Review: LEGO Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach Bash

*** CONTAINS SPOILERS *** WARNING*** CONTAINS SPOILERS *** WARNING ***

I have watched this movie a few times so I could do this review. One of the biggest disappointments is that there are no good special features on the DVD. There are 3 bonus cartoons, but no fun special features. What happened to all the special features? It seems like WB has been slacking on them for a few years now!

The opening of the movie reminded me of High School Musical and Tommy looked like the LEGO version of Zac Efron. I didn't feel like the opening song was very Scooby-esque. It felt like the beginning of a totally different type of movie until the music ended and they cut to the gang in the museum "unmasking" the villain. He did say "and I would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for you meddling kids!"

Shaggy gets the great idea to go somewhere warm to unwind. The police officer tells them about the Blowout Beach Bingo Bash and as soon as he says food, Shaggy and Scooby are sold.  So off they go. I don't remember Fred being such a bad driver though. He almost got into several accidents on the way. I'm not sure why they portrayed him as such a bad driver in this movie.

Then we moved on to Shaggy calling Fred and Velma no fun and said they are as square as a couple of 2x2 bricks. Daphne and Shaggy continued to give reasons to Fred and Velma as to why they aren't fun and how they are obsessed with solving creepy mysteries. Fred said the last fun things he did was read a book on the history of nets. Velma vowed to prove to the others that her and Fred would be just as much fun as everyone else and they would be named the captains of the blowout beach bingo bash.

The credits weren't super exciting! They could have done so much more with it using LEGOs to create some cool effects. Instead, they had some colored LEGO plates in the background, the gang doing some things like surfing, and white LEGOs that spelled out the names of the voice actors and everyone else involved. Even the title card was just a background of colored LEGO plates with text over it. The text wasn't even made of LEGOs!

And did you notice in the credits that The Mystery Machine had no licence plate? The Mystery Machine always has a licence plate! How was this forgotten? Could it be because the Mystery Machine was only seen in the beginning of the movie when they were driving to the Beach Blowout Bash, and then it wasn't in the movie at all.

The gang check into their hotel to find that the Blowout Beach Bingo Bash is being cancelled because of ghost pirates. The pirates stole the hats they used to crown the the captains. When Chrissy and Chad show up, they are rude and obnoxious to the gang. Chad looked at Scooby's collar and asked if SD stood for "strange dog." Their parents, the owners of the hotel, apologized and said the hats went to their heads when they were crowned captains last year.

Velma wanted to know more about the pirates, so the Holdout's proceeded to tell them more. He directed them to a picture of the pair, Pirate Queen Bonnie Bingo Bell and Captain Brutimore Bash (The Blowout Beach Bingo Bash was named after them. ) and their ship The Salty Brick, which has the Roman Goddess Aurora on the front and the flag The Jolly Roger. They explained how the first blowout beach bingo bash came to be.

Dwight Monkfish interrupted their story and when Velma introduced them as Mystery Inc., he asked if that was their band name and told them they are always looking for fresh young musical acts at the pier. Fred went to talk to the Sheriff and told the Sheriff they are mystery solvers. The Sheriff said "mystery solvers? I thought you were in a band?" Then the Sheriff told Fred how annoying tourists are and he hopes the pirates put an end to the bingo bash. It was kind of funny that he thought they were a band.

The tour guide of The Salty Brick reminded me of Ben Stein, he was so monotone. Even Shaggy called him boring. It was kind of funny though, because tour guides are usually really into whatever they are giving a tour of and very enthusiastic. If I had to do a 4 hour tour with a guide this monotone and no food, I'd probably be unhappy too!

At the club, Velma and Fred were planning on being crowned the captains. It was funny when Fred walked in and said "Ahoy Matey's" and everyone started throwing cups at him. Fred, it was too soon! Everyone was afraid of the pirates and apparently on edge. They saw Chad and Chrissy there and after the teens were obnoxiously annoying, Velma called them unjinkie!

On the pier, Daphne was talking to Mr. Monkfish and Mitzi. It was really funny when Mitzi called Mr. Monkfish "brash, arrogant, a little short tempered, gross, slimy, pure evil and the lowest kind of scum, but he isn't all bad!"

So I noticed that the gang split up in an odd way...Fred and Velma at the club, Daphne at the pier by herself and Shaggy and Scooby on the ship. I'm not sure if it was an intentional split or if it just happened that way. We never did hear Fred say "let's split up."

Back at the club, Fred and Velma are getting discouraged about the bash. Velma says they should go back to the rest of the gang and then she is startled by Tommy and Brenda and she hops around and crashed into things, even loses her hair. Tommy thought it was a cool dance move. I'm not sure how breaking a table apart looks like a crazy dance move, which Fred names The Jinkie.

This turns into a really awkward dance and song performed by Fred and Velma. Strangely, they were able to just make all of this up on the fly, even though they don't typically do things that normal teens do. During the dance, the other teens joined in and most of the tables and other things were destroyed, as if it was part of the dance itself. This was pretty much the first time in the movie where LEGOs broke apart.

