by MATTHEW HAYS

Like the folks behind so many nostalgia-drenched TV-show-to-big-screen adaptations, those creating the Scooby-Doo movies faced a daunting task. Naturally, they've got to appeal to the kiddies still being weaned on a steady diet of Scoob's re-runs. But they've also got to please picky Gen-Xers who grew up on the show and want the whole enterprise to be soaked in double entendres.

It's fair to say the first movie tanked. Though the cast was extremely able - Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini do pretty astonishing live-action versions of Freddy, Daphne, Shaggy and Velma - I suffered something of an allergic reaction to the 3D CGI incarnation of Scooby. And there didn't seem to be nearly enough nods to the innate stupidity, absurdity and sheer repetition of the original show.

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed goes to some lengths to correct these serious wrongs. The plot is predicated on the return of virtually all of the villains (or at least the costumes they wore) from the original Scooby mysteries, allowing for copious nods to the movie's source material. What's more, Scoob and Shaggy even sing a few bars from Sinatra's version of "Strangers in the Night," the song from which CBS programming chief Fred Silverman drew his inspiration for the name of the fictional mutt.

Aside from the nostalgia factor, this time around, director Raja Gosnell keeps the action moving along quite rapidly, side-stepping the dreary dips that marred the first film. Even if I wasn't entirely spellbound - and was intensely disappointed that the screenwriters felt they had to thoroughly heterosexualize Velma in response to all those rumours - the kids who packed the Saturday morning screening last week seemed enraptured by the affair. Thus this becomes one of those children's films that fails the ageless test: truly great kiddie flicks, like Follow That Bird (the Sesame Street Big Bird movie) or Finding Nemo, manage to cross generations in their appeal. Instead, Scooby-Doo 2 requires a split verdict. Kids: drag your parents now. Adults: close, but no Scooby snack.

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed opens Friday, March 26

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