scooby-review

[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

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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

[scooby-review]

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 :)

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

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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 :)

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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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Scooby-Doo and Scrappy Doo S1 E1-4

Following the network's complaints about the Scooby formula growing stale, the writers were tasked with rejuvenating the franchise. Scrappy came as their solution, a puppy sidekick to the franchise's mascot. 

However, Scrappy wasn’t the end all be all to this issue, as the studio issued their fears over Scrappy being too independent, which the higher ups deemed a negative message for children. Ultimately, the studio decided the episodes written were perfectly fine, yet still, they hired a new writer to edit the episodes, likely because the character would later be toned down and therefore, re-airing these early episodes would become difficult. 

Another issue that has plagued Scrappy as a character is his voice, with many an actor picked to play the character until finally, they settled on Lennie Weinrib, although come the end of the season, he was fired for requesting a pay rise, something Hanna Barbera simply weren’t willing to do, not for anyone. 

Despite the desire for something new, the formula remains the same for now, with a sixteen episode season emerging at the start of this new era for the franchise, which many consider its dark age, often blaming this solely on Scrappy. 

1. The Scarab Lives!

Continuity has always existed within the Scooby franchise, although this comes loosely, however I would argue that this appears to be a slight shift, the previous series added lines within their episodes to suggest the first three iterations of the series were all a single, clean timeline, but with the addition of Scrappy, there remains a slight idea of continuity, but the reality is, it was never a true focus for the series, such ideas weren’t priorities and actively discouraged when it came to this style of episodic cartoon - serialisation makes rerunning a series far more difficult. 

Yet introducing a new character is something that demands explanation, returning to the prior point of interest, serialisation grows troublesome when the episodes are re-aired, those tuning in may feel clueless as to what they’re watching, which can discourage viewership, therefore, anyone who’d watched any of the prior Scooby series may find themselves confused as to this new mainstay. Within episodes that contain Scooby Dum, they frequently referenced their relation (albeit incorrectly at times) yet doing so in every episode of this new series would be impractical. 

As such, the series intro gives us the backstory and explanation as to who this new puppy is; there’s little to it - Scrappy is delivered to Scooby in a cardboard box, announcing himself as Scooby’s nephew, and then the intro continues to play out. Being completely honest, this intro kind of sucks, although has grown into more of an earworm for me. Yet the addictive sound of the prior three seasons now lacks quite as poignant of a design, it’s a little too much and feels rhythmically flat. It is also worth mentioning that there is a greater backstory given further in the franchise's lifespan, but for now, this is all we are offered, a quick and simple explanation. 

As for the main man himself, I have to admit, I adore Scrappy. Growing up on Scooby VHS tapes, I frequently watched the Scrappy trilogy of movies, and found him to be a lovable addition to the cast! Alongside this, I’ve also watched all of 13 Ghosts, and that too offers a depiction of Scrappy I adore! 

John Latchem stated on "Scooby-Doo Still Going Strong” that one of the earliest ideas for the dog sidekick of the series was a small, feisty dog, before they settled on the cowardly Scooby, yet the hints from these earlier ideas do come into full effect here. Scrappy’s design mirrors Scooby’s in colour, he too is a great Dane, however physically, they juxtapose one another to exaggerate their most prominent qualities. Scooby is large and lanky, this figure often denoting a frailer, more cowardly, meanwhile Scrappy is tiny, his head is larger than his body which denotes his more fiery intentions which don’t match up with his own capabilities. Posing wise, his frequent brawling of fists shows his bravery. 

Providing such a distinct opposite to Scooby (and Shaggy) works perfectly, he lacks the cowardice even seen within Fred, Daphne and Velma, who stick it out more frequently, but act rationally. In contrast, Scrappy always assumes he can win, he runs towards danger, which in turn, draws more problems for the gang. Again, this returns to his role as a puppy, he’s full of energy, almost yappy, and his name is evidently suggestive of his personality while also alluding perfectly to Scooby. 

It’s also worth noting that his admiration for Scooby too adds greatly to his character, he follows what he believes his uncle does, he’s brave for he wants to grow into his uncle, regardless of the rose tinted glasses he wears. 

As for the episode itself, the gang are called to aid the author of Shaggy and Scooby’s favourite comic book, as his character has come to life, haunting him. Based on a comic story by Mark Evanier, (who also wrote this pilot episode for the series, and has an amazing blog post about it here) the episode went under a bombarde of rewrites, as it acted as a way to prove to the network that Scooby was worth keeping around, and that Scrappy did reinvigorate the series. 

Between this and the comic, the villain was redesigned. 

The Blue Scarab exhibits a lot of typical stylistic motifs for superheroes, the almost wrestler-like mask, he’s muscular with a cape, his emblem rests in the centre of his chest and his costume is minimal in its colour scheme, using a collage of blues. It’s for all these reasons he works so well as a character, and I much prefer this design to the version seen in the comics.

Conceptually, I adore the idea of a creators creation coming to life, the fear of one's work being tarnished and tangled feels oddly fitting given the episode introduces Scrappy, a character who, over the years, has grown villainized, distant from his original iteration, a sweet and feisty little puppy. Yet as of late, his appearances are placing him as the monster, although, his upcoming appearance on Jellystone! does give me hope that the character can see some new life once more (although it's unclear in what light he'll be portrayed in the series). I believe he was planned as an announcer for Multiverses too, but given the game shutting down soon, I doubt any of that content will see the light of day any time soon. 

It’s a fairly simple mystery here, not a story that feels like it was crafted, and then a culprit was reverse engineered (which Mark discusses in his blog, describing the process of pitching a Scooby episode as being simply coming up with a monster that hadn’t already been used). But simplicity works in its favour, as it offers the gang room to explore an actual investigation. The story structure here too is simple, yet it works perfectly as a pilot for this new era. 

However, it’s worth mentioning that this episode does continue to draw focus away from Fred, Daphne and Velma, and by the end of the season, they’ll be gone from the narrative. Although I enjoy Scrappy, his interactions with this side of the gang feel flat in this episode, they all treat him the same way, in contrast to Shaggy and Scooby who view him uniquely. It’s this lack of characterisation of that side of the gang that highlights their drifting intentions, that the dogs are the focus, and they are secondary to this. 

Ultimately, it’s not too bad here, and the great setting and concept alone are enough for me to love this episode! The villain’s a joy to watch, and I love Scrappy Doo so much, unapologetically. 

2. The Night Ghoul of Wonderworld

Attempting to explain this episode has left me incredibly confused, so I’ll try my best. 

The gang head into Wonderworld, which is an amusement park divided into unique areas, and they “make everyone's fantasy a reality”. Already, this opens a whole can of worms, but I’ll ignore them. 

Velma is the centre of this episode, for now, and her fantasy is to solve a mystery with Sherlock Holmes, so the gang are taken to London World, which is so funny when the gang have to pass locations like “Prehistoric World” on the way. From here, they meet Sherlock, a robot, as are all the characters in the park, which is empty of all other guests, I assume. The mystery at hand is the theft of the crown jewels, a classic plot. 

However, as it turns out, the actual crown jewels have been stolen, I believe this is what we witness in the cold open. So, the villain of the episode, the titular ghoul, stole the real crown jewels and hid them inside of Wonderworld, however, the computer (there’s a computer) took Velma’s fantasy, to solve a mystery with Sherlock Holmes, and then took inspiration from the real crime of the crown jewels having recently been stolen, to tell its story. 

Inside London World, there is therefore, also a robotic ghoul, who stole the real crown jewels, and hid them, and therefore, the real ghoul then entered London World to search for these jewels, attempting to scare off the gang in the process. 

I hope that makes sense. 

I love this stupid kind of plot - presumably, Wonder World is located somewhere in the US, and therefore, the ghoul must have stolen the jewels from London, and then managed to return to America, where he hid them inside the theme park he works at. Amazing stuff. 

All of this would be perfect, if the episode didn’t lose focus from Velma. Hell I mean that, if the episode fixated mostly on Velma for its duration, I would be discussing this as one of the franchises best, but of course, it switches to focus more so on Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy. It’s a shame, because just the concept of Velma working with Sherlock is perfect! I adore London World and the final set piece in Big Ben, I just wish the story didn’t lose focus from this initial concept of Velma solving the mystery. 

