After crossing over with Batman: The Brave and the Bold and Supernatural earlier this year, Scooby-Doo
and the gang’s next team-up is with real-life celebrity chefs Bobby Flay, Giada
De Laurentiis, and Marcus Samuelsson (with supermodel wife Maya Haile). Now, Scooby-Doo!
has always been about weird, unlikely crossovers. But this
most recent one baffles me. I mean, what’s
the point? Is there are market or a
niche for this? Did anyone ask for this?
Is this the product of a
corporate edict due to nepotism? Like,
are these celebrity chefs tight with a powerful Warner Bros. executive?
“Hey, Phil. I want to be in a Scooby-Doo! cartoon. I think it will help improve my image. Well, can you make it happen?”
“Sure, Bobby. I’ll make it happen.”
“Great! Can some of my buddies also tag along?”
“No problem.”
“You’re the best, Phil!”
Or is this Warner Bros. executive
a die-hard fan of these chefs, and used his power to make his Scooby-Doo! fan fiction
fantasy with them a reality?
“Don, get this script into
production, will you?”
(Don scans through the script.)
“Er, we already have a new bonkers
crossover set for Scooby-Doo!, sir. We’re going to integrate the Scooby Gang into
The Goonies. It’ll be just like our Tom and Jerry/Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory project a few years back.”
“Don, make this movie first or
you’re fired!”
“Yes, sir. Right away, sir.”
“Good! Oh, by the way. Just a reminder: Don’t ever let the Scooby
Gang crossover with Tom and Jerry in
the future. Having our two properties
that have been doing crossovers in the past years cross over with each other would
make sense. We don’t want to make sense.”
“Yes, sir. Never, sir.”
Joking aside, I don’t really have any problems with the aforementioned celebrity chefs, but I honestly don’t know who they are. I’m sure they are relatively popular, but they’re no Gordon Ramsay.
Joking aside, I don’t really have any problems with the aforementioned celebrity chefs, but I honestly don’t know who they are. I’m sure they are relatively popular, but they’re no Gordon Ramsay.
Man, the Scooby Gang teaming up with Gordon Ramsay is potentially more appealing
by an infinite margin. To have Ramsay
spew G-rated versions of his profanity-filled outbursts would be a lot
fun. (Or maybe Gordon was the plan in
the first place, but when the filmmakers couldn’t get him, they turn to Bobby
Flay and co. instead.)
Anyway, the movie is titled Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost, and it centers on the Scooby Gang visiting the new cooking-themed resort
owned by Fred’s uncle – who, in this universe, is Bobby Flay. The spot is an ancestral property by Fred and
Bobby’s family, and is rumored to be haunted by a Red Ghost. At first, Bobby dismisses this as a mere local myth. But when the Red Ghost shows up
during a live televised promotional in the resort’s state-of-the-art kitchen, it’s
once again up to Mystery Inc. to save the day.
I’ve followed closely all Scooby-Doo! direct-to-video movies in
the past years, and I always fit my expectations with what they are. Thus, I tend to enjoy these movies. Nevertheless, Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost is my least favorite so far. This is not necessarily because I wasn’t impressed with its choice of partners for this particular crossover, but simply because,
in my opinion, it’s the worst of the lot. None of the running gags are strong, the plot is predictable, the sense of craziness is borderline obnoxious, and... what’s the deal with that kooky Skip Taylor character?
In the end, I didn’t really hate Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost. Surely, it will more or less fill up fans’ cravings
for a new Scooby-Doo! adventure,
but a huge part of it is insipid.
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