There are few cartoons that have had the legs as Scooby-Doo. They have offered up numerous animated series as well as two big budget live action features. Now they are taking a different approach to the franchise with their latest original movie Daphne & Velma starring Sarah Jeffery and Sarah Gilman, but does it offer anything fresh and new to the franchise or will it be a mystery not worth solving.

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Daphne & Velma follows new transfer student, the bright & optimistic Daphne Blake who is excited to finally go to school with her online bestie, the whip-smart & analytical Velma Dinkley at Ridge Valley High, an innovative center of learning for some of the brightest minds in the country where state of the art robots and high-tech gadgets are common sights. But not everything is as innocent as it seems as mysterious disappearances begin to plague the top-performing students on campus. Once cheery and full of life, kids now appear in a “zombiefied” state - lifeless and shells of themselves. Can Daphne and Velma learn to work together and save the students or will they become the next victims? Get ready for thrills and laughs as we follow the first adventures of Mystery Inc.’s fierce female duo.

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I have to admit that I am not a big Scooby-Doo fan so going into this movie I tried to keep an open mind as much as possible. That being said this movie is just all over the place and while it is obviously meant for a different demographic than me, I still think it failed to fully capture the essence of the characters. One of the big issues is when you make a prequel of sorts like this it makes it hard to buy into when everything is so modern in relation to the source material. Sure it’s cool to update it, but it just felt too futuristic than it needed to be for these characters. The girls did s fine job bringing Dphne and Velma to life and even looked the part but the approach to it all just felt like one of those Disney Channel movies and never really like a Scooby Doo project. That is likely the point as it was obviously designed to be a girl power approach and in that aspect I guess it works.

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This is one of those unnecessary films that no one was asking for, but the age bracket it is for will likely still have some fun with it. There is so many things they could have done to make this a fun little mystery feature, but the safe route coupled with the kid bop era vibe makes it pretty forgettable as a whole. IF you have young Scooby fans or just young kids in general that like those Disney productions then give Daphne & Velma a try and grab your copy on Blu-ray and DVD available now from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.