Plot: What’s it about?
The legend of Shangri-La is known all over the world, tales of a lost kingdom perched at the peak of Mount Everest, deep in the Himalayans. Professor Jeffries (voiced by Alfred Molina) is on a quest to find Shangri-La, but he and his guide soon to run into some serious trouble. As if the climb and conditions weren’t enough, Jeffries ran into the Abominable Snowmonster and that huge beast made sure the trek came to an end. Meanwhile, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy are headed to Paris to join their friends on a relaxing vacation, or at least they should be. Instead, they wind up in the Himalayans themselves, brought there by a hunter who seeks to use them as bait, as he tracks down the Abominable Snowmonster. But will Scooby and Shaggy be able to endure the cold conditions and the snowmonster, while the rest of the gang relaxes in Paris?
This isn’t the first time Scooby and his friends have done battle with an abominable snowman type beast and sadly, it isn’t the best of the lot. Of course, almost all the Scooby-Doo episodes and movies follow a similar path, a ghost is tracked down and the truth is uncovered, with scooby snacks all around. But in the case of Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!, we haven’t just similar adventures, we’ve seen this exact same one, with very few new touches. So elements are lifted from previous work, no real changes made, then its tossed out there as an original movie. I understand that children might not have seen the other snow monster type episodes, but I still expect a little more in terms of creative presence. The animation is better to be sure, but if you need a Scooby fix, this is a pale imitation of the original series.
Video: How does it look?
Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! is presented in full frame, as intended. The image here looks terrific, very sharp & refined and free from problems, at least serious ones. The print is pristine and shows no flaws, while the colors look vivid and true, no bleeds or oversaturation to report here. The contrast is quite good also, no signs of visible detail loss and black levels are well balanced at all times. In short, this is as good as this material can look on DVD, which is fantastic and fans should be thrilled with the results.
Audio: How does it sound?
I didn’t expect much in terms of audio here, but the included Dolby Digital 5.1 track is a good one, to be sure. Of course, Scooby-Doo can’t compete with the high end audio releases out there, but this is a solid track. The basic elements are well presented, with no errors I could detect and no gimmicky surround use. This is a fun, cartoon mix and that’s how it should be, so I think fans will be most pleased. The dialogue is clean and crisp at all times, with no distortion or volume balance problems to speak of. This disc also includes Spanish and Portuguese language tracks, as well as subtitles in English, Portuguese, and Spanish.
Supplements: What are the extras?
This disc includes a clip from a previous movie, as well as an interactive game.