At the very least, I appreciate where they go with this idea. The episode sees Scooby and Shaggy growing a false sense of confidence after they solve the mystery, as set up by the computer, only to have this shattered as the non-robotic ghoul arrives. It’s a lot of fun and a nice direction to take the story if it’s going to focus on them instead.  

The location itself is a reference to the 1973 movie “Westworld”, which has a similar set up of an amusement park with robots, and the villains identity of Mr. Marino is a reference to Mr. Roarke in “Fantasy Island”. 

As for the ghoul himself, he’s fine! Typical of ghoul conventions, he has a slender face, his large hanging chin allows for a wide, groaning expression, only complemented by his most distinct feature, his huge black eyes with tiny crimson pupils. With his grey hair, top hat and fancy attire, the ghoul resembles the archetype of a British Gentleman, although the cape also offers some inspiration from Dracula. 

I wish this season could have had an episode centred on Fred, Daphne and Velma amidst the rest focused more so on Shaggy and the dogs, but alas, such treats cannot exist. 

Regardless, this is an enjoyable enough time, and I really enjoy when Scrappy walks like a dog, this less anthropomorphised imagery is a lot of fun and incredibly endearing. 

3. Strange Encounters of a Scooby Kind

I’m kind of a sucker for weird alien stories, this is a great example of the basic idea I enjoy; the gang are out camping, when they encounter a UFO. As someone who’s afraid of aliens and space conceptually, this concept is eternally frightening to me. 

Having the characters roam these locations, discussing alien sightings and disappearances is something that appeals fairly specifically to me. 

Of course, at the centre of this mystery are aliens, and I can’t exactly say I love them. With a large, hulking design, these swampy aliens have an almost primitive mouth, large black eyes and a uniquely shaped head. There’s simply something about this design I don’t enjoy - it gets across fairly clearly that its an alien, through the large eyes and head shape, so in this sense the design works. 

Again, Scrappy continues to reinvigorate these plots, as rather than have Fred simply pick Shaggy and Scooby to act as bait, Scrappy excitedly volunteers them, it’s such a great twist on the usual formula, and it made me giggle. All of this leads into a fairly enjoyable sequence inside the UFO, and I enjoy the explanation of the craft being picked up by a crane, it’s the perfect level of silly and the hints towards this are cohesive and well laid out. 

Otherwise, the only other point I feel is worth mentioning here is how great the score is, it’s a perfect eerie accompaniment to the episodes, they’re not quite as horror focused as Show, but the score and plots generally still aid in this aesthetic. 

4. The Neon Phantom of the Roller Disco!

This is another fairly middling episode unfortunately! As the gang’s trip to the Hollywood Bowl is cut short after the neon phantom steals all their electricity, and therefore, the gang must chase him and learn of his intentions. 

There’s four main locations at play here, and I enjoy them all to varying degrees - there’s the aforementioned Hollywood Bowl, a recording studio, a roller disco and the Chinese theatre (which was previously used in The Chiller Diller Movie Thriller). Jumping around to all of these does give the episode more merit, I appreciate the stories that can be told using them, and this wider variety means the episode moves at a faster pace. Also, such a wide look at Hollywood is a nice place to set the episode generally.

In fact, I would argue all the pieces are here to make a great episode, the roller disco finale that ends on the Hollywood sign, a recording studio with a fun band, and I’m always a fan of a theatre setting. Yet it feels like the bulk of the episode doesn’t do much with this power. For the most part, we’re just seeing the streets of Hollywood, which is far less interesting than visiting these locations in depth, but I guess having the villain stalk them through the streets is easier than within the buildings, given his power is to steal electricity. Yet I can’t help but feel a little disappointed that, between these great set pieces and fun moments, there feels like very little substance. 

Although I do really enjoy having Fred, Daphne and Velma in the recording studio to investigate, they have a slightly larger presence as a result, and they have some cute moments here!

I want to emphasise this isn’t a bad episode, it’s a little mediocre, but above all, it’s disappointing and feels like a misuse of its potential, and nowhere does that shine through greater than the Neon Phantom. Colour Scheme wise, he works great for his intentions, the contrasting midnight blue with the neon green, alongside the glowing aura, is fantastic, yet the actual details are where this design falls for me. Mostly in the face, there’s such a goofy appearance to this character, the wide mouth, tiny eyes and large nose don’t scream scary, nor do they continue the skeleton motif the design starts with a small ribcage, although, it feels more so like this was done to bulk out the design a little more, because without that, the entire chest area would be blue. Nothing else here really screams skeleton, and so I’m left wondering exactly what the intentions with this guy were. It’s a shame given that an electricity stealing skeleton is a really cool concept!

I would also be remiss not to mention that the plot of the episode has some similarities to The Phantom of the Paradise, an amazing horror movie that places a rock opera take on Phantom of the Opera, diving into the music industry and the way artists are treated. I found the similarities to be minimal, but I will take any chance I get to discuss Paradise. 

Thank you so much for reading this review! I'm excited, and a little apprehensive, to start the Scrappy era! I can't wait to return to end of this era with 13 Ghosts and the trio of movies, but having heard tales of the middle of this era, I can't say I'm thrilled to be stuck there for a while! But I do love Scrappy, I hope one day we can see him again where he isn't just the butt of every joke, or a villain.

Have a great week! :)

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

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

Previous Review: Scooby Doo Goes Hollywood

[scooby-review]

Favourite February Watches

I hope everyone had a great February! I’ve been incredibly excited to take a look through my favourites of last month! I usually pick out a small handful of movies right before the months roll over, and this month I fixated on romantic horror movies, alongside seeking out a handful of duologies where I had seen the first movie, but simply hadn't gotten around to the sequels or remakes yet. Of course, I realise now this perfectly fits into the Valentines theme that runs potently throughout the month itself. In total, I watched sixteen movies, eleven of which I loved enough to discuss. 

Some spoilers throughout! All reviews are broken up clearly to make it easy to dip in and out. 

The Fly - 1986 

I started out the month by watching The Fly, a movie I have always sought after, but never caught until this point. Originally, I had no plans to watch it this month either, yet, I became fixated on doing so as I started to spin the webs of a body horror chapter of my novel, and when I considered these ideas and how I wanted to portray them, I couldn’t shake the image of The Fly from my mind. Yet it also acts as an incredibly romantic movie, centring on Seth Brundle, a scientist, as he shares his ground-breaking new invention. 

Often cited as director Cronenberg’s best display of body horror, it’s difficult not to agree; I adore Videodrome, it has such a vivid aesthetic and the body horror there surely sticks in your mind too, although I think both do so for different reasons. Throughout the story, we grow incredibly close with Seth Brundle as a character, and therefore, his slow transformation is made all the more intimate, the shifts break through not only his skin, but his personality too. Truly, this is a complete metamorphosis, a slow and brutal one at that. 

80s remakes of 50s movies are somewhat of a little obsession for me, in the sense of, I haven’t seen many of the 50s versions, but this mere phenomenon is always enticing to my mind, and the evident differences in style, tone and intent are reflections of the shifting cultural zeitgeist. 

Everything about this film is perfect, from the performances to the makeup. Lingering on the former, I love the feeling of being inside Veronica’s shoes, in a sense, it feels like we shift both perspective and alignment throughout the film, everything seeks to alienate us from the man we once knew, much as Veronica knew, for he has crumbled. Mimicking this through the perspective shift is great, especially given it is done so when we’ve grown to love the budding romance between the pair, it’s a capital T tragedy, textbook lovers doomed to perish, and it’s beautiful. Their relationship binds this narrative together, it gives purpose to what we witness, to how intense our reactions should feel. 

Seth Brundle is, of course, great too. His slow fall places this as an amazing character study, every step of his physical transformation draws closer unique shifts to his personality, he becomes like every other man, he grows obsessive with sugar and his mind ceases to linger on anyone but himself, for he is magnificent. Every step is precise and the effects of it linger on every scene, every breath of dialogue. 