Now back on the ship, Shaggy and Scooby run in to none other than the pirate ghosts! In typical Scooby and Shaggy fashion, they run, dress up in costumes and mess with the ghosts and then they run again.

Back at the club, Daphne is trying to get Fred and Velma to go check out the clues she found, but Velma said they didn't have time for clues. No time for clues! Velma told Daphne they would have time to look for clues after they are crowned captains. When Daphne disagreed, Velma called her a party pooper and Fred said she was being a Fred. This is all so out of character for Fred and Velma. I'm not sure I like this side of them!

Shaggy and Scooby show up, the ghosts show up and destroy the club, and then they are gone. You have to wonder why it is acceptable that every time the gang is solving a mystery, things get destroyed and it seems like they never have to pay for the damages.

The gang heads back to the Inn and they start bickering about who is at fault for the ghosts showing up at the club. The crazy thing is, Daphne was angry that Fred and Velma were too busy showing off for their friends, yet it was because of her and Shaggy that they were doing that. I don't like when the gang argues though. As the gang headed to their rooms, Shaggy was the voice of reason for Fred and Scooby found a sandwich in a cabinet in their room.

Did you notice the pictures hanging on the walls in their rooms? The one of the ship in the boys room wasn't bad, but what was with the picture in the girls room? It looked like someone was going to perform a ritual or sacrifice. I thought it was a really odd choice of artwork for a room at an Inn. I also felt like they missed an opportunity when Scooby was between the rooms and looking through the eye holes in the picture to Daphne and Velma's room, but when they showed their room, you didn't see Scooby's eyes in the picture. They also didn't show Velma's eyes when she was looking in the eye holes of the picture in the police station. That is classic Scooby-Doo and would have been perfect!

The chase scene wasn't super exciting. The ghosts ran after Scooby and Shaggy and Daphne, Fred and Velma kind of ran after them. Where were all the doorways they usually go in and out of? The only use of LEGOs were the LEGO barrels they catapulted at the ghosts and the LEGO box that bounced off of stuff, but didn't break. And, of course, the gang get caught in their own trap.

After the gang escapes walking the plank, thanks to Tommy & Brenda, they head to the pier. The ghosts are chasing them pretty quickly for being in a pirate ship that would never be able to keep up with a motor boat. And again, there is so much destruction at the pier, things are blowing up, buildings are being destroyed and yet very few LEGOs are flying through the air. I expected more use of LEGOs, and not just as the background with everything being made of LEGOs.

The gang devises a plan to lure the ghosts back to the pier by having the crowning ceremony. As soon as it begins, the ghosts run their ship into the pier, causing more destruction. The ghosts start chasing Fred and Velma. Shaggy is flying the plane and Scooby is shooting Scooby snacks out of his mouth at the ghosts. The Scooby snacks are hitting the ground as if they are tiny bombs. I don't think it's safe for Scooby and Shaggy to ingest them anymore! And this is the first time anyone broke something apart and then created something new out of the LEGOs. FINALLY!! We are 59 minutes into the movie! Too bad it was an ice cream gun that was able to shoot down Shaggy and Scooby's plane. If the ice cream can do that, it's probably not edible either!

Another chase begins and everyone decided to climb onto the carousel, as if that was going to get them anywhere. The ghost pirate had it go super fast and when it stopped, they had all switched hair...again. This happened several times throughout the movie. And apparently, when the carousel goes in reverse really fast, the characters get their hair back.

Shaggy and Scooby dress up in their 2nd costume of the movie to trick the ghosts into believing they are painting caricatures. The ghosts sit for their paintings, and even smile creepily.

The finished painting looks like it was done by a little kid, but they look amazingly similar considering one was done by Shaggy and one was done by Scooby!

Again, they get on a ride, the Ferris Wheel, for another chase scene. At least this time they made a joke out of it. Then this is followed by a really long chase scene on the roller coaster. Once Fred realized that the roller coaster was falling apart, he built a ramp to send Scooby, Shaggy and the ghosts flying off the coaster and towards the Ferris Wheel, where Shaggy and Scooby landed in one of the cars and the ghosts bounced off and just happened to land perfectly in the net.

From there, Velma explained all the clues and who was involved, just like classic Scooby! The Holdouts were the culprits...all 4 of them!

The famous line was kind of spoken. It went more like "and we would have gotten away with it too if it weren't for our meddling kids!" They were taken away to jail and Velma figured out the clues in the poem and found the treasure, which is good since they probably wouldn't have had the money to rebuild the boardwalk.

It was nice of Fred and Velma to decline the crowns and give them to Daphne and Shaggy, since they never gave up on the mystery.

A party started and the movie ended with Scooby saying "Scooby Doobie Doooooooo!" He actually says this twice. He says it at the end of the credits too.

This movie was ok. The first time I watched it, I found some of the jokes to be funny. They weren't as funny after watching it the first time though. I also felt like they could have used the LEGOs more. It seemed like they were just part of the background most of the movie with a few things breaking apart and only making something once. It felt like this movie would have been better if it wasn't a LEGO movie.

I do like the way the gang look as LEGO characters. If they ever make another Scooby LEGO movie, I would like to see them use the LEGOs more creatively.