Chill Out, Scooby Doo! (2007)** (out of 4) Fred, Velma and Daphne are on vacation in Paris where they're supposed to meet Shaggy and Scooby. The only problem is that the two misfits end up in the Himalayas Mountains at the same time a mysterious snow creature has been spotted and it doesn't take long for everyone to meet. CHILL OUT, SCOOBY DOO! is one of the most boring features I've seen from the beloved dog and his gang, which is pretty shocking because the location and monster should have led to a much more entertaining film. Just to say how bad this one is, my son who absolutely loves everything Scooby pretty much tuned this one out after about twenty-minutes and it was a real chore trying to get him to finish it. There are all sorts of problems here but the biggest is that the filmmakers turn Scooby and Shaggy into a couple of idiots. Yes, the series and feature movies have always gotten laughs out of them but the attempt at humor was just so forced and so over-the-top that I couldn't help but get annoyed at it. The supporting laughs with the rest of the gang also fall flat and in the end there's really nothing funny to be seen here. The snow monster was a plus as it looked terrific and the Himalayas were a terrific location but it's just too bad more wasn't done with it. The original series had an episode called "That's Snow Ghost," which is the thing you should check out over this feature.

I don't think the film was perfect, but I myself found it very worthwhile to watch. The plot is very simple and fun, and I thought the animation was very, very good, very colourful and fluid. Nice to see Paris, which is just an amazing city, I strongly recommend you go if you haven't already. The soundtrack was very nice too, and as usual the voice talents were excellent. Casey Kasem never fails to bring a smile to my face as Shaggy, I know I use this phrase a lot, but I find him very entertaining. Other voice actors that do that for me too are people like Jodi Benson, Tim Curry, Tony Jay and Frank Welker. Speaking of Welker, I much prefer Don Messick as Scooby, but Welker wasn't at all bad, though I do think he was better as Fred. Mindy Cohn and Grey DeLisle are fine too, and Daphne looks really pretty here, well she's always been pretty. In supporting roles, Rene Auberjoinis and Alfred Molina are very entertaining. Chill Out Scooby Doo does have its flaws though. Like What's New Scooby Doo? with the absence of the sound effects, it just lacked that Hanna Barbera touch. As much as I liked the plot, I do think the perpetrator got obvious a bit too early, but that's just an inkling that I have. My main problem was that I thought I noticed a contradiction. Daphne says in one scene "a yeti, what's a yeti?" and I found it odd at the time. Then it occurred to me, then again I could be wrong, that there was a Scooby Doo Where Are You episode when the gang chase a snow ghost, referred to by a supporting character as a yeti. Overall, a very entertaining Scooby Doo film, not the best, but a definite improvement on the appalling Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue. 7/10 Bethany Cox.

Shaggy and Scooby get on the wrong plane when en route to meet the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang in Paris and end up lost in the Himalayas while an abdominal snowman is on the loose. There is the usual amount of suspects and motives but it's just fresh enough to prevent the plot from becoming tiresome.The animation just gets better and better with each entry in the Scooby-Doo series and the bright colors and active sound design are a long way from the grainy TV show back in 1969 (though that still has its charm). Fans of the series will be glad to hear that the character of Dell Chillman from the Loch Ness adventure returns for this one, giving some continuity to the otherwise unrelated mysteries.I must admit that I preferred it when the monsters ended up being real but I guess that each mystery has its own logic and you'll be surprised at who is behind the mask of the adorable snowman.Keep 'em coming, Warner. That ol' Great Dane could live to a hundred.

This was actually a pretty interesting movie. This was the last movie Joseph Barbera worked on, and it is thankfully the last one Sander Schwartz worked on. He was the one that ruined Scooby-Doo in 2002, and again in 2006. However, I'm quite happy to say that I liked this one. The "Pirates Ahoy" one was pretty good, despite being merely to cash into the "Pirates of the Caribbean" trend. When I first heard of this, I figured it was going to be another Snow Ghost/Creature/Demon terrorizing a ski lodge or something similar. But instead it has this mystical Indian thing about the snow monster, which is pretty unusual for the franchise. Also, Shaggy is thankfully voiced by Casey Kasem in this one instead of that Scott Menville like on "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!" But Frank Welker probably needs to practice voicing Scooby; he still makes him sound like Brain, the "Inspector Gadget" dog he voiced (now we need Cree "Penny" Summer as Velma and we'd be all set!) One thing that made this rather interesting was that it focused more on Shaggy and Scooby-Doo than the rest of the gang! It could be because of the "Get a Clue" series, though the animation is not done in that crude Flash style but in the "What's New Scooby-Doo" style used for the 2004-present made-for-video movies. It was pretty funny seeing Shaggy as a DJ (Casey Kasem is well-known for being a DJ actually!) The sound effects factor, they only used the classic H-B sound effects for exaggerated comedy sequences with Scooby and Shaggy. This is ironic, because when Warner Bros. Animation made the Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse cartoons back in 1967 to 1969, they relied on using the Hanna-Barbera sound effects a lot, even the same ones over and over! There weren't any thunderstorms here, so Castle Thunder wasn't used, let alone other storm SFX. Fred was still acting rather clueless like in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" (I thought he was going to blame Red Herring on being the monster!) and it was nice to see his ascot at one part. I also enjoyed Daphne's complaining about going on another mystery. This also might be the last movie to use a Hanna-Barbera logo at the end, which will be good because H-B wasn't involved in producing the movie; Warner Bros. Animation did all the work. It's just as odd as seeing an H-B logo at the end of a classic Bugs Bunny cartoon! Because I saw this on Cartoon Network, the credits were too small and I couldn't tell if there was a Joe Barbera dedication, but it did dedicate the movie to Iwao Takamoto (the guy that designed the Scooby gang). It would've been nice to see a little animated bumper dedicating the movie to Joe Barbera before the H-B and WB closing logos, like on "Zombie Island" (they had Scooby feed some cats that he fought with earlier and dedicated it to Don Messick). However, I recommend this, especially if you want to see something different than "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!"