TRICK OR TREAT, SCOOBY-DOO! {2022}

 "C'MON!  FREDDIE NEEDS A BRAND NEW ASCOT!" 

This year's brand-new Scooby-Doo movie finds our 'heroes' in Mystery Incorporated putting themselves out of business.  The gang puts clues together that lead them to believe that all their past villains all got their monster costumes from the same place:  the Coco Diablo garment factory.  When they trap Coco Diablo into revealing herself as the mastermind behind all the monsters' costumes, Mystery Inc. and the Coolsville Sheriff's Dept. lock Coco in the Coolsville Penitentiary.  Unfortunately, with Coco Diablo in prison, Mystery Inc. has no more mysteries to solve since no one can obtain monster costumes anymore.  The gang is left with boring cases involving tax evasion, plugged bathtub drains and getting cats out of trees.  Freddie especially is taking the lack of exciting mysteries very hard.  Desperately trying to drum up a mystery, the gang sets up a kiosk at a local fair and are suddenly attacked by a ghost named Nefario.  At first believing Coco Diablo is behind the monster attack, they find the designer still locked up in prison.  Mystery Inc. and Coco Diablo (and her sidekick black cat Esteban) team up to track down what's behind this mystery.

Unlike last year's masterpiece HAPPY HALLOWEEN, SCOOBY-DOO! (which I covered in last year's Countdown to Halloween), TRICK OR TREAT, SCOOBY-DOO! doesn't have very much Halloween atmosphere and would play equally as well at any time of year -- not just on Halloween.  Shaggy and Scooby are all set to go trick-or-treating (in their matching Jack O'Lantern costumes) when this new mystery comes along and the duo is desperate to solve the case before sundown so they can go get candy!  But most of the movie doesn't deal directly with anything Halloween (which is not a criticism just an observation).  The neat twist of Mystery Inc. torpedoing their own mystery-solving career is clever and the story is quite fun with a lot of great comedy as well.  The style of animation is more simplistic this go-around, resembling more the old Saturday morning cartoon but this is actually very appropriate.  We get to see a handful of previous Scooby-Doo classic villains so the new animation matches the old. 

Of course, the buzz about this movie is all about Velma finally being openly gay.  The nice thing is that the film doesn't make a big deal about it with no one in Mystery Inc. making a big deal about it and treating it as a perfectly normal part of Velma's character.  Because it is.  Velma simply develops a crush on Coco Diablo when she first meets her and that's all there is to that.  No soapbox shouting.  Just a perfectly normal aspect of Velma's character.  And I think it was very nicely done.  Daphne even gives Velma advice on how to try to impress Coco and it's all rather cute and lovingly done.  The actual trick-or-treating doesn't occur until an hour into the movie but that's also done in a fun way.  Prisoners from previous Scooby-Doo mysteries escape from the penitentiary and the Mystery Inc. gang get to go after them wearing their old monster costumes!  Another great touch!  Freddie in the Knight suit, Velma in Captain Cutler's glowing scuba suit, etc.  While not matching the previous HAPPY HALLOWEEN, SCOOBY-DOO movie (I just love that one all to pieces), TRICK OR TREAT, SCOOBY-DOO! is almost as good in combining a strong retro feel with some original plot points.  I'll be watching this one again.  

AND P.S. . . .At the end of the film, when all the gang is donning monster costumes from previous SCOOBY-DOO adventures, Coco's wonderful black cat Esteban actually briefly dons a Miner  49'er costume!!!!!