#scoob and shag + mystery inc specifically

[cyanide-sippy-cup]

All I'm saying is that when Scooby Doo becomes public domain, I don't wanna see any low budget slashers. I wanna see the gang as immoral people who only hunt monsters for pay. I wanna see Scooby Doo in the style of Supernatural. Or Until Dawn. We already have series like Scoob and Shag and Mystery Inc (the fan series, not the official one) to show how to properly adapt a franchise in a cool new way. Now we must merely wait until you can do that, like, legally or whtv.

[mrawkweird]

I finally got see Scooby Doo Mystery Inc, and much like Spectacular Spiderman it lived up hype. It really does feel like it's everything what other bigger bolder Scooby projects tried to do and fails. It's more mature but not overbearing, has a very solid and subtle crossover with other Hanna Barbera series like Blue Falcon and Johnny Quest and a over arching story. Plus shit's just mad funny. I think the only downside is the romance specifically the one with Shag and Velma, it's focused on so much but they're both very unlikable during it, Velma for being overbearing and controlling and Shaggy for being so passive and refusing to commit plus Scooby being mad jealous for no reason. Later he has no problem with Shaggy dating the one china girl and Scoob himself get's a girlfriend so I can't see the problem.

Also from what I heard about Hot Dog Water I would assume she was in way more episodes be she's in so little that personally I find her big ship with Velma unearned.

Also I hate her chicken legs, like she looks like her legs should immediately break just by standing up

For me Mystery Incorporated will always be my favorite Scooby-Doo series because they really took the typical formula and asked "What if Scooby-Doo had an arc?". They took it to a new level and they didn't lose sight of the characters and what makes Scooby-Doo, well, Scooby-Fucking-Doo. You know, unlike certain things that fell off 4 episodes after my first initial half praise.

I honestly just use this series to push me to get back into drawing now.

Also, if I had to compare the whole Shaggy/Velma/Scooby thing to something I would definitely say it was their Troy/Britta/Abed moment from Season 4 of Community. The writers created a situation to show why they thought the pairing wouldn't work out but in my heart I'll always know what could have been if handled better. Fortunately like Community it's just a minor stumble that doesn't bring down the whole series.

They did also feed my years of Shaggy X Daphne curiosity so that brought the points back up.

And the thing about Velma and Hot Dog Water is that I wouldn't necessarily say it's unearned but more so that people did a little too much hyping it up for what we got. That sort of hype personally drives me crazy these days because it's like, if this is supposed to be natural then treat it naturally. Let's not start bouncing off the walls making it seem like an anomaly just occurred in front of our faces anytime a show or movie does this. I say "these days" but this was back in 2013 so I guess I can give it something of a pass because they touched on the possibility of Velma canonically being into women in anything before anybody else. Now fast forward to last year where everybody went "OMG; Velma's gay in the latest movie" . When I tell you this was one of the least breaking news things I ever heard. Like "Congratulations on finding out Velma likes every candy in the store. We been here".

Needless to say Mystery Incorporated is something I feel a lot of people who are into Scooby-Doo should experience. Especially if they're looking for something a little more mature than they're used to. Between this and Scoobynatural they won't need what HBO Max is pushing. We would have gotten more with them but just like Spectacular Spider-Man they got cancelled out their plans for a third season. Thankfully unlike Spectacular they were able to end in a way that can feel like a definite series ending. RIP to them chicken legs. May they be getting worn out somewhere.

[fireflake-art]

HC: Mystery Gang

The gang's all here! (Except Scoob, but this is mostly a shipping piece.)

Inspired by all the content coming across my dash, I decided to whip up a late 50th birthday for these characters; Velma Dinkley, Fred Jones, Daphne Blake and Shaggy Rogers. The OG meddling kids.

I've always loved this crew. When I was younger, my favorite aunt and I would spend the entire day in our pajamas and binge Scooby Doo movies. My favorites as a kid were Ghoul School and Cyberchase. Those are some of my fave memories with that aunt, who I recently found out isn't as good of a person as I had thought. Scooby Doo might seem childish, but these guys were my childhood, y'know? They were important to me, and they still are.

