A brilliant film that helped define a genre

It's a feast for the eyes. But what really makes this dramedy work is the acting.

The film may be flawed, but its message is not.

It's simply great fun, a winsome film and an occasionally over-the-top luxury fantasy that never flags.

I re-watched this film for the first time in years yesterday, and it was really nothing special. After four animated Scooby-Doo films that took risks and offered us stuff that is new ("Zombie Island" through "Cyber Chase"), we get a forgettable entry that really doesn't do much outside of the old Scooby-Doo formula.The gang are their usual selves, which is pretty nice, I guess. It was also cool that we get to see the Hex girls again, even if they didn't do much. As usual, we get some funny scenes here and there and I will admit that the design for the vampire was pretty cool.It doesn't offer much outside of that. The story is typical Scooby-Doo fare, and there wasn't anything to make it feel like a real "movie." This was really nothing more than an extended TV episode. Several Scooby-Doo movies suffer from this, but this is one of the worst cases.It took too long for the plot to get started. There were too many filler scenes that added nothing and felt like they were there only to pad out the movie's length. The supporting characters aside from the Hex Girls were also nothing to write home about.The climax in the mountains is kind of routine, and the reveal was nothing shocking. However, I kind of liked the gang performing the Scooby-Doo Theme Song at the end.This is definitely one of the most by-the-numbers entries in the long-running franchise. It's not a bad film and it's okay to watch if you've got nothing better to do. However, it isn't really that much worth your time and there are better Scooby-Doo movies out there.RATING: C

I have to ask myself why do we get these classic cartoons and try to update them. What we have here is a stretched put episode of Scooby Doo which on its own would not be too bad, it is just when they try to modernise them that it fails to work and I for one can not see the sense in it. Surely from a quality and economic point of view it would just be better to shot kids the clearly superior originals (pre Scrappy obviously). Anyway the premise here is that the crew are holidaying in Australia and are due to go to The Vampire Rock Festival. As one would guess a mystery becomes apparent that the kids have to solve. Now the classic Scooby elements work well but where it goes wrong is when the try to bring it up to date with the gay references and the rock music (but still incredibly keep Fred in a cravat). This frankly does not work and would have been best left alone. I have seen worse updates of classics but still I would avoid this and stick to the originals.

Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire is funPlot: After solving a mystery aboard a cruise ship while on a vacation to Austraila the gang, Fred (Frank Welker), Daphne (Heather North), Velma (Nicole Jaffe), Shaggy (Casey Kasem), and Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker) are looking forward to a relaxing vacation. They get word of a concert way out in the Outback and head on over. When they arrive they meet the concert's finalists, The Hex Girls and The Bad Omens. They also learn about the Yowie Yahoo, a vampire who is kidnapping the finalists and turning them into vampires. The gang thinks there is more to the mystery than meets the eye and agree to investigate. Their search propels them forward and learns that their is a connection between the Yowie Yahoo and a band that disappeared last year. After the Hex Girls are kidnapped the gang heads up to Vampire Rocks where the Yowie Yahoo lives to end the madness once and for all.The Good News: For once there are some great action sequences towards the end that lead logically from one event to another. The animation is suburb for a direct-to-video and the director knew what he was doing as the film looks like it actually could be transferred into theaters. The voice cast is better than before and the returning actors and actresses have matured well into their roles and the new voices are a welcome addition. The scriptwriter designed a clever and ingenious script and the film moves along at a fast pace, never slowing down. It is also never boring and is sure to leave you hooked till the end. The addition of vampires as the monsters is nice and the setting of the outback is used to it's full purpose. This is also very straight forward and that is another bonus and it never detours from what it is supposed to be. My favorite scene has to be where Fred, Daphne, and Velma going looking for clues in the managers trailer and not only does it have a laugh that gets me every time the whole scene is a reminder of the early episodes with searching for clues or being somewhere your not supposed to be. The running time is short so it doesn't take to much time.The Bad News: Several of the jokes where not funny and the revelation of the vampires is a throughly confusing one and takes many times before you finally get it.Conclusion: The bad jokes and the confusing ending should not let you stop from seeing this Scooby gem as it is truly one of the best. Rated: Not Rated

Voice actor Frank Welker is to voice acting what Lon Chaney & Lon Chaney Jr. were to acting through layers of makeup. But while Frank has done just about everything from people to animals to special creature vocalizations to killer robots (he voiced 13 of the original Decepticons on "Transformers"), to some people Frank will ALWAYS be the voice of Fred from "Scooby-Doo". But for some reason, Frank has been pulling double duty lately as both Fred and Scooby, who was previously voiced by Scott Innes, who got the job after the original voice of Scooby, Don Messick, died. Frank's still a good Fred, but despite his considerable vocal talent, his Scooby is something of a disappointment: he never quite captures Don's Scooby pitch the way Scott did and for the most part his Scooby sounds too much like Fred. Which is strange considering that Frank's been with Scooby from the beginning. That's just one of the dis-pleasures of this entry.The gang heads down under for vacation and ends up investigating the goings on at a rock festival which leads to a group of alleged vampires. Though colorfully drawn and full of gags, it never reaches the height of "Zombie Island", "Witch's Ghost", "Alien Invaders" and even the original show itself. The best bit is probably Fred carrying the whole gang across a rope bridge. Velma also sings with the voice of Jennifer Love Hewitt.Still, it's nice to have the old crew back together - Nicole Jaffe as Velma, Heather North as Daphne (though technically Daphne #2) and Casey Kasem as Shaggy (who was absent from the previous entries). The "commentary" by Fred, Shaggy and Scooby is mildly amusing.