Movie Review: Scooby Doo! Wrestlemania Mystery (2014)

This movie uses voices from Frank Welker, John Cena, Matthew Lillard and A.J. Brooks.

After watching this movie with my oldest daughter yesterday, I had to take a while to think about the film and sort out my feelings about it. While the movie was better than I honestly was expecting it to be, there was just something about it I wasn't a huge fan of. And, after some reflection, I realized it was the fact the movie was very predictable.

One thing I like about most Scooby Doo movies is they do make an effort to throw up some red herrings and at least try to make the mystery a little difficult to solve. That wasn't the case this time around and it wasn't overly difficult who was behind the ghost bear attacks simply because there was only one character with motive.

This was also the case with the part about Scooby and Shaggy being forced to face Kane in the ring. Once that was announced, it wasn't overly difficult to guess at the outcome of that match. In fact, other than the surprise cage match, that played out almost exactly as I guessed it would.

Probably the only thing about this episode that wasn't predictable was the twist involving Scooby being framed for stealing the belt. While it was pretty obvious he was being set up (and his friends figured out exactly how he was framed shortly after he was accused), the motive behind that theft was a bit of a mystery until later in the episode. Unfortunately, it just wasn't enough to make the movie as enjoyable as most of the other Scooby Doo feature films.

Even though they are obviously geared toward kids, I normally find plenty of reasons to enjoy movies like this. Unfortunately, while I didn't hate it, I do think this Scooby Doo film lacked something when compared to the others I've seen. It should have spent less time promoting the WWE wrestlers and more time on the mystery.

My Grade: C