scooby-review

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Scooby-Doo and Scrappy Doo (2) S2 E13 - 21

13. Scooby Doo 2000

We’re at the end! Of the season! Yay! 

Or the start of the end of the season, the final review of this season, whatever! 

This episode follows the gang cleaning a clocktower, I believe Big Ben (um actually, it’s called the Great Clock of Westminster), however, Scrappy cleans Scooby, who then latches onto the hands, and transports them all into the future. 

To get it out of the way, the future looks fairly bland. Besides the gradient background, a beautiful yellow and purple ombre, the buildings themselves lack much style (which can be said for the rest of this episode, but more on that later) and fall into a fairly generic 80s depiction of the future. 

From here they investigate the future a little, exploring a department store where a robot makes a sandwich for them, before they stumble into a toy shop, but the toys are fairly old. Even given when this episode aired, these are dated toys, they have nutcrackers and such, with the exception being a skateboard which flies? The other big showcase piece which is what the episode then goes on to be about, are these robotic dolls, but ultimately, they’re all wind up dolls. Again, remote control toys have existed since the early 1900s, so I don’t understand why these mechanical dolls are seen as futuristic? 

My exception to this is that there’s inexplicably a Scooby doll, who is like Scooby but tiny. He’s not quite rigid, lacking much robotic flair, however he later gets frightened and mimics Scooby which I find very endearing. 

My only assumption here is that these are all reused assets, although from what I’m uncertain, however the gang call out the toys as being futuristic, and therefore, I cannot offer any other reason why the episode would look this bland. Comedic cartoons are frequently board driven, and I can’t find out whether or not this series is, but if it is, there is no reason for the episode to look and feel the way it does. ‘

Regardless, then there’s a gorilla doll, who isn’t a wind up doll, and he goes haywire and chases the gang for the remainder of the episode. 

For an episode that follows the gang going into the future, this episode does very little unique. Once again, season two has been filled with an abundance of unique ideas, all of which boil down to bland executions. There is nothing done here that couldn’t have been done exactly the same in the present. 

14. Punk Rock Scooby 

The gang head to a punk rock competition. Any guesses for what follows? 

That’s right! An alien who looks identical to Scrappy comes down and thinks Scrappy is also an alien, and so tries to take him back home with him. 

Okay to start off, Scooby is shocked when he sees the punks but like… they’re at a punk rock competition, surely at least on the way into said competition they bumped into one of the punks. Regardless, I don’t love the designs of the punks, I appreciate them, they’re fun representations of the subculture, all of whom look varied and stylised in a great manner, but something about the way they’re actually drawn leaves something to be desired. There’s too many lines adding detail to their bodies and especially faces that feel incredibly unappealing to me, feeling evocative of a Beevis and Butthead style. 

When the episode started and Scrappy was inexplicably wearing a stupid hat, I was incredibly excited - my presumption was that this was his own interpretation of what a punk looks like. However, it’s never addressed? Evidently he wears it because said hat is also a piece of the alien, called a Plutonian, and that only adds to the idea of the alien seeing Scrappy as one of his own. Honestly, it’s so stupid, beyond stupid, I love it. 

All of this alien plot is the worst and I love it. There’s almost enough going on in the entire episode to redeem it, with the obvious evolution of the story taking place where the gang are mistaken as a punk band. 

I appreciate how they vary up the Plutonian’s design somewhat, of course there’s the helmet design, which unlike Scrappy’s hat, encompasses his entire head, which is a sweet addition. Alongside this I love the yellow disc around his neck, which has a similar washed out colour, almost sandy in appearance, to the helmet and body piece, but really adds to this design, which would otherwise be fairly sleek and boring. But what works best for me is how they stylise his eyes to be narrow and sharp, alongside giving him a line through his chin and up towards his snout, reminding me of Billy the Puppet from Saw. 

His powers are also so fun, with his helmet giving him the ability to bring sentient and possibly evil life into inanimate objects. All of the designs of said objects are a lot of fun, and add more interesting objects which (luckily) return to the horror aesthetics of many of the earlier series. I especially adore the design of the camera, God that stuff all rules!

But it all boils down to the show where the gang do awfully, before the Plutonian shoots his sentient beam into the stage, and then it comes alive and everyone loves it, and they subsequently win. 

Maybe this would feel more earned if they meant to join the competition, but the fact they didn’t offers no stakes to this scenario, and makes me lose any interest in whether or not they win. 

Also, I haven’t yet mentioned the new score; being entirely honest, I have no idea when they introduced this score, but it stood out to me in this episode and I kind of hate it. In contrast to the creepy music present in most other series, here there’s an upbeat and jaunty score, it screams comedy and matches the tone of this show in theory, however when actually watching the series, there’s such a weird tone that it never works for me. Sometimes the show wants to be funny, other times creepy and other times I just don’t know. The score feels like it was made in a factory. 

Ultimately, it’s a fine episode with phenomenal pieces that add up to very little. 

15. Canine to Five

Perfect title, no notes. 

If I ever got to make a series of Scooby that remade older episodes, this is one I’d pick. Hell, even if I just got to make a series of Scooby, I would love to return to this episode in some way, because this is almost great. Almost good. Conceptually, great. 

Here the gang get a job working for Werner Wolf, as typists, but the scientist soon turns himself into a wolf using a machine, and then chases the gang around. 

Almost good. 

Maybe there’s some exterior factors playing into this, because my copy of this episode had static playing overtop, but my God is there an eeriness to this, with them bringing in an unsettling score for some of the episode that greatly aids this! So much so, that it’s then infuriating when they revert back to the old one, undercutting any kind of horror aesthetics. 

To touch upon what is often my biggest critique, the designs of werewolves in Scooby, I honestly love this one quite a bit. Still they lean on human qualities rather than developing a more wolf focused design, which is fine for me here, because they build upon the wolf characteristics of him. Here he has a snout, a long, mullet-like hair cut, and huge paws that all build into a great design for this character, not to mention that they craft a great posture for him. I love this design, and the more generic scientist we see him as prior to the transformation. 

I also love the sequence of the gang using the typewriters, Scrappy in particular is too small for the typewriter and so he’s just awkwardly positioned atop it. No notes. 

Where the episode falters is when the chase begins, because we knew it would become a chase episode. They do the door gag with drawers again - the one where the monster opens a drawer and finds the boys before they go back in and appear in another drawer. However here the episode details a factor I’ve held off mentioning for a while that completely takes me out of it. The gang are so off model. It’s happened a fair few times in this season, Scrappy is often the greatest victim of this, but here it’s egregious. Scooby Doo has always had a charm to its art style, but it’s never looked great, it’s fun and I love it, but the budget holds it back, every episode has an abundance of errors. But here the anatomy is all over the place, the characters are incorrect proportions, and it’s hard to watch some of the time. Maybe I’m being too harsh. 

I enjoy that they have Scrappy become a werewolf too, but they mess with the rules so much that once again, there’s no stakes. Maybe that sounds stupid, this series is fixated on comedy, and that’s great, but the slapstick style of humour is also rarely that good, so I’m left with the story, which feels like it’s never the focus. The werewolf turns into a human at one point, but then back to a werewolf for the rest of the episode, until he’s returned to the machine. However Scrappy never returns to the machine, he just stops being a werewolf (after Scooby and Shaggy just decide to leave him behind might I add) and at that point, I have no reason to care about anything happening. 

I like the cat in the opening though. And the title, again, it’s great. 

16. Hard Hat Scooby 

In this episode, the gang starts working as builders, and unbeknownst to them, the boss who they deem as cruel is actually a vampire.

Of course, the setting for this one is evocative of High Rise Hair Raiser, because this building isn’t a castle, but instead the Vampire State Building. Taking this modern approach to crafting a lair of sorts for a vampire is incredibly fun to me, and escapes the ongoing curse of great concepts that have weak executions, because I find this episode to be incredibly charming. 

It’s a very simple plot, they continuously mess up, and the gang are fearful of their vampire boss. But what excels this is Vampire Foreman, a very traditionally designed vampire, incredibly evocative of Dracula, albeit, with a more colourful palate of purples and pinks that pop against the night sky and industrial backgrounds. Personality wise, he’s a great antagonist, someone overtly creepy which only aids in making the episode funnier as the boys discuss with uncertainty as to why their boss is so mean, only for the most vampiric appearing vampire to appear. 

Although Scrappy keeps getting employment despite the fact he is a baby, I do love the way the characters dynamic is constructed here, with Scooby and Shaggy of course listening to their boss, while Scrappy is incredibly defiant, going against his word and trying to get back at him for being cruel, even if in the end, his attempts at foiling Vampire Foreman are what builds the Vampire State Building. 

There’s also an array of charming imagery here, from Scrappy being carried by Scooby’s tail to the boys eating lunch on the beams, it’s simply fun, and it’s certainly amongst my favourites of the series! Just a great way to utilise its runtime, and I will always appreciate an engaging episode that isn’t just a chase sequence. 

17. Hothouse Scooby 

They really do love giving these guys weird jobs, huh? 

Here they’ve started up a gardening business, looking after the home of a man, who is a literal tomato, and whose plants eat people and dogs. 

Let’s start with the villain - he’s credited on the wiki as “Gardender” - who has such a visually distinct design that I can’t help but love him. Having a head in the shape of a tomato, and an incredibly uniquely shaped tomato at that, is so much fun, and plays into the absurdity that exists within this series! His costume is grand, a blend of forest greens for his gown overtop a white shirt, the interior and his bowtie a dusty yellow. He’s drawn with a certain twinge of menace that I love, and the small sprig of green hair tops off this character in a great manner. 

In fact, there’s an eeriness to this episode that is perfectly explored through the score, which at times, returns to a creepier tone. It’s not constant, but when it allows itself to not just explore comedic ideas and the adrenaline of the chases, they can craft some genuinely great scenes. 

However, we don’t only get one phenomenal villain, but also  a series of carnivorous plants. All of these guys are so much fun to watch, their designs a variety of venus fly traps and what almost appear to be daisies, alongside a handful of trees seen later on. All of them utilise jagged edges and shapes to their advantage in alluding to their villainous nature in some manner, be it through petals, leaves or just mouths. 

Like a lot of episodes, I really enjoy the opening before it fizzles out later. Once again it becomes a fairly by the books chase, and once again, it deploys rules to this world and its magic before retracting it to allow the boys to escape. Here we see the fruit can freeze you in place once it’s eaten, but the boys simply thaw out when the plot calls for it. That whole sequence of the fruit falling on the boys is pretty awful, they just stand under the trees as they drop their harvests, but there’s nothing stopping them from simply walking on past. 

But the opening when the gang are tending to these plants is a lot of fun, and I simply enjoy watching these villains in action, which redeems the episode tenfold in my eyes. 

Oh also the gang are wearing hats for this episode. Cool!

18. Pigskin Scooby 

Unfortunately I don’t have much to say about this episode. The gang heads to watch a game of American Football, but after one of the teams is faced with their opposition, they run away, so who else can play in their places but Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy? 

The episode revolves around them trying their best to distract the players so that they can sneakily score and win. It’s just that for seven minutes, and I don’t love American Football so I didn’t get too much out of this one. 

It’s fine! But these sports episodes rarely offer much to me. They do win though, with Scrappy very happy despite the others being hospitalised, so that’s something. 

19. Sopwith Scooby 

While at an air show, Scooby accidentally trips over famous pilot Baron Valutategn. Subsequently, the boys, also accidentally, fall into a plane, and, once again accidentally, start it just as their new enemy takes flight. 

I love how stupid the inciting incident is; Scooby is holding ice cream and trips but doesn’t drop any of it, and still, the Baron is furious, he’s such a great villain, maybe my favourite in the “just a guy” category. They push his assholeishness to an extreme that makes him incredibly funny to watch. However, his design is just a reused asset, this time from Sweet Dreams Scooby, which is always boring to me, but in a rare occurrence, this is certainly the more interesting iteration of this character. 

Everything here just kind of happens - although Scrappy does stand up to the Baron, the gang never intends on racing him, they just end up having to, and this only adds to their victory. There’s one joke where Shaggy asks where the breaks are, and Scooby just tears them from the plane, which made me giggle a lot. 

From here they just fly for a while, and the usual hijinks ensue! It’s a lot of fun still, definitely suffers for me when they get into the air, but otherwise this works well. 

20. Tenderbigfoot

In this episode, the gang head out to camp in the wilderness to gain their pioneer scout badge. But bigfoot. (Some two sentence horror ass plot). No but I like this one. 

As a Scrappy fan, watching the boys become scouts with and for him makes me so happy, and the ending where he doesn’t get the badge but they share with him all the ones he did manage to get is shockingly tender. I adore it. 

The rest is okay! It’s your average plot, everything’s fine, then Bigfoot, so now he’s chasing them. 

However, I do really love Bigfoot. It’s weird, I wasn’t expecting to consistently come out of these later episodes enjoying the villains. Bigfoot himself is taken from the mythical creature said to inhabit forests in North America, often depicted as a hairy humanoid creature, not too dissimilar from an ape. Within the episode, he’s very ape like, but what allows him to stand apart is the fact he has a cute fringe covering his eyes, and the curtains make him all the more endearing, only aided by the fact he’s never antagonistic, just a monster in the eyes of the boys, which is just another interesting concept to add to the pile. I love when the boy's prejudice is brought into question, even if it’s not explored. 

21. Scooby and the Beanstalk 

We end on another dream episode using a public domain story for its basis. 

Except, it’s not a dream? The gang falls asleep, but then when they wake up it’s because of the beanstalk, and so I assume this all happens, which is a step up in my eyes from the usual dream affair. Although I’m unsure how intentional this was. 

After their bucket of beans is rained on, the boys have to sleep hungry, and wake to find that they were magic beans, sprouting into a beanstalk, and I’m sure you know the rest. 

I love the artwork here, both the acrylic painted sky, beanstalk and castle are lavishly painted, truly beautifully done, and they allow this fairy tale world to come to life. 

There’s very little I love about the giant, he feels ripped straight from the fairy tale, and then made a little less scary, which only works to his detriment. Ultimately, he just doesn’t leave a mark, I don’t know what he wants - he tries to eat them, but just stops after a while, and then starts again, but then he falls from the beanstalk and is now friends with the bird he previously had captive. Nothing makes all too much sense. Things just happen, which is all the more curious when they have taken this story, there are guidelines sitting there. 

The bird is the best bit, the Giant tells him to be funny, and I did laugh, so that’s something. 

And that ends season two! 

Thank you so much for reading this! As a quick update, I think my goal for season three is to release it differently. Being completely transparent, writing the reviews for this iteration of the series has been both some of my favourites and I believe, some of my best, but also, some of my worst. In order to ensure that I’m happy with everything I make for the final season, I’m just going to work through it, and release it all in one when it’s ready. With this in mind, I’ll be able to take as long as I need to get through the content which I imagine might be a little drab, before being able to write what I hope are interesting and fun reviews for episodes that I don’t find interesting or fun! Or maybe I will, we shall see. 

