WARNING: The following contains spoilers for Scoob!, available now on video-on-demand services.
Trailers for Scoob! signaled the animated reboot would embrace Hanna-Barbera's vast library, with the inclusion of Blue Falcon and Dynomutt, Captain Caveman and even classic antagonist Dick Dastardly, to say nothing of fan-pleasing Easter eggs. However, few likely expected the film to pay tribute to 2002's Star Wars: Attack of the Clones. Or at least it certainly appears to do so.
At its heart a story about the unbreakable bonds of friendship, Scoob! pits Mystery Inc., and their newfound allies Blue Falcon, Dynomutt and Dee Dee Sykes, against Dick Dastardly, who seeks to abduct Scooby-Doo in order to open the gates of the underworld, which will trigger a global "dogpocalypse." They're drawn into a wacky race, of sorts, as they try to beat Dick and his robotic minions to the last of the movie's McGuffins: a trio of ancient, enormous dog skulls.
With information from Fred, Velma and Daphne, held prisoner aboard Dastardly's airship, Team Falcon, along with Shaggy and Scoob, locate the final skull in a prehistoric world hidden miles beneath the North Pole. The only problem is, to get it, Blue Falcon and Scooby-Doo must defeat the sacred skull's protector, Captain Caveman, in a massive arena packed with cheering crowds.
While an arena setting could just as easily evoke, say, Gladiator as Attack of the Clones, the similarities to the latter come to the forefront when Dastardly's ship arrives to steal away the skull, and unleashes a flurry of winged, insectoid robots to menace the heroes and cover his escape.
In Attack of the Clones, Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi and Padme Amadala are captured and sentenced to the Geonosis execution arena, which, like the one on Scoob!, is carved out of the rock of the landscape. But while the natives of Geonosis are wing, insectoid beings, those of Mystery Island are hirsute cave people. So, the Attack of the Clones parallel to really kick in, we have to wait for Dastardly's adorable, shape-shifting metallic army to clinch the deal.
Like Anakin, Obi-Wan and Padme, Blue Falcon and Scooby-Doo escape death (or at least a painful beating), only without the aid of 200 charging Jedi. Instead, it's Dee Dee and Dynomutt to the rescue, with some kind of electricity-charged fighting staff, but not a lightsaber in sight.
Directed by Tony Cervone, Scoob! stars the voices of Frank Welker, Zac Efron, Gina Rodriguez, Will Forte, Amanda Seyfried, Tracy Morgan, Ken Jeong, Kiersey Clemons, Mark Wahlberg and Jason Isaacs.