(I've actually been thinking about making an Ao3 fic about em. Can you believe it)

Down to the headcanons

- They're a polyam quad! Bi Daphne, lesbian Velma (is somewhat into guys a tad bit, she just prefers lesbian), bi (and trans) Fred, and pan Shaggy.

- Velma's Hispanic! Specifically Latina. Shaggy's half-Mexican, half-Irish. While we're at it; Daph is Asian and Fred is an all American boyo.

- Daphne's Catholic and Shaggy and Velma are Jewish

- Fred has a distant relationship with his adoptive father, ever since his adopted mom left them when Fred was a little girl. Their bond was pretty decayed already when Fred came out in his young teen years, but it only got worse from then. Fred's dad doesn't abuse him physically, or verbally; he's present, sometimes, but not in an emotional sense.

- Fred has a lot of learning disabilities, including dyslexia, dyscalculia, and ADHD. This made it hard for him in class, which is how he met Daphne and Velma in early middle school. Daph and Vel were competing for the smartest of the grade; as an attempt to get the girls to be friendly to each other, they were both assigned to tutor Fred. Fred was, and still is, a well-meaning dumbass that drinks respect women juice, so both girls warmed up to him and his attempts to get them to be friends.

They were soon assigned to Shaggy, too, who was failing his classes because he was taking too many "sick" days, when in fact he was too anxiety-filled to get out of bed and face anyone.

The group quickly became besties and shared their full selves. Velma was there when Shaggy admitted to his parents about his anxiety, and they all went to choose a support dogo for him. (Scooby's legally Shaggy's emotional support dog, but Shaggy doesn't mind sharing.)

- As young teens, the group originally went by the Scooby Doo Detective Agency, before changing it to Mystery Inc/the Mystery Gang.

- Fred wears two shirts to better hide his breasts and help his dysphoria. His white shirt is actually a sweater, and under it is a button-up fancy blue long-sleeved shirt.

- Daphne is his hairdresser and fashion advisor, as she is for all of them. Daph always makes sure that whatever she suggests is within their comfort range.

- Shaggy has a panic disorder. Scooby Doo is his emotional support animal. Shaggy uses prescription marijuana to help with it.

- Daphne is always trying to prove herself (example; always running into danger and getting kidnapped) because her parents always compared her, the youngest, to her big sisters. Her sisters were successful, wealthy and independent women, while typical Daph had to keep getting saved by her partners. She loves feeling important, like she's the focus of everyone's attention. She tries to excel at everything, but is slowly starting to get better at not sprinting blindly into danger. (You can thank the Gang for that.)

- Daphne's mother is a celebrity supermodel by most days, acholic by night/some days. Her dad is a famous author. Neither of them approve of most of the things in Daphne's life; bisexuality, polyamory, mystery solving, Velma, Fred, Shaggy, Scooby... The list goes on.

- Daphne is an honorary member of the Hex Girls. She shows up sometimes when the triad needs another voice on stage. (Also, the Hex Girls are lesbians.)

- Velma's the mom friend.

- Velma Dinkley has always had a fixation for mysteries and figuring things out. She enjoys puzzles, crosswords, riddles, detective novels, serial killer documentaries, and horror movies. (She can always guess who the killer is.)

- She is fluent in Latin, Spanish, Mandarin and Morse Code.

- Velma's incredibly flexible, having taken martial arts and gymnastics as a child.

- This isn't headcanon, but I feel the need to mention it, as I don't think a lot of people know this is actually canon in multiple movies. Velma has a little sister named Madelyn, also known as "Doe Eyes Dinkley". Madelyn is a stage magician and is in clown college. She is an extroverted woman with a giant crush on Shaggy, who she continues to pine over. Both sisters are very overprotective of each other and mostly have a friendly relationship.

- The Gang eventually drop out of their shared community college to pursue mysteries, and to get away from their disapproving parents and overwhelming responsibilities. Velma does decide to take up online courses to get her degree.

(The Mystery Gang, including football jock Fred and track captain Shaggy, could have went to more prestigious schools, the girls because of their smarts and the boys on sport scholarships, but they were pressured to stay where their parents could see them.)