After that’s released I’ll do my series wrap up, including a villain tier list ranking, and then I can move on to the next series! The sheer volume of episodes here has made this series more difficult to work on, because for every one episode I would write about before, I’m now writing about three, and oftentimes, I have a similar amount to say. 

Regardless, have a great week! My goal is to get the final season’s review out before the end of September, but the episode count is once again 39, so we shall see how busy I end up getting <3

Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Season Three (Coming soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby-Doo and Scrappy Doo (2) S2 E7-12

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Scooby-Doo and Scrappy Doo (2) S2 E7-12

7. Scooby Dooby Goo

I want to start this week's reviews by reflecting upon what it means to be a completionist, something I have been thinking about while working my way through this era of the show.

When I started the blog, I sought to watch through the entire series, from Where are You? to Velma, with everything in between and after. Because ultimately, this is a series I love, the movies and several iterations of the show are incredibly important to me, pieces that I’ve grown up alongside, that aided in forming my tastes and who I am as a person. 

While prior to reaching this point in the series, I’d heard bad things, but rather the problem with this era is how bland it is, feeling stilted, somewhat lifeless, lacking the charm and character that made the series so great. 

Therefore, why continue to watch? No, seriously, please. 

I’ve long been a person dedicated to consuming all of something, be it a series, movies, albums etc… As a child this grew from a certain pressure to know, to enjoy is to understand, at least, this was my belief. Still, my intentions remain the same, I still plan on working through the entire show, however I wonder if I do need to know all, do I need to have seen this episode to deem myself a fan of the franchise? Will I feel relief when it finishes? Proud? 

I’ll circle back in a few months time. 

Regardless, Scooby Dooby Goo! 

The plot of this episode at first seemed incredibly obvious to me, the gang are at a gym, and Scooby is on a rowing machine, he flies off of it and hits into some equipment. Based on everything prior, it made sense, to me, that Scooby would have hit a man who would chase them for seven minutes. 

But no. 

Instead, Scooby and Shaggy then relax in a steamer, and are left inside for too long, to which they reduce in age, becoming babies. 

We’re here! 

Surprisingly, this preceded the baby fad that followed the release of the Muppet Babies, which would release a few years later, although A Pup Named Scooby Doo does follow the Spin-Off Babies trope. I don’t hate it, honestly, at least not conceptually, even if the core concept of making characters smaller and cuter, and therefore more marketable, is ultimately a capitalist wet dream and oftentimes, creatively bankrupt. Still, there is a lot of potential for storytelling and exploring different concepts with such an idea, something I’ll delve into more when I eventually reach the aforementioned Scooby Show. But this episode doesn’t do anything, the characters aren’t turned marketable by any means, it’s just the pair as babies, which is honestly worse. They’re just boring and cry and also babies. 

Still, this episode isn’t without merit. Once again, Scrappy is the redeeming quality of this show. Placing him in such a caring role, that of a guardian to the boys, is a fun shake up, and I’ll enjoy this episode if only for said character moments, which shine through an otherwise bland storyline. 

8. Rickshaw Scooby 

I don’t like this episode much, but I do appreciate it. Once again, this season proves itself as somewhat more interesting in its episodes, again, I’m unsure if the quality has increased, but it feels like there’s more creativity in regards to what’s being done with the episode length and style.

Here the gang head to China and accidentally bring the statue of a dragon to life. What follows is their attempt to escape said dragon, however they do so by using a series of Looney Tunes style costume gags. Gags like those have been native to the show since its early iterations, and while they’ve never been my favourite, I don’t like them much at all, I appreciate the series doing something slightly experimental with an episode, it’s not ground breaking, but pushes the series gimmicks to their limits, and that’s something. 

9. Scooby’s Luck of the Irish

To me, the series is at its best when it becomes mindless fun, which is what this episode manages to be. 

We follow the gang as they come across a Leprechaun, who refuses to tell them where his pot of gold is. Naturally, they chase him. 

I love that this all kicks off from the use of a Scrappy Trap. 

What elevates this episode tenfold is its fun visuals, constantly moving a mile a minute, and its villain, Pat O'Wiley. I love the decision to make the Leprechaun tiny - I usually think of the Warwick Davis version of the character from Leprechaun, but this more traditional pixie style is great! He otherwise brandishes the trademarks - green attire, a ginger beard… He’s so devious, and his desire to play tricks on the gang offers such a fun cadence to the episode. 

Honestly, I’d recommended this to anyone looking for some of the best of what the series has to offer. It’s not perfect, but it’s some of the most fun I’ve had with this series, an episode that allows itself to be silly with gags and play upon the characters own greed and foolishness, it’s a lot of fun. 

10. Backstage Scooby 

I feel like I’m saying this a lot, but this episode has a strong concept at its core, but there's so little to do with these characters in their current states. 

We see the trio accidentally ruin a magicians show, making him disappear, and subsequently having to take over afterwards. It’s great to begin with, it’s so much more interesting of a direction to take this kind of story, rather than the more traditional chase, but none of these tricks are unique, the gags feel so recycled that even the more creative direction can’t save them. 

Also, they love the joke where they make Scooby or Shaggy dress as women. It’s a common trope in this kind of animated comedy, but they’re pulling this in almost every episode. 

I’ve hardly touched upon the villains so far, and ultimately, none of them leave enough of an impression - their designs are frequently bland, and their personalities grow into a conglomerate in my mind. 

This series is mind numbing. 

11. Scooby’s House of Mysteries

I cannot fathom how beautiful and perfect this location is for an episode of Scooby Doo, a Tourist Trap novelty shop. Lavishly painted props fill out every shelf of this building, it’s perfectly eerie, you can feel the character wafting from every frame. 

Scrappy is maybe pitch shifted in this one. 

The backgrounds and Scrappy were my two notes I made while watching. 

I can’t quite work out if his voice is higher, maybe it’s just the recording I was watching, but he sounded normal in the prior and subsequent segment, so who knows. It’s weird! 

Madame Olga runs the shop, posing as a fortune teller in a box, attempting to retrieve puppy dog tails to restore her youth. Making her a witch rather than a regular fortune teller or shop keeper is a fun choice! It offers some flair to her character, especially given she’s paired with a raven that evokes old Disney villains. Her colour scheme of an oppressive pink cloak and starry hat also conveys a lot about her character, someone eccentric, seeking beauty without realising the potency of her own desires are what causes her such misery. 

It ends up being a chase episode. 

12. Sweet Dreams Scooby 

I’m really starting to despise these dream episodes. 

I’d like to reiterate that season two feels far more creative in what it’s doing - the episodes have more diversity in scope, and this gives them more flair, even if the substance here is still greatly lacking, coming down to what is ultimately a directionless series with characters growing weaker by the episode (not you Scrappy <3). 

My biggest problem with these dream episodes is that they offer so little - we learn nothing about our heroes through their dreams, there’s no fun gags or settings (the Red Baron featured was a monster in Movies, and a Caveman several times), nothing here needs to be a dream. It’s such an easy device to use well, but there’s nothing here that couldn’t otherwise be done in any other episode. 

We see that Shaggy dreams of Benjamin Franklin, Scrappy the Red Baron, and Scooby is fleeing from dinosaurs as a caveman. 

All of these are therefore shorter than the already minuscule runtime of the segment, and as such, I shouldn’t be checking the time every thirty seconds. 

Not a good one. The most I get out of this is seeing Scrappy dressed up in different costumes, and that the episode is listed as a "Tear Jerker" on Tv Tropes.

Thank you so much for reading this review! Every fortnight brings us closer to salvation (both the return of Daphne and Mysteries) and I for one cannot wait. The series is mostly boring, with some highlights, but it's a chore to wade through. Luckily, I love writing about the episodes, so that's something :)

If you enjoy these please consider checking out both my novel and my main blog! At the moment I make monthly recaps on my favourite (mostly horror, with a dash of animated) movies from the previous month! I can go a lot more in depths there than in these brief episodes :) I'm also looking at working on a "reading diary" kind of thing? We shall see <3

Next week sees the end of season two! And luckily, there's a shakeup to season three (nothing too exciting).

Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season Two Episodes 13 - 21 (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season Two Episodes 1 - 6

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Scooby-Doo and Scrappy Doo (2) S2 E1-6

1. Scooby-Nocchio

Unfortunately, we’ve reached a fairly unpopular, and therefore, undocumented, period in Scooby history. As such, there’s little additional information I can impart about the start of a new season, but ultimately, what I’ve watched so far appears to be more of the same. 

With that being said, the six episodes I’m discussing today were more enjoyable to me than a bulk of the prior episodes. 

This episode is another Scooby take on a classic story, here, Pinocchio. I’ve only seen (and loved) the Guillermo Del Toro movie, so I might miss any specific references to the Disney movie. Regardless, I have a greater appreciation for this episode than I do the Wizard of Oz or Alice in Wonderland episodes, where as they tackle the entirety of their stories in this short format, this episode takes a single scene and fleshes it out with this era’s flair. 

Maybe flair is overselling it. 

However, I think setting the episode in Pleasure Island, an incredibly creepy set from the movie with, as I understand, a somewhat harrowing sequence of children turned into donkeys. Unfortunately, for the first time, I have a slight complaint about the backgrounds: when compared to the Disney version, the difference in their use of colour shades these locations completely differently, with Disney’s oozing with eerie night time shades and unique perspectives, meanwhile the Scooby version is pastel in shade, once again, detailing the show's departure from horror. They’re still gorgeous, don’t get me wrong, but they feel much less creepy, there’s a plain and upbeat feeling instead. 

Everywhere I’m searching only details this villain as The Man, I assume a stand in for the movie’s Coachman, the design feels like a perfectly distilled man, drawn in the Hanna Barbera style, at least in terms of his face, adorned with an elongated nose, and brown hair falling below his ears. Of course, this design is elevated by the trench coat and crimson bowler hat. (Funnily enough, the Scooby Doo Wiki has been updated I wrote this to include him, named "Pleasure Island Man".

Ultimately, this is an episode I appreciate more than I enjoy, there feels like more thought drawn into it, and I also love the creepy ending of the man appearing in reality, after the episode is, like Oz and Alice, revealed to be a dream. 

2. Lighthouse Keeper Scooby 

Here we have another episode I like! 

It’s difficult to quite compare these seven minute shorts to the twenty, or even forty, minute episodes we had grown used to for Scooby, not to mention how they work on different formulas, but I’m constantly searching for any episodes that use the format well. There are a smattering, and this is a fun time. I can’t say it’s much better than most average Where are You or Show episodes, but it’s fun!

We follow the gang as they’re swept up in a storm, and crash onto an island. 

It’s fairly simple in premise - inside, they find a ghost, and the ghost chases them, until they fall into a costume or fish, and, disoriented, run at the ghost, who is subsequently afraid, until Scrappy gloats about having bested the villain. Subsequently, the cycle repeats. 

It’s this repetition that drags down the episode, but I enjoy this premise for what it is, it’s a great way to use the otherwise now somewhat stale dynamic between these characters. After wading through the first season, I’m a little tired of this iteration of the characters, complete bland caricatures, with Scrappy even growing more flanderised - I miss the days of Shaggy as a gymnast. Just tiny details that made these characters any more interesting, but all their interactions exist in a bubble, Shaggy talks to the same two dogs, or the monster, who may as well be the same archetype every episode, and this lack of variety is what, to me, dampens the show. This is especially evident given a wider variety of ideas on display in the opening to this season. 

Because I love the lighthouse, the playing upon the typical chase formula, but I’ve seen so many chases in this series, and this slight twist isn’t enough to entirely save this episode. Rather, if pulled out at random, I would argue this is one of the better uses of the series formula. 

Tonally, it’s a lot of fun, and I really enjoy both the beautiful setting here, the backgrounds once again dark and lavish, dripping with personality, and the monster too is a fun character. He’s a typical chalky white ghost design, with a large shaggy beard and an incredibly distinct face shape and posture. He feels ripped from one of the earlier seasons, a character that’s simple in design, but effective nevertheless. 

On a final note, this one has some fun visuals! The pirate ghost has a ship, and I love the variation, while remaining thematically sound, in regards to the costumes the gang wear. 

There are far worse ways to spend seven minutes (like watching a good handful of other episodes from this series). 

Also, as the Scooby Doo wiki perfectly points out, “This episode ends with Shaggy, Scrappy, and Scooby stranded on the lighthouse island with no means of escape, as the ghost took their motorboat.”

Scooby Doo found dead. 

3. Scooby’s Roots

This is one of the best documented episodes in the series, which is down to the addition of Grandpa Scooby to the canon. I think so far, the family member timeline for Scooby still makes sense, although all these additional family members are undoubtedly retconned later. 

Grandpa Scooby is designed exactly how you’d expect, a somewhat skinnier design for the dog, with a bushy grey moustache and eyebrows. I appreciate all the little features that latch onto the idea of this as an old man, such as the tinner ears, almost crinkled, smaller face and aforementioned thinner build. 

He’s a fun grandpa character, a very distilled archetype that allows this episode to shine. I also love the inclusion of the sheet ghost here, who, major spoilers for Scooby’s Roots up ahead, is revealed to be Great Grandpa Scooby. Once again, I love the strides to design an old man dog, the larger moustache is a nice touch, alongside the same bushy eyebrows as his son. To further differentiate his design from Grandpa Scooby, he’s dressed in his civil war uniform. I sure do wonder what side he was on. 

I love the interactions between Great Grandpa Scooby and Scrappy, with him excited to see a braver member of the Doo family. It’s sweet! And I wasn’t too bored by the ghost antics that proceed it, this additional cast member does wonders in offering the episode something unique, a reason to watch it over the abundance of other chase episodes. The introduction of the ghost is really funny to me also, I love the idea of the Scooby mansion being haunted, the torment is played very straight, his voice acting is phenomenal, and unfortunately, I cannot find anywhere who voiced him. The credits are a jumble of names, still bearing the actors of Fred, Daphne and Velma for starters, and nowhere else has it listed. 

There’s also a brief homage to the Where are You titles when Scooby licks pink frosting off his face, which was nice. 

4. Scooby’s Escape from Atlantis 

While on a Cruise Ship, the gang fall into the ocean, and find themselves trapped inside Atlantis. 

I enjoy a fun shift in setting, Atlantis is undoubtedly the best part about this episode, the backgrounds are gorgeous, which often elevates an episode tenfold when all that’s happening is the characters are running around several of them. 

Despite Atlantis’ ties to Greek mythology, being a city submerged under water by the Gods after the nation's hubris grew too strong, there’s no direct ties between this villain, a centaur, and Atlantis itself. At least, as far as I can find, with the exception being a tomb raider enemy. 

Eventually, I grew used to the Centaur running around, despite his design lacking any ocean motifs; his stark blue armour is a nice touch to the design that makes him pop, especially when paired with his ginger beard, the colours contrast nicely, although this somewhat washes out his horse body. 

