The Real Scooby Doo

I'm a fan of "Scooby Doo", always have been. When I was a kid I used to watch the animated series over and over, whenever it was shown on TV.

So when a couple of years ago a real-life movie was made, I was interested. But as it got very bad ratings, I didn't watch it at the movies. Later on, when it had been out on DVD, I bought it quite cheap (DVDs get quite cheap about 6 or 7 months after they've come out). I like the movie - and I like the second one as well.

Admittedly, the characters have been changed slightly, but that's to be expected. The movies don't deal with the young adults (about 17 to 19) as the series did (and the new series does now), they deal with a group that's already famous. So unlike the series that's mostly for kids (and I've already said more than once that I don't have a problem with watching series 'for kids'), the movies give the characters a new depth.

Maybe that's the reason why many fans (who, like me, probably have grown up with the series) don't like the movies. They show Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy as rather different people (even though admittedly Shaggy and Scooby are more or less like they were in the series) than the ones we've seen. They're more ... human, you could say. They've got doubts, they've got their little vanities, they don't get on as well any more as they did when they were younger. That's only to be expected - and it happens to a lot of famous groups in the 'real life' as well. Yes, at first it is hard to watch this - the way the group breaks up at the beginning of the first movie and the way their name is demolished in the second. But in the end they always come out stronger, which is something good from my point of view.

I love the new animated series which shows the Scooby Gang just as the old ones did (and it's a lot better than some of the spin-offs in the eighties were). The only difference there is the new technology - which gives the 'ghosts' a lot of new abilities. But I also love the movies, because they give the characters a new depth.