"Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays" is a 23-minute animated Christmas holiday special from 2012, so this one has its 5th anniversary this year. It's not only not the first work that director Cook and writer Ryan collaborated on, but not even the first Scooby Doo work. Living snowmen have been a frequent inclusion in all kinds of films, sometimes harmless and likable, at other times downright scary. This one here fits the latter description, even if it is of course as much about the comedy as it is about the mystery just like it's always the case with Scooby and Shaggy. But I struggled with this one here: the Santa inclusion, the Elves, the pretty predictable culprit, the monster's transformations (i.e. the spider/fist shape shifting). None of it really convinced me at all and honestly from the mystery perspective as well as the Christmas spirit perspective it did not reach the level it was going for either. You can also watch it in February when the days are colder and there's maybe even snow outside. It's good they stick to some very old elements from the original Scooby Doo series, but even these feel a bit rushed-in and for the sake of it, such as the solution at the very end, maybe because every time the film tries to be creative in its own right and original, it comes rather short. It's not a failure by any means, but it was from a satisfying watch regardless of if you take the comedy or mystery perspective. Thumbs down from me. Don't watch.
Scooby-Doo! Haunted Holidays
(2012 Video)
The right ideas, the wrong execution
26 October 2017
Warning: Spoilers