Once again, this is a kind of whatever episode, that does very little new, but exists within a beautiful, inspired setting. 

5. Excalibur Scooby 

This episode feels like a copy of season one’s Swamp Witch, but I think this manages to be superior as a result of the increased moving parts. 

The episode takes from the Arthurian legend of the Sword and the Stone - whoever can draw the sword from said stone, is deemed worthy to rule. As such, pacing Merlin as the villain here works for me, having him use whatever means necessary to get the sword from the stone to rule is great! Honestly, he’s maybe my favourite villain we’ve seen in this iteration so far, his characterisation is surprisingly rich, blending cowardice with a desire for power. Come the end of the episode, he instantly bows to the will of Scrappy, Scooby, and the frog, all of whom are given (or pull, in Scrappys case) the sword. 

Although we’ve seen a handful of Merlin villains in Scooby, there’s a definite cartoonish charm to this design, his eyes large and circular, his posture places his shoulders above his ears, and the mauve robes are a nice choice. 

Also he has a frog side kick. 

It’s one of the rare episodes that made me laugh a decent amount, and while it still suffers from the usual pitfalls of this series, its strengths allow it to be one of the most enjoyable of the series. I especially love how it uses the legend to great effect, having Scrappy pull the sword with ease, it’s played off so nonchalantly, which really works for me. 

6. Scooby Saves the World

For some reason, the gang have all gotten a job (Scrappy is a puppy) cleaning a space shuttle, when they accidently take off and land on an alien planet, where a robotic monster tries to kill them. This is totally the fault of the people that hired this lanky man and his pair of dogs (Scrappy is a puppy) to clean their very expensive, very important space shuttle. 

Also, they once again are in space. 

Although this is a very bland, forgettable episode, this batch appears to be getting the villains right, or at least, better than before. The robot alien has a sky-blue and violet design, and said design is mostly what carries him, although he does command a presence. His rounded head and long yellow teeth are all evocative of sci-fi tropes and trends of the time, and I enjoy them a lot. 

Such trends also influence the backgrounds - I love old sci fi backgrounds and sets, much more than more modern minimalist ideals of the future. 

Regardless, Scooby in space shouldn’t have produced this many forgettable episodes. 

Thank you so much for reading this post :) Have a great week!

Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season Two Episodes 7 - 12 (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season One Episodes 34-39

[scooby-review]

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy Doo (2) S1 E34-39 

34. A Fright at the Opera

I can’t quite tell why, there appears to be no correlation to why, but there’s a curious increase, to me, in the quality of ideas for this final set of episode blocks. Don’t get me wrong, not all of said ideas are winners, nor do the episodes themselves feel like they substantially improve as a result of these interesting ideas, but I found myself genuinely shocked by how fun some of the characters, locations and general plots were. One point to note is that several are heavily inspired by movies, although, I think they use this source material in a manner that feels more so inspired by said movies, rather than the parodies we’ve witnessed before. 

Case in point, this episode is undoubtedly inspired by Phantom of the Opera; Scooby as a franchise has always had a love for Universal Monsters, and so such an inspiration makes complete sense, and is by no means new for the series. However, I appreciate here how we get to the story, the gang in Paris, falling down a manhole, where we slowly rise from the sewers into a theatre. 

However, the majority takes place in the sewers, evidently inspired by the Phantom’s home in the novel and subsequent movies. Yet, the short understands its runtime, we learn a little about The Phantom of the Sewers, and can infer information as a result of the source material, but the episode doesn’t bloat itself. There’s an evident love for The Phantom within the bones of this story, and the more generic sewer setting offers a unique spin on this tale. 

Again, it’s not perfect, it devolves into a long chase sequence without many memorable moments. Likewise, the design for the Phantom is somewhat unremarkable, gowned in a large purple robe, the figure is aged, with a wrinkled face and shoulder length grey hair, only standing out as a result of their red eyes. 

But ultimately, I have a soft spot for this episode, it was cute! 

35. Robot Ranch

Here’s maybe the most interesting idea they offer - a robot filled wild west. Admittedly, I haven’t watched Westworld, which the episode is inspired by, and as such, I can’t comment exactly on how creative the episode is, with sources online referring to it as a “Parody” and “Take-Off” both suggestive of the episode following the movies beats in a more simplistic manner. However, I’ll fight through my hesitancy to state that this is an episode that feels fresh in comparison to many of the other, very by the books, concepts we’ve seen prior. 

I can’t exactly say I love the design for the episodes main antagonist, Rawhide Red, whose main pitfall for me is the colour scheme, with clashing powder blue skin against the titular red shade of his clothing, not to mention the fact his robotic face often blends into the backgrounds given it shares a hue with the sky. For me, a more metallic taste would have worked better here. 

Regardless, I felt somewhat hopeful watching this episode, hopeful for a continued renewal of creative energy into the series, when very little else has felt unique or offered much to me, I can only hope that fun concepts such as this continue to pop up, not only in the subsequent episodes of this season, but within the next two seasons as well. 

I would much rather episodes that feel like they have something to share creatively, despite weak and bland plots and writing, in contrast to episodes playing it safe reusing assets as they continue to offer the same exhausted plots regardless. 

36. Surprised Spies

I don’t love this episode, in part, a result of not caring too much for spy media as a whole, but once again, it’s doing something! Location is the main focus in this episode, shifting from place to place constantly, which offers some unique flavour here! 

Also, it features the trio arriving at mysterious locations to drop off and collect packages. This ends up feeling like a drug deal that keeps going wrong, which I enjoy.

Something I should highlight is how often the series has grown accustomed to giving the gang new outfits, something I once revelled in, yet have neglected to discuss. Here they get large beige coats, and in the prior chapter, large cowboy hats. Maybe the lack of customisation to said outfits is why I find myself much less excited to discuss them, for all three characters end up wearing the same uniform, which only furthers a decline in their characters, who feel far less interesting than they once did. Truthfully, I think this comes from their current positions, the stories just don’t offer the characters anything of worth to do, and as such, these already fairly simple characters are stripped even simpler, reduced to being scared objects that can run around for seven minutes. It’s why I maintain Scrappy as the strongest element of this series as a whole, because he feels unique and works to further the stories in a manner I am personally very fond of. 

This isn’t to say I dislike Scooby or Shaggy, on the contrary, I just wish they could have even half the personality it felt like they once did, they’re far more barebones now, and these costume changes lacking music personality only furthers this, even if I like them as a whole. 

37. Invasion of the Scooby Snatchers

I’ve fairly recently watched Invasion of the Body Snatchers for the first time, which this episode is very evidently inspired by. Although there’s also a parody of the TV show That's Incredible, a reality TV show that aired around the time of this series. 

Needless to say that being a fan of the movie, I had a good time with this episode. I’ve always loved the concept of aliens spurting from pods, the innate bond between humanity and our influence on the world. Much like the movie, the episode sees alien clones of the trio growing and attempting to eliminate the gang. 

I’m a huge fan of doppelganger stories, and so this works for me on several levels, even if, once again, there’s little substance actually here. The aliens try to “eliminate” the gang for six minutes, before the main alien decides that he’s exhausted of doing so and leaves. 

Said main alien has a fun design, with an elongated nose and head, dressed in a blend of greens that compliment his skin colour tenfold, it’s a great and distinct design! And while there’s very little edits made to the alien versions of the gang, this is evidently purposeful, and I appreciate the slight desaturation of them to craft even the simplest change, plus of course, the antenna.

38. Scooby Dooby Guru

We end this winning streak with an incredibly bland, lifeless episode. 

The gang disturb a guard to the Taj Mahal, and so he chases after them. It encapsulates all the boring tropes this already flat era has accumulated, and offers nothing in the ways of diversity of ideas nor unique settings, characters are gags. Truly one of the blandest to date. 

39. Scooby and the Bandit

Finally for the season, we have another somewhat bland episode. It’s once again a long chase, which to my count, roughly 28/39 of these shorts are simply chases. It’s such a boring direction to take the concept of Scooby Doo shorts, and only cements further to me that this attempt at shaking up the formula is such a boring and lifeless one! 

I appreciate how this one builds upon itself, having the chase happen across a large city is at the very least something, I will give the episode that. 

Thank you for reading this weeks post! I was fairly excited to finish this, until I remembered there's still two more seasons worth of this formula, with season three having dedicated Scrappy shorts, so that's something!

The one year anniversary for this blog is on the 23rd! I might try to get something out for it, but no promises, but regardless, I've had a lot of fun working on this blog for the year :) And thank you for everyone who has read any of my posts!

I've also updated my ranking for the whole franchise! It can be found here :)

Have a great week!

[scooby-review]

Scooby-Doo and Scrappy Doo (2) S1 E25-33

25. Et Tu, Scoob? 

As a huge fan of Julius Caesar, I was incredibly excited to watch this episode, but quickly, it became clear the episode wasn’t going to be doing anything special. 

It’s one of the most “by the books" episodes, it demonstrates the greatest problems with this series, at least, for me. At its core, this story could work, because these characters can operate well in these situations - the premise of this episode sees the gang in a colosseum, forced to face the typical suspects of such a setting. So much here should work, Scrappy acts as a perfect foil to Scooby and Shaggy, I see him as a character whose flaws are juxtaposed by the pairs flaws, and as such, they make a perfect boiling pot. The original gang can only flourish because they have unique roles and contrasting ideals and ideas. With this style of more comedy driven writing, Scrappy is a perfect replacement. But rarely do these end up working for me. 

Partly, this comes down to repetition. Almost every episode in this series feels far too similar, you could fit them into a venn diagram without any hassle. Scooby Doo has always been formulaic, but the mysteries that have gone by offered something, the characters were fun to watch, the settings offered allow the characters to explore different skills and horrors - just watching What a Night for a Knight and then A Clue for Scooby Doo excellently demonstrates this fact. They have a similar structure, their bones almost interchangeable, but it is their flesh that warrants watching on. 

Maybe nothing is pushed far enough, or maybe the writing style is simply bland. But this doesn’t work for me, not one bit. 

26. Soggy Bog Scooby

In this episode, the trio go fishing, before a swamp creature attacks them. 

Something I have come to accept about this iteration of the series is that it’s bad, although not in a fun way. There’s no use in dissecting exactly why I didn’t like this episode, because it all boils down to a single word - boring. 

I should not feel every second of this short. 

Still, I enjoy the swamp creature in this one; the monster has a crocodile head, but a more anthropomorphised body, with a large, distinct dorsal fin upon its back. I adore The Creature from the Black Lagoon, (the gilman himself, rather than the movie) and so any swamp creature that reminds me of him in any manner is exciting. 

27. Scooby Gumbo

I enjoy the concept in this episode of a chef being the villain. As far as being a villain is concerned, the character falls into the camp of just being a guy rather than a monster of any sort, unlike many others, he’s not a criminal, just some man. Such variation upon the formula is often funny to me, just watching this chef get increasingly angry with the gang as they continue to cause mischief. 

The characters are often well meaning, they don’t seek chaos, and therefore, it makes it all the more enjoyable to witness unfold, as everything falls apart before them. 

28. Way Out Scooby Doo

Maybe the most consistent aspect of these episodes is how gorgeous the backgrounds are, as they always have been. In this episode I particularly love how space is painted, the clouds and lavish and mesmerising, and they capture this truly bleak and existential landscape of mars, there’s a brief pause as we stare out at the Earth, and the art alone is incredibly evocative, especially to me, who is terrified of space. 

Here we have the gang going to space, for the second time I believe. Both times an accident. 

Heading to space is such an interesting trope in shows, and I think frequently it can be marked as a “jump the shark” moment. Sitcoms like the Simpsons lose much gravity to them when we witness Homer just going to the moon; as a child, I remember really disliking the Ninjago episode where they get stranded on the moon for the same reason, as, despite the fantastical nature of that show in contrast to The Simpsons, something about it just felt off to me. 

Despite this, sometimes I enjoy the trend. I love the peculiar, although often overblown, trope of horror franchises heading to space - Jason X, Hellraiser Bloodlines and Leprechaun 4 make up the bulk of this, and honestly, it works. It allows for a unique shift in settings, and I think all of them use said setting in a fun manner. And despite my earlier complaints and disdain in my youth, I don’t hate the Ninjago episode, with there being a campy charm to it all. 

All of this is to say that I didn’t bat an eye at the gang being in space. No attention is really drawn to the fact, besides a shot of Shaggy and Scooby staring back out on Earth, in again, a scene I find oddly harrowing. 

There’s simply no emphasis placed on their arrival on mars. They just mess around with this robot for a while. 

29. Strongman Scooby 

The bulldog from the episode Swiss Miss returns. Like, they reuse the design, or the head of said design, but they don’t acknowledge him as the same character. However, I like to imagine he is. 

Here’s another episode that has such a perfect throughline to be good! It’s not. 

Having Scrappy big up Scooby to a bodybuilding dog is funny, and it’s a perfect use of their character dynamic, having Scooby then not want to admit that he is in fact, not strong, in fear of having Scrappy think less of him. His nephews admiration for him is such a pivotal aspect of their relationship, and therefore, using it to craft conflict is genius. 

That’s all though. 

30. Moonlight Madness

Here’s another episode where the backgrounds are especially gorgeous. It’s a return to a gothic setting, and it drips with style. 

I like the concept here again, in this episode we’re introduced to Shaggy the First, just in portrait form, as the gang are staying at Shaggy’s ancestral home. However the butler, Adolf (of course, the name would have still been in circulation amidst older folk, such as this butler, in the 80s, but the decision to name the character this in an episode of Scooby Doo is a curious one) is evil and places an amulet on Shaggy that turns him into a werewolf, although only in direct moonlight. 

Luckily, the clouds keep covering the moon, so Shaggy spends some of his time as a werewolf, and the rest as himself, seemingly oblivious to this fact, as are the dogs. 

Unlike Shaggy the First (if I ever got the chance to be a showrunner for a Scooby project, I would bring him into the story as a pivotal character), I don’t like the design of the werewolf form of Shaggy. Once again, I dislike the way werewolves are crafted in Scooby Doo, they just look off to me, not aided in this instance by the way Shaggy doesn’t have fur on his face, and how, what fur is on his body, lacks much distinct texture while in motion, just giving an awkward appearance to him. 

31. Dog Tag Scooby Doo

In this episode, the gang go to an army base and get dragged into the army drills. 

All I can think to mention is the fan theory that the (traditional) gang are draft dodgers, it’s sometimes presented as one of those “dark” cartoon theories, which I find very funny. 

32. Scooby at the Centre of the World

The rock monsters in this episode may be a highlight of this season. Hell, this iteration. 

They’re stalagmites, bearing incredibly triangular bodies, they’re jagged and rough, with incredibly wiry mouths and eyes, that remind me of Oogie Boogie from A Nightmare Before Christmas, who I adore. They’re just so devious, I love them so much, I kind of love their bland role in this episode, just creatures running around, they’re so silly and cute, God I adore them! 

They’re perfect, a work of genius. 

