torchsandaardvarks posted: " Second time I reviewed a film in the What's New era. These are glorified episodes of that series, and that makes a few problems. For one I do not like the costume redesigns, but those are gone here. The real problem is most of them are too dull for a"
Second time I reviewed a film in the What's New era. These are glorified episodes of that series, and that makes a few problems. For one I do not like the costume redesigns, but those are gone here. The real problem is most of them are too dull for a movie and would have been better as episodes. The strength it has is it means more time to develop suspects, and this film does that real well. It has some good world building and comedy that keeps it interesting for 75 minutes.
I like the opening song. It shows a paradise mostly by following a hummingbird, and it sounds nothing like a rip-off of "Hawaiian Roller Coaster Ride." Apparently it is sung by a famous Hawaiian singer. It then shows a banner for "The Big Kahuna of Hanahuna Surfing Contest." I have no idea how accurate this actually is to Hawaii, but I really do not take Scooby-Doo seriously to care.
Manu (Slater himself, Mario Lopez) is introduced as the constant winner and cool guy that everybody likes. Obviously he is the villain. In fact despite all these colorful suspects it is very obvious, but that is not bad. It is much more interesting seeing how they pull of the hoax than finding out who did it. A few other characters are introduced like his girlfriend, Snookie (played by Fred's mom in Mystery Incorporated), and his best friend, Little Jim. Jim is upset about main landers being in the contest, since it is a local tradition, while Manu just views them as more people for him to clobber.
After that The Wiki Tiki shows up in the shadows with his tiny minions who start wrecking everything and carry off Snookie. These little things are actually pretty scary and intimidating and are a great callback to the classic villains. They seem ridiculously strong and resilient. After they are gone Manu shows up making it more obvious he is the villain. With Snookie gone one of them is always going to not be around when they attack.
After that Mystery Inc shows up with the usual actors of Casey Kasem, Frank Welker, Mindy Cohn, and Grey DeLisle. They have some comic relief scenes with Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby trying parasailing. I like their Hawaiian themed clothes, as they help this stick out from the other DTV films. They hear Hanahuna is being haunted and everyone is moving away. They also start a running gag about Scooby and Shaggy looking for macadanian nuts (interesting fact: they are toxic to dogs). A few scenes establish the mood of the locals and mainlanders being terrified, which are pretty funny. They also meet Daphne's boss. He is not much of a character or suspect and I only mentioned him, because fans just love guys played by Adam West.
They meet Manu and Jim which has a forced joke about Snookie being a rocket scientist. I guess that means the little tikis are robots.
More importantly is the introduction of the mayor (mainlander). She is kind of funny as a sleezy politician, since she does not even bother hiding it. Jim blames the tiki attacks on mainlanders being allowed into their traditions, while Manu just blames the mayor. Based on all evidence he obviously has nothing against mainlanders at all, just her. I think he just voted for the other guy. That is actually very realistic.
A crucial detail about the legends is that The Wiki Tiki needs a human sacrifice to throw into the dormant volcano, and apparently that is Snookie.
Next is the luau scene where Reuben (Tom Kenny) tries to sell real estate there and give the film some trailer shots. He is closely associated with The Mayor and a local indicating there is really not much of a local/mainlander divide there. Manu and Jim tell the full legend, which has many historical inaccuracies. The Wiki Tiki's anger is shown by the volcano erupting and soon after the volcano shows signs of a bad eruption.
The little Tikis attack again this time with much more slapstick except they try to kidnap Daphne. Based on later events I presume Manu and Snookie were going to kill her as a warning. Reuben panics and points out the dropping real estate values, and how it has ruined him.
The suspects are developed or interestingly one dimensional based on what they need to be, but motivation is a problem. The mayor gets the most focus, but this whole thing is just ruining her career. It is financially ruining Rueben. The only ones potentially gaining what they want are Jim (too big for the costume) and Daphne's boss (too small a role).
