DVD Review: Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword
Warner Premiere Cartoon Stars Frank Welker, Casey Kasem
Apr 15, 2009
Warner Premiere and Hanna-Barbera have dressed up their venerable Scooby-Doo franchise for yet another decade, this time in a series of direct-to-DVD animated movies. The 13th installment, Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword, takes Scooby and the gang to Japan, where they must solve the mystery of the Black Samurai.
Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword Stars Frank Welker, Casey Kasem, Mindy Cohn
The gang are off to Japan, where Daphne (Grey DeLisle) is competing in a martial arts tournament run by the mysterious Miss Mirimoto (X2's Kelly Hu). By Amazing Coincidental Machine™, the Black Samurai, ghost of an evil warrior, has returned. It seeks the Destiny Scroll, which holds clues to the location of the Sword of Doom, the Black Samurai's ancient blade. Is it Mr. Jenkins from the trailer park, dressing up to scare away people? Or is it something deeper?
Naturally, those meddling kids decide to solve the mystery, with cowardly Shaggy (original voice actor Casey Kasem) and Scooby (Frank Welker) finding themselves center stage despite their best efforts.
Unlike the Hanna-Barbera series of the 1970's and 80's, there are genuinely supernatural elements in Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword: it's not just some random villain running around in a goofy costume. There are also robot ninjas, magical swords, cannibal tribesmen, mysterious warriors and a gigantic green dragon showing up in this flick.
Other than that, it's still a Scooby-Doo mystery. There are some funny chase sequences where Shaggy and Scooby out-run various villains, Velma (Mindy Cohn from The Facts of Life) says "Jinkies!" whenever something important comes up (poor Fred doesn't have a cool line, which inspires one of the best throwaway gags in the flick). Shaggy's distinctive walk is beautifully retained and you know that Velma will lose her glasses at some point.
The animation is solidly done. Some images have the gloss of cheap CGI and many background characters suffer from 'statue-itis' but the artists have worked hard to translate the feel of the original series while upping the production values, and it shows.
On the downside, there are some you pretty much know who the villains are as soon as they show up on-screen, and you can ID the guy dressing up as the Black Samurai right from the get-go. Of course, all bets are off once the real Black Samurai shows up . . .
DVD Extras
The centerpiece here is the featurette "Scooby-Doo Dojo" where a martial artist demonstrates some simple stretching exercises and blocks amid clips from the flick. He clearly knows his stuff, and it's a great primer on Oriental unarmed combat.
In addition, there are a bunch of trailers for other upcoming or currently-released Warner Premiere titles, including Green Lantern: First Flight and Tiny Toons.
The Final Analysis
Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword is nothing if not silly. More often than not, the silliness is a good thing, but it occasionally drifts to the dark side. Kids will get some good giggles out of the flick, and adults may find themselves surprised to find out how often they're laughing along with their kids.
It gets a 6/10.
