The Brave and the Bold isn't the cleanest plot or mystery in the series, but it is exactly the tone you'd hope for in a Scooby Doo and Batman crossover (not the first time they've nailed the pairing, either). They do a very nice job managing a wildly large cast of characters - it would've been easy to focus too much on the heroes and leave the gang with little to do, but they struck a nice balance. I also always love seeing Daphne in a more serious and useful role, her interest in anagrams was a fun little addition. The movie definitely focuses a lot on Batman's psychology and how he feels responsible for all of Gotham's safety and how his past weighs on him. I thought this worked and was a nice centering piece to everything else going on, and it was also cool to see Batman as his early year detective style role. The menagerie of side characters they added in did feel a bit overstuffed, though I like the direction they tried to go with just about all of them, and they all have their moments. Aquaman is great and funny, the chimp has a nice back and forth with Velma, and Bullock was written perfectly. The Martian was a bit silly, and the elastic man felt like a missed opportunity (more on that later, though). The villains also all felt more thrown in as references than seriously relevant, especially Penguin and Joker, but I do like the way they used the Riddler. The comedy is great here, and this may well be the funniest of the direct to DVD movies - no jokes really fall flat and several were really funny, largely courtesy of Scooby or Aquaman. The tone is fun and upbeat, mingling the lightness of Mystery Inc with a bit of brooding darkness in Batman nicely, and the action sequences clearly nod to the comic books.
My only small letdowns with the film came in the resolution of the mystery. The opportunity cost of throwing every Gotham character they could into the movie is that we had a bit less substance to the mystery than we usually do. However, I was convinced I had solved the case, and when it was revealed I really thought that my solution would be much more satisfying. Clayface was mentioned as one of the many villains, but we don't know anything about him so the whole needing a cure justification for the crimes can't have any emotional weight, unfortunately. What I was sure would happen was that elastic man was behind it all. We know he's been a criminal in the past, and we know he can morph into pretty much any shape, so he totally could've been the crimson cloak, pretended to be Shaggy, and so on. I also thought it was obvious because we saw how he reacts poorly to cold by expanding oddly, and we saw a somewhat similar expansion in the crimson cloak at the end. I still think this could've worked and you could still have the Riddler as a mastermind behind it all - maybe he planted elastic man into the mystery solvers to cripple them from the inside! Even if they hadn't gone this route, I still would have liked more build and significance to the mystery. It was just a bit too squeezed between all the other plots and character stories the movie was trying to tell. Even so, it's another really solid, fun Scooby entry that I definitely enjoyed.
My only small letdowns with the film came in the resolution of the mystery. The opportunity cost of throwing every Gotham character they could into the movie is that we had a bit less substance to the mystery than we usually do. However, I was convinced I had solved the case, and when it was revealed I really thought that my solution would be much more satisfying. Clayface was mentioned as one of the many villains, but we don't know anything about him so the whole needing a cure justification for the crimes can't have any emotional weight, unfortunately. What I was sure would happen was that elastic man was behind it all. We know he's been a criminal in the past, and we know he can morph into pretty much any shape, so he totally could've been the crimson cloak, pretended to be Shaggy, and so on. I also thought it was obvious because we saw how he reacts poorly to cold by expanding oddly, and we saw a somewhat similar expansion in the crimson cloak at the end. I still think this could've worked and you could still have the Riddler as a mastermind behind it all - maybe he planted elastic man into the mystery solvers to cripple them from the inside! Even if they hadn't gone this route, I still would have liked more build and significance to the mystery. It was just a bit too squeezed between all the other plots and character stories the movie was trying to tell. Even so, it's another really solid, fun Scooby entry that I definitely enjoyed.