But of course, the stand out of the film was always going to be the practical effects. I’m a huge fan of body horror, and for my purposes of researching the subgenre slightly more deeply, it was perfect. There’s very little that I can add to discussing the effects, they’re simply perfect, every new crack in his flesh aches. This is undoubtedly a favourite of this month (and of all time) surrounded by a large array that have truly hit me. 

Ouija: Origin of Evil - 2016

This movie was one of the aforementioned duologies I wanted to finish. I watched the first film when I was house sitting for my brother a few months back; I remember being a child and seeing the Blu-Ray and being filled with an unbridled anxiety. Given this fear growing up, I had been curious to finally visit this movie, and I wasn’t the biggest fan despite oftentimes enjoying a (well crafted) jump scare movie, far more than the average horror fan appears to. Yet this film just missed every mark with me, it felt evocative of Slender Man in this sense, except I was laughing a lot during Slender Man, and also, I enjoy the character of Slender Man, and Ouija unfortunately wasn’t funny nor did it include Slender Man. 

In contrast, Ouija: Origin of Evil is the kind of jump scare horror movie I adore. It feels gateway by design, and it uses its subject matter to explore interesting characters and dynamics, the scares are fun and the entire movie is brimming with style - split dioptres are all over this film and never fail to make me smile! 

We follow a widowed mother and her two children, the former runs a scam business where she talks to the dead, however instantly, the movie takes a unique turn when we realise that she does so with the hope she can provide closure to those who need it. Her intent isn’t malicious, rather, she is making money while providing comfort to those most vulnerable, a position she no doubt understands. 

From this first scene I was engrossed, the film has a unique perspective on familiar characters, and this alone is enough to get me excited, and yet, this only grows as we learn more about this family and the individual members, the intricacies and struggles of their lives, it’s a great time. 

Crafting this kind of movie as a period piece is such a bold choice; I’m a huge fan of period pieces and oftentimes fall in love with them much easier than others given I know very little about these periods, it’s a style I would love to write in some day, yet I'm holding off for now given the mountains of research and precision that’s required to craft such a vivid and accurate world, and as far as I can tell, this movie does an excellent job. 

Once I finished watching the film, I found myself sitting on my laptop in the dark, reading director Flanagan’s detailed discussion about set life and the creation of the movie, and his incredibly frank description was a joy to read. Learning about why different stylistic choices were made, what restrictions were imposed on such a large studio movie and what this set was like will never fail to allure me, it’s a world I adore and being able to see such an amazing insight into it is always something I will cherish. 

Companion - 2025

I believe Companion is the first new release I am discussing, and while I’ve enjoyed everything I’ve watched releasing this year, Companion is incredible. 

Describing Companion without spoiling anything is difficult, and to properly discuss it I feel it’s important to explain a fairly key plot point, so feel free to shift to the following movie to avoid spoilers! 

Everyone in this is amazing, with both Sophie Thatcher and Jack Quaid standing out especially, possibly a result of me enjoying their prior works. Yet their performances are magnetic, these characters are joys to watch, Quaid perfects the loser incel boyfriend archetype perfectly, he’s funny to watch and yet so quickly by the end does he become a figure to fear. Although fragile, he attempts to exert power over Iris (Thatcher) through nothing more than his masculinity. It’s impressive how quickly this shift comes, how he’s feared, although never truly in power, he’s a complete loser, yes, but the film acts as a warning of the dark streaks that come through these kinds of people. Particularly, I am also a huge fan of gay Jack Quaid dressed in a dinosaur costume dancing, that scene and song have been tangled inside my mind ever since I watched the movie. 

Despite everyone’s amazing performances, it’s Iris who truly stands out, who carries this movie through her shift from docility to hostility. Of course, she is a robot, and therefore, her growth could come across cheaply, especially since her personality is nothing more than a series of switches. Yet we learn deep into the film of her identity as a companion robot, that we’ve already grown entirely endeared to her, and now we as an audience see the humanity shining from her character in a way the other characters cannot. I adore how assertive her character becomes, and when she is later neutered once more, we can feel a sense of a mind trapped behind a filter, she isn’t shifting per se, rather, she is being filtered. 

At the core of this film are themes of misogyny, and I think it ties perfectly into imagery of robots, simply, Josh can dehumanise Iris in an instant, because after all, dispute looking human, talking like a human, feeling like a human and believing she is a human, she is nothing more than a device to have sex with. I wouldn’t describe the film as subtle, and I don’t think it needs to be. It’s potent in its imagery, the final act can grow hard to watch and it treats these ideas with the horror and severity they should be treated with. Josh cannot view Iris as a person, yet the film reinforces these themes through his relationship with his friend, Kat, it’s evident he’s in love with her, and he acts somewhat more reserved towards her at times, yet finally, we see his fury pour out, for the reality is, it never mattered that Iris was a robot, she was human enough, but ultimately, Josh hates women and craves power. 

Stylistically, this film is beautiful, from the picturesque dream sequences popping with vibrant colours, to the costume design that boasts Iris in bright and colourful feminine colours and designs, to the sweeping landscape shots that drip with flavour. 

As I’ve written about the film, I’ve come to realise how much more I like it than I previously realised, despite already knowing I enjoyed it. This is an incredibly funny horror movie, and I adore it. 

The Haunting - 1963

Maybe my weakest spot as far as horror is concerned, is the 60s, it’s a bridge between a tame era of monster movies blended with hays code plagued stories of the 50s into gory, terrifying, maddening and beautiful movies of the 70s (this comes as no disrespect to monster movies, which I adore, but complete adversity towards the hays code). 

However when I got around to watching this movie (I feel it important to add I am yet to watch the Flanagan mini-series, nor have I read the novel) I found myself infatuated with every corner of it. This movie oozes with style, the characters are captivating and the horror itself is filled with dread. 

The film follows a doctor who seeks to prove the existence of ghosts, banding together a group of outsiders to investigate Hill House. 

Oftentimes people will quote the notion that modern horror movies show too much, and while I disagree, a lot of the strengths of The Haunting come from how much restraint it holds in regards to what it shows. Of course, showing the ghosts is one way to drum up fear, however, there is something maddening about never knowing the reality of this house - we see the world through Eleanor, a woman who has fled her family and whose plagued by nightmares of her mothers passing, she’s an unreliable narrator, and the cast around her mirror this, nobody is completely to be trusted, although this comes not from a malicious intent, rather, these are outsiders, everyone here is haunted by something, and therefore, it is worth questioning what exactly draws across this house. We never see the ghosts, we hear them, we feel them, but sight is not a sense we are gifted, for sight unveils certainty, as the audience, the most powerful certainty we are gifted is that of sight, it denotes the power we hold, and therefore, we are left much like these characters, pondering the truth of Hill House. 

Almost all of this film is spent in the grand house, yet the large setting slowly grows all the more claustrophobic throughout the movie, we witness a shift from a labyrinth, to a cage. Similarly, the characters grow from strangers, to family, to maddened and tiresome. Love burns as Eleanor's mental state deteriorates. 

The film embodies many a gothic dichotomy, it’s a treat to get to know these characters, their secrets and mysteries, and the setting drips with a gothic allure, the themes of the dead calling to the living too carries a heavy gothic weight. In January, I had steeped myself in the Gothic canon researching for an upcoming novel of mine, and therefore, watching this was all the more enjoyable, plucking away at the conventions and basking in everything they had to hold. For at the soul of this story rests serial tragedies, the house calls those most vulnerable, and it seeks to comfort them. Macabre as it may be, within a period of such regulation, it makes complete sense that such tortured characters would find such a comfort within dreams of death. 

Picking apart everything I adore about this movie would be impossible within such a short discussion, but to linger momentarily on my favourite character, Theodora, her cause of isolation and escapism is hinted to the audience as being a result of her sapphic identity, this is her secret, and one she buries even amidst her found family. In contrast to her, Eleanor opens herself completely, she flays her inhibitions and displays all, and she’s loved, she’s cared for, although there isn’t enough that can be gifted to her tortured soul. Theo never opens this wound, she leaves herself stitched tightly so no harm may come her way, even here, she feels closed off. Yet there are a plethora of moments that denote her affection towards Eleanor, however oblivious she may be, for this house allows her at the very least to dream of living as herself. 

