Big Top Scooby-Doo!
Tags: horror

Plot synopsis:
Scooby-Doo and the gang travel to Atlantic City, where Fred enthusiastically takes them to see The Brancusi Circus. They arrive to find that the circus does not open until tomorrow, but decide to look around when they notice that the front door is unlocked. Whilst searching, they meet a man who is pursuing a werewolf that has intruded into the circus. The werewolf attacks the gang, but is eventually scared off by Velma, using a spotlight. The man thanks the gang and introduces himself as Marius Brancusi, the ringleader. Marius inherited the circus from his uncle last year and has been working to modernize it. He informs the gang that the werewolf they had encountered has been shadowing the circus for a few months, has scared off many of his artists, and has stolen jewelry wherever they are. He even suspects that the werewolf might be one of his own artists. Velma notices that this incident alludes to a case during the 18th century, in Ingolstadt, where a werewolf named Hans collected a combination of jewels which enabled him to change into a werewolf at any time. After the gang tells Marius that they solve mysteries, Marius hires them to go undercover as circus performers.
The next morning, Marius introduces the gang to the other circus artists. Scooby and Shaggy pose as animal artists and team up with animal trainer Whitney Doubleday, who informs them that Marius plans to eliminate all the animal acts in order to modernize the circus. Velma is given a role as a human cannonball and works with strong man Archambault. Fred is given a position as a backup trapeze artist and meets the other trapeze artist, Oliverio, and his girlfriend Lena. Oliverio immediately becomes jealous of Fred when Lena begins to flirt with him. Daphne works as a motorcycle stunt artist and meets the circus clowns, Schmatko and Sisko. Sisko only communicates with a horn. Schmatko tells Daphne that he is reluctant to have this role as a clown, and says that he was once an actor in the Soviet Union. Afterwards, when Schmatko goes to get refreshments, he is abducted by the werewolf.
Later on the gang witness another robbery by the werewolf and are chased by a second werewolf wearing Schmatko's uniform. The gang escape and return to the circus to inform Marius. Despite this, Marius decides that the show must go on. Daphne fills in for Schmatko, while Fred does a tightrope act to fill in time. The shows goes very well, especially Scooby's act, although Shaggy takes credit for Scooby's performance when he tells the audience that he's Scooby's 'trainer'. Before Velma can perform her act, the two werewolves attack Shaggy and Scooby. Fred and Marius manage to drop the trapeze safety net on them, but werewolves are nowhere to be found when they search the net. In spite of the attack, the performers receive a big round of applause from the audience, who believe that the werewolves were just part of the show.
The next day, Marius shows the gang the reviews from last night's performance and comments that they are the best reviews he has ever received. In the reviews, the critics deemed Shaggy the greatest circus artist, much to the dismay of Scooby, whom the critics refer to as 'Scabby'. When Marius goes to show the rest of his artists the review, the gang find a book about the Ingolstadt werewolves in his office, causing them to suspect that Marius might be involved in the werewolf attacks, since Marius initially claimed to have no knowledge on werewolves. On the page which has the list of the jewels a werewolf needs, Velma finds that the only jewel the werewolf doesn't have is a carbonado. They confront Marius about the book, but Marius claims that the book isn't his.
When going for a lunch break, Shaggy receives numerous praises from the locals, which in turn continues to annoy Scooby so much that Shaggy bribes him with a wheelbarrow full of Scooby Snacks to prevent him from quitting. Marius informs the gang that they will be doing a private show for Wulfric von Rydingsvard, a singer from the band Wülfsmöøon which Shaggy admires. Later on, Velma finds out that a carbonado is also called a black diamond, a jewel that Wulfric owns. The gang prepare to catch the werewolf during the show, but before the show begins Archambault, Lena, and Marius go missing. During the show, the werewolves appear after Scooby's act, along with three more, each wearing the clothes of the missing artists. The werewolves manage to steal the black diamond from Wulfric and continue to chase the gang. During the chase, Shaggy pulls off one of the werewolves' fur and finds red fur underneath it, and Scooby notices that the cage which had Doubleday's baboons is empty, making them realize the werewolves were just Doubleday and his trained baboons in disguise. Shaggy uses one of Doubleday's Spanish commands to stop them. Doubleday tries to escape, but is tranquilized and caught by Archambault, who claims that he was tied up in a storage shed, but managed to break the ropes. There, they find the rest of the missing artists. Doubleday, who's still unconscious, is taken away by the police, but they are unable to find any of the stolen jewels.
The next day, the Brancusi circus packs up and prepares to leave Atlantic City. Marius thanks the gang by giving them free passes to any of the Brancusi Circus performances. Archambault bids Velma good luck in finding the 'black diamond'. Schmatko informs Daphne that he has decided to quit his job as a clown and to pursue his dream in theatre. However, after the circus train begins to depart, Velma starts to think that there is still something missing. Velma remembers that Archambault last heard that the jewel was referred to, not as a 'black diamond', but as a 'carbonado', and recounts that before Doubleday was captured, he said "you won't take 'us' that easy", suggesting that he had an accomplice. She also noticed during last night's performance that the ropes around Archambault didn't look like they were broken, but cut. She also remembers that they only found the book about the Ingolstadt werewolves when Archambault knocked it off the shelf, suggesting that Archambault planted it there. With the facts added up, the gang realizes that Archambault was Doubleday's accomplice. The gang pursue the train and see Archambault attacking Marius to get to the box office money. Scooby and Shaggy manage to jump onto the train and, while there, Shaggy apologizes to Scooby for taking credit for his act. The two free the baboons to aid them in stopping Archambault, and they subdue him using the tranquilizer darts.
