Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

Scooby Doo and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

Sccoby-Doo WrestleMania Mystery must have done well, since there’s now another cartoon team-up of the two properties. Only this time, they’re racing! Off-road! In “extreme” vehicles customized to reflect their drivers, kind of like a wrestling-flavored Wacky Racers. ScoobyDoo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon is out this Tuesday, August 9.

Los Matadores (El Torito, Diego, and Fernando) drive a truck with a giant bull head, for example, complete with ridiculous horns. Rusev and Lana have the “Moscow Express”, which looks like a train engine. Sheamus is piloting the “Celtic Cruiser” and has been teamed up with Goldust and Stardust, much to his displeasure. (Dusty Rhodes is also a character, in a voice performance recorded before his passing last year.)

Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

Paige and the Miz in Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

Paige and the Miz’s vehicle is the “Too Awesome”. Triple H and Stephanie McMahon are “the Authority” driving “the Company Car”, in defiance of daddy Vince’s wishes. (Stephanie and Daphne hit it off in a girly way, getting a manicure together.)

Triple H and Stephanie McMahon meet Fred, Daphne, and Velma in Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

WWE is holding a Muscle Moto Off Road Challenge, and Scooby and Shaggy are working the food truck, which is of course a bus shaped like a giant burger. The gang thinks the race is “so awesome” that Fred has become a gearhead.

The Scooby Gang in Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

Shaggy and Scooby are particular fans of the Undertaker, who’s paired with Dusty in the Legendmobile. They show up in black trenches and hats, only to get scared of their hero in real life, because they’re cowards.

Scooby, Shaggy, and Velma in  Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

A mysterious, demonic-looking racer called Inferno has inserted himself into the race and is taking out the competition. McMahon enlists Mystery Incorporated to find out who it is.

Vince McMahon enlists help in Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

Then, when Inferno destroys the Legendmobile, the Undertaker teams up with Shaggy and Scooby to drive the sandwich truck in the race. They even get “ring names” of Skinnyman and Dead Meat.

Shaggy, Scooby, and the Undertaker in Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

I’m really glad I’ve heard of these wrestlers before, because otherwise, I’d be kind of lost. This isn’t for the new viewer, since the gimmicks and alliances of most of the wrestlers aren’t explained. It’s not particularly subtle, though, as everything is done in broad strokes, and kid wrestling fans should love it.

The voices are all done by the actual characters, although Vince McMahon didn’t sound quite right to me. But then, neither did the kids, as Velma is now Kate Micucci (taking over from Mindy Cohn). Thankfully, Matthew Lillard is doing Shaggy, Daphne is voiced by Grey Griffin, and Frank Welker is still Scooby-Doo (as well as Fred). And yes, I know those aren’t the original originals, but they’ve been doing those roles since the 2000s, so they’re “right” for the current generation.

Vince McMahon, Triple H, and Stephanie in Scooby-Doo! and WWE: Curse of the Speed Demon

There’s plenty of fast driving, accidents, and aggression as the wrestlers take their frustrations out on each other in a series of races and pit stops. This reminds me of The Cannonball Run for a younger, animated generation. The extra features on the Blu-ray are

  • The “Mystery 101” episode from Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! (featuring the more “modern” bug-eyed style), in which the kids try to go to college and visit a puppet store.
  • “The Secret of the Ghost Rig” episode from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, with a flaming truck.
  • “Revved up with the Monster Jam Scooby-Doo Truck”, nine minutes of real-life footage of the Scooby-Doo painted and sculpted vehicle with its driver, Nicole Johnson, talking about how she does what she does.

as well as DVD and digital copies. (The studio provided a review copy.)



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