33. Scooby's Trip to Ahz

We end this block of episodes with another Scooby in blank episode, with this one seeing them inside The Wizard of Oz. 

To open with some positives, I love Scrappy’s Tin Man design, he’s adorable, and I love and cherish him with all my heart. I think he’s most fitting of the character, although I wouldn’t consider him heartless, he certainly lacks any emotional maturity, because after all, he’s a puppy. Meanwhile Shaggy and Scooby could fit the Scarecrow or Lion interchangeably. I think Shaggy’s Scarecrow design is totally fine, while Scooby’s lion design is fairly bland, but ultimately, it’s just a lion, there’s not much room for creativity. 

Unlike the Alice in Wonderland episode, this one follows the story of Wizard of Oz in an interesting way. It presents itself almost as a sequel to the movie, the villain here is the Wicked Witch of the North by Southeast, who claims to have met the trio before, and for all intents and purposes, is the Wicked Witch of the West. She dies by water, she has flying monkeys, the only difference is that she has a bland design, in contrast to the striking wicked witch. 

Most of the value I get out of this episode comes from the opening, the colours are gorgeous, and the Scrappy Tin Man is of course a highlight, but this is neglecting to mention The Yellow Brick Toad. I had a little chuckle at him. 

Thank you so much for reading this post!

I took a little break from the blog, I hadn't planned to, but I ended up missing a week after being caught up in work, and then weeks kept passing without much desire to watch this series! But I think the burnout has faded! I had a great time writing this, even if this iteration is a slog to get through, I hope to continue to improve how I can write about something that I find to be fairly bland in a fun way! I think I'm getting there :)

For the foreseeable future, to prevent burnout, and simply a result of being very busy, I'm going to stick to the prior idea of making bi-weekly posts, and I might include less episodes in these! That way I can focus more on writing about them in fun ways rather than worrying about cramming in loads and muddying anything interesting I have to say!

I hope everyone has a great week :)

Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season One Episodes 37-43 (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season One Episodes 13-24

[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season One Episodes 13-24

13. Scooby’s Bull Fright 

I’ve compared this series in particular to Looney Tunes a few times prior, however nowhere does this feel more evident than in this episode, which feels wholly inspired by Bully for Bugs. They follow incredibly similar story beats, just here we have the Scooby trio. 

It’s incredibly by the books, and to this end, it accomplishes its goal. This trio works fine as a comedic group, in my opinion, largely thanks to Scrappy, who diversifies the cast hugely. He’s a perfect foil to Scooby and Shaggy within these stories, he’s headstrong and runs into danger, it forces them into these situations, yet I never find it annoying that he’s done so. 

Comparing it to Bully for Bugs, I do feel like this episode pails. It’s not bad by any means, but Bugs is a perfect character to drop into a situation like this, he always escapes while stringing together increasingly wild problems for his antagonist. For me, the Scooby trio don’t work as well in these settings, it’s why most of my favourite episodes so far are almost seven minute chase sequences, they play with the original aesthetics and themes of Scooby while twisting them into a shorter formula. 

14. Scooby Ghosts West

To me, episodes like this demonstrate exactly what I enjoy most about this iteration of the series, it’s where I feel these episodes can shine, when they continue to lean into the horror elements introduced in Where are You, while retaining the focus on comedy. 

Here the trio fall out of their train and into a literal ghost town, and wacky antics ensue. It’s incredibly gaggy, which works nicely here! Every character has a handful of moments where they can shine, such as Scrappy not being phased at all by the queue of ghosts to the bathroom. 

It’s a lot of fun! This formula very simply works, Shaggy and Scooby work best for me (at least in their current states) when they’re scared of something more substantial, like ghosts and ghouls, something more spooky rather than a worker in a hospital (we’ll get there). 

15. A Bungle in the Jungle

In contrast, I find this to be one of the worst the series has to offer, a truly lifeless short on par with Scooby's Fantastic Island in how bland I find this setting and plot. 

Here the villain is a man in the vein of Tarzan or George of the Jungle, which aren’t characters or stories I care too much for. It’s the most basic escalation of this idea - of course they’re lost in the jungle, of course the animals and “Nazrat of the Jungle” will be threats to them, chasing them through the jungle, until the episode ends. 

Scooby has always been formulaic, but it’s far more evident when there’s little substance to the episodes. I can forgive most episodes of Where are You or Show having similar setups, pay offs, etc… However, I find it difficult to derive much enjoyment from this story, I don’t care for the villain, he’s a man who lives in the jungle, there aren’t any jokes that I found myself laughing at, even Scrappy couldn’t redeem this one for me. 

16. Scooby’s Fun Zone

Here the trio head to a carnival, where the strongman Killer Krunch grows angry and chases Shaggy and Scooby around. Again, it’s the same formula as most of these episodes. 

Despite this, I did enjoy some moments from this episode, specifically when Shaggy and Scrappy are having fun with the funhouse mirrors, and when Scrappy leads Killer Krunch to the dunk tank where Scooby and Shaggy were hiding. 

For the most part, I’m not touching on the designs of the villains, mostly because they’re uninteresting, by the books' designs. Which is fine - this episode is a caricature of a strong man, and as such, I don’t feel much need to discuss the nuances in the design the way I would with the monsters seen in prior series. 

This is another fine episode! 

17. Swamp Witch

Here’s another episode I enjoy, although I can't describe it as being better than any prior episodes. Here the gang are chased around by a witch and her ghostly henchman Globby. 

I do enjoy the set up of this one - the pair of villains need frogs legs, and so they chase after the trio, attempting to turn them into frogs, where we get the somewhat infamous Shaggy Frog. 

Much like with other villains in this series, the witch is a fairy by the book's witch, she’s an old woman fit with grey hair and a magenta and violet colour scheme. However, Globby is a fun design, and undoubtedly one of my favourites of this series. He’s evocative of a gargoyle, he’s sky blue in shade, using shape design within his head to denote him as somewhat bumbling and overall, an incompetent henchman. 

Other than these bright lights, the episode feels like a less interesting take on prior episodes where a villain chases the gang, namely The Old Cat and Mouse Game. Although here it lacks much flair which made that episode interesting. Shaggy becomes a frog, and then one minute later the witch and Globby are frogs, great. 

18. Sir Scooby and the Black Knight 

Here’s a fun premise - the gang (somehow) mistake a castle as their hotel while on a holiday to Scotland, and this castle, just so happens to house a man who dresses up as a knight, who rightfully attempts to chase them from his house after their intrusion and after they devour all his food. It’s therefore a shame when it falls into the same “plot” structure as so many of these episodes. It’s just another chase. 

At the very least it’s a funny twist to not have the man be a monster, but rather, have the trio genuinely causing problems for this poor man while refusing to accept they messed up. 

Also, this episode has one of my favourite characters - Sir Morbid. Design wise, he’s a skeleton in a sleepy cap, holding a match. I just enjoy his presence in the episode, that’s all :) 

19. Waxworld

Inspired by House of Wax, the episode sees the trio entering a building searching for their missing coin, when the owner of said building attempts to turn them into wax statues, mimicking Vincent Price’s role in the movie. 

Although another very fun concept and setting, and I love the Dracula inspired design of the Waxmaster, who’s so distinct because of his large bulbous head and sharp eyebrows, however, the episode itself grows somewhat repetitive. 

I understand why - there’s not really anywhere else to take this idea. The gang are almost turned, but they escape, and then they’re almost turned again, and the cycle repeats. But as is, it’s okay!

20. Scooby in Wonderland 

This episode acts as a retelling of Alice in Wonderland, as the title suggests. I have fairly mixed opinions on this style of episode writing - when I was younger I used to love Tom And Jerry And The Wizard Of Oz, so much so it was likely one of my favourite movies. As it suggests, it’s The Wizard of Oz, but Tom and Jerry join Dorothy on her adventure. 

On one hand, I had a fun enough time with this episode, I enjoy Alice in Wonderland, and this episode doesn’t act as a parody, it’s honest to the source material, the backgrounds are pretty, it’s a fun time! However, it’s also just Alice in Wonderland with a smattering of gags thrown in - I like that Scrappy is the White Rabbit, but simply because of his design, it’s a sudden rush of endorphins, your brain calling out “I like those two things!”. Here, Scooby is Alice, so it doesn’t act like a crossover, it’s a seven minute condensed version of the story. As such, I have to ask, what’s the point? There is fun to be had, but there’s no reason to ever return to something like this, it’s somewhat lifeless, thoughtless, the largest decision comes from picking which character becomes which character, and when your show only has a cast of three characters, the rest of the characters from the story are left remaining as themselves. 

It’s something different, but that’s pretty much all this one has to offer. The longer I think about it, the more frustrating it becomes, there’s no substance here, which leaves this just a quick sugar rush. 

21. Scrappy’s Birthday 

On Scrappy’s birthday, Shaggy and Scooby recount his birth. 

Here we’re introduced to a new Doo - Ruby Doo, Scooby’s sister. Much like Scooby, she’s a great dane, although Ruby is an ashy shade, a little darker in hue than Scooby-Dum. Of course, she has a trademark violet bow to tell us she’s a woman. Surprisingly, she will return in a few shows time, although completely redesigned. 

I enjoy the actual birthday, it’s sweet to see these characters just talking, and again, Scrappy is constantly a bright light in these episodes, I truly love him. Although, that can’t exactly be said for the rest of this episode, where, post birth, he runs around talking in a higher pitched voice, and being a real little tyke. It’s his character pushed to his worst, as if the marketability were being stretched thin, it’s frustrating and only aids in how dull this episode becomes. 

Another good aspect of this episode is how weird Shaggy and Scooby act as Ruby Doo goes into labour, there’s something really off about them and I love it. However the moment this episode devolves into a chase sequence with a doctor, I lose all interest. It’s maybe one of their worst chase sequences to date. 

Also the origin of Scrappy’s name is not something we needed. Having the doctor call him “a scrappy little tyke” only for Ruby Doo to decide that Scrappy is sweet is abhorrent in an incredibly comedic way, albeit, inadvertently.  

22. South Seas Scare

While on a holiday in Hawaii, the gang run into a lava monster. 

Here we have an actual monster, seemingly inspired by the same statues of deities as the Aztec Statue Monster from The Scooby Doo Show, even if this design feels oddly proportioned, I enjoy that we can still see some villain designs that offer something. 

Another positive about this episode is that Shaggy gets a Hawaiin shirt, his usual shade of forest green, dappled with dandelion flowers. It’s a simple change, but an incredibly welcomed one - I adore adding yellows into his palette, they compliment his character perfectly. 

Otherwise, the same abundant criticisms persist. It’s an episode that shows promise, but similarly to the previous one, falls into the same tropes as most others here. 

23. Scooby’s Swiss Miss

I have a personal distaste for any Scooby romance stories, so this episode speaks specifically to tropes I despise. However, I was plunged even further into despair upon seeing the design of Scooby’s titular Swiss Miss. 

This is maybe one of the most egregious examples I have seen of drawing specific sexualised feminine traits for animal characters that aren’t in any way present for their male equivalents. Already there is a common association between poodles and femininity, they’re seen as nimble, meek and small in contrast to a dog like her opposition, the Bulldog, who often alludes to more traditionally masculine traits with his overbearing anger and larger build. Even if this alone is a tired way of designing characters, leaning into fairly rigid and patriarchal ideas of masculinity and femininity as a binary, they push this even further by making the design of the poodle far more anthropomorphised, they give her pale skin, her fur acts as hair, she’s given a tiny waist and a dress, and the entire design leaves a sour taste in my mouth. Evidently, she’s designed with the male gaze in mind, she exists for the audience to sexualise, be it to demonise her (as is the case with the end of the episode) or to understand why our heroes would bother interacting with her. 

In particular, the final line of “Oh well, at least he can’t run away” in regards to the bulldog’s injury and subsequent accidental marriage to the poodle is gross. She’s treated as a conquest for these male characters throughout the episode, but come the end, when one dog can be with her, she’s suddenly vilified for wanting marriage, it suggests a dichotomy between sex and romance, and it’s an infuriating end to the episode. 

24. Alaskan King Coward

For the final episode of the day, the gang go prospecting in Alaska, where they discover a prehistoric creature, frozen in ice, that’s soon unleashed and seeks to murder the trio. 

Everything you expect to happen happens. 

To end on a positive note, we do get new winter outfits here! I love them a lot, they’re uniform winter jackets, Scooby’s red, Scrappy’s blue, and Shaggy’s green with yellow fur. I really enjoy mixing up these designs, something that they don’t have to do for an episode that lasts seven minutes, but it goes a long way in giving me something to chew on here. 

Also, I feel like I should touch upon the monster, who has a totally fine design. He draws upon dinosaurs and, to me, feels inspired by Godzilla, although he doesn’t have any specific connections to any animals in particular. Yet the scaly, towering design does feel evocative of an undiscovered prehistoric beast, it’s a cohesive character that holds menace, and feels like a true threat to the gang. 

Thank you for reading this review! I took a little while away because man is this series not all that good! It's fine in short bursts, a few episodes are even good, but the majority is a slog to get through, and writing about twelve episodes is far more work than four despite the difference in length! So I'll stick to releasing these every other Monday until the episode lengths return to normal :)

Have a great week!

Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season One Episodes 25-36 (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season One Episodes 1-12

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Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season One Episodes 1-12

In the biggest shakeup to the franchise so far, Fred, Daphne and Velma were removed from this series completely. Alongside this, the twenty-two minute episodes were reduced to seven minute shorts. Furthermore, the episodes now focus not on the mysteries from before, but on silly stories involving criminals or supernatural monsters. Likely, this came as a further effort to keep the show fresh. 

Much like with The Scooby Doo Show, the following three season run of Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo is not a single entity, rather three seasons from different blocks repackaged in later releases, although unlike that series, there is no single way to refer to these seasons. It’s a separate entity from the prior Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo show, yet often they are named exactly the same thing. 

It’s for this reason that it can be difficult to categorise exactly what I’m discussing, so the season will be labelled simply with a 2! On top of this, because the episodes are shorts, I’ll be reviewing four airing blocks worth of episodes rather than four shorts, meaning I’ll be going over twelve shorts per review! 

1. A Close Encounter with a Strange Kind

There is so much to unpack with this first short. To start with, one of the most evident changes is the shift in voice actors for Scrappy, with him now voiced by Don Messick, the voice of Scooby, who had originally auditioned for this part when it was first conceived. Honestly, I think I prefer this voice, and maybe that comes down to what I’m used to from my own childhood, but I find this take on the character’s voice to be far more endearing, there’s a powerful youthful bashfulness expressed in his delivery that I adore. 

This series also marks the most stark shift from the horror aesthetics and genre introduced and most prevalent in Where are You. It’s one of the key aspects that I adore about that series, and subsequent iterations of the property, and while some episodes still  contain elements of this prior identity (this episode has some, as does the following episode) but it feels less tied to it specifically. Now the show strides with a far more evident comedic focus, even dropping the mystery aspect entirely. Yet, remnants remain, but certain episodes contain near to no connections to the genre. There is a Looney Tunes style to these episodes, it's faster paced, fixated on what will make the audience laugh quickest. 