This was undoubtedly my favourite new watch of the month, and I can’t wait to return to this world again. It’s stuck to me now, and I adore it. 

Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio - 2022

Although I can’t remember exactly the cause of my condition, I have a vivid memory of feeling fairly awful the day I watched this movie. Yet in this darkness, I found this movie drawing so much light into my evening. 

The film is a retelling of Pinocchio, a story which until now, I hadn’t experienced in any capacity. Directed by Mark Gustafson and Guillermo del Toro, the stop motion movie came during a year of three “major” adaptations of this story, and it’s easy to forget this fact now the year has faded, for this is the only film that appears to have stayed afloat. 

I’ve loved Del Toro’s work for a long time, I adore Crimson Peak and Pan’s Labyrinth, the latter I studied and found myself entirely consumed by the behind the scenes content for the movie, watching the director flip through his sketchbooks and detail his ideas was captivating, and for the first time on that course, I found myself seeking out more and more. Truthfully, the majority of the movies I watched for my Film Studies class didn’t do loads for me - they were incredibly made, but beyond that, I felt very little for them. However Pan’s Labyrinth I was enamoured by, and I truly wanted to absorb everything I could about the film's production and fantastical world. 

Similarly, I adore the world built up here, the non-human character designs are especially interesting to me. Although, any stop-motion project I will instantly fall in love with, the style is so pure, every story that uses it as a vehicle is one filled with human compassion and love, it’s a true and beautiful indicator of dedication and care for the arts. 

There’s a beautiful, bright soul at the centre of this movie, and I found the way it allowed its story to unfold to be hypnotic, it’s an odyssey, a hero's journey filled with fun side characters brimming with life and personality, and the war torn backdrop makes the film all the more heart wrenching. Come the end, I was in tears. 

I’d put off watching this film a little too long. A goal of mine for this year is to make some room amidst the mountain of horror movies I want to watch for a handful more animated movies. I frequently find myself watching animated shows, but movies sometimes escape me. I’m pleased to have made this stride with this movie. 

My Bloody Valentine 3D - 2009

There is a very specific flavour to horror in the 2000s, one I first detested, often fixated on saw-like gore, these films can feel like there was little care placed into their stories, their characters and direction, everything is stained with the same small array of palettes, and especially when you break past the amazing movies of the decade, it can often feel like you’re wading through dregs. Also, they often have such a mean and cruel sensibility to them. But honestly, I’ve grown such a soft spot for this genre of horror, the countless remakes and abysmal offerings, there’s a charm to knowing what to expect, a cosiness to how awful some of these can be, I sometimes find a need to watch them after a streak of particularly great movies, just to remind me where I come from. 

My Bloody Valentine 3D (2009) is a remake of My Bloody Valentine (1981), one of my favourite movies, and is in no way affiliated with the band, My Bloody Valentine, who stated their shared names are simply coincidence. The movie follows a valentine's day tragedy within a mining town, and the haunting effects of this massacre ten years later. 

Remakes of horror movies were running rampant in the 2000s, likely a domino effect of The Ring (2002) and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre (2003), with the latter providing a gorier experience than the original film, and given Saw’s release on the horizon, torture porn was in and often a blueprint for crafting these remakes. My Bloody Valentine 3D is no different, the gore here is truly great, there’s a wide array of kills all pushing themselves to new levels, my jaw dropped several times while watching this. However, another layer to the gore and style of this film arises when considering the 3D in the title of the film, for yes, this is in 3D. There is a goofiness to this oftentimes - an inexplicably nude woman throwing a gun at a man to give a cool 3D effect, rather than having her shoot him comes to mind as one of the films most egregious examples of the mental gymnastics the filmmakers go through to stick with the 3D subtitle. 

I have a physical copy of this movie and it came with a pair of 3D glasses, which honestly, gives the film a fun scarlet sheen in contrast to the films usual bleak colour grading, however, they gave me a headache and so I had to take them off around twenty minutes in and switch to the regular version of the film. 

Like I said, this film is like comfort food to me, it’s not great, I can’t angle the idea it is, but I find this film to be so much fun. So many horror movies from the 2000s take the wrong lessons from Saw, they often copy the gore, but the core of the Saw franchise is the beautiful, convoluted story. However i find myself folding into movies like this or Prom Night (2008), they’re a joy to watch, they’re cosy, often gross and lingering with a weird air of cruelness, yes, but sometimes all I want after a long day is to dissolve into a shitty 2000s horror movie, and I love My Bloody Valentine 3D with all my heart for providing me the comfort it does. 

The Rocky Horror Picture Show - 1975 

(Rewatch)

Rocky Horror is one of my favourite movies ever. 

I remember the first time I watched this, my best friend at the time had recommended it, and I watched it on my phone in chunks on some weird website. I must have been fourteen, shifting about my day watching this movie - picking it up, putting it back down again, finding myself at first enamoured with Frank N Furter, the style of the movie, the soundtrack, and while I quickly moved on with my day, the film constantly returned to my mind. I’ve seen it countless times since, and my favorite book, Perks of Being a Wallflower references it endlessly, only furthering my obsession with the film. 

Every time I return to this I truly can’t fathom how perfect this is - every scene is gorgeous, every song is enchanting (often I find myself excited that we’ve reached a song, only to be equally excited to reach the next, and so on), the characters are dreamy and ooze with flavour, there is truly nothing else like this, and nothing else that can exist like this again. 

I consider Frankenstein to be one of the most adaptable novels ever, even more so in the horror space, for the central concept lends itself so uniquely to different stories. The Rocky Horror Picture Show is about a mad scientist who has built a person, amidst many other things, however honing in on this, it tells a totally unique story brimming with unique characters and ideas about sexuality and how we express ourselves, that both perfectly tie back into its source material while also crafting a completely unique story too. Similarly, movies like Frankenhooker, Lisa Frankenstein, May and (looking outside the horror genre) Poor Things are all adaptations of Frankenstein in some capacity, and yet all of these movies use the central concept of the novel to dive deeper into different ideas and themes. 

In my eyes, this is the core idea of Rocky Horror, the idea of crafting a person relates directly to the movie’s themes of how we exist as ourselves - Janet and Brad are repressive characters, Frank-N-Furter is their foil, a character who knows himself, he’s sexual, he’s stylish and boisterous. Come the end of the movie, there’s a line: “And crawling on the planet's face, some insects, called the human race... lost in time... and lost in space... and meaning,” and it stuck out to me in particular, for I see this as encapsulating the themes of the movie entirely. We search for meaning that doesn’t exist, we seek out ideas of how we should act and be, and ultimately, these guidelines and rules we shine upon a society about how one should act are pointless. We govern ourselves with compassion, yes, but beyond simple human instincts, one should be able to exist as they please, to give themselves over to “absolute pleasure”, for this is the human condition - seeking pleasure, before fearing the consequences of quenching such a thirst. But to exist wholly as oneself is what pure pleasure truly is. 

Ginger Snaps - 2000

(Rewatch)

Coming of age horror is among my favourite subgenres; there’s a perfect tie between the shifting natures and bodies we experience as teenagers that lends itself perfectly to horror. Ginger Snaps takes this directly, following a pair of sisters, one of whom is attacked by a rabid beast on the night of her first period, and soon finds her body changing. 

I’ve always loved werewolves as archetypes - I grew up on Twilight for one, but also, I deem them to be such tragic vehicles of corruption, unlike common vampires who become bloodthirsty and evil in a heartbeat, there is humanity within a werewolves flesh, sunken and waiting to be torn to shreds. 

Ginger and Brigitte work perfectly as morbid sisters, they’re a very specific archetype that feels evocative perfectly of the time period it was crafted in. Yet their grungy sensibilities are questioned as Ginger begins spending more time with popular people, she starts getting high and seeking out sex, these are all brought on from her new condition, of course, a metaphor for puberty. However there’s more to it than this, there’s a strong feeling of Brigitte being left behind, the isolation that comes from only pairing yourself with one other person during your most formative years. 

However the film feels especially intertwined with a female puberty, the imagery of becoming a monster feels potent when intertwined with ideas of body hair and blood that go against a patriarchal image of a woman. To go through puberty is to become a monster, to be forced to tame these aspects of oneself or to live an outcast. 

