Vampire.”
Rating: 2 / 5
#5 by E. Ceron on April 25, 2010 - 5:44 am
This tale of the Chupacabra legend was very well achieved, I love the fact that the Scooby Doo gang is traveling in the new series, LOVE the new theme song, but the old one is still my favorite, the mexican characters are quite accurate, good accents, the right attire, and totally love the song in Spanish during the chase at the ruins, in many of the latest episodes the gang has evolved with the times, we see Daphne with a cell phone, they also have lab tops and the music is according with the situation and the place,.. I will keep collecting, I love them.!
Rating: 5 / 5