As for this short itself, we follow the trio camping out in the woods when Shaggy is abducted by aliens. Here is the other major shift in the series narrative - oftentimes, the villains are real monsters or people rather than people in masks, as is the Scooby identity. For shorts, this makes complete sense, and it’s treated without much importance, the trio know of the existence of these monsters, and oftentimes their goals are simply to escape. Again, narratively this makes far more sense than the trio attempting to solve mysteries together, given Scooby and Shaggy’s entire personalities clashing with such a goal. Rather, the structures typically depict them falling into hikinks of some sort, and attempting to escape them.

I’ve seen these little alien designs a lot while researching this series, and I can safely say I love them so much, there’s such an endearing charm to them, their lime green skin and wide smiled faces ooze with a mischievous energy, and their voices are impeccable, truly great antagonists for a short like this. 

Even more so than before, discussing anything “plot” wise will be near impossible, at least in the prior series there were mysteries, but here there’s a lead in, a chase, and then the short ends. However I do enjoy little gags like Shaggy sleeping through the majority of the episode and Scrappy excitedly volunteering to be guard twice, falling asleep instantly both times. Both are such great ways to use these character’s traits to craft gags and conflict. 

Also, the backgrounds here are truly stunning, both space itself and the forest the gang is camping in are beautiful. 

Honestly, I had a great time with this one! It’s a perfect opener and a great example of how this formula can be used to great effect. It’s such a creative concept that fits the runtime perfectly, making great use of the new avenues opened up by having both a shorter runtime and monsters be real. 

2. A Fit Night Out For Bats

In my favourite episode of the twelve, the gang are stranded after the Mystery Machine gets a flat tire, having to run into a nearby castle for shelter, where they find a vampire. 

One thing to note that I don’t love is how Shaggy ends up with the Mystery Machine in this series. In my eyes, it’s always tied more so to Fred, and so while it makes sense from a marketing standpoint, I don’t love it from a characterisation perspective. 

Regardless, this episode is great - the vampire, Sylvester, is a perfect villain for this, he finds a nice balance between campy and creepy that works perfectly for the show's style of comedy and pacing. Also, his design is unique, he’s another Dracula inspired vampire, wealthy by design of his immense home, his black and red cloak and ashy suit, however his haircut allows for him to stand apart from his counterparts. Plus, he’s called Sylvester, which simply adds to his character in incomprehensible ways. 

Although, it’s worth noting that this is the second episode in a row that is simply a chase. Both of these episodes execute this style that we will see over, and over, very well. Both episodes are well crafted, packed to the brim with gags and obstacles, but it’s worth noting the similarities in the episode's skeletons. 

3. The Chinese Food Factory

Despite the shift away from mysteries, this short does play out much like your average Scooby plot - the trio get jobs working the night shift at, you guessed it, a Chinese Food Factory. However, on their first shift, a burglar disguised as a monster breaks inside. 

I found this to be the least impressive of the three shorts, but the more traditional style of story is a nice reflection, and it works shockingly well given the runtime. There’s not a mystery so much as an imitation of one, but this framework forces Shaggy and Scooby to stay to catch this monster, because much like the gang before, someone’s relying on them to do so. And so to this end it’s a great set up. 

The villain feels a little too intricately designed in close ups, and as such, the detail can become muddied in longer shots, which erodes the style of the character, disguised mostly by a ginger, ghoulish mask. 

Although not as fun as the two before, this is by no means a bad short. 

4. Scooby's Desert Dilemma

In contrast, this short is pretty bad! 

Already, I don’t love deserts, but this story does nothing unique - I shouldn’t feel bored during a seven minute short. 

The villain is a magician, dressed in a long, cerulean gown with a black cape, yet he also wears a very striking pink and black hat, which I honestly kind of love despite how viciously out of place it feels. There’s a lacking cohesion to the design, yes, and it feels muddied in all sorts of stereotypes, but he indeed makes an impression. 

Maybe the best aspect of the episode is the magician’s line “It’s time for business… Monkey business… I’m going to turn you all into monkeys…” and then they defeat him by having him shoot his magic into a mirror, turning himself into a monkey. 

Besides this, there’s really nothing of note here - A Fit Night Out For Bats just feels like a more refined and interesting depiction of this idea. 

5. The Old Cat and Mouse Game

Call it bias, because I love both cats and mice, and also the combination of cats and mice (just such a classic painting) but this episode is a lot of fun. Again, it’s very similar in premise to the previous episode, and A Fit Night Out For Bats, but it’s elevated greatly by the simple shift of having the trio shrink, chased by, you guessed it, a cat. 

Here we meet both The Cat Man and his Siamese Cat. The former is dressed in a bright violet and magenta grown, his face humanoid while drawing in catlike features, namely whiskers, piercing forest eyes and long, elvish ears.

Meanwhile the Siamese Cat is just that, a Siamese Cat. 

Once again, the best episode so far are the ones that utilise the new avenues opened up by the format and shift in rules, having a fountain that shrinks people is a perfect way to make an intricate chase episode, it’s able to stand out as a result, and there are unique ideas they can explore through these means. Great stuff. 

6. Stow-Aways

Stow-Away takes a fairly fun concept - that of the trio getting trapped on a ship after mistaking it for a restaurant, but I feel like it does nothing to explore this in an interesting manner. It’s the same problem as Scooby's Desert Dilemma in that it’s another episode of the trio trapped inside a new location with a villain chasing them as they attempt to escape. 

However, I do appreciate that the villain is just kind of a guy. There’s nothing fantastical about the sailor, but he instantly starts trying to kill the trespassers, without any discussion or warning. It’s the main aspect that elevates this otherwise fine episode. 

7. Mummy’s the Word

It’s difficult to exactly express how I feel about these shorts because of their runtime in contrast to everything that’s come before. While I loved three of the twelve episodes, when ranked against the rest of the franchise so far, none of them exceed many longer episodes I had a handful of gripes with, given that they tell far more interesting stories. 

Here is an episode I feel fairly neutrally on, I don’t love the return to a sandy setting so quickly, especially not a second pyramid, I don’t love that the villain is an asset reuse of the Mummy of Ankha (I believe at least) but ultimately, it’s twelve minutes of the trio running around it’s fast paced with a plethora of gags and moments that made me smile such as Scrappy wearing a mask which I found to be incredibly sweet. Therefore, it is both more difficult for the episodes to be frustrating to watch and for me to hate them, but also far more difficult for them to truly strike a chord with me. 

8. Hang in There, Scooby Doo

The episode’s title is almost identical to the Pterodactyl Ghost episode. 

Here’s a super creative one, the trio get caught on a hang glider as they attempt to reach the beach below, swept through the air in a wild journey. 

Maybe I like this one so much because it feels so distinct, it’s not a chase, but the trio in a situation they cannot escape, forced to wait out this horrific scenario as more and more obstacles arise, threatening them further. 

It’s rich with life, and a fun time! The seven minutes it has it uses in a great way, I love it! 

9. Stuntman Scooby 

This is another unique one! The trio get mistaken as stuntmen on a movie set and are subjected to a series of stunts.

There’s a giant ape in this called Bing Bong, which should tell you all you need to know about the genius of this one. 

I will say, it does grow a tad repetitive after the first stunt, by which point you can kind of guess what’s going to happen - Shaggy and Scooby will do poorly at the stunts while Scrappy adds an additional challenge to the mix. But I appreciate that it’s doing something unique. 

10. Scooby's Three Ding-a-Ling Circus

In a very similar vein to the prior episode, the gang eat all of the food they’re supposed to be selling at a circus, and to repay their debt, must become the acts. 

It’s far weaker than the previous episode in my opinion because everything done here is done infinitely better in Bedlam in the Big Top, yet that episode also offers a mystery and terrifying villain. Here we just have “Boss”, a man. 

Although to give it credit, I do enjoy how they prove themselves come the end of the episode, and there are some especially beautiful backgrounds here - the final shot is gorgeous. 

11. Scooby's Fantastic Island

I’m reviewing these episodes in the order listed on Wikipedia, but the episodes I’m watching have a slightly different order, with different shorts in different twenty one minute blocks. This is usually fine, but I had to scavenge through episodes for this one, far longer than the actual runtime of the episode. 

All of that effort was simply not worth it, and maybe this experience hindered my enjoyment, but wow this sucked. Alluding to the series “fantasy island”, the trio are washed on the shore of an island, finding a caveman and dinosaur on this island. 

Of course, a chase ensues, but I found there to be absolutely nothing in this one that was worth watching. In the end they become friends with the caveman, and therefore, the caveman offers his cavewoman daughter's hand in marriage to Shaggy, but uh oh, she’s a cavewoman! 

Awful. 

12. Long John Scrappy

Unfortunately another episode where I think it’s made somewhat redundant by a prior episode, in this case, Go Away Ghost Ship has very similar beats but in a far more interesting manner. 

Maybe the best aspect of the episode is how Scrappy centric it is, with him being captured by a pirate who intends on making him a pirate too. It’s a nice shake up, having Scooby and Shaggy going head first into danger to save Scrappy, but that’s about it. 

As for the pirate himself, he’s fairly generic, standing out mostly because he’s incredibly small, which to be fair, I do enjoy a lot, especially in contrast to his large captain’s hat. 

Okay, also, Scrappy has a snack with a pig, so it’s not all bad - quite fine in fact! 

Thank you so much for reading this review!

This was, and will continue to be, a headache to write about, but in a fun way! I love the diverse and short reviews, but if there are any episodes that warrant more than three or four paragraphs of thoughts, it's going to be tricky. Regardless, this is an incredibly weird era, and even more peculiar is that several subsequent iterations hold similar tones and themes. Weird.

Also I updated my contents page! Hopefully that allows for easy browsing of prior reviews! Hopefully.

Finally, I might take slightly longer with these reviews! Although there's the same amount to watch, there's far more to write about, so beware reviews may shift to bi-weekly during this iteration! But keep an eye out for other content on my personal blog @declanowo in the meantime :)

Have a great week! :)

Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo² Season One Episodes 13-24 (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Retrospective

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Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Retrospective

The first Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo series is made up of a mere single sixteen episode season. Unlike what follows, the seasons main shake up comes in the form of the titular Scrappy Doo, Scooby Doos nephew who has grown into a certain infamy, spiking following the 2002 live action movie. It’s understandable why this happened to me, he’s a foil to Scooby, an outgoing, (literally) scrappy character, yet his status of being a puppy is a curse, meaning that despite his willpower, he often must be rescued by Scooby before crafting an abundance of further issues. Yet rarely does Scrappy do so, no more than Shaggy and Scooby themselves, far less, in fact.

Given it’s his debut season, there are some discrepancies in his characterisation, I grew particularly frustrated with the way he was written in “Shiver and Shake that Demon’s a Snake”, where Scrappy is pushed to his limits in how annoying he can be, he’s constantly messing up and brushing it off by explaining that he’s just a puppy, it’s grating, infuriating, but beyond this episode, I love Scrappy. He works perfectly as a foil to Scooby and Shaggy, and oftentimes they utilise his personality to a great degree, such as having Fred state he wants a volunteer to be bait, to which Scooby and Shaggy are instantly gleeful at their escape from the role, before we smash cut to Scrappy having volunteered the three of them. 

However, maybe the weakest side to Scrappy is just how limited the writers keep his interactions, it’s beyond infuriating how little care and interest appears to be placed on Fred, Daphne and Velma, half their main cast are pushed to the sidelines in most episodes, which isn’t exactly a new problem - but I feel the addition of Scrappy should have offered the chance to explore new possibilities with them, yet instead, they only ever pair Scrappy up with Shaggy and Scooby. Ultimately, I couldn’t tell you anything about the relationships he has with that half of the gang, because they’re fairly non-existent, I often found myself shocked when one of them would mention Scrappy by name. Even more frustratingly, is that there are so many interesting avenues they could have explored - we learn of “scrappy traps”  which could have been a great way to build a relationship with him and Fred, and the focus on our other trio of characters is more evident than ever. 

This character focused issue can also create a certain fatigue within the episodes, which are otherwise brimming with great creative villains and locations, but can feel like they’re constantly hitting the same plot beats when we only follow three characters for the majority of the plot. 

As I’ve stated before, there’s a very strong level of consistency to the quality of this series, with almost every episode feeling very simply good, never managing to reach anywhere beyond that. Of course, almost every episode being good is only a positive thing, yet it does shine a light on the complacency in storytelling alongside the lack of innovation going on within the ways the stories are told and with who. As such, I don’t mind the shake up in runtime that comes in the following season, or the peculiar, very out of place episode that ends this season, featuring no monster nor half the gang, because at the very least, something new is happening. 

Maybe that’s my greatest critique of this era I do truly enjoy, I love Scrappy with all my heart and so many of these monsters and locations are great, but in a move that sought to rejuvenate the franchise, imbue a unique life into a series that was constantly growing more and more formulaic, they in turn added a similar cog, if anything they crafted a far more predictable and formulaic show by adding Scrappy and shifting focus from the rest of the gang.  Overall, I completely understand why people would dislike this era of the series, I imagine in a months time I would struggle to pick out any specific episodes I love, and most of the episodes themselves are clumped together in my current overall ranking of the franchise. Yet there’s a comforting charm to it, it’s a great continuation of what came before, it doesn’t improve upon aspects like Show did to Where are You, but instead it adds a new character, and presents a familiar flavour to what we’ve seen before.

Thank you for reading this review! The past week I've been posting some updates to the blog, with villain rankings of every prior series! They were a lot of fun to make :) I've also updated the contents page to the blog, which I'd been neglecting for some time, and it's pinned on my profile to navigate series a little easier! I'm not sure if it's exactly the easiest way to make past blog posts more accessible, but it'll do for now.

Also, I might need to update the titles to this series in particular, the following iteration of the franchise shares the same name in most places, but I believe far too distinct in style and presentation to label it as a "season two", there's no correct or agreed upon way to define them, so I'll see what I end up doing :)

I hope everyone has a great week!

Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo (Shorts) Season One Episodes 1-4 (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Villain's Ranked

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Contents Page [2/2]

Movie Reviews

Scooby Doo Goes Hollywood

Tier list Rankings

Scooby Doo Where are You? Villains

The New Scooby Doo Movies Villains

The Scooby Doo Show Villains

Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Villains

Other

Scooby Doo and Dynomutt, Dog Wonder Crossover

< Previous Page

[scooby-review]

Contents Page [1/2]

Hi! My name is Declan, and on this blog I am working through every episode, movie and other oddities of Scooby Doo chronologically!

I am also an author!

New reviews every monday :)

Episode and Season Rankings

(Updated constantly)

Every Episode Ranked!

