Have you ever watched a movie from your childhood and hope that it was as good as you remembered? I think we all have and a lot of the time they don't hold up. The dialogue is too corny or the plot in actuality makes no sense. But there are those films and tv shows that stand out and last the test of time. As someone who enjoys watching old shows from his childhood, I pray that these shows from my childhood last the test and time. I decided to test that theory with "Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire."
Growing up, I was a big Scooby-Doo fan. I owned dozens of VHS tapes and would watch them on repeat. One of the first pieces of machines I learned to operate was a VCR when I was around two years old. There were a few set Scooby-Doo movies that I would watch on repeat all the time. During the 90s/early 2000s, Warner Bros. would release a mini-series of Scooby-Doo movies that were supposed to take place after one another. So a lot of the movies I watched were around this era of WB pumping out movies. One movie that I loved watching at that time was "Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire" which released in 2002. It follows Scooby and the gang as they take a trip to Australia for their mini-vacation. While there, they obviously have to solve a new mystery as contenders for the Vampire Rock Music Festival are being kidnapped. The story is straightforward... almost. I used to be scared of the bad guy in this movie, but would still watch it anyway. Maybe it was just because I loved the design around the Vampire villains. Watching the film nowadays it's obviously not as scary as I thought, however, there are moments where I thought to myself, that's a little intense.
I think I enjoyed this film as a kid because of the whole Australian atmosphere. I believe this is one of the earliest memories I have to learning about Australia. One of my favorite scenes in the movie is the music section where the gang is traveling to Vampire Rock. The music is so early 2000s rock and I love it. It seriously feels like I went back in time when I watch the scene.
Scooby-Doo & The legend of the vampire: Gonna Go to the Rockshow youtu.be
The voice cast is the usual voices for Scooby and the gang. However, I feel like Daphne's voice is oddly lower pitch than usual. Watching it again, she's the only character in the film I had a problem within the beginning. Maybe it was just because she wasn't believing Scooby and Shaggy when they were talking about the vampire, which happens a lot in these movies.
One thing that stood out to me was the lack of 3D Computer graphics. Today 2D animated cartoons are sometimes plagued with 3D models (like cars or buildings) to help a scene "flow" better. For example, a lot of times cartoons now just have these extreme camera angles and use a 3D background with 2D characters standing still. It's jarring for me personally, but for this movie- a moment that would've been 3D rendered was still drawn in 2D and it looked stellar. This whole film was animated nicely. Nothing groundbreaking but a pleasant watch on the eyes.
In conclusion, "Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire" was a film from my childhood that I fondly remember and glad to watch again. Some of the dialogue is too simple for my taste but it's still a film I would watch again. As this article comes to a close I can only imagine Scooby's classic "Scooby Doobey, Doo!"
