ORIGINAL TV FORMULA In the 1969-72 Saturday-morning series, cartoon kids Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Fred (and their titular talking dog) investigated one wacky supernatural phenomenon after the next, with the same result nearly every time: It was only a hapless bad guy up to no-good tricks.
BIG-SCREEN MAKEOVER Now a live-action foursome — from left, Sarah Michelle Gellar, Linda Cardellini, Matthew Lillard, and Freddie Prinze Jr. — with a vaguely unsettling CGI Scooby, the team investigates wacky supernatural phenomena at an island theme park.
LOW POINTS Scooby and Shaggy extract themselves from shackles made of plastic meats; the wretched Scrappy-Doo urinates on Daphne (Gellar).
LESSONS LEARNED It's hard to turn an animated favorite into an enjoyable, big-budget, live-action vehicle. (See The Flintstones.) It's even tougher when flip-flopping between kiddie antics and adult in-jokes.
WHAT EW SAID ''The whole enterprise is cranked up to a squealing pitch somewhere between 'Zoinks' and 'Relp!' '' C-
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