Blu-ray Movie Reviews

The Mystery Inc. gang reunites in Scooby Doo to find out what's behind the jinky-jittery goings-on at Spooky Island, the spring break hot spot run by Emile Mandavarious (Rowan Atkinson). Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed finds our heroes with their hands and paws full trying to find out why Coolsville is overrun with monsters the pals thought they'd defeated years earlier.

While Scooby-Doo is no Casablanca, these live-action recreations of the popular cartoon are harmless family entertainment. When my kids were younger the spooky monsters made them cringe, but now that they've matured a few years they laugh along with Mom and Dad.

Video Highlights

• VC-1/1080p encodes
• Very good detail
• Vivid primaries
• Deep blacks

Audio Highlights

• Dolby Digital 5.1 (648kbps) soundtrack on the first film
• DTS-HD MA 5.1 soundtrack on the second
• Very front-loaded presentations
• Laidback LFE
• Intelligible dialog

The video presentations look outstanding with rich color saturation and excellent depth and detail. The audio tracks are pedestrian with lackluster sound design, but maybe this was intentional so the kiddies wouldn't be scared.

Bonus Materials

Scooby-Doo

• Cast and Filmmakers commentaries
• Additional Scenes
• Production featurettes
• Outkast music video
• Theatrical trailer

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

• Production featurettes
• Additional Scenes
• Big Brovaz and Simple Plan music videos

Both of these films are family friendly and surprisingly the sequel is the better of the two (relatively speaking). If you have young kids there are worst ways to spend a few hours with them and it's nice to see Warner offer a double feature at a reasonable price.

Release Date: November 9, 2010
Studio: Warner

Movies: 5/10
Picture: 8/10
Sound: 7/10

Review System

Source
Oppo BDP-83 Blu-ray player

Display
JVC DLA-RS1 projector
Stewart FireHawk screen (76.5" wide, 16:9)

Electronics
Onkyo Pro PR-SC885 pre/pro
Anthem PVA-7 power amplifier
Panamax M5400PM power conditioner

Speakers
M&K S-150s (L, C, R)
M&K SS-150s (LS, RS, SBL, SBR)
SVS PC-Ultra subwoofer

Cables
Monoprice HDMI cables (source to pre/pro)
Best Deal analog-audio cables
PureLink HDC Fiber Optic HDMI Cable System (15 meters) from pre/pro to projector

Acoustical treatments from GIK Acoustics