Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness (2015)

2 1/2 Stars (out of 4)

Scooby Moon

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

The direct-to-video animated feature Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness has some interesting ideas. For one, it contains a monster that can withstand the cold vacuum of space, and for another, it contains a strange fantasy sequence with a different style of animation, depicting each of the mystery solvers battling imaginary aliens. But aside from that, the movie isn't very inventive or streamlined. It also contains a robot character that wants to be a comedian; its jokes continually fall flat and it uses a built-in "cheering" section to make himself feel better. The movie feels like that.

This time our team wins five spots on a manned mission to the moon. The other passengers range from experienced astronauts, to a football star, to a TV infotainment personality, to an alien conspiracy theory nut. A pretty female astronaut sets up a rivalry between Daphne and Velma. Fred -- much dumber than usual here -- becomes enthralled with two legendary astronauts and makes himself a nuisance around them. Shaggy and Scooby are fans of the football player, who also has a line of snack foods. Malcolm McDowell voices the crackpot millionaire behind the entire mission, a narcissist whose every joke is about his own ego.

Certain sequences just feel like padding, and others are rather slowly paced. In the sequences where the characters wear their space suits, the filmmakers chose to muffle their voices, which is rather off-putting for a long time. Overall, it really seems as if the idea of an alien and a moon colony really did not inspire anyone, and it was a struggle to find any kind of fresh take. It might have made for a better short TV episode than a feature film. The DVD from Warner Home Video comes with trailers and a featurette, starring the voice of Velma, Mindy Cohn, about space travel.