Review of Daphne & Velma (2018) by Colton C — 23 Jun 2018

Not only does this movie provide a lackluster mystery with the grand twist a little too cartoon-y, it also tries to rewrite the live action Scooby Doo canon. Yes, this is technically a spin-off and it could be argued that it's separate from the continuity, but the problem is it's a little TOO separate from the continuity.

It doesn't feel like a Scooby Doo movie, and the characters don't feel like Daphne and Velma. Velma definitely does not feel like Velma. The setting alone is enough to throw off the audience that's expecting a fun Scooby Doo type mystery.

It's a nice-looking movie from a visual standpoint, but the best part of the movie is when the jocks have random dialogue with each other, because at least that feels like it belongs in the movie.

Everything the characters do and every new plot point just continues to feel out of place as this movie tries to rehash the villain from Scooby Doo Camp Scare combined with, quoting another reviewer here, the villain from Sky High, but failing at it all as it tries to create this new setting that is in no way plausible in this reject Disney Channel Original Movie.

This movie could have worked fine as a separate entity from the Scooby Doo universe, but then I'm afraid it wouldn't have had ANY buzz around it. The problem with Daphne & Velma is that it's not Scooby Doo, nor is it a Daphne and Velma spinoff movie.

While some young children might find some joy in its story and execution, the movie fails to appeal to anyone over the age of 8 years old, and that's being generous. It's not a mindless movie by any means.

It's got nerve as shown in its attempt to explain Daphne's perfect-ness, but all that falls flat to a mediocre story that wouldn't even sustain a 20 minute episode of the cartoon. Daphne & Velma should not have been made as a Scooby Doo spinoff, and its shallow attempts to try and be one unfortunately contradict everything about the canon's lore and even the canon of the characters themselves.