Aloha, my friends.

This is your friendly life giver of groups here with another thread.

And today, I'm gonna give you guys my take of "Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games".

Here's the summary:

After escaping a monster, Shaggy is approached by an Olympics organizer named Diane and offered to run for the Olympics in London. Unable to say 'no' to the offer, Shaggy agrees to do it, with Scooby being his coach. The two of them also get to work alongside Steve Looker, a pole vaulter who's set to break a record if lucky.

However, a giant statue named Fortius suddenly comes to life and threatens to ruin the games, and his sights seem to be particularly set on Steve and Shaggy.

Will the gang solve the mystery before further damage is caused? Or not?

Meanwhile, Fred joins Shaggy and Steve in the games as a pole vaulter.

Now if I'm going to be honest, the only real nitpick I have about this special was that, even before the ghost came into the picture, it kinda became obvious who the party crasher posing as Fortius was going to be. Something that I frankly blame on the writing, really. I won't be giving away who the culprit is because I don't think that'd be fair, but I have a feeling it's something you guys will find out if you see this episode.

Other than that nitpick, though, this was another Scooby-Doo special that proved to be deeply enjoyable.

The direction by Curt Geda, and the story by Mark Banker, were all quite spot-on. Yes, I know I mentioned that the episode was flawed, but I thought Geda and Banker did a perfect job at capturing the spirit of the classics. The mystery revolving around Fortius was still quite intriguing and suspenseful, and the overall humor was fun too.

The animation of this special was likewise marvelously accomplished. In every way, Geda and the animators gave the animation an excellent comic book-vibe and look that matched that of the classics, only much more advanced. Along with that, it was combined with an impressive cinematic-feel.

Finally, the voice acting and characters were as amazing as ever. This episode being the third Scooby-Doo installment I'm reviewing that stars Matthew Lillard as Shaggy, and the second that's animated, I really must say that I believe Lillard gave on of his best performances as Shaggy yet, supplying tons of great comedic-timings and offering tons of talented surprises along the way. Shaggy and Fred also had great character development throughout the episode.

In the end, "Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games" isn't perfect, but it's still pretty enjoyable and worthwhile.

So, I rate "Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games" 4½ out of 5 stars.