Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog (2021)
An original animated feature so exciting its scratching at the the door!
I found out about tonight’s movie by accident a while ago, then as I promptly do when I don’t write things down I forgot about it. When tasked with viewing pals to declare what we were going to watch tonight, I had a sudden idea that I pitched. It’s a pretty easy sale really, considering at least two of us grew up watching these shows - nostalgia is always an easy in for enjoyment. Gather up your bravery then readers, tonight we check out the utter mouthful of childhood that is Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo! Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog.
Cartoons are going to cartoon, and I’ll admit the very first connective tissue is a bit goofy - but you know what? It’s good enough. The mystery gang has solved another mystery and we find out Scoob and Shaggy, fed up with being scared, are trying out a self help audio book to confront their scaredy-cat ways. As the gang is going through their reveal of the culprit however, Scoob starts getting hit with some weird noises, causing all sorts of a trip and dancing that leads to him bolting towards a mystery with the gang close behind in the van. Meanwhile, in the middle of Nowhere, a little pink dog named courage is also experiencing some weirdness in sounds. The two dogs bump into each other, only to find a bunch of large angry bugs exploding from the ground to give them something to really be afraid off. The gang arrives to save them, but there’s obviously a mystery afoot for them to solve, and it only gets even weirder when the two groups get invited to the mayor’s place for dinner.
The story is what it needs to be to facilitate the two combined stories. There’s plenty of easter eggs and mash-up comedy moments from both series to help raise the enjoyment factor, particularly for anyone who hold nostalgia for either show. There is that slight run towards how one show is distinctly less hard-science like than the other, but for the most part they all mesh quite well. Courage gets to do his pantomimes, the bugs and Shaggy with the dogs get to do their door gag, and there’s classic un-maskings to be had. Most of the visual references are largely leaning towards Courage, given that it takes place in his home town, but you still have everything you’d come to expect from a Scooby animated movie. I don’t think anyone will fault the story line much, and the inclusion of Courage and the leaning towards physics and the likes form his side of thing helps to really make things take on a new scale at times. They even get their music numbers in, if that’s one of your strong inclinations for logically liking the Scooby movies.
The animation is pretty darn good. Everything is pretty vibrantly colored, with little details like glowing bug mouths to make sure it’s not all just the same drab pallet. With two dogs know for their over-emphasized facial animations, it’s also great to see they retain that level of commitment to things, and it largely feels as though this thing was given some good time to be put together. There’s some moments that I’m sure some people might find lazier than others, particularly with how super anti-computer some people can be when it comes to animation (even if it works pretty good with vehicles and allowing different perspective shots of them more easily) - but there wasn’t any particular shots I can remember that made me consciously think about how lazy it felt - and that can’t be said for all animated features. I will say there are some trippy moments that could give that impression, but honestly it sort of just adds to the visual trip they are going for.
Buuuuuugs!
The actors do a good job. Characters sound mostly like I remember - even though I arguably don’t have a great memory for remembering things. They do a good job bringing in the goofy when it needs to be, and there’s a few serious parts that are largely still quite goofy, but feel less played up for laughs. If a Scooby movie never won you over before, this one sure ain’t going to change things - but it’s not phoned in at all. Balance is good, so you won’t need subtitles for lack of hearing lines - although it can be fun to try and use them to figure out what Courage is saying amidst all his panicking. There might be a line or two missing that would be considered iconic from either show, but the amount of stuff they fit in for the actors to say gives plenty of room to pick up other things familiar, even if not exactly how you remember it. Stupid dogs get plenty of Ooga Boogas, even as your Jinkies fly on by.
Being that it’s animated, you won’t get the same level of body language you’d find in a live action flick. That said, they provide plenty of fine moments with the facial expressions and over-dramatic movements of the characters to liven things up help out with scenes. Fred’s look in response to Daphne doing something useful when he’s applying decals, for example, is a great little character bit elaborating on character feelings, even if it’s not essential the plot. Likewise, Courage continually morphing into something else - from monsters of his own show to at one point even Shaggy - when screaming helps remind you the kind of fun you can have when you aren’t super constrained to realism. It’s a situation of art and audio helping each other out that at least I’ve come to expect from the animated Scooby movies, but at the same time I’m just some grown dude who watches Scooby Doo movies from time to time to have some fun.
As with any movie of the type - you know, family movies - you’ll get your morals and things to think about. You get the classic overcoming fear, the power of love if you will - but you also get a little glimpse at things that most will kind of write off as a joke or whatever that someone really could rip into if they wanted to write some fancy learned document about how thoughtful they could be. Is it funny to see Velma outwitted by riddles, or is it a brain-picking essay on how frustrated people can be when faced with not being as great as they thought they were? Is it a bit of stretch - well, yeah it is, but for the folks who watch movies for more than simple enjoyment like me, it could be an enjoyable bonus.
The gang loves their snacks.
It’s a good time. Some might be “too grown up” to watch cartoons, even if it was part of their childhood, but I’m not here to judge them. I’m here to say I had an enjoyable time, but I’m also in the crowd where nostalgia could flavor my view to some extent. I think it’s a good time for a wide audience, but comedy is subjective and perhaps Scooby and Courage weren’t your particular jam. Given the movie is a lot like those shows, as intended I would assume, it’s an easy gauge as to how enjoyable you’ll find the show - but either way I know plenty of folks would probably enjoy it if nothing else as to some background stuff to keep their kids entertained.