As Archambault is taken away by the police, Marius informs the gang that Doubleday and Archambault had worked with his uncle for years and were angry when Marius took charge and decided to modernize the circus. When Doubleday was about to get caught, Archambault double-crossed him in order to buy some time to get away with the jewels and the box office money. At the end, Wulfric arrives and thanks the gang for recovering his jewel by giving them a private performance.

Review: Perhaps the Best Scooby Feature to Date.
(2012) *** 1/2 (out of 4) There's no question that the Scooby-Doo features have been up and down throughout the two decades that they've been made.
This one here has the gang arriving at the carnival to find out that it has been taken over by werewolves who are stalking it for an unknown reason.
The gang agrees to go undercover and join the circus so that they can find out what's really going on.
BIG TOP SCOOBY-DOO is without a doubt one of the best features to be made in the series and it might very well be the best.
There's so much that works here that even someone who hates Scooby Doo could probably love this film.
Fans of the original series when it was meant as a dark, creepy and atmospheric ride will certainly enjoy this film because it really goes back to its roots.
The monsters are all extremely well-made but even better is that the film allows them to be dangerous and I'm sure scary to many of the younger viewers watching.
The werewolves are all excellent looking and come across quite menacing at times.
The atmosphere is about as thick as any animated feature in history with a certain bleak darkness running throughout the film.
The entire visual look of the film is wonderful as the darkness just really soaks up everything going on and makes it all the more memorable.
The animation is another major plus as this is probably the best looking feature I've seen from the series.
All of the main characters are quite memorable and they're really brought to life by their vocal actors.
Scooby is pitch-perfect here as is Shaggy as the two share many great scenes together.
Even the new characters are quite memorable.
Best of all is that the actual mystery really works well and keeps you guessing right until the end.
BIG TOP SCOOBY-DOO has all the horror and comedy that the best episodes in the television series had..
Entertaining enough, but not the best of Scooby-Doo moments....
"Big Top Scooby-Doo!" from 2012 is one of the most generic and mediocre of all the animated Scooby-Doo movies that I have seen to date.
With that being said, don't get me wrong, because it is not a bad or a poor movie.
It is just a movie that offers nothing new or really stands out from all the other Scooby-Doo movies.The storyline was fair enough, although it is as every other Scooby-Doo movie turns out to be, so nothing new there.
But the story just failed to fully captivate me and entertain me as much as many of the other Scooby-Doo animated movies did.The animation and art style in "Big Top Scooby-Doo!" was good, and very much in the spirit of the original Scooby-Doo cartoons that I grew up with on TV.And as an animated movie then the voice acting is very important.
And I will say that the acting talents were doing good jobs with their respective roles in "Big Top Scooby-Doo!".
Personally I am always thrilled about having Frank Welker and Matthew Lillard do the voices for Scooby-Doo and Shaggy respectively.
There were also some great guest voices in this animated movie, such as Peter Stormare and Jeff Dunham.However, the storyline just didn't really reach out to me, and the happenings throughout the course of the storyline just didn't really spice it up to my liking.
And as such, then I found "Big Top Scooby-Doo!" to be a very mediocre addition to the Scooby-Doo library.
As such, then I am rating this animated movie five out of ten stars..
I would have gotten away with it if it wasn't for you meddling kids!.
If you like Scooby Doo and the gang, you will enjoy this adventure where they venture to Atlantic City, New Jersey for a vacation but they end up solving a mystery involving a big top circus.
I just enjoy watching the gang solve another mystery.
I just enjoy the cast of characters who haven't aged in decades.
If you love Scooby Doo Adventures, you will definitely enjoy this light-hearted adventure with the gang..
An Honest Review.
Yet again we have one of the rare endings that serves as an actual pay off to the movie.
The ending works very well.The problem is the rest of the story sort of stinks.
The plot is good, but the execution and the humor is "meh." And it gets doubly bad because of the whole premise.
The Big Top, it is a classic Scooby Doo setting and yet it fails to deliver the classic Scooby Doo feel nor does it have the matching classic Scooby Doo story.In the premise they had the making to merge the Scooby of old with the new Scooby--in a far better way than the Goblin King--and it still fell short, painfully short.The plot worked, the ending worked, but everything else failed to hit the mark and only a few of the jokes really stuck like they should..
One of the absolute best Scooby Doo movies.
I have always been a huge Scooby Doo fan.
It is great fun with funny jokes and writing, endearing characters and a sense of mystery that is quite infectious.
Big Top Scooby Doo!
