For about the first ten minutes of looking at the box art of this DVD, I kept thinking this was a Scooby-Doo/Muppets crossover, not a puppets one. Either way was something I didn’t expect to see, although perhaps it’s not as weird as the upcoming Scooby/WWE adventure. I’ve always associated Scooby-Doo with 70s animation, the style of which I really like. I never saw the live action movie, on a side note.
Anyway, what is clearly a release for the younger audience was going to be a tough watch for me, or so I thought. But it turns out that the Scooby-Doo characters and the light-hearted ‘horror/mystery’ themes the series is known for work out very well in puppet form. Combined with what I perceived to be the original voice actors playing their very important role, and to be honest the fact that the movie is only about forty minutes, seeing the members of Mystery, Inc crew moving about like Burt & Ernie from Sesame Street wasn’t bad at all. For kids, I think it’s something they would be able to associate with readily, especially for any of those that have seen shows like Sesame Street where erratic or exaggerated movements of the characters is just part of the format.
The characters maintained their familiar personalities despite the change in the medium used to present them. This I credit in large part to the familiar voicecast, but, you can fully expect a ravenous and skittish Scooby and Shaggy, while Velma continues to be the real brains of the operation. Freddy’s intelligence seems to be reduced, although he does come up with an idea or two during the movie that helps the team unravel the mystery. It’s just that he’s presented as a sports jock than anything else, while Daphne is the ditsy, high maintenance teen girl. As always though, Scooby and Shaggy are your main sources of humor, and in that regard, they don’t disappoint.
As you can tell from the box art, the story is about pirates and a mysterious map. This map is first discovered by Shaggy and Scooby after they scarf down a peanut butter and pickle pizza that was freshly delivered to them, with the map suspiciously placed between the pizza crust and the delivery box. The map is then stolen by the Phantom Parrot, a large green bird with an intimidating squawk. The gang goes after the Phantom Parrot, leading them to a lighthouse where they learn more about the lost treasure of the old pirate Gnarlybeard, so named due to his unkempt and utterly stinky and disgusting beard. Will they find the treasure and unravel just what the heck is going on? Will the ghost of Gnarlybeard appear? You can count on it, and don’t be too surprised if you find this adventure almost as fun as your children or a younger audience might.
On DVD, The Mystery Map is presented with the image and sound quality you would expect, although the menus are barebones. The buttons for the menus look like the default buttons from a DVD video menu-creation program. It’s not a big deal obviously, but I thought it worth mentioning. For extra features, their isn’t much at all, and nothing directly related to the movie itself. Expect a one minute “Dance Break” video whereby the characters, in their puppet form, dance about and sing, perhaps a good way for kids to burn some energy or just be themselves. Other extras include a bunch of trailers for other WB releases if you want to count that, and then two Scooby-Doo cartoons, “The Backstage Rage” and “Robopup.”
With that, let’s get to the summary…