Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf

Oh god. Hannah-Barbera turned in some real crap in the 80s in regards to the Scooby-Doo franchise. Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988) follows The Ghoul School in the Scooby movie series. You can see my review of The Ghoul School here, wherein I judge it to be a painfully boring crapfest. Well, things don't get much better, if at all, with Reluctant Werewolf.

The movie opens on Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy (ugh) kicking ass in a car race with some souped up roadster that has the cliched bag of tricks, including extender wheels, a huge drill, and the ability to split in half. Ok, so give 'em some style points for the kickass roadster, but what on god's green earth is Shaggy doing racing a roadster??? Much like in The Ghoul School, where we're supposed to believe Shaggy as a gym teacher, we're left scratching our heads wondering why writer Jim Ryan feels the need to throw Shaggy into the most unlikely occupations. I suppose it's just another effort to wring every last possible laugh out of the "comedic" format of the show.

And as long as we're talking about the inexplicable, we might as well mention Shaggy's girlfriend Googie. Yeah, seriously. WTF? Shaggy is a bachelor. He and Scooby are hetero life mates. He shouldn't have a girlfriend, much less one with such a ludicrous name. *Sigh*. 

Anyway, moving on. Meanwhile, in Transylvania, Dracula learns that the Wolfman has retired to Florida. This puts Drac in a bind, as he must have a werewolf to complete his monster brigade for an upcoming car rally. Well, lucky for him that the prophecies foretell the next Wolfman. Yeah, you guessed it. It's Shaggy, and he's an accomplished racer, to boot. How very serendipitous. To ensure Shaggy's transformation and bring him back to Transylvania, Drac dispatches the Hunch brothers, a mismatched pair of hunchbacked henchmen who get more screentime than Shaggy and Scooby. Crunch is a slobbering mush-mouth, and there are no end to the horrible sight gags that riff off his speech impediment. He is complemented by his brother Brunch, who sports an elegant British accent and a dry wit that actually provides a few laughs in this otherwise abysmal film.

From here on out, the movie is pretty much one drearily interminable car race. It's a must-win situation for Shaggy, as he faces a lifetime as the Wolfman if he doesn't bring home the gold. Drac and the other monsters throw pretty much everything they can think of at Shaggy & 

Scooby, but the duo always manage to keep ahead thanks to assistance from Scrappy and Googie, and the bumbling of the Hunch brothers. Every single car in the race gets totaled about 15 times, but a quick fade to black is all it takes to get them back on the road. The funny thing is, a practice run on the course took Shaggy all of about 5 minutes, but yet the next day, the race drags on for what seems like an eternity.

Once again, the producers have foregone Fred, Velma, Daphne, and any sense of mystery, in order to play Reluctant Werewolf as an adventure comedy. And once again, there are barely any laughs to be had. Instead, the movie is dominated by the same freakin' sight gags and the same freakin' terrible puns over and over and over again, ad nauseum. Seriously, I vomited after the the Hunch brothers smashed into the side of a tunnel for the hundredth time. How many freakin' tunnels can there be on one race course???

If you're looking for a fun Scooby-Doo flick, skip this one and find one minus Scrappy and the awful comedy format. This one is better than Ghoul School, but only just barely.

Plot & Storyline: 0/10

Cinematography & effects: 3/10

Music & mood: 4/10

Performances: 5/10

The Reverend says: 4/10