I also simply adore the characters here, both Brigitte and Ginger, are a joy to watch, their certain flavour of grunge has always been a lot of fun to me, and their relationship at the core of the film works so well given how long we’re given to understand what they mean to one another and who they are, they’re fully realised and fleshed out long before the attack. 

This is another movie I watched when I was much younger, I remember loving it deeply, finding the imagery so cool and attaching myself to these characters. This is maybe my favorite film I watched this month, but it’s closely tied to Rocky Horror. 

Inland Empire - 2006

I don’t quite know what I can say about Inland Empire, so I'll keep this fairly brief. I’m a huge fan of Twin Peaks, Eraserhead and Mulholland Drive, and for a while I’ve wanted to delve into more - Twin Peaks especially lingers with me, it’s undoubtedly one of my favourite shows ever. 

I’d heard Inland Empire was Lynch’s most experimental and least accessible feature, but I wasn’t expecting what unfolded before me. I found the premise to be deeply enticing - an actress takes a role in a cursed remake of a Polish movie, and slowly finds her life mirroring that of her characters.

The movie blends styles of storytelling, form a surrealist but linear story for the first hour, before falling into a “stream of consciousness” style of filmmaking, any linearity is gone by now, and true madness unfolds. Unlike any of Lynch’s other work I’ve seen, it’s difficult to describe quite what this movie is about. However stylistically, the movie boasts many stylistic traits common from the auteur, and maybe this alone is what the movie is about, filmmaking as an art. 

The Monkey - 2024

I’m a huge fan of Osgood Perkins' work so far, and so I was incredibly excited for The Monkey too. The movie follows a pair of twin brothers as a toy wind-up monkey intercepts their lives. 

Stylistically, the film often feels perfectly at home in the Stephen King canon, his style of writing dialogue and characters seeps into the bones of this movie, although alongside this, I found the film also felt like a far gorier Goosebumps novel, especially throughout the opening - two twin boys find a mystical item that soon unleashes an unending horror upon them and their family. 

Despite feeling distinctly King, Perkins’ voice is equally as loud, both in the writing and direction. Although tonally alien from Longlegs and The Blackcoat's Daughter, The Monkey still oozes with a more comedic style to his writing, themes of parenthood and isolation trickle into this story too, much like his prior works. For at the centre of this film, much like Longlegs, is the tale of a father attempting to reconnect with his son, fearful of the influence he may have on him as a result of the horrors his own father passed unto him, physically here, the titular monkey. Yet thematically, this idea runs deeper than just the monkey himself, for the images of isolation and neglect mirror that of which our protagonist Hal’s father did to him. 

When analysing the apocalyptic ending, I see this as a continuation of the horrors that exist, much like the monkey, the apocalypse is merely another horror that we pass onto our children - to bring life into this world is to condemn them to the human condition, to the cruelty and death that stains us. Yet finally, when faced with such an extremity, Hal is able to connect with his son, to spend time with him, because as the movie states “everyone dies, and that’s life,” we have no control over the state of the world, and the horrors tethered to us, but we can effect the people around us, those we love and care for. Therefore, to create life which will eventually rot too is only cruel when that life is neglected. 

Everything in the film is completely over the top, from the gore to the scenarios, the movie seeks to craft a fun experience. All of the gore is amazing, I wish there was even more, although maybe this is greed, for that in which we’re blessed with is gross, colourful and beautifully crafted. Every vignette is a joy to watch, with certain deaths bleeding with absurdity, while others are far more grounded, there’s so much going on that constantly, these deaths are able to shock the audience. 

An aspect I cannot neglect to discuss is the sound design, which first captivated me in the trailer, but the sound of the monkey drumming, the key turning and the squishy deaths linger in the diegetic soundscape in a beautiful way. Similarly, I adore the soundtrack to this film too! 

While watching this film, I had a huge grin on my face the entire time. It's comforting in a way completely different to Longlegs, which is comforting to me in a far more aesthetic focused manner. But the Monkey is so much fun to me because of how much it commits to its idea, the absurdity and comedy are great, and the titular monkey stands out greatly too. 

Humanist Vampire Seeking Consenting Suicidal Person - 2023

I’ve had this movie sitting on my watchlist for a while, unsure quite how to watch it, and upon returning to look at the film, I learnt it has been available for quite some time in the UK. 

Both of this films draws speak to me greatly, I adore vampires and coming of age movies, and I found myself grieving the fact that I hadn’t come up with such a perfect concept for a story myself. Watching this I found myself reminded both of A Woman Walks Home Alone at Night and Let the Right One In, both of which are films I deem perfect, they allure me greatly and the concept of people and vampires connecting through a similar sense of being outcasts speaks to me so personally. Lisa Frankenstein is a similar style of movie I also adore. 

For this little pocket of movies that detail characters deemed freaks and ostracised from the people around them falling in love with the dark and mysterious monster, who sees them and loves them, speaks so specifically to growing up lonely, to finding a person who understands that in which you’ve endured and loves you wholly, it’s a bright feeling, and yet, this escapism is often bleeding, it can’t last, tragedy often strikes in some capacity with the aforementioned movies. 

There’s a certain hopeful charm to Humanist Vampire, there are bleak moments, but above all, the film presents hope, love and another way. It’s a fun vampire tale, building in its own mythology without straying too deeply away from the core ideas. It blends a classical monster movie with a pair of coming of age tales that intertwine, both of isolation, one of questioning oneself and the other of suicide. As such, the film carries a heavy weight, and it treats this topic perfectly, with love, care and compassion, it shines the cracks in our human character, the reasons his life is so awful and how, despite some positive aspects, its near impossible for him to escape such an eclipse. 

I’m glad to have finally been able to watch this movie, it’s beautiful and drew tears from me several times, it’s masterfully crafted and it brings a unique spin upon the coming of age genre. 

Thank you for reading this months reviews! I have a lot of fun writing these! I'm hopeful to eventually write some other stuff on here too! For anyone new, I'm a first time author of a coming of age, fantasy/horror novel! more information can be found here! I also run a Scooby Doo Review blog @scooby-review! Any support and interest towards my novel is hugely appreciated <3

Also, less importantly, my Letterboxd is here too!

Have a great month! :)

[scooby-review]

Scooby Doo Goes Hollywood

The future of Scooby Doo looked fairly rocky following the end of The Scooby Doo Show, with studio executives viewing the formula of the show as tired and requesting some unique shake-ups to keep the series afloat and bring ratings higher again. Their solution to this issue came in Scrappy Doo, a new mascot and sidekick who did ultimately keep the franchise alive. Just as Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo started airing, the TV Movie Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood too was released. 

Such context is imperative to understanding why this movie is the way it is, what it’s saying about the franchise as a whole, and Hollywood at that. When I watched this movie a few years back, I found it frustrating and dull, and while I still can’t say I love it, watching the entire series chronologically gives me a greater appreciation for why this film feels the way it does, why they choose this route for its story and the duality of its feelings towards itself. 

Released for the franchise's 10th anniversary, the movie follows Shaggy and Scooby as actors, as Shaggy implores Scooby to reach for higher branches in Hollywood, no longer content with their Saturday morning cartoon. This frames the first three series of the franchise as in world TV shows, and this alone is something that I don’t love. Partly, my issues come with how little it feels like they can lean into this concept - these actors go by their characters names, and everyone except Shaggy acts just as their characters would. Rarely am I a fan of storylines that implode the world we look in on, however given the wiry continuity of Scooby as is, I can look past this.

On Shaggy and Scooby’s adventures to rise in fame, we watch through a series of pilots the pair are producing for the network, all of these act as parodies of shows from the era. It completely breaks away from what Scooby is. All of this is purposeful, it feels like the writers are searching for a unique direction to take these characters, this world, mimicking the reality that they did have to find this inspiration. Given Scrappy’s exclusion from this movie, it feels like a send of to this classic era of the show, and the ending seeks to usher in something greater. 