Every Season Ranked

Reviews by Season

Scooby Doo Where are You? Season One

Scooby Doo Where are You? Season Two

The New Scooby Doo Movies Season One

The New Scooby Doo Movies Season Two

The Scooby Doo Show Season One

The Scooby Doo Show Season Two

The Scooby Doo Show Season Three

Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Season One

My Links

Socials - My debut novel is now available! Any support is hugely appreciated :)

Personal Blog

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[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Villains Ranked

Make your own here! Template made by _jbird_

Meh

There's a fairly obvious trend with this iteration of the series and my thoughts towards its characters, however, to start with the bottom of the barrel, this pair of characters are both deeply disappointing, upheld only by interesting pieces and ideas.

To begin, the Neon Phantom proposes a unique idea: a skeletal design, with glowing bones. However, the design lacks much detail, the face alone is poised in a curious expression that's somewhere between confusion and shock, which therefore, leaves me constantly wondering the emotions of this creature. Most other villain's are etched with permanent scowls or wide smiles, but shock is something new.

Meanwhile, the Alien simply looks clumpy in design, there's an excess of detail, certainly giving a constructed look, but there's a muddiness to the sections, and ends up being a design I'm not too fond of staring at.

Okay

The three okay designs vary greatly, from an anthropomorphic bat, to a husky and snowy ghost, to just a pair of guys. Placing Carl and Tony in particular is difficult, they're villains, yes, but not monsters in the traditional sense, I enjoyed their episode, they were entirely okay in it, but they don't transcend this episode in any way.

The Shadow Creature comes from an episode filled with a wide variety of designs, with his being the least interesting. There are interesting bat motifs, his shadow appears like wings across the walls, but the core of his design ultimately ends up being somewhat uninteresting.

The Ghost of Jeremiah Pratt is a well put together design, I love the ranges of blues, from near crystal whites to frosty blues, he's an interesting character to stare at. However his personality anchors him, leaving little in the way of any other interest.

Good

The bulk of the designs rest in this category for me; I found the show to be filled with a solid, consistent level of "good", which is a positive thing! However, rarely did any episode or villain rise above this.

The Dragon Beast is one of the least popular villains as far as I can tell, however, I find there to be a charm to the design, confusing as it may be. Staring at the design, dragon doesn't pop to mind straight away, yet something about the murky shade of green and inky tiger like black stripes are incredibly endearing to me.

Both the Snake Demon and Devil Bear are similarly animals, but anthropomorphic and evil. Both get the job done, I prefer the latter as a result of the proportioning and eyeliner-like design around his eyes, however, both are solid! Their biggest drawbacks is that they're pretty much just these animals, especially with the bear, whose personality is fixated solely on being a bear. However, it's a more interesting take on prior villains in a similar vein, such as the apes.

The Sky Skeleton can at times appear just as a skeleton, without much nuance or innovation, and even in these moments, I enjoy the character given the injection of personality shot through the character. Yet the aviation gear added in certain sequences elevates the character to be all the more interesting.

Both the Night Ghoul of London and Lady Vampire of the Bay are humanoid designs with a ghoulish twinge. They're great for this, with their respective roles in their episodes elevating them greatly. Truthfully, the vampire's villainous personality is what allows her to rest far higher for me.

Both the Sea Beast and Minotaur offer half creature, half animals. Both are evocative of characters I love in that of the Gillman and the Minotaur as seen in various Greek Myths. Such influences certainly go on to effect my perception of these characters. Both characters draw in fun settings, their personalities are somewhat bland, but their designs themselves are great, either popping with vivid green colours or through a nice amount of detail.

Finally, the Sourcerer bridges great archetypical wizard motifs, (the long beard, cloak...) and inverts them, allowing the villain to shine as a monster. His differentiation from simply being a wizard also aids in his mythical aesthetic, the sourcerer is a great way to diversify villain types, and from the creepy fixed smile, the skull like head and mesmerising, hazy colour scheme, the character leaves a solid mark.

Great

The Blue Scarab opens the pair of great villains. Partially, this comes from how great the concept is - a comic book character coming to life to haunt his creator. I adore that! The design hits the common Superhero design beats, and ultimately, he lacks any horror elements within his design, but with this character, deciding not to edit the design works perfectly.

Finally, the star creature is my favourite villain in this iteration of the series. Mostly, this comes down to the idea, with the execution being secondary often times. Simply, the idea of a monster that's a star is captivating to me, it's such a unique concept, and even if I don't love the mouth and moustache, I do love the colour palette, a chalky white, mixed with the overall celestial aesthetic. Even if he's not perfect, he stands out to me as one of the most creative designs in the series, and that alone counts for a lot.

Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Retrospective (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: The Scooby Doo Show Villains Ranked

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The Scooby Doo Show Villains Ranked

Make your own tier list here! Made by Finbar

Bad

Much like Where are You? The Scooby Doo Show boasts an iconic roster of villains, alongside some unique deep cuts with a wide array of unique ideas. However, there's also an episode where the villains are just a couple of guys. Just old men.

Saying just old men is maybe harsh, they're colonial ghosts, all based on real people. Yet they offer me nothing, their histories are muddy to say the least, and I don't find them to be all too interesting. If someone were to show me this roster, I would assume they were the culprits, not the monsters themselves.

Meh

Most of these character designs fall into similar categories as to why I dislike them. In fact, excluding the zombie, I would fairly simply explain these designs as lacking much life, often actively feeling like they're missing something. And maybe the same can be said for the zombie, his design does lack much flair to it, he's a man with crimson eyes, he's bland to watch both visually and in terms of his personality.

Okay

A good chunk of these designs I think are well put together, but something in their personalities or archetypes are missing for me. Characters like The Rambling Ghost and Phantom Racer in particular stand out as competent and creepy designs, I especially love the raggedy costume and hung, ghoulish face of the Rambling Ghost.

Some that are okay, somewhat by default, are the Gorilla, Talking Bull and Soulless Captain Clemens, because at their core, these are secondary characters that count as villains, but evidently lack something. Ranking the Gorilla in particular is a tricky one, there's no real flair to the character, it's a Gorilla, this is all. The Talking Bull is a funny disguise, it therefore, completes its purpose, but stating the Talking Bull is a better monster than the Rambling Ghost would be ingenuine, he lacks a lot of the creativity and flair of Where are You's Phony Phantom too.

There are the some recolours here, the Ice Cream Phantoms are simple palette swaps of the Green Ghosts from Where are You, which look appealing, they're more interesting than the previous series pirates, however they still lack any creativity to what could have been a great monster.

Both the Jaguaro and Demon feel somewhat off to me, it's difficult to explain exactly what about their designs fall flat for me, but both characters are completely reliant on just a great design to get by, personality isn't a factor, and therefore, I simply can't say I love them.

Good

There's such an array of faces in this tier, which can only be a positive reflection upon the diversity of monsters in this iteration of the franchise. As to not go in depth into every character in fear of repeating my thoughts from my reviews, I'll hone in on a select few.

This zombie is an interesting one, because yes, this is just another recolour. Yet the pink pops so perfectly against the ashy skin, he's a near carbon copy of the character from Where are You in personality too, yet something about him is so much more interesting to me. He's lazy, it's impossible to deny this, but if we're getting recolours, I'm happy to see them be completely unique spins on the originals designs.

Tamooka, the bull, is a great central villain to the episode, given that he acts more so as an omen in contrast to the typical Scooby monster who chases. Of course, the gang flee this monster, however, this comes from their own assumptions, building upon common tropes in their mysteries, which allows Tamooka to stand out loads in comparison. However, I do feel this is ultimately done better with the Willawaw, the owl, in great tier.

The Ghost of Captain Pescado is a perfect way to demonstrate the ways the crew are able to take an existing trope and make it feel fresh. Having another pirate is inevitable, yet this design offers such a distinct colour palette, ghoulish face, unique costume and fun array of supporting characters that he ends up becoming one of the best pirates in the franchise, at least to my knowledge.

Great

Within this tier there are characters brimming with personality, something that can sometimes feel missed in this era, although many of the worst seen in Where are You too lack much personality. I don't mind brutish characters or villains content with just groaning, the Tar Monster and Pterodactyl Ghost in this tier are evidence to that, but it should go without saying that giving a character something unique to the way they act or talk will instantly make them more memorable.

The Spectre of Ebenezer Crabbe, Ghostly Gondolier, Vampire and Merlin are all oozing with personality that perfectly compliments their interesting backstories, accompanying locations and thematic pulls. They're joys to watch from the moment they appear on the screen, they truly enhance their respective episodes, every second with them in presents such a grand flair to the story.

Many characters in this tier also overshadow many older or other villains. The Willawaw, Shark, Zombie Lilah and Cat Creature are all far more interesting takes on similar ideas (with the exception of the shark) explored in this series. They highlight the aspects that made the prior monsters fall, Zombie Lilah is so much more interesting than the aforementioned red eyed zombie because she's a character we meet beforehand, who becomes a zombie, with a great shift in her palette and design. In contrast, I can't say this Black Knight is any better than Where are You's, however, they both rest about on par.

Perfect

There are a slew of perfect designs in this series, all of which echo my feelings of The Scooby Doo Show generally.

The Mantis Creature, Octopus Monster and Gator Ghoul are immaculate takes on animals as anthropomorphic monsters. They very literally light up their episodes, their colours are beautiful, stories unique and incredibly distinct. The Gator Ghoul's sharp, moon steeped eyes and the Octopus Monster's shockingly gorgeous movements etch them into my mind.

Both Old Iron Face and the 10,000 Volt Ghost are steeped in genuinely creepy and captivating backstories, not to mention the designs are great and command attention. The former monster comes from a fairly bland episode too, her very presence is able to transcend the prison she's been encased in.

Finally, both the Headless Horseman and The Ghost of Melissa Wilcox (The Witch) are perfect takes on common horror villains, the former coming from The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, while the latter is a common archetype. Yet both manage to stand out against every other rendition of the same idea, they too are steeped in personality, with the witch steeped in stories of the Salem Witch Trials, managing to deliver a surprisingly strong look into the persecution of women for theoretical crimes, the moral panics that many fall into, and how folk devils can uphold a semblance of peace to those unable to live.

Next Ranking: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Villains Ranked (Coming Soon!)

Previous Ranking: The New Scooby Doo Movies Villains Ranked

[scooby-review]

The New Scooby Doo Movies Villains Ranked

Make your own Tier List here! Made by jbird.

Bad

Unfortunately, there are a lot of villains from this series that I don't love. Much like the episodes themselves, these characters often feel uninspired (such as the three Native American caricatures or the bland recolours of Red Beard and his crew from Go Away Ghost Ship) or simply bland.

Maybe the most egregious are the recolours, which simply slap a new coat of paint onto existing designs. Although, generally, they're bad, the four in this tier are far worse iterations upon their original designs. It's lazy and in no way endears me to these characters in any way. This is all not to mention the lack of personality offered to most of these monsters.

Otherwise, I simply find these designs frustratingly bland and unappealing. With the Yeti, they design the creature to have this ugly shading in many sequences, at least, I think it's shading? It appears as a peculiar grey streak through the design and this confusing addition only reminds me about how much more interesting the Yeti from Where are You is.

Meh

A large problem this series as a whole has is bloating its episodes with villains that therefore lack any interesting characterisation nor unique designs. Where Where are You took stock monsters and used them fairly safely, rarely innovating on its ideas, this series often just takes characters or archetypes and places them as villains. Although most of these land in the Okay tier, the Sheik and Vulture feel evocative of this trend (although the Vulture is the primary villain of its episode).

There's also an abundance of ghosts in this tier, with none of them doing much for me. They range from having a curious amount of detail to being completely stylised, and it often leads to the series lacking much artistic cohesion in its designs, there's no distinct art direction or rules for these characters, and it doesn't tend to work for me here.

Okay

The most abundant tier has characters that are totally fine! Here my prior comment about bloating episodes with uninteresting designs shines, given the lion, bear, dragon, pirate, bird creature, dinosaur... All of these characters appear in ensemble episodes, and it again leaves most of them unmemorable, having little purpose beyond a quick chase sequence, if that, and all of this isn't helped by how bland and stock their designs are. Some are better than others, although I would never think of any of these monsters unless prompted.

Surprisingly, I prefer these two Mr Hyde's to the version seen in Where are You, although the repetition and recolours are frustrating, and these have far less personality, again, they both have brief appearances amidst ensemble casts, which doesn't offer them much chance to shine.

For the first time, I'd say the gunslinger is the best part of an episode. His iconicity is certainly aided by the series intro, however, I enjoy the stylised design and he has a genuinely great sequence in the shoot out against Scooby.

Good

All of these designs are great! Despite only having brief appearances, The Sea Monster, Headless Horsemen and Three Eyed Spook are great creatures, and this only speaks greatly to the designs and short encounters the gang have with them.

All three of the Joker and Penguin's disguises are a lot of fun, but the Dryad and Troll stand out for their creativity, I love the way the character's proportions are taken into account, and the uniqueness of their tropes.

The Loch Ness Monster, Shark Men, Red Baron and Hooded Man all end up being stand out additions to their episodes. I found these villains to truly leave a mark and impact their episodes in a meaningful way.

Great

It's difficult to rank characters like The Penguin or Joker given they're well established villains from other series, however, I think their roles in their episodes and animation translations as far as their designs are concerned are great! Although they're more guest stars than anything, I love watching these guys running around, and they highlight some of the best this iteration of the franchise has to offer.

These ghosts appear in another ensemble episode, but their designs by Alex Toth are so perfect that it's frustrating they don't have more personality. Both are perfectly creepy, they offer this town such an eerie sensibility.

Both the Toad and Horseman come from my favourite episode of this series. Comparatively to the prior monsters, I find these villains have both great designs and personalities with a grander purpose to the mystery itself. These are characters that I do frequently think about for these reasons, for their unique and interesting archetypes and especially how great the finale of the episode itself is.

Next Ranking: The Scooby Doo Show Villains Ranked

Previous Ranking: Scooby Doo Where are You? Villains Ranked

[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo Where are You? Villains Ranked

Make your own here! Made by Fredometal_YT.

Bad

Where are You's worst villains are a blend of harmful stereotypes (Carlotta), bland characters and archetypes (the caveman) or dull designs (both wolf men). None of these characters leave much of an impression, and with the first pair from A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts an exception, a poor villain in this era can often sink their episodes.

Meh

With only two meh characters, they both fall into this category for me for differing reasons. As for the pirates, they contribute little to their episode, they're stock characters who are eternally secondary to Red Beard, who overshadows them in every single fashion. They fulfil their jobs, their designs are fine, but in contrast to the main monster of the episode, they leave a lot to be desired. The Hawaiian Witch Doctor has a striking design, yet the character and episode as a whole often feed into stereotypes, which I personally find uncomfortable to watch.

Okay

These four characters do their jobs, and all have something good standing out about them. I love how they use Mr Hyde here, his character relates back exactly to the source material, although the design itself is somewhat uninteresting, simply a ghoulish take on the character, and arguably done far better in Everybody Hyde.

