By Dustin Cabeal

It’s been a long while since I sat down and reviewed a WB Animation title. I usually skip anything Scooby-Doo! but when my toddler saw Batman on the cover and held the DVD case with a tight grip… well, let’s just say I knew I’d be watching this Scooby Doo/Batman team up.

It’s an interesting concept and one that I would have enjoyed when I was a kid. The idea of Scooby Doo teaming up with Batman, but then also a range of random detectives from the DC Universe… and Aquaman. Essentially, Batman has an unsolved case from his past come back to haunt him. Mystery Inc. gets blamed for some troubles, and they team up to solve the case and such. There is a triple twist ending because it would be too easy to have just one.

The voice acting is of course solid. When the WB isn’t pulling people under contract to all voice actors in a movie and use their usual pool of voice actors, they get better products. Frankly, they should stick to the Disney formula and have Batman be one voice actor and continue that with all their other characters. The main reason is that while watching with my son, it occurred to me that he didn’t really like Batman because it wasn’t the Batman he’s used to from LEGO Batman, yet he can watch any version of Mickey Mouse and recognized it as such. Having Matthew Lillard as Shaggy was fantastic as it gave that consistency to the character, but that same steadiness should be used with the rest of the characters. None of the voice actors did poorly, and the direction was solid, but sometimes that’s not enough for icon characters.

From an adult’s standpoint, the story is of course pretty evident in its formula. The minute the gang was allowed into the Batcave and saw the old costumes; I knew they’d be putting them on. Sure enough, they wore them for the finale. Even Scooby, but he seemed to be Batman’s favorite… which was weird. Otherwise, it’s a simple story that should entertain kids. The Mystery Inc. gang is modernized enough to fit into Batman’s world, even if his world is a holdover from the 90s.

I’m not a big fan of the Batman: The Brave and the Bold style as it seems like a weird hybrid of Bruce Timm’s style and Batman ’66. It works well enough here, and Aquaman and the Question work extremely well in the style. The action is okay, nothing amazing and again for 90s kids that are now parents, a nice throwback a childhood filled with afternoon cartoons before cable cannibalized children’s programming. Share it with the kids; it’s got Detective Chimp, you can never go wrong with Detective Chimp.

Score: 3/5

Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold
WB Animation/DC Comics