Big Top Scooby Doo!
is one of the best Scooby Doo movies alongside Witch's Ghost, Zombie Island and Goblin King.
In fact there isn't a Scooby Doo movie I intensely dislike, even my personal least favourite Monster of Mexico had its moments.
Back to Big Top Scooby Doo!, I knew I was in for a treat when I got the DVD from Amazon and I was right.The animation, a nice mix of the What's New Scooby Doo?, Mystery Incorporated and the classic Scooby Doo styles, is colourful and fluid.
Yet when there are more haunting and mysterious parts there is a darker visual style that was most fitting.
The music is both catchy and rousing and never feels too much.
The writing has hilarious jokes, so much so I was in danger of missing a few from laughing so much, and witty dialogue, that sticks true mostly to the Scooby Doo that I know and love.
Only Velma's tensing up joke came across as awkward but don't let it put you off too much.
The story has its fair share of almost scary(but never enough to traumatise anybody) and entertaining moments.
And it further benefits from a wonderful mystery that is quite suspenseful, with a setting that brings a fair bit of nostalgia for me and a very convincing werewolf, that exudes menace.
The train chase sequence was one of the best of any Scooby Doo movie as well.Not only that, the feel of the film is close in feel to Scooby Doo Where Are You, no dating awkwardness or stereotypes like bumbling sheriffs or wacky parents, just feel-good and funny, in a somewhat corny but endearing sort of way, Scooby Doo. The identity of the villain does get obvious, but the twist that the film includes is completely satisfying.Big Top!
Scooby Doo has some very entertaining moments that will delight any Scooby Doo fan.
Daphne's motorcycle racing is amazing, possibly the coolest thing she has done in a long time, while Fred with the trapeze and Velma being shot through the air as a human cannonball are just as delightful.
Daphne, Fred and Velma are the most likable they've been in a while, while Shaggy- who has never been as smart as he is here- and Scooby never fail to bring a smile to my face and their friendship is quite affecting.
The voice acting is just great, Matthew Lillard had big shoes to fill and he does a good job, goofy and likable.
Frank Welker has still got it as Fred and his Scooby voice continues to grow on me.
Grey DeLisle and Mindy Cohn(who is much better than she is in Music of the Vampire) are also fine, as are the rest of the cast.All in all, a great Scooby Doo film.
It is not as good as the original show, or The Scooby Doo Show or The New Scooby Doo Movies, but of the animated direct to video movies it is one of the best and I'd say almost on par.
9/10 Bethany Cox. One of the best Scooby Doo Direct to Video's Made.
I just saw both 2012's Big Top and 2010's Abracadabra-Doo in the past week and I have to say that Big Top was probably the best Scooby Doo episode made in the 21st century--2002's The Cyber Chase.
Unlike Abracadabra-Doo where one could guess who the true villain was from miles away--since only he had the technical know how to pull off all the stunts with the griffin in that episode--with Big Top, a werewolf is terrorizing a circus and his identity is not obvious to the viewer until minutes before he is finally captured.In Big Top, the gang discover that the circus is not a very friendly place and almost all the circus ringleader's employees have an axe to grind with their new circus ringleader--Marius Brancusi--who just inherited "the greatest place on earth" from his uncle.
Therefore, the villain could be anyone and discovering his identity turns out to be a difficult job which is great for the plot.
Doubleday, in the end, is revealed, to be the werewolf villain partly because he is disgruntled that he didn't get the chance to run the circus after Marius' uncle left the circus even though he had been helping running the circus for years unlike Marius.
But something is not right: the jewels the Werewolf stole have not been recovered and Doubleday can't talk since he has been tranquilized.
Then the gang realise that Doubleday had an accomplice all along and must give chase to catch this second person before he gets away.
So, the plot is quite intriguing and is lots of fun and this episode at 80 minutes...is the longest Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movie ever made and certainly one of the best too since the Witch's Ghost and Zombie Island.
Recommended..
I was very impressed!.
A bunch of jewel thieves posing as werewolves are terrorizing a circus in Atlantic City.
The gang goes undercover as circus performers to see who the culprits really are.
This one is actually pretty good!
It's very creative and has entertainment in spades.
Get ready for some hilariously bizarre stuff in this one.
Did you ever think Scooby would turn into Shaggy after getting bitten by a werewolf?
How about Daphne being a badass on a motorcycle?
Usually she is very danger prone.
Normally, I'm not a fan of werewolves.
They aren't that intimidating to me.
I have to say the werewolves looked pretty cool here, even if more than one werewolf nullified the impact a bit.
I also enjoyed the storyline of Shaggy getting too big for his britches.
Watching him develop an ego was interesting and I thought they pulled it off very well.
It was really unusual to see Shaggy be such a condescending jerk.
It was also funny to see Shaggy jealous of Scooby.
There were some original story lines in here and I loved it.
Fred's obsession with the circus provided laughs as well.
The villains aren't that predictable either.
Usually, I can predict the villains in anything Scooby.
This one managed to keep me guessing with some good twists.
I really enjoyed this one.
It has a bit of everything.
Scooby fans will love it!7.5/10