The Ape works perfectly given the film setting of his episode, however he's very simply an ape, his characterisation doesn't spread beyond this simple concept, and nothing unique is pulled from having him be an ape.

Miner Forty Niner is a great caricature of a Prospector, I love that his eyes are shielded, drawing all attention to his beard and hat, however beyond this, I find his personality fairly bland.

Elias Kingston meanwhile is completely distinctive through his electric blue skin, and I love his powers, however I feel he's held back by the reality the character otherwise resembles just a man.

Good

All of these characters have something that makes me enjoy them a lot, although clearly, The Phony Phantom sticks out here - he's purposefully rudimentary, he fits perfectly into his episode and I adore both his design and personality.

The next four are incredibly iconic, Red Beard, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and The Creeper all likely come to mind when thinking of Where are You, which is greatly to their credit. I think they're all a lot of fun, with them all highlights of their episodes (all of which are incredible) and their iconic designs lampoon them in my mind eternally, which is especially impressive of The Creeper, a completely unique design in contrast to his contemporary's, which are often archetypes.

Zen Tuo and The Scare Pair have very distinct designs, their masks are perfectly contrasted, from the chalky and blank Scare Pair to the over the top, golden Zen Tuo's, and their pairing is in part what makes them so great, you can derive so much in regards to their characters based on these design details, which follow into their robes, creating great and cohesive monsters.

Finally, there's The Snow Monster, whose a lot of fun to watch, he's a distinct Yeti design, and often the monster that comes to mind when I consider snow themed episodes of Scooby.

Great

Rounding up some of the most iconic villains of the series that I've placed in this tier, The Zombie, The Witch, The Mummy, The Black Knight, The Clown and The Phantom are all great archetypes, they fulfil their goals perfectly, but they manage to craft something more unique than other villains such as Dracula, who at times can feel flat because of how little personality is injected into him. In contrast, these characters ooze with personality, from the distinct laugh of The Phantom or Witch to the henchman like Zombie. I love these guys!

The Wax Phantom stands out as far more unique, he's not a typical creature in the vein of witches of ghosts, and feel more so inspired by movies like House of Wax. He fits into the Scooby villain type of a hulking, groaning beast, and to this end, he's one of my favourites, only further aided by how unique the concept is.

Finally, The Headless Spectre is a take on The Headless Horseman trope as seen in The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Yet there's a unique innovation here, and the character's excellent design is used for great comedic effect deep into the episode itself, allowing him to balance both a creepiness and comedic element that this iteration of the series seeks to balance.

Perfect

Finally, my five favourites of this series.

Captain Cutler's diving suit has grown to be so deeply iconic, the specific luminous lime shade he radiates is infectious and looks gorgeous despite the series rough animation. His tangles of seaweed are such a great addition to his costume, and the very concept of is design is enough to give him a status of iconicity.

The Puppet Master is an often forgotten Where are You villain, yet I find him to stick out so much because of how creepy he and the episode in general manages to be. His signature puppetry is executed perfectly and allows for him to have a distinct aesthetic, and his laugh is another great addition to the characters overall eeriness.

The Green Ghosts are maybe the franchises most iconic monsters coming from one of the series most iconic episodes, and it's no mystery as to why. Their designs are far more stylised than the "sheet-like" ghost of The Phantom, their colour schemes and sharp, amber faces are instantly distinct, and the constant rattling of chains gives them a unique motif that other monster's simply can't replicate. All of this is only aided by the fact there's two of them, and their Phantom Shadow forms, which perfectly top off these villains.

Charlie the Robot is so endearing to me, I love how the episode goes on to detail how he really is just a robot, not a man in a suit, and this allows him to exude with an eeriness, much like The Puppet Master. Yet beyond this, he manages to be a sweetheart, a unique character who I would love to be friends with.

Finally, The Spooky Space Kook is my favourite monster in Where are You. Everything I love about so many other monsters are perfected within this one, single character. From the luminous shade he glows, to his skeletal face, to his unique design and alien archetype, to his infectious laugh, he has it all. This is what, to me, makes him both the pinnacle of this era of villains, but also what cements him as my favourite overall.

Next Ranking: The New Scooby Doo Movies Villains Ranked

Previous Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Season One Episodes 13-16

[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Season One Episodes 13-16

13. Rocky Mountain Yiiiii!

In this episode, the gang head to a ski lodge on holiday, but soon find it haunted by the Ghost of Jeremiah Pratt, searching for gold.

I’m a huge fan of snow settings, and most snowy Scooby episodes stand out to me for this, they craft such a fun aesthetic with the snow, often using wooden cabins and giving the cast fun outfits. Here is no different, using a ski lodge as a setting has been done before, and it’s a comforting one. 

As I mentioned in the prior review, this season is incredibly consistent, but this can often be its downfall, rarely does it take any risks, more than ever the stories feel by the books and formulaic, these episodes rarely have many stand out moments or too defining of features. In fact, the iconic Scooby chase scenes have all but been scrapped this entire series, which I think consistently works against the stories, lowering stakes and making everything feel just a little more cardboard. 

Again, almost every episode this season is good, but I’d struggle to refer to many as anything more than this. When I came to ranking them against every other episode so far, they’re pretty much all clumped up, often somewhat forgettable. But as long as the episodes are good, I don’t mind too much! 

The villain here, the ghost of Jerimiah Pratt, is fun enough. He’s a husky man, faded into aqua blues and chalky whites, his clothes and facial hair denote him as rugged and his large frame and stance allude to his power. He doesn’t stand out loads, but he’s a decent character! 

Also I hate this title. It alludes to the John Denver song "Rocky Mountain High", but the “Yiiii” they swap it out for looks so weird, I don’t like looking at this title. Please make it go away. 

14. The Sorcerer's a Menace

During a magic show, the ghost of the magician's former teacher appears, stealing a valuable pearl in his attack. 

Using magic as a premise for this episode works perfectly with the show's current style of writing, jokes are easy to grasp and the hijinx of the dogs and Shaggy are fresh and endless. Both sets of characters are a lot of fun to watch, again, the magic allows for a new style of misadventure, it’s more unique than having them wandering around in search of food or to hide, only for the monster to appear. 

Maybe this is in part why I have such a good time with this episode, there are so many stand out moments in this one in contrast to other episodes this season. I particularly like the ending, as the gang capture the monster, a magician crafting a stairway of cards for Scrappy, Scooby gets a cloak at one point too, all of the magic shenanigans and this one particular shot where the guys are in complete darkness, when suddenly, the ghosts head flashes across the screen, appearing far larger than reality. 

Beyond the last shot, it’s difficult to explain the best parts of an episode beyond simply listing them, this is a simple byproduct of the episodes being more driven by “bits”. I can repeat however many times that I enjoy when Scrappy starts walking backwards, but there’s not much to it. I’d actually liken this style of writing more so towards The New Scooby Doo Movies over the other entries in the franchise seen so far. In those episodes, we’d often have twenty to even twenty-five minutes filled with Scooby and Shaggy antics that quickly grew old and lacked much flavour or variety, but here, there’s still a solid mystery to bind the episodes together, the gags are fresher given Scrappy’s inclusion, and the episodes are far shorter, and therefore, the gags are too. 

Ghost of the Great Haldane is our villain for the episode, he juxtaposes the more commercial and contemporary magicians we see in the episode, the kind who wear black suits, bowties and top hats, with bunnies inside said hats and handkerchiefs inside their sleeves. Instead, Great Haldane is a sorcerer (as alluded to by the title, which in on of itself is a play on the term “The Sorcerer's Apprentice”, which was originally a 1797 poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, but is likely best known for the segment in Fantasia). 

His design is ghostly to its core, muted aqua blues and snowy whites make up his cloak and flesh respectively. His long beard and bushy eyebrows is suggestive of common depictions of wizards as old and therefore wise men, although this is subverted through the skull-like head of the monster. He’s a lot of fun!

Something that I would like to note is how diverse and creative every setting and monster is. Again, it goes a long way in making an episode of Scooby feel unique, placing these characters in settings like a magic show, Londonworld or an observatory gives them a fun playground in which to play with these characters. 

15. Lock the Door, it’s a Minotaur!

This is maybe the most disappointed I’ve been in an episode - it’s good, but as someone who adores Greek Mythology, they don’t use this premise to its fullest. Luckily for me, this idea is later revisited! 

The gang head to the Greek islands, where they find the locals have been scared off by a minotaur. 

There’s a scene where someone asks what a minotaur is, and Velma explains the basics, and I was praying she would explain how the Minotaur came to be, but alas, we are not so lucky. 

Starting with the monster, the minotaur is exactly that. Half bull, half human, he’s a fairly direct translation of how the character is often depicted in classical art. There’s a lot to the myth of the minotaur, but in short, after King Minos switched a bull he was meant to sacrifice to Poseidon with another, his wife, Pasiphaë, was enchanted to fall in love with the bull, and after climbing into a wooden cow, the bull impregnated her, leading to the birth of the Minotaur. Later, Minos had a labyrinth built to contain him. 

To this end, he matches fairly clearly, both in design and his temple, which alludes to the labyrinth. It’s just a shame they don’t parallel Scrappy to Theseus and have him slay this minotaur. They feel like similar characters. 

Beyond my enjoyment of both the monster and setting, there’s not loads that they do here, which is a little frustrating to see. But for what it is, it’s still good!

16. The Ransom of Scooby Chief

Maybe the most controversial episode of the show sees the gang dropping Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy back in the puppy’s home city of New York, and after the boys are kidnapped, it’s up to Scrappy and his ragtag pals to save them. 

Undoubtedly, this was a backdoor pilot for the following iteration of the franchise! This being an episode of a show that is an episode of an already established show that suddenly focuses on a cast of new characters for the runtime. Here we follow Scrappy and his puppy friends, the episode isn’t a mystery but rather a comedy/adventure story, it’s completely distant from the rest of this season, and much closer to the subsequent iteration of the franchise, which sees seven minute gag focused episodes, which sometimes include monsters, and other times wayward people, just like this episodes villains. 

Maybe controversially, I like this episode a lot, and honestly, I think it almost serves as a perfect finale to the season. Certainly, it’s a great transitional piece, given Fred, Daphne and Velma appear for a few seconds (and all of them are omitted in the subsequent series), although I feel it works perfectly to show Scrappy’s transition. Almost. Looking at this season as Scrappy having left his hometown to join his Uncle solving mysteries, this episode allows him to return to his old friends and demonstrate what he’s learnt across the season. Now he’s having to save others, he doesn’t have his usual support beams, and it crafts somewhat of a narrative for Scrappy as a character, apt given he’s a puppy. 

And to a degree, this is how the episode plays out, although the lack of a mystery definitely dampens the idea of this working nicely as an end to this little season. 

We’re introduced here to one off characters Duke and Annie, a tanned brown terrier and white sheepdog respectively, both puppies too. They’re fairly fine additions to the episode, I can’t say I’m shocked they never returned, they’re somewhat of stock characters. Duke is more grounded than Scrappy, he knows when to run away, although he trusts him, and the pair can sometimes appear to have a joint leadership. Meanwhile Annie is somewhat distant, often getting stuck behind. 

As for the villains, you can probably tell all you need to know about “Carl” and “Tony” by reading their names and looking at them. 

They’re fairly simple criminal archetypes, they do their job for the episode, but I doubt I will think of Carl or Tony many times after I finish writing about this episode. They do describe themselves as “two mean crooks!” which is also all you need to know about these characters, so that’s great writing too I guess. 

Funnily enough, these villains also mean that this episode marks the first time in the series an episode has neither a monster nor anything supernatural. 

I actually have a good time with Scooby and Shaggy attempting to escape their kidnappers, the pair work perfectly against these men, who do appear threatening but never do anything to threaten them, later in the episode they give in fairly easily too, which makes me want to believe they’re actually in no way threats, but the pair are just that cowardly that they go along with everything without reason. Having them divided up from Scrappy allows all the characters to breathe and do something new! 

Here they also suggest that Scooby is famous, and therefore, his ransom will be high. This is something never suggested prior to this episode, so that’s interesting, and I wonder if it’ll come back next season.

But that rounds out the season! The final sequence of this episode is the last time we’ll see Daphne for a few seasons, and Fred and Velma for even longer.

Thank you for reading this weeks review! Starting next Monday, my goal is to post an updated villains ranking for the prior seasons I've watched, up until this series! I have already made posts for the first two iterations, but I've decided on a way I want to make these posts, and so I'll be updating them to have everything uniform! I'll also be posting a new contents page and about me section to make navigating the blog a little easier!

Have a great week! :)

Socials - My debut novel is now available! Any support is hugely appreciated :)

Next Review: Scooby and Scrappy Doo Villain Ranking (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby and Scrappy Doo Season 1 Episodes 9-12

[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Season One Episodes 9-12

9. Twenty Thousand Screams Under the Sea

This following batch of episodes only further cements my prior ideas about this series as a whole - it is entirely consistent, almost every episode is a baseline and similar level of “good” although rarely do they push themselves much further than this. Every episode has its issues, there are evident growing pains, and some ideas here just don’t work for me. Focus continues to hone on Scrappy, and as much as I wish there was a little more time for our other characters, I do adore Scrappy, he’s almost always a great addition to every story. 

Although, I do think it's interesting to contrast the way Scrappy is used, against Scooby Dum - of course, there are differences, Dum appears in only a handful of episodes. However, they offer similar roles to the series, they’re both additional dog mascots that pair mostly with Scooby and Shaggy. To me, Scrappy is pushed as much as possible, he is the star of this series now, evident by the title change. Everything they do is intended to inspire more love towards this character, even if this means overshadowing the cast already present. 

Again, I love Scrappy, but some episodes his “catchphrase” of “Puppy Power” will be uttered seven times, in contrast to the (admittedly slowly rising) count of every other character's signature phrases. There’s more restraint with everyone else, because they’re already established, meanwhile Scrappy constantly has to be pushed and displayed, for he’s the money maker now. 

Regardless, most of this stuff works on me, so hey, I guess they did a good job. 

In this episode, we follow the gang heading to Acapulco to watch a cliff diving show, when they encounter a sea monster. 

As far as its setting, I think this episode manages to encompass the feeling of a beachside town, and the cliff itself looks amazing too. 

Maybe the best aspect of this episode, however, is the Sea Beast of the Aztecs, who to me feels inspired by Gilman (Creature from the Black Lagoon, 1954), given his anthropomorphic design, face structure and build. Both creatures are green fish men, with the major differences here stemming from the Sea Beast talking. He has a large bulbous head, gills and whiskers, he’s not drawn from any particular fish, but rather the concept of a fish man. And at the start of the episode, we see through his perspective, offering a homage to Jaws (1975)

Maybe the other best thing I can say about this episode is that it’s incredibly sweet with a handful of great character moments. I enjoy when the gang head to the beach, and watching Fred drive a boat is great, Scooby gets really embarrassed when he perceives Scrappy thinking of him as a coward, and the dogs play around at the end, all of which is very sweet. 

