Saturday, August 20, 2016

New Flix: Scooby-Doo and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

I'm a sucker for bizarre tie-ins, as shown by Scooby-Doo meeting KISS, the WWE and that prehistoric WWE thing.  Well, there's another one, so...
After saving the day in the previous Scooby-Doo and WWE Film, the gang gets to cater a WWE Event.  Wait, what?

Seriously, "Thanks for saving the day...now you can sell food for us?"
The event: a Road Race that is not quite Wacky Racers or Fast & Furious.   Naturally, HHH refuses to job.

Two things to note right off the bat...
1. Famous 'Car Guy' John Cena is absent here (despite also being in the other Film).
2. Not one reference to Thurman 'Sparky' Plug.  For shame!
The Race is threatened by The Speed Demon, allegedly the ghost of a dead racer.  Sadly, his fake flashback explanation is not done in interpretive dance by Sin Cara (also absent).
Mr. McMahon puts the gang on the case, which is a logical thing.  This coming from the man who spent months torturing himself publically and kidnapped his own daughter for a Satanic Wedding in order to...annoy Steven Austin a little.
The case is full of possible culprits and red herrings, including a Mechanic, HHH, Dusty Rhodes and Mr. McMahon.

Oh and Stardust too.  He's magic...apparently.
Working with the legendary Undertaker (who was once a Caveman), can the Gang solve the case?

Of course, but I won't say how.  Watch the Film.
All kinds of strange.  One thing that affects the Film is timing.  Animation is a costly and time-consuming process.  On their previous Film, they lost CM Punk to UFC between Recording and Release, making the whole thing awkward.  This time, a number of people are different (Sheamus now has a Mohawk, Los Matadores are gimmick-free), some of them are out of the company (El Torito, Stardust) and one of them, well, is dead.  Not their fault, obviously, but something that is hard not to think about.  Other than that 'elephant in the room,' the thing is pretty fun.  Some WWE Stars are good at this (Paige, The Miz, Sheamus) and they really get to shine.  Hell, Undertaker continues to have fun with this stuff in the twilight of his career. Good for him.  The Plot is all sorts of weird, but it at least makes the most of it.  Downsides include Characters that are mostly one-note (Goldust, Los Matadores), some that are unexplained (Stardust is magic?) and too many 'maybe they are guilty' bits.  This isn't Murder on the Orient Express, guys!  Regardless, I had fun with it overall and it now serves as an odd Tribute to a Legend...
Silly stuff that makes pretty good use out of the diverse Cast.  Deeper stuff than you might expect...but still not great.

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