To me, this movie is perfection.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Like the great film, it's made with a great deal of visible affection both in front of and behind the camera.

It hurts!!!! It hurts!!!! Turn it off it hurts!!!!! OK, so it's not THAT bad, but there are parts of it that do make you feel like you're Linda Blair, strapped to a bed, and getting doused with holy water.So much of it is a big old FAIL that it's hard to believe they released it as a movie and not as, well, a throw away episode of one of the shows.Just run away from this one.

Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! (2006) *** (out of 4) Scooby and the gang are invited on a cruise by Fred's parents but soon the ship is taken over by dead pirates. They kidnap Fred's parents so the gang must go after them and try to learn why they've come back from the dead. When reviewing these Scooby movies I have to keep in mind not only my opinion but that of my three-year-old son. His opinion of this movie is that it quickly became his favorite of the series and each time I asked which one he wants to watch it's this here. In fact, I think we're working on about fifteen times in a row he has selected this one so obviously kids should love it. I've seen the film on a number of occasions with him and I do think it's one of the best out there. The actual story here is a very good one and I really liked how they took the pirate theme and mixed it with zombies as well as the entire Bermuda Triangle thing. The animation is top-notch from start to finish and also shows a lot of imagination. The actual look of the pirates is without question the highlight of the film as the detail in the costumes and their look is great. This one here also features a lot of famous names doing vocal work including Tim Conway, Arsenio Hall, Freddy Rodriquez, Ron Perlman and Kathy Najimy. SCOOBY-DOO! PIRATES AHOY! will certainly entertain fans of the series and kids should really enjoy it as well.

I wasn't so keen on watching this Scooby adventure as it has the shortest running time of all of them so far and I figured that it couldn't possibly have a substantial mystery worth taking an interest in.And while that's true for the most part, they do make a huge effort to keep the viewer guessing by throwing in lots of distractions, more so than any other Scooby adventure. And despite it's brief running time it does manage pack in a fair amount of characters and guest voices, so in a sense they give more AND less.The Mystery Inc. gang head off on a tropical cruise for Fred's birthday but things turn sinister when they pick-up a drifter floating in the water. No one believes his tale of ghost pirates (they're on a "mystery cruise" and are becoming quite jaded to the novelty), but only when said pirates show up do they gradually accept that it's real.There's a few more in-jokes than normal in this one too. And while I usually hate in-jokes it's forgivable, and perhaps welcome, in a Scooby-Doo mystery. I am aware that the infamous Bermuda Triangle was the focus of a lower-wattage mystery in the third season of Scooby-Doo back in the early 70s, but this one is considerably better.It looses points for being short, but it's still a worthy mystery.

I can honestly admit that I don't like "What's New Scooby-Doo" at all, as well as the direct-to-video Scooby movies from 2004 to the present. The last two direct-to-video Scooby movies were not that good. They mostly focused more on Fred, Daphne and Velma, rather than Scooby-Doo himself(who is actually my favorite character!). However, this movie is a slight improvement over the last two. It's still basically an extended-length episode of "What's New Scooby-Doo," but not much like "Aloha Scooby-Doo!" or "Scooby-Doo in Where's My Mummy." In this installment, Scooby-Doo is given more attention and screen time than the last two in the series! He also has plenty of dialogue, too. When I noticed this as I was watching, I couldn't believe it! The only flaw is, as usual, Frank Welker's Scooby-Doo voice (you know, like Brain from "Inspector Gadget!") I sure hope this isn't Casey Kasem's last time he does Shaggy's voice, what with Scott Menville (aka Robin from "Teen Titans," Larry and Steve from "Rugrats," etc.) starting to do a horrible Shaggy impersonation. However, it's not like Daphne, who sounds a bit like Vicky from "The Fairly Oddparents," and Mindy Cohn providing Velma's newer, slightly dark-sounding voice. However, I thought Fred's parents were pretty goofy (I loved the running gag with their camera flash temporarily blinding people!), and there was that crazy tour guide who reminded me of Ms. Frizzle from "The Magic School Bus." However, they STILL didn't use the old "Castle Thunder" sound effects, like the last three movies! I mean, they used it on a couple of episodes of "What's New Scooby-Doo" and on "Loonatics Unleashed," and since pirate movies tend to have thunderstorms in them, this would've been perfect for it! But I also enjoyed seeing references to classic Scooby villains (not Redbeard, thankfully, but Captain Cutler, the Ghost Clown and a werewolf from an older episode). Also, I am very grateful that they didn't use the gawd-awful new designs from "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue." That would've sucked! But I am still find it weird they keep using the old 70s Hanna-Barbera logo at the end of the movies. I will say it again: HANNA-BARBERA DID NOT PRODUCE THIS MOVIE! It was all TERMITE TERRACE! Nonetheless, if you liked "Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase" or are just a fan of the new series, you will like this then.