Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock And Roll Mystery [Blu-Ray] 
Director(s): Spike Brandt, Tony Cervone
Cast: Frank Welker, Matthew Lillard, Gene Simmons (VOICES)
Release Date: Own it today on Blu-Ray Combo Pack, DVD & Digital HD
A Review By: Kevin Lovell
Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 8/10
Synopsis:
Get ready to Rock! Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. Gang team up with the one and only KISS in this all-new, out-of-this-world adventure! We join the Gang at Kiss World – the all-things-Kiss theme park, as they investigate a series of strange hauntings. With help from Kiss, they discover that the Crimson Witch has returned to summon The Destroyer from the alternate dimension of Kissteria! The evil duos ghastly plan, to destroy the earth! Can the Gang’s cunning and Kiss’s power of rock save the day?! Tune in to this Rock and Roll Mystery for some thunderous, heavy FUN!
When Scooby and the gang hear of spooky happenings and a surefire mystery occurring at Kiss World, the all-Kiss theme park, being huge fans of the band (all of them aside from Fred at least, he’s more of an Ascot Five man himself) they pile into the trusty mystery machine and make their way to the park. Upon arrival they are told to leave, but naturally the gang doesn’t let this dissuade them and they sneak their way onto the grounds. Upon locating the owner they offer assistance with their mystery solving expertise, but discover that another mystery solving team has already been called in, supposedly the best in the world; also known as the band Kiss. After the band reluctantly accepts the assistance of the gang, they team up with the rock superstars for one of their biggest and strangest mysteries yet.
Featuring the voice talents of the members of Kiss, along with a cameo from Kevin Smith and Jason Mewes (also known by many as their film persona’s Jay & Bob), plus of course all of your favorite Scooby gang members, ‘Scooby-Doo and Kiss: Rock And Roll Mystery’ is a rocking good time from start to end. The fellow Scooby fans out there are sure to have a great time with this one, regardless of whether or not you may also be a fan of the band Kiss. As long as you can tolerate a couple of their songs, you’re in for a real treat here, as this Scooby and Kiss team up is also somewhat surprisingly one of the most original and entertaining Scooby Animated films in quite some time.
Overall, ‘Scooby-Doo and Kiss: Rock And Roll Mystery’ is a nonstop good time for kids young and old, and an easy winning selection for any family movie night. Scooby-Doo and Hanna Barbera fans are sure to have a blast with this surprisingly different and incredibly entertaining animated film and will definitely not want to miss out. Being a huge Scooby fan personally, I can’t recommend this one highly enough; it’s well worth a rental at the very least and should also be a pretty safe blind buy for the fellow fans.
VIDEO:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Scooby-Doo and Kiss: Rock And Roll Mystery’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation utilizing the film’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty great as a whole, delivering a sharp, detailed presentation throughout with the bright, rich and warm colors on gorgeous display. Some minor instances of banding and other minimal issues regularly present on similar animated releases may occasionally occur, but nothing overly noticeable that should detract from the overall viewing experience, even the fast moving and darkly lit sequences hold up admirably and never result in anything becoming indiscernible at any point. Overall, this is a pretty solid high definition video presentation that should have the fellow Scooby fans out there quite pleased for the most part.
AUDIO:
While the rear of the case lists solely the inclusion of a lossy 5.1 channel Dolby Digital soundtrack, fans can rest assured that this appears to be merely a misprint and I can confirm that the Blu-Ray release in fact includes a lossless 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio soundtrack. This lossless multichannel soundtrack sounds pretty great and delivers a surprisingly active and often aggressive surround presentation from beginning to end. All five available channels are regularly utilized to surround the viewer with everything from the films fun music to any number of spooky sounds and action-oriented auditory effects, especially when things start getting a little wild; all the while never resulting in any dialogue which may be occurring simultaneously to become negatively affected or inaudible in the slightest. Overall, this 5.1 channel DTS-HD MA soundtrack sounds fantastic and is certainly quite the pleasant surprise for those such as me who might have been expecting a lossy soundtrack as noted on rear of the case.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
The Blu-Ray release of ‘Scooby-Doo and Kiss: Rock And Roll Mystery’ includes a couple of nice bonus goodies. Included on the release are a couple of short and sweet little extras; ‘Are You a Shaggy or a Scooby?’ (running approximately 2 minutes in length) features voice actors from the film such as members of Kiss, Kevin Smith and more commenting on which of the two characters best represents them; the second short extra is ‘Kiss Cut-Ups’ (running just over a minute) which basically consists of a blooper reel with Kiss screwing up the lines thrown at them. Lastly, we are additionally treated to 2 Bonus Cartoon Episodes, both episodes from ‘The Scooby-Doo Show’ (or ‘Scooby Doo Where Are You Season 3’ as also often referred) ‘To Switch a Witch’ and ‘The Diabolical Disc Demon’.
*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They additionally will suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.
Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 8/10
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