Rating summary

Movie		2.0
Video		3.0
Audio		3.5
Extras		1.5
Overall		2.5

Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico Blu-ray Movie Review

A lesser effort among lesser efforts...

Reviewed by Kenneth Brown March 13, 2013

Wandering deep into the catacombs, Warner Bros. digs up four less than classic direct-to-video Scooby-Doo! movies; none of which are all that special (or very good frankly), hint at a multi-release Complete Collection master plan, or offer junior mystery junkies what they're really after: early Hanna-Barbera Scooby-Doo, meticulously restored and presented in high definition. Instead comes the 5th, 6th, 7th and, leaping forward five years, 13th Mystery Inc. misadventures from Warner Animation. The oldest hails from 2003 -- subsequently the oldest animated Scooby release available on Blu-ray -- and the youngest is still a pup, born in 2009. Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire (2003) and Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico (2003) at least have the distinction of reuniting the original series' voice cast (Frank Welker, Casey Kasem, Heather North and Nicole Jaffe) for the first time in more than thirty years, even though the ends fail to justify the means (or the potential). While Scooby-Doo! and the Loch Ness Monster (2004) and Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword (2009) are decent but lesser efforts altogether, two small evolutionary steps between the earliest DTV releases as yet unavailable on Blu-ray and some of the more flashy or clever Scooby-Doo! movies released in recent months, namely Legend of the Phantosaur and Mask of the Blue Falcon. Ah well, completists can't be choosers.

The Mystery Inc. kids -- Fred (Frank Welker), Daphne (Heather North Kenney), Velma (Nicole Jaffe), Shaggy (Casey Kasem) and Scooby (Welker again) -- continue their international tour after unmasking the Yowie Yahoo at Vampire Rock, this time heading South of the Border to visit Fred's pen pal Alejo (Eddie Santiago) in Mexico. No vacation is complete without a good ol' fashioned monster mystery, though, and the gang soon finds itself neck-deep in its latest unmasking when a monster identified as a chupacabra begins terrorizing the locales. It seems the beastie is scaring away the guests at Alejo's hotel, prompting Fred and his friends to pitch in and help his pen pal save his business. But is the chupacabra real? Or yet another criminal in creature's clothing? The suspects pile up quickly and it's up to the Mystery Inc-ers to get to the bottom of it all. Could it be family man Alejo, hiding some sinister agenda? Alejo's brother Luis (Jesse Borrego)? Luis' fiancé Charlene (Candi Milo)? Señor Fuente (Castulo Guerra), who's been trying to get Alejo and Luis to sell the hotel? Theme park owner Mr. Smiley (Rip Taylor)? Creepy El Curandero (Benito Martinez)? Or someone else entirely? The game is afoot.

Unfortunately, the game amounts to a dull 75-minute mystery with an increasingly, almost irritatingly obvious culprit, making The Monster of Mexico's seemingly short runtime tick down oh... so... slowly. (Even my eight-year-old son pegged one of the villains before the halfway mark.) The big problem with the early Scooby-Doo! direct-to-video movies is that they retain the easily digested mysteries of the cartoon series but expand each case to bloated feature-length proportions. The result? Filler, filler, filler. Fred and the gang are introduced to Mexico, albeit via a broad, often inaccurate cultural sampler that borders on offensive every now and then. And the problems don't end there. Like The Legend of the Vampire, The Monster of Mexico's animation is lacking (more so than The Legend of the Vampire's), its voice acting is stocky, its script desperately needs an influx of wit, and the entire movie amounts to a forgettable diversion. My son still enjoyed himself, which is a definite plus for those looking to make a month of weekly family nights out of Warner's latest Scooby releases, but he started to grow bored around the 45-minute mark. It didn't take me nearly that long, and I spent most of The Monster of Mexico wondering when, if ever, the original cartoon series would make its Blu-ray debut.

Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Produced within months of The Legend of the Vampire, Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico suffers the same indignities and even more problematic animation. Everything from pixelated lines to background anomalies to glaring gaps in the color fills makes the gang's jaunt into Mexico look even older than it is. Add to that the issues that haunt Warner's 1080p/AVC-encoded video presentation -- color banding, slight macroblocking and intermittent ringing -- and things get a bit hairy. Thankfully, the good nudges past the bad (at least from a technical standpoint) and the movie looks considerably better than the previously released DVD. Contrast is stronger, colors are bolder, black levels deeper and detail more refined, even to a fault. The animators' line art is decently defined (albeit somewhat soft by nature), every pen stroke and flick are on display, and only the shortcuts in the animation drag things down. It remains wholly underwhelming, mind you, but I suspect expecting something more was foolish to begin with.

Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Warner's DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track will delight principled audiophiles simply by being lossless. It wasn't so long ago that a release like Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico would have been given a lossy mix without a second thought. At the very least, we've come that far. That said, there isn't a lot to be said about the track as is, other than it's presumably as good as it could be considering the two-dimensionality of the movie's cartoon-y original sound design. Voices are crystal clear and prioritized well, effects are bright and lively, and some welcome LFE kick and rear speaker fireworks represent a notable improvement from the DVD's mediocre audio. But there isn't much else on tap, and the movie continually holds back the lossless experience and its potential. Could it be any better? Nope. Avoid setting your expectations any higher and you won't have nearly as far to fall.

Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Audio Commentary: "I've got two words for that fire-breathing idol: Mouth! Wash!" Watch the movie with the gang... well, Fred, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo anyway. Daphne and Velma are once again MIA, which is more than fine considering there isn't much to this in-character commentary (other than long stretches of silence). Production info is non-existent, the humor lags and the voice actors eventually began to sound as disinterested in the experience as I was.
• Creating a Monster (SD, 7 minutes): A peek at the voice actors in their natural habitat: the recording booth.

Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Scooby-Doo! and the Monster of Mexico joins The Legend of the Vampire near the bottom of the series heap, and only a bargain price can save it from bargain bin hell. Completists and families with younger children will be reasonably happy with their new acquisition; most fans and older kids will not. Warner's Blu-ray release isn't nearly as bad -- thanks to a faithful AV presentation -- but I can't help but wonder why the latest batch of older Scooby-Doo! DTV movies weren't released as part of a bundle rather than one by one (four in the same week, no less). Add this one to your collection if you must. Just know there are far better Scooby-Doo animated releases to plunder before scraping the bottom of the barrel.