I’ll dive into the characters first, because as mentioned, they remain mostly unchanged in personality despite this film suggesting to us that they’re actors. Yet Shaggy is infuriating to watch here, he’s so distant from the “character he plays”, instead adopting a somewhat fame hungry ideology, yet specifically, he wants Scooby to rise the ranks. It’s a curious concept, because Scooby himself has no mind of his own - we see Shaggy tell him that he’s better than this show, and therefore, he goes along with his friends pilots and plots to seek out this rise in fame and grow in respectability despite never really committing to this belief. More so, he does whatever Shaggy tells him, and although Shaggy isn’t attempting to use Scooby to climb the ranks, it’s written in such a way that gives me no real trust in this character, he’s completely ignorant to the rest of the gang and their positions in Hollywood, and this neglect crafts him into a character that I don’t enjoy spending time with. Of course, his pilots suck, they’re parodies and would craft awful shows, this builds the structure of the movie’s jokes, but after a while, I find myself tired of watching this take on the character, a take that feels like anyone but Shaggy. 

Also, we see that (for some reason) the actors of the gang chose Scooby at a petshop, it’s a weird choice given the idea to ground this movie in Hollywood, but alas, it’s even more infuriating when they only use this flashback to once again make me dislike Shaggy! What do you mean he didn’t want Scooby? This concept doesn’t go anywhere, they just make him a frustrating character to watch without any reason. In the end, he simply decides that everyone else was right all along, and Scooby is needed as a Saturday morning cartoon character, which only further begs the question, why did he believe otherwise, so strongly, for so long, if his mind can be switched so simply. 

As will grow an even more prevalent trend in the series to come, the rest of the gang are given little to do, little to say, in fact, their storyline is simply that Scooby and Shaggy’s absence means they could be out of jobs - great. 

Despite all my complaints, once you get past this poor characterisation and interesting creative decisions, I did find this to be a fairly enjoyable time.

It’s worth mentioning that this is a musical, the movie has four songs, all of which work nicely in the narrative and lend themselves well to the pacing of this story - I was often relieved when we reached a song. 

Move Over is the first song, it details Scooby and Shaggy’s intentions on growing more famous within the market of Hollywood. It’s a fairly straightforward song, but it works well in the landscape of this story as a musical, and there’s a lot of fun visuals as the pair run through sets of movies they dream of starring in. 

Ruby Cool Guy follows, and it’s placed in one of the aforementioned pilots Shaggy and Scooby craft. Simply, it’s about Scooby being cool, he’s positioned in a sitcom, playing a very specific archetype of the cool guy, and therefore, this song feels like a desperate attempt for the character to convey this, it’s part parody of this style of show, but moreover, the song itself acts as a jab against the pilot, it details Scooby’s inability to fall into this role, for he’s not built to be in a story such as this. 

Scooby Doo We’re Missing You is a riff on the New Scooby Doo Movies intro, it uses Velma, Daphne and Fred as its singers in their main role in the movie. The opening to this song is a lot of fun, however, unlike the other songs, the animation to back up this one isn't built on creative boarding and ideas, instead playing archival clips from the series past, such as from the episodes A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts, The Spooky Space Kook and so many more. Here the gang call for Scooby to return to his roots, and again, it makes sense given the ongoing conflict of how to rejuvenate the series. Should the writers take on something entirely new? Or is sticking to their guns better?

Finally we have Gotta Have Time, which returns to the unique boarding style, it’s a lot of fun to watch and the animation is incredibly fluid. It’s another show parody, but the idea of loving Scooby reflects the themes of the movie as a whole, the reality that the character has grown into such an icon, and the people love this character, that people just need time to realise how much they adore him. 

As for the pilots, they all act as riffs on, then, popular shows and movies, these include Laverne and Shirley, Happy Days, Superman, The Sound of Music, Donny & Marie, The Love Boat and Charlie's Angels. I don’t know much about any of these shows, but Happy Days is the one I enjoyed the most, simply because I found the inclusion of a Fonz like character funny. I was hoping we could watch Scooby jump the shark, but alas, we cannot have nice things. 

Another interesting note is that the “Super Scooby” pilot takes place in Big City, taken directly from Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, a Hanna Barbera cartoon, and Scooby clone, that the series is well acquainted with given their previous crossovers and shared airing block. 

The movie ends, of course, with Scooby and Shaggy seeing the love the world has for them, and they return to their Saturday morning cartoon. I enjoy the world coming together to tell Scooby how much they adore him, and the show, how, as stated in The New Scooby Doo Movies intro, they couldn’t have a show without him. It’s sweet and I appreciate the way it pays respect to itself, Scooby Doo is a huge series and this movie allows itself to grow self indulgent with the titular character, they can drop him into these increasingly wacky scenarios, and it works. Here more than ever, it feels like they’re leaning into the idea of Scooby as an icon as opposed to a character, he’s the mascot of the series, and here, he transcends the nature of the series, he’s a cartoon character that could fit into these wacky stories and worlds, but his story rests with the gang. 

At least for now. 

It’s almost ironic watching this in retrospect, because fairly soon, the gang will be gone, and sure, they couldn’t have a show without Scooby himself, but this story that delves into the desire of keeping Scooby at home in his own Saturday morning cartoon and the importance of retaining such is all the more potent when the franchise would have to fight until the 2000s to justify existing. Now it feels like new Scooby is a given, and it’s difficult to say how we would reflect on the franchise had this been the end. 

At times, it feels like the movie is talking directly to us as an audience, other times directly to the studio. Sometimes I find myself reading the movie as stating that Scooby could be more, but he’s best grounded in his own small show, that this Hollywood world is fun, but Scooby should remain himself and shouldn’t explore these wider worlds. Such a reading makes sense given the fact the following series does exactly this, their solution is to add something, rather than take away or rearrange what already worked. Yet other times, I get the sense this movie is about the oversaturation of the character, the style and the world - with a character so malleable, who’s to say he couldn’t be dropped into a western or a teen drama? What does it mean to perceive the integrity of a show like Scooby Doo? 

Regardless, I appreciate this a lot more than I once did, I found a lot of it funny and the pieces I didn’t like then I still don’t enjoy. 

I would also be remiss to not mention the only semblance of a villain in this movie, the Crab Creature of Creepy Crag. He appears in the opening of the movie, and he’s designed to be a caricature of a Scooby villain. The alliteration in the name feels especially evocative of the naming schemes sometimes seen, alongside the addition of a location to spice up the identity of the character. We see a humanoid crab creature, one that feels evocative of monsters such as the Pterodactyl Ghost, a non-humanoid creature anthropomorphised. 

Also, fun fact, this is the first time Frank Welker would voice the character of Scooby, playing him as a puppy. 

Overall, this is a movie that I appreciate a lot more than I enjoy, but it’s a cute time for what it is. There’s an evident desire both for change and for things to stay the same - Scooby must stay, this is certain, but as a complete mirror of the special, the real world executives were burning for Scooby not to return to his own show, but to bring in something new and to rejuvenate the franchise. 

Thank you for reading this review of Scooby Goes Hollywood! This was a lot of fun to watch and write about, I think I only had such strong negative feelings towards this when I first watched it because, without any context or knowledge of what this is, the story is incredibly jarring. Next week we move onto the first Scrappy Doo series, and I for one, cannot wait :) Funnily enough, the next movie isn't until the end of the Scrappy era. Have a great week!

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Next Review: Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo Season 1 Episodes 1-4

Previous Review: The Scooby Doo Show Retrospective

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The Scooby Doo Show Retrospective

After making my way through all three seasons, I thought it’d be interesting to completely reflect on this iteration of the franchise, the final piece that closes out what many would consider the “classic” era of Scooby Doo, it’s the final time until the early 2000s that the gang would be made up of these five members, and from here on out, the series only grows more experimental, for better or for worse. 

Coming off the shake-up to the formula seen in The New Scooby Doo Movies, The Scooby Doo Show appears at first as a “back to basics” for the franchise, it returns to its Scooby Doo Where are You roots, but from the first episode we’re told that this isn’t the same show, this is a more refined, somewhat darker, series. Looking at the opening few episodes, we can see more care and love placed into the mysteries and monsters than in The New Scooby Doo Movies, which often felt in limbo as it battled with what it meant to be a Scooby show. Here, the series knows what it wants to be - a natural development from Where are You - but moreover, it manages to build a unique identity, it has new music for one. With the first episode, High Rise Hair Raiser, we have a hint of continuity that suggests these characters are older now, no longer in school, and this change is reflected in the series itself, it’s grown from the roots of Where are You, it’s taken what worked there and simply carried on building upon it. 