Yet the episode itself just kind of happens, it falls over you and then it’s over, it’s a good time, but again, it fails to become more than this because of its fairly simple goals. 

10. I Left my Neck in San Francisco

In this episode we see the gang heading to Alcatraz island, and while on a tour of the prison, the gang are accosted by a vampire who appears eerily similar to Daphne. 

This episode is so much fun because they add Daphne as a suspect. I think it’s so fun whenever characters just get sick, here it does affect the episode itself, but just conceptually I adore an episode where Daphne has a cold and it’s never mentioned. However, here it’s used to suggest her as a suspect. 

Of course, Daphne isn’t the monster, and I do think this idea is handled far better in both To Switch a Witch and Who Was That Cat Creature I Saw You With Last Night? Maybe this comes down to the reality that Daphne being the monster is suggested, but never truly viable, it’s a fun way to craft the episode into something unique, but the episode does use Daphne’s absence well. 

Maybe the best way this is used is that Fred and Velma take up roughly half of the episode, which is incredibly rare for this season. There’s a brief moment where it appears Scrappy’s going to join them, and I would kill to see some variation upon the usual formula, but alas, I will take these moments of Fred and Velma because they’re a lot of fun, they still don’t really interact with the danger all too much, but I will always love them working through clues and ideas, and later on, Scrappy joins in with picking apart this mystery, which I adore. 

Another reason this episode stands out so much is a result of it having a heap of stand out scenes; it’s no secret that this season looks bad, but there’s a sequence in the back half of the episode where the vampire is hopping across buildings and running down streets, civilians are fleeing from her mere presence, and I would argue here we get our only (good) chase scene in this series. 

As for the Lady Vampire of the Bay, she resembles Daphne largely through colour scheme, she wears an indigo cloak much like Daphne’s dress, both their hairs are long and ginger, although the vampire’s is far messier and streaked with charcoal. And I love that she’s the criminal we keep hearing about throughout the episode, it’s a fairly obvious reveal, but one I enjoy regardless. 

Ultimately, I’d comfortably state this as my second favourite of the season, just because of the fact it’s doing something unique. Again, almost every episode this season is incredibly consistent in being good, yet the consistency stretches across all of the episodes, they can feel homogeneous at times, indistinguishable, and that indistinguishable conglomerate is good, don’t get me wrong, but variety would be appreciated. 

11. When You Wish Upon a Star Creature 

We’ve made it to the 100th ever episode of Scooby Doo! 

This and an episode in the final four of this season offer incredibly exciting premises, monsters and settings to me, but fall completely flat in their execution. Once again, this episode is good, but it had the potential to be great! 

We follow the gang as they head to an observatory where a professor has discovered a star creature hellbent on destruction. I would liken the plot of this one to High Rise Hair Raiser, a favourite of mine, in that episode we follow a building site haunted, and visit the surrounding locations to piece together why. Maybe that stronger mystery element is what's missing here for me, or maybe it’s just a desire to see some variety - once again, we witness the same story structure. I don’t feel like they do too much that’s interesting with the setting they have, although there are some great telescope shenanigans later on. 

However, I do love the monster of this, the Star Creature has such a distinct design, his body chalky white with azure outlines, he’s sharp and angular, presented with somewhat of a triangular face shape too. Yet his inhuman aspects are what make him so interesting, I adore how unique he is in the landscape of Scooby monsters, it’s a great concept, and I love the execution, although I don’t love his voice, I can look past that. 

His appearances throughout are undoubtedly the best aspects of the episode. 

Although, again, there are a handful of fun character moments, such as Scrappy carrying Shaggy and Scooby. As I put it in my notes “I liked this, but it was kind of a whole load of nothing.” 

12. The Ghoul the Bat and the Ugly

I am sick of the gang going to these cool locations late. In this season they’ve turned up late for a baseball game, a movie premiere and now an awards show. Guys, please just leave earlier. How much money are they wasting by doing this? This isn’t a critique of the show itself, but a question to the characters. 

In this episode, the gang head to “The Batty Awards”, arriving just after the ceremony, and after a bat creature has thwarted a screening of a new horror movie. 

I’m a sucker for any direct horror themed plot, old Scooby has a love for classic monster movies, and this episode continues to demonstrate this. There are a handful of actors running around in costume, we see a Dracula, who I feel most resembles Count Chocula, there’s a Wolfman and a Bride of Frankenstein. And inside this building, there’s also a horror hall of fame, which includes statues of a Mummy, Frankenstein's Monster, and the Demon from A Frightened Hound Meets a Demon Underground. It’s a weird addition, although even more curious is that while the latter designs are simply reused assets, the Mummy is a completely new model. I cannot work out why they would have done this. 

This is also a good time to mention Velma’s new voice actor. Marla Frumkin takes over from Pat Stevens, who took over the character during The Scooby Doo Show era. Stevens had to leave following a health scare, as to why the shift was made late into this season. I will say I enjoy this voice less than both previous iterations, although maybe I just need to get used to the change. 

I kind of love this episode, it’s such a messy time with actors appearing (again, in costume for some reason) and disappearing while the main villain too dips in and out every so often. It’s kept afloat by how convoluted so much of this tries to be. 

As for the Shadow Creature, he has a demon air to him, likely a result of his tiny horns, however, his brown and hairy appearance resembles a “bigfoot” style character more than anything else. Likely, there are influences drawn from bats here, although the design doesn’t convey this in the best way, and I can’t say I love it. 

But overall, this is another solid, fun time. 

Thank you so much for reading this review! Next week we end out the first Scrappy show, and afterwards, I'm going to do a little tidying up of the blog! I'm going to add a proper contents page for one, and also I've made proper rankings of the villains show by show, which I think I'll post the week after I finish this series. I'll probably do one a day or so leading up to the full retrospective of this series!

Have a great week :)

Next Review: Scooby and Scrappy Doo Season 1 Episodes 13-16 (Coming Soon!)

Previous Review: Scooby and Scrappy Doo Season 1 Episodes 5-8

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Scooby and Scrappy Doo Season One Episode 5-6

5. Shiver and Shake, That Demon’s a Snake

(Apologies in advance for how bad the images will look throughout the season, and likely seasons to come, the episodes are simply this quality and no higher resolution versions of the episodes exist).

We follow the gang on a holiday to the Florida Keys, where they encounter a Snake Demon. 

For me, this next batch of episodes consolidate the tone and quality of this series, which is good, but not great. Every stride forwards is met with a new hurdle, and the quality never feels like it can reach that of the first episode The Scarab Lives!

Different writers appear to place their own takes on Scrappy as a character, unlike the rest of the gang, he hasn’t had time to stew yet. Case in point, this episode has the character constantly messing up, instantly following this up by stating that the gang can’t possibly be upset, because he’s just a puppy. It’s most prominent here, and I do understand in moments like this why people dislike the character, it works against the foundations set in the pilot and the subsequent episodes, he’s not brave and overzealous here, rather clumsy, careless and thoughtless. It goes against his characterisation - referring back to the original complaints the studio had for Scrappy, (in which they feared he was “too independent”) here the character grows complacent, he creates problems, and refuses to atone for them. 

Such characterisation is only seen in this episode of the four I watched this week, and so I assume this comes from a large array of writers being handed this new character, and by this point in the series run, they would have had little to refer back to as to how he could be written, and therefore, there are a handful of different takes. I adore Scrappy, and the episodes the follow will allow me to highlight why, but this episode I did find him frustrating. 

With that in mind, I do enjoy when Scrappy gets a midnight snack and carves himself out of wood. Redeemed. 

Having Daphne feeling like she has to purchase a souvenir, only to have it be an idol of the demon snake is a great way to introduce the MacGuffin, it’s perfectly in character for her, and gives a greater impression that the characters are on holiday, something missed in other episodes where the characters visit new locations, where it loses any meaning after a while. 

Although competently structured, the episode ultimately lacks much that makes it memorable - I watched it last night and without a guide, I’d struggle to explain what happened. Maybe this comes down to the episode being fairly simple, it’s stripped down completely, it’s a very simple story of the gang on holiday, until they get wrapped up in a mystery, but motifs of their holiday linger throughout the mystery. 

As for the monster himself, I think the Snake Demon is a fun enough villain, he’s fairly barebones, void of much personality, he’s simply an anthropomorphised snake in design, with a murky palette of greens evoking a fairly common colour scheme for snakes. Simplicity works in the designs favour here, and very conceptually, he’s raised by the imagery of the idol, which gives him something extra to his character. Although snakes are intertwined with themes of evil, and by extension, demons (look no further than the Garden of Eden), I don’t think this design seeks to channel any real deities, rather, the demon in the characters title is simply a way for the writers to denote him as a monster, similarly to how most Scooby villains we’ve seen before have “phantom” or “ghost” thrown in their name. 

7. The Scary Sky Skeleton

I didn’t mention it before, but wow do these episodes look bad. Far worse than even Where are You, which at least has a charm to its style, but here the animation is clearly being stretched thin; I cannot imagine how tiny the budget for these episodes must have been, and how awful the constraints for the animators were. 

In this episode, the gang visit Daphne’s friend Wendy, who’s a stunt pilot, however upon arrival, they learn of a skeletal pilot. 

Something that struck me quickly about this episode is just how involved Fred, Daphne and Velma were in the action - the majority of the season has seen them away from any harm, seldom do they meet the villain face to face, but rather, they pick up the scraps of Shaggy and the dogs hijinx. However this episode allows them to actively run into the mystery itself. 

This season highlights a large issue with expanding the gang to six members: there’s an even split. Every episode will now divide into Shaggy and the dogs, and Fred, Daphne and Velma, whereas before, you would be able to see Velma with Shaggy and Scooby, or gendered splits if sleeping was involved. Without this, it truly highlights the limitations of the main characters - Shaggy and Scooby cannot solve the mysteries, it's not in their nature, they would run from anything scary. Pairing them with Velma or Fred therefore forces them to fixate on the mysteries, or it gives their third member a chance to be involved in the wacky misadventures. But with this even split, there’s little motivation for Fred, Daphne or Velma to come face to face with danger, because doing so then gives them more screen time than the dogs and Shaggy, who are the drive of the series' marketability. 

Therefore, seeing them chasing down the plane is great, it feels like they get an even amount of time here as their counterparts, and I will enjoy the episode for this alone. 

Daphne’s friend here doesn’t get much to do, but Wendy’s voice actor Pat Stevens, takes over as Velma later this season! However as a friend character, she’s very bland, one of the weakest friends and family of the gang we’ve seen so far. 

Interestingly, we have another skeletal villain in this episode, although episode four's neon phantom wasn’t a typical skeleton exactly. When not in the plane, the Sky Skeleton is just a skeleton, he’s perfect at doing this, but there’s nothing more to really add about his design beyond this. However his aviator clothes, skeleton themed biplane, and personality are what allow him to shine. I adore how silly his plane is, painted crimson, the sides are decorated with an exact replica of the Sky Skeletons design, but the contrasting chalky white with the reds works perfectly. Alongside this, I love how much malice the Sky Skeleton holds, he wants these teenagers dead. 

Speaking of wanting people dead, Scrappy nearly kills him. During a sequence where Shaggy and the dogs are inside the plane, Scrappy pushes the Sky Skeleton off of the moving plane, and if he hadn't been caught by a nearby windmill, Scrappy would have been going down for life. 

This episode is undoubtedly elevated by funny moments like this, and the diversity of screen time. 

7. The Demon of the Dugout

This episode is falling apart at the seams, it looks rough, the storyline is a mess, the editing is choppy, the dialogue too can be incredibly bland, the sound mixing is awful, and all this adds into an enjoyable time. 

The gang head to a baseball game, only to learn a demon dragon appeared midway through the game, causing panic throughout the teams. 

Like many Scooby Doo episodes that don’t take place in America, there are some awful depictions of people of different cultures and ethnicities. Every Japanese character here is voiced awfully by white guys, the series seemingly just has the same roster of voice actors that they use for every character, it’s frustrating and worth pointing out because situations like this continue to happen, albeit, less commonly. 

Before diving into how rough this episode is, I want to mention the monster, the Dragon Beast. Dressed in a kimono and resembling an Oni, the dragon is anthropomorphised, with his long flowing blond hair and weirdly shaped head crafting a confusing design that I love. Glancing at it, I couldn’t tell you what this creature was intended to be, but the neon shade of green, the inky black stripes and powerful stance all aid in crafting a monster I enjoy. 

As for the great aspects of the episode: Scrappy falls out of a hat box which is cute, there are some new pyjamas shown, there’s a funny gag about Scrappy confusing fireworks for candles, and at one point Scrappy shouts “Weee”. 

Unfortunately, there’s no fun analysis to be had in regards to the new pyjamas - just looking at them will explain why. They’re fine, I liked seeing them, but any prior pyjama design is more thoughtful and interesting. 

I want to break down a scene here to explain just how disjointed this episode is. Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy are wandering in a dark basement, therefore, Scrappy finds a box of “Roman Candles” which he lights for the trio as they wander through the halls. Then, the monster appears, and so, they pass the fireworks to him as a distraction, bearing in mind they still believe these are candles. So where does this go? Shot of the dragon disposing of the fireworks, smash cut to the gang back together again, noting the dragon disappeared. Not only is there no pay off to the fireworks joke, there’s no consequence to anything here, no chase sequence, no purpose to the characters entering this new location… Afterwards, characters lines are almost overlapping with one another, it’s awful! Which means the episode is a lot of fun to watch, and I would much rather a bad episode that’s therefore funny, than a bland episode that’s therefore boring. 

8. The Hairy Scare of the Devil Bear

Case in point, this episode has some moments that are infinitely better written than the previous episode, and it is one of the most boring episodes I’ve watched in a while. 

There are two major ideas at play in this episode: the monster is a bear, and the episode takes place in the Grand Canyon. Insert some awful depictions of Native Americans, and that’s pretty much the wheelhouse of this episode, just cycling through these three aspects. 

Don’t get me wrong, both the bear and Grand Canyon are fun, but these are just ideas! They go nowhere. As far as his design is concerned, the bear is a brown bear, his eyes pupiless and posing pushed to connote to violence and completely drain him of any humanity, although he’s animated in a way that doesn’t lean into this in too compelling of a manner. 

But, to point out a great moment, there are two glowing moments within this episode. The first is a gag that sees Scooby and Shaggy making a sandwich, they go to halve it, but Scooby pulls the sandwich from between the string, but rather than the usual outcome of Scooby then eating it, the sandwich slips from the table, and into Scrappy’s lap. It’s perfect in exploring their dynamic and what Scrappy brings to it; he’s grateful to his uncle for making him food, he only sees the best in Scooby, and as such, Scooby wants to impress his nephew. 

The second aspect is that Scrappy goes fishing and I like his little hat. 

Worst episode so far, but the rest of the season reigns at a fairly neutral level of being good, never quite rising above that (with the exception of the first episode). 

Thank you for reading this weeks review! I was away for most of the week so I worked through this one across the weekend. I hope everyone has a great week :)

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