Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders is pretty much a dog. The Scooby Gang gets lost in the desert and stumbles into a mystery involving alien abductions, a possible government conspiracy and, oh yeah, a really groovy chick and her dog.

The first full length Scooby Doo movie, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island was fun. It was a very well done extension of the original cartoon grown up just a bit and polished for a more sophisticated audience. It lost none of the charm of the original cartoon, but shed most of the sort of total silliness that marks most Saturday morning cartoons. I was very impressed. Then Scooby Doo and the Witch�s Ghost came out and the series seemed to take a step backward. The character development reverted; not completely back to the cartoon status, but close enough to make it a weaker film then Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. And now we have Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders which sadly has reverted almost completely back to Saturday morning cartoon status. This time instead of impressed I�m simply very disappointed. There is no mention of Coast to Coast, Daphne�s television show from the first film nor of her and Freddie�s open affection also shown in Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. Worse, Freddie has continued a downward trend begun in Scooby Doo and the Witch�s Ghost until he seemed almost moronic in places. Velma, who seemed to be blossoming in Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, even developing a romance of her own, has reverted back to a one dimensional brainy nerd though, thankfully, she�s not quite as strident here as she was in Scooby Doo and the Witch�s Ghost. The only constant character trait from the last two films is that Shaggy and Scooby�s eating habits are far still far more gross then in the Saturday morning cartoons, something I find inappropriate in films aimed at young children. Do kids really need to see Shaggy eating a dropped hamburger off of a dirty restaurant floor? I don�t think so.

The mystery in Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders was pathetic, the green skinned goons doing the abductions were ludicrous and the final truth at the end could�ve been seen coming a galaxy away. And sadly, instead of a change and the character development we could have gotten, everything was returned firmly to status quo at the movie�s end just as certainly as if someone had hit a reset button on a video game.

All in all kid�s will enjoy this film, but compared to Scooby Doo on Zombie Island and to the potential the series was shown to have in that film, it was a wasted effort. Do the people responsible for these films just not care or do they really not realize how badly the quality of the Scooby films has deteriorated from the first full-length film? I�m guessing they just don�t care and are simply cranking the Scooby films out as fast as they can fearful that if they don�t make them fast enough, and to heck with their quality, they won�t be able to squeeze every single buck out of the franchise. It�s a pity aliens don�t abduct them.

Rent it don�t buy it. It isn�t worth it. Bad dog Scooby! No Scooby snacks for you this time!