Although popular, the cast feel like they are more defined than before, Fred feels like a more direct leader for example, however, their traits haven’t been pushed into flanderization, gags that the series is known for such as Velma losing her glasses seldom appear, this is a show that has a formula, but its repetition is nowhere near the levels most assume when they reflect on the series. Every episode does follow this formula - the gang head to a location and learn of a monster, and therefore, attempt to apprehend and unveil their identity and plot. Yet this season in particular demonstrates just how varied these plots can get, the writers understand how to craft these mysteries in an enjoyable way, they understand these characters and the addition of such interesting villains and settings allows for these episodes to flourish. 

Season one offers a wide array of settings: a boat, swamp, desert, castle, underground city, Sleepy Hollow, a snow swept village… There’s no repetition here which allows every episode to stand out on its own, yet the villains they pair with these settings only go to accentuate the best aspects of these locations, they can craft intricate set pieces, every background oozes with life, it’s a delight to watch. This is all not to mention that almost every villain here is a winner, there is so much personality poured into every design, it’s perfect, and great to see following the fairly lackluster array from New Movies. 

Sometimes season one innovates, but even when it’s not doing much to stand apart from other episodes, it’s truly just the most refined and enjoyable example of the classic era! It’s undoubtedly my favourite season I’ve visited so far, taking the best of Where are You and building upon that - new characters like Scooby Dum aid in fleshing out this world and there are a good handful of unique episodes! 

Season two brings forth more of the same, albeit, to a lesser quality. Although it retains a large amount of that which is great about the prior season, the villains feel a little less interesting and the plots a little more derivative. Yet there is still gold amidst this silver, because again, these episodes are still great pieces of Scooby Doo media. In particular, Creepy Cruise stands out for how it uses its monster and the way it structures its episode. Here, the monster appears for an act, before it’s returned to a “time machine”, and the gang have to work out the mystery using the remnants on this ship. It’s simple and only a slight change of pace, but it’s a breath of fresh air that will always attract me to the episode. 

Alongside Scooby Dum, we also meet Scooby Dee for an episode. I really enjoy a more fleshed out Scooby family tree, it makes sense from a marketing perspective - it’s why they place Dum in the intro or why he appears in the Laff-a-Lympics, because he’s another merchantable Scooby. In contrast, the family members of the gang often cease to exist beyond their first appearances, Shaggy has a seemingly never ending stream of Uncles, and so building a more cohesive identity to these characters and their lives is interesting to see and a great direction considering how many years the franchise had been airing by now. 

Season three sees the attempted Where are You revival, and often, it can be found labelled as season three of that series instead. This likely came as an attempt to draw in more ratings, which were falling at the time. Halfway through, this attempt was abandoned and marked as unsuccessful. 

I would place season three in between seasons one and two in terms of quality, with this season falling below Where are You season one for me too. It’s great, the best episodes here currency reign amidst my favourites, and the lows of this season aren’t all too low, yet the back half of this season just feels slightly more stunted than anything seen before. Still they bring these amazing villains and settings, but there’s a hint of repetition - almost every episode opens with the gang going to a new country, visiting family or friends, or a mix of the two. It’s a small detail that makes these characters lives feel so much smaller, and while the decision to have these characters move countries constantly makes sense in an attempt to craft a variety of settings and creatures, it loses any charm or allure after a while, there’s no variation and therefore, it doesn’t matter much where they are anymore. 

More so than ever there is a magnetism to Shaggy and Scooby, mostly the former, the gang's formation is rarely shaken up when they hunt for clues or investigate, and this too builds such a frustrating divide between these characters. At times it’s easy to forget that they enter these episodes as a formation, there’s a deep streak of complacency that runs through this season, and despite an obvious effort to make the animation better, outsourcing it to Toei, and introducing even more new music, it doesn’t charm me enough to blind me to these stories falling into the same repetitive pitfalls. 

Following the end of this season, low ratings and discussions of repetition would rise and place the franchise in the line of cancellation, and I do ultimately think it was a positive decision for the franchise to stretch its legs a little and explore how to build upon what already works - this is how Show started, this is what made it so endearing to me in the first place, it was self-reflective, and as such, it could innovate and craft a better series. 

Season three is good, I loved watching it, you truly feel like you’re just spending time with friends at times watching the gang, they’re so concrete in how they act now. But moving on from the first season, this does feel like a step down simply in terms of how repetitive these episodes feel - this may be fine given the way the series aired, shows like this weren’t designed with the idea of watching them in order in mind, but doing so does expose the complacency in the writing and how undesirable innovation appeared to be. In an attempt to revive the original series, it feels like they took the wrong ideas from Where are You, and it builds into a fun season sure, but one that never truly wows me. All these episodes are good, many great, a handful perfect, but after the first few episodes, the pzazz falls a little. 

I adore The Scooby Doo Show, it’s undoubtedly my favourite of the three series I have visited for the blog so far, and I truly believe it ends the classical era in a way that defines what the series was and intended on being at this point in time.  Before the major shakeup, the series would go on to get its first movie, Scooby Doo Goes Hollywood. I’ll delve into it next week!

Thank you for reading this little retrospective to end out the series! Usually I make rankings of the episodes and villains, but I simply couldn't find a fun way to create it this time, I have the lists still, but trying to piece together a post became a chore, which I never want this blog to feel like! So instead, I stuck simply to this retrospective! However, importantly, here I have made a list of every episode I've watched so far ranked! That was a lot of fun to build and I'll continue to update it every week! :)

Have a great week!

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Next Review: Scooby and Scrappy Doo Season 1 Episodes 1-4

Previous Review: The Scooby Doo Show Season 3 Episodes 10-16

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The Scooby Doo Show S3 E10-16

10. The Creepy Creature of Vulture's Claw

Following the cancellation of the Where are You revival, the last seven episodes created for the season were pushed into Scooby’s All Stars, and subsequent reruns were treated the same. A lot of this final stretch is good, but coming to the realisation that they’re all fairly formulaic and I therefore don’t have loads to say, I figured I’d end the season, and the show, by working through the final episodes in a single review! 

We open out on a great episode, it opens with a thick atmosphere, foregrounded into the setting of Vulture’s Claw, an island in the shape of a claw, the gang head to aid Velma’s friend, a professor, as a giant mantis creature stalks the land. 

Mentioned in the previous episode, the animation can sometimes look incredibly fluid and beautiful in contrast to the trademark, often stiff, Hanna Barbera style of animation. This comes as a direct result of the company handing off certain segments of these episodes to the Japanese animation company Toei, they’ve worked on a huge array of popular shows and anime such as Dragon Ball, One Piece and Digimon. As such, certain sequences across this final set of episodes can be lavishly animated, characters squash and stretch, and there’s a lot more personality in their expressions, and honestly, I love how these are broken up by the regular animation style, because while, yes, the episodes can feel somewhat disjointed at times, it only goes to make the amazing animation stand out all the more. 

Applied to this episode in particular, there’s some beautiful shading that’s a joy to watch. 

Much like a lot of the back half of this season, the episodes feel fairly basic in terms of their plots, the writers evidently have the formula down to a tee, and that can sometimes work well, this episode is evidence to that fact! I love this episode, the location is great, the side characters feel like they have a growing presence in the episodes, the villain is great and there are a handful of fun character beats! 

Honing in on the villain for a moment, The Mantis is a lot of fun. Likely inspired by The Fly (1958), the Mantis’ origin comes from an experiment gone wrong - only a single error has caused a scientist to transform into this monster. Much like that movie, the design of the creature feels ripped straight from a 50s monster oriented horror movie, the creature’s body is built of two shades of green, its body has ripples that curl around his body like armour, his head is angular and his striking golden eyes and dashes of scarlet within the face of the Mantis craft a distinct and near perfect monster design. 

Not to mention another great feature about this villain is that he is in fact Velma’s friend, the professor that called the gang out, which I adore, it’s such a great twist. Of course, this reality doesn’t affect Velma at all, she works it out long before the rest of the gang, but this little detail is great in bulking out the identity of this episode. 

