Scooby-Doo

Even its look is awfully cheesy and clunky, the SFX notwithstanding. Scooby Doo makes Stuart Little seem a Citizen Kane in comparison.

Too scary for most kids, too dumb for most teens.

Scooby-Doo knows when to take itself seriously and when to laugh at itself -- even if its audience isn't laughing along at every gag.

The film's effects just don't do the concept justice.

The acting is stiff, the story lacks all trace of wit, the sets look like they were borrowed from Gilligan's Island -- and the CGI Scooby might well be the worst special-effects creation of the year.

... every inch a live action cartoon with a little contemporary self-awareness and about as much substance as a Scooby snack.

The pitch-perfect casting of the members of Mystery Inc. is what makes Scooby-Doo compulsively rewatchable. The plot is serviceable, and most adults will be able to unmask the villain long before the Mystery Inc. team does, but that doesn’t matter.

If you can accept a pixellated pooch, you'll be rewarded with an entertaining, un-taxing romp that will delight fans and enthrall youngsters.

It's a compromised vision, to be sure, but this colorful and campy pseudo-parody of the classic Scooby-Doo cartoons still has plenty of fun in store for younger (and some older) audiences.