Next is the surfing scene where they try to find The Wiki Tiki. This really exists mostly to show Daphne in a bikini. The Wiki Tiki attacks Scooby, Shaggy, and a random pig on a surf board. He fails mainly because for the big kahuna he really sucks at surf fighting. Daphne dominated him easily and seems to easily be the best surfer in the movie, Velma got some pictures, Fred was useless, and the pig...
My sisters and brother were so disappointed he vanished after this.
After that they go to see Auntie Mahina, since she is supposed to know all of the legends, and we get way more clues Manu is the villain. He makes a big deal about her being hard to get to and disliking visitors, but he can get them there. He gets captured by a Wiki Tiki nobody else can see, as he just ran off to make everybody think he was captured. Granted there is lots of damage, so apparently he set this all up before hand. When they get there Auntie Mahina is very friendly talks about how much she loves guests, and that the main road goes straight to her house. Honestly she has very little significance other than the Manu scenes. She gives them a talisman to ward off The Wiki Tiki, but obviously it does not work.
With Mau gone Little Jim goes crazy and demands the Mayor ban mainlanders from the surfing contest. It is later debated by them then why is this "spirit" kidnapping locals unless he wants to teach them a lesson or does not care who his sacrifice is. Since the town apparently has no police force it is now up to 4 teenager and their dog to capture this fire breathing and super strong spirit with his own private army.
They investigate where he disappeared after the water battle and "Danger Prone Daphne" falls into his hidden lair. This leads to the lengthy cave scene. The opening scenes are not important but establish a much darker mood to fit these next few scenes which are overall less cartoony.
They find Snookie just walking like this is her home instead of prison and flees them right to The Wiki Tiki like he is her boy friend. Shaggy and Scooby try to distract him for Macadanian nut flavored Scooby Snacks.
Your plan makes no sense, but I love you Wiki Tiki.
It does not work.
Despite the big kahuna being way more mobile on land than on a surf board they outmaneuver him and get away with Snookie who proceeds to lock them in a poisonous snake pit. Talk about crazy prepared having that around. Thanks to Shaggy's snake charming skills they escape.
After escaping they find the robots for the tiny tikis, and a device that puts steam on the magma to make it look like it is erupting. There is no way that could be made, but this does harm Manu and Snookie's motivations. They need money as they have none despite being a sports champion and a rocket scientist. To get money they build all this despite all the money it would cost to build it. I love this insanity. Velma uses her pictures to discover that The Wiki Tiki rides a surf board made in China and is definitely not 10,000 years old. Why did you not look at those pictures earlier. They prepare for his inevitable next strike, the surfing contest.
The contest begins, and The Wiki Tiki attacks. Jim has to save one of the mianlanders from him, as Mystery Incorporated geos after him. This time the music is way better for a more dramatic fight. Again "The big kahuna" is clobbered by Daphne in surf fighting, and Scooby uses his tail to steer and outmaneuver him. The Wiki Tiki is captured, and they debate the suspects.
They try to figure out who he is. Fred thinks it is Reuben despite him losing a fortune from his attacks. Shaggy thinks it is Daphne's boss who did make a big profit. Daphne thinks it is Auntie Mahina as... They have the same voice actor? Actually it does seem like she could pull it off, but there is no motivation. Velma says he is a great surfer and asks who the best surfer is there.
Daphne... Oh.
He and Snookie faked their own kidnappings to do a real estate scam, since they have no money except for everything needed to fund all this. I like how furious Jim is at his best friend for sabotaging their own home town.
Manu does brag about still being the big kahuna, when he should see what happens next. To spite the guy who has been sabotaging her The Mayor declares Scooby-Doo the winner making Manu really furious.
This movie is pretty good. It is a glorified episode, but it is stretched well. The filler is entertaining and adds to the mood. The side characters are either rounded like Jim and the Mayor or memorably one dimensional like Auntie Mahina and Daphne's boss. It is far from one of the great Scooby-Doo movies, but I certainly enjoyed it. Three Tree Stars.
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