Alongside this, I love that we see Fred has crafted a book of traps that he makes Shaggy follow, it’s a really cute detail that’s funny, sure, but I enjoy how it fleshes him out as a leader. 

11. The Diabolical Disc Demon

I found this episode to be somewhat disappointing - we have an amazing opening depicting the Phantom chasing a musician around a studio, it’s animated beautifully, there’s some gorgeous shading, it’s truly a delight and bursting with atmosphere. From here, the gang head to the studio, and from here the episode kind of falls for me. 

I adore Satanic Panic and its ties to rock music, so often settings like this during the 70s are completely my thing, although this episode of course doesn’t delve into those themes, nor does it really use its setting to great effect. Rather, we spend the majority of this episode in the canteen at the studio, which feels like a poor use of this setting and the great set pieces that could be built as a result. There’s an incredibly long vending machine gag which grew fairly tiresome, although I love the detail of an entire roast chicken inside the machine. 

Despite this, the villain is both great conceptually and a lot of fun to watch. Phantom, as he’s fairly blandly known, is inspired by glam rock/metal musicians, with his wild clementine hair feeling evocative of David Bowie's Ziggy Stardust persona, meanwhile the makeup is more evidently inspired by KISS, a band that the series would later have a movie alongside, his face is slathered chalky white meanwhile his inky black makeup is wiry outlining his blank eyes. 

This one is completely fine, but disappointing to me specifically because I love both this setting and villain design. 

12. Scooby’s Chinese Fortune Kooky Caper

In this episode the gang head to China and encounter The Moon Monster, a creature whose shadow casts people to stone. 

This is a fun monster, that I believe is loosely based on Nian, a lion-like creature with a single horn protruding from its head, and it feeds on townspeople at the end of the lunar new year, given its ties to the moon  - this myth forms the basis of Chinese New Year, as the townsfolk used bright colours and loud noises to scare off the beast. 

However, I must emphasise that this is a very light connection, with this beast being a two horned, hulking beast coated in sky blue fur, it’s an almost yeti like design. Its ties to the moon lead to a handful of beautiful shots, and the process of characters turning to stone in the beast's shadow is incredibly cool in concept although hardly used in reality. 

That’s pretty much all for this one! The backgrounds are great and I found the joke of Shaggy only learning Chinese through the names of foods funny. 

13. A Menace in Venice

The gang head to Italy in this episode, only to meet the Ghostly Gondolier, who is attempting to steal an ancient necklace worn by none other than the gang's friend. 

I was incredibly excited to be able to talk Shakespeare with this episode, given the title’s allusion to The Merchant of Venice, however with the exception of a character called Antonio, that’s about it for the parallels.

Once again, the villain is great, the backgrounds are gorgeous! I had a fun time here but that’s not really because of anything unique the episode does, there are countless other Scooby episodes that do what this episode does far better, but this was a fun time!

The Ghostly Gondolier is the stand out - unlike typical gondoliers, this villain wears a hooded cloak, his outfit a blend of midnights and slightly softer shades of the nights sky, with this theme blending into his eyes which glow like the moon with a gentle yellow haze. His expressions are angular which fuels him with personality, only aided by him talking directly to the audience at times. Both the jagged face and shrouded design of the character connote to his place as a schemer, he’s bubbling with life and mischief in contrast to other groaning monsters. Oftentimes, he’s what makes this episode a joy to watch! 

Also there’s this weird scene with fish that’s really funny but also so jarring and I just needed to share it. 

14. Don’t Go Near the Fortress of Fear

For the most part, this season has truly nailed its cold opens. It’s one of the best aspects of Show as a whole, we learn so much from such a creepy short glimpse into the villain and their victim. 

In complete opposition to the majority of what I’ve stated previously, this episode has an incredibly bland villain, and yet I love it quite a bit. 

All of my love for this story comes down to the gangs interactions here, Shaggy completely steals the show, I adore that he meets the ghost and just lies to the gang about having met anyone in an attempt to coax them away from the castle, I love all his stupid little jokes, and I love watching the gang hang around and talk. It’s a great episode for all of these reasons. 

The Ghost of Juan Carlos is a pretty forgettable and kind of gross design at times, the muddy greens sometimes appear wholly brown and either way, neither works well with the powder blue accents to this design nor do they blend in cohesively with the grey helmet of the character, and he lacks much personality to boot. His helmet comes curiously too, given Spanish generals helmets didn’t look like his. It’s just a design that I find incredibly uninteresting, the clashing of colours says nothing in contrast to Creepy Cruise’s Futuristic Monster which serves such a grand purpose in its cacophony. 

15. The Warlock of Wimbledon 

From the first frame I knew we were in England hehe. 

In this episode we see the gang head over to England where they meet the famous tennis star Jimmy Pelton (hold the applause) who is cursed by Anthos, a warlock. 

I hate to say it, but Jimmy Pelton (Wimbledon star) is so stupid. Not once, but twice, his glasses are switched out, and this man does not notice either time! Velma is wearing his glasses to deceive him and he doesn’t bat an eye! Jimmy, fix up! Don’t get me wrong, I’m just as happy as the next Wimbledon fan is at Jimmy’s great victory over Ron Tyler, but I have to point out the facts that point to Jimmy being stupid. 

The big twist of this episode is that Jimmy’s glasses were swapped out to new ones that can see invisible makeup worn by a few members of the crowd that leads to an intense paranoia that nearly causes him to lose the match. It’s maybe one of my favourite stupid Scooby explanations for how a villain did their thing. 

Anthos is an incredibly interesting character to me, because I cannot for the life of me work out why he looks the way he does. He’s a warlock, and his staff is the biggest inidicator of this fact, it’s a great motif throughout the episode as it’s constantly returned to Jimmy (Pelton), acting as a physical manifestation of the curse. Yet everything else feels too out there for me to truly pin this character as a warlock - the block primary colours in the design, alongside the sharp angular mask especially, gives me the impression this design was ripped straight out of a comic book, he looks like a supervillain, every triangle on his design works to this image, he’s built into an eccentric appearing character rather than a man who carries an omen. All of this combines with his companion, a hellhound, who looks all the more out of place here. 

Maybe my favourite aspect of this episode (besides Jimmy Pelton) is the unmasking of the Hellhound that reveals a dog. Just a dog. This dog wasn’t seen prior to this unmasking, he’s not seen following the unmasking, but I hope he didn’t get a jail sentence. 

16. The Beast is Awake in Bottomless Lake

I always hate when I don’t love a fan favourite episode. 

The Scooby Doo Show ends with the gang heading to Canada, although not to meet a friend, instead they intend on fishing, only to find the village deserted as a result of the Beast. 

This episode breaks my prior claim that the series was immaculate at cold opens, this one simply places the monster in a frame, he growls, and then we’re with the gang. 

Undoubtedly the best element of this episode, and likely why it grew so iconic, comes down to the villain. The Beast is an iconic design, its body is somewhat top heavy, its illuminated yellow eyes and gaping mouth rest atop the bulging head of the beast, which slowly thins out into a tail. Perfectly this design demonstrates the power of a controlled colour palette - simple swampy greens and yellows blend into this creature to build a great design. 

I would wager this design is inspired by Gillman from The Creature from the Black Lagoon, with similar greens across both their bodies and the gills, fins, webbed hands, lips and posture appearing to be drawn from the Universal Monster’s design. I love Gillman a lot, I recently purchased a Care Bear variant of the character, so these parallels make me incredibly happy. 

However, beyond that, there isn’t much more I have to say, the diving suits make a return and I appreciate the setting of this episode - small towns are always a lot of fun - but otherwise this round out not only my thoughts on this episode, but the season and iteration of the franchise as a whole. 

Thankyou for reading this slightly longer review! It made more sense to me to combine the two reviews into one :) Next week I’ll have an episode and villain ranking, and hopefully also a complete overview of The Scooby Doo Show as a whole, although that might end up being the following week depending on how long it takes! From what I understand, the series quickly grows into absurdity when we truly get into the depths of the Scrappy era, which I am incredibly excited about.

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