Terry Bollinger

A much more apt title would have Scooby-Doo Goes to Alaska. Instead of the tough, gritty, and at times horrifying exploration of the dark underbelly of human behavior that I had read as a child, the almost-human expressions, ethics, and intelligence of this CGI version of Buck instantly demolished my ability to take the movie seriously. In place of the book, my emotional responses irrevocably locked onto the inane silliness of the only other animated dog I had ever seen with that degree of human expression, Scooby-Doo.

While most of the acting in was suberb and faithful to the book, this movie's random deluge of baffling time cuts made it one of the most confusing I have seen in a long time -- and that is despite having read the book, albeit many years ago. Adding to the confusion is the way the actors look about the same no matter how many years they snap forward or backwards in time. Finally, the director even tosses in one false-happy dream sequence that is disguised as another time cut, but is then followed by a much darker "real" sequence. Do not waste your money trying to figure out this mess.