Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf

Hanna-Barbera worked hard to find new things for their cash cow Scooby-Doo to do, and that explains this silly 1980's full-length animated film. Shaggy, Scooby-Doo, Scrappy-Doo, and Shaggy's girlfriend Googie race cars in auto races. A group of monsters meet in Transylvania for the Monster Road Race, and must replace the now retired werewolf. Luckily, the moon is right to create a new werewolf in the form of Shaggy. Count Dracula sends a duo known as the Hunch Bunch to change Shaggy into a werewolf, and they kidnap him and his friends back to Transylvania to drive in the race. As the werewolfed Shaggy and Scooby drive the race car, Scrappy and Googie follow behind them and the four try and outsmart the other cheating monsters who are competing. Count Dracula and Vanna Pira are commentators, and are also trying to get Shaggy to lose.

This thing clocks in at over ninety minutes, and that is too long. The original Scooby-Doo gang is jettisoned for this forced comedy. The screenwriter, trying to make this as long as possible, fills the last half hour with the car race, which may test even the most patient Scooby-Doo fans. There are some funny lines: Vanna's idea of color commentary is to name the colors she sees, and the local townspeople are forced to cheer for the monsters, but the film makers think this is so original they repeat those jokes non-stop- the first time is amusing, after that, it is desperate. The animation is Saturday morning mediocrity. The film has a hurried rush to it, as if they knew kids would buy it no matter what, so why put any effort in to it? This is like Disney's old straight-to-video sequels to their better theatrical films. I am not reluctant in not recommending this.