Sarah Michelle Gellar lit up the Los Angeles premi�re of the hotly-anticipated live action version of Scooby-Doo.

The big screen revival of the cult cartoon - starring Freddie Prinze Jr, Matthew Lillard and Linda Cardellini - will face stiff competition from The Bourne Identity and Windtalkers on its US release next weekend.

But the questions most of the media wanted to ask the stars at Saturday's premi�re at Grauman's Chinese Theater related to the taste and ingredients of a "Scooby snack".

Gellar's fianc� plays alongside her as Fred

The film was shot on location in Australia and follows four teenage sleuths, Fred, Daphne, Velma and Shaggy as they travel the countryside in their van, the Mystery Machine.

British actor Rowan Atkinson plays evil mastermind Mondavarious in the camp comedy.

Prinze said his love of the characters had helped him in his role opposite a computer-generated Scooby.

"I had a pair of Scooby pajamas, I went as Scooby-Doo for Halloween, I had a lunch box.

"The most challenging part was probably working with a dog that wasn't there.

"Acting's hard enough on its own, let alone when you have to act to literally nothing and no matter how many times you're going to do it, there's never going to be anything there."

'Dog food'

Gellar said the danger of loneliness on the long shoot at a remote location was part-negated by the presence of fianc� Prinze.

"I think that when you're away from home, it's nice to have a little bit of home with you. It makes it that much better."

She said Scooby snacks "taste like dog food - they taste like dogfood, I promise".

Scooby remains a cult favourite

Scream star Matthew Lillard - who plays Shaggy - disagreed.

"A Scooby snack tastes like cardboard, it's terrible, I would never recommend it."

The cartoon was first broadcast in 1969, and remains loved by American students because of its supposed sly drug and counterculture references.

The remarkably similar plots - the cartoon ran until the late 1980s - involved the four young sleuths and Scooby-Doo travelling around solving ghostly mysteries.

Each episode would typically end with the defeated and unmasked adult baddie insisting he would have got away with it without "those pesky kids".

Linda Cardellini - who plays nerdy Velma - said the characters were aware of the expectations and preconceptions of fans.

"With this movie, it was different because it was a character that everybody knows."