And that's my headcanons for them. I didn't mention some stuff because it's canon, but I'll recap real quick; Velma has coulrophobia (clown phobia) and aquaphobia (fear of water/sea), Scooby has an excitable, somewhat annoying nephew (Scrappy Doo), they're junior detectives/amateur sleuths, Fred's allergic to cats, they live in the Mystery Van, road trip for life, Shaggy's real name is Norville, Shag was briefly a vegetarian, Shaggy can do voice impressions, he was once a junior pilot, Daphne's a black belt in karate, Daph has a motorcycle, is an amateur musician, was a journalist a couple times, the Gang occasionally break up and go their seperate ways until a long-yearned for mystery pops up and serves as an excuse to get back together, those deals.

Peace! ✌️

Reference by @croxovergoddess;

Literally only 2 progress pics;

[animatedminds]

Scoob! Review

Apologies: I watched the movie  two weeks ago, but forgot to write this because I was so busy doing the Dragonball FighterZ thing. But, with that out of the way...

An interesting ride. As a longtime Scooby Doo fan, it was pretty much a given that I would watch this installment by the Warner Animation Group as soon as possible, and I had a pretty good time - albeit with some issue. It’s a fun Scooby adventure, mostly focusing on Scooby and Shaggy, as they go on a new kind of adventure. It’s full of fun references, super charmingly animated action scenes, and lots of humor that actually nails the characters’ goofball antics without diminishing them as the butt of the joke - which is something the previous theatrical series was hit or miss about - which which is also hampered by the fact that it doesn’t really give itself enough time or space to really make any of those things shine.

Spoilers, but only a couple.

The first thing we ever heard about this movie years ago was that it was conceived as a dramatic retool of Scooby Doo into a out-and-out spy series, in order to set up a Hanna Barbera cinematic universe a la the MCU (which, given that they already had a shared universe they could adapt in Future Quest, hit a little hard), giving the impression that Scooby was going to be a pastiche of James Bond. It’s very obvious from the finished product that this concept was since heavily changed, but you still see it in the film. The gang is still the same-old gang - a bunch of kooky teen mystery solvers - but plotwise it’s very much “what if instead of solving a mystery, the gang just fought a supervillain?” Which, let’s be clear, is not unheard of for the franchise: see Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase for another story that’s mostly just “fight a cool bad guy, with a tacked on mystery,” or the other Shaggy and Scooby-centric stuff like Ghoul School or Reluctant Werewolf for other movies that just plain eschew their usual setting entirely - this is a lot like those. It’s centered around the two characters’ relationship, like pretty much every theatrical Scooby release it seems, as this new challenge almost breaks their union, and the group as usual does very well in that kind of action. Faced with an army of dimwitted robots that can go from silly to terrifying multiple times in the same scene, Scoob and Shag’s typical mix of silly bumbling with surprisingly - and destructively - clever antics make for some great scenes, my favorite being a madcap chase through an amusement park that ends with them getting away on a ferris wheel that’s been knocked of its hinges.

This is very much a movie that wants to be a Hanna Barbera crossover, but is trying hard to restrain itself. As a kid Shaggy was a fan of the Impossibles (who, iirc, were once intended to get a movie as part of this universe) with models and posters that the camera never completely focuses on, you see Laff-a-Lympics on an arcade machine, references to classic Scooby writers and actors as location names (I laughed at Messick Mountain, and the Takamoto Bowl outright went over my head at first), even little things like Scooby bowling like Fred Flintstone or the blink and you’ll miss it appearance of Yankee Doodle Pigeon - and yes, Captain Caveman shows up, fully voiced by Tracy Morgan and kicking butt for a very short scene, with one of his show’s supporting characters (Dee Dee Skyes) as a prominent in this movie’s plot. There’s even musical references in addition to visible ones: at one point, the movie even orchestrates one of the classic bits of Scooby Doo background music. I was hoping for a reference to the classic Scooby Doo / Blue Falcon theme, but alas that was one nod we didn’t get.

However, this approach does work especially well with Blue Falcon - who was originally built up through Scooby Doo, sharing a timeslot, advertisement and technically a theme song, and in time has more or less become to Scooby Doo what Donkey Kong is to Mario: technically a supporting character, but able to do his own stuff every once in a while. There have been several Blue Falcon Scooby Doo crossovers in the last few years (though in terms of sheer number of references this movie’s got nothing on Mask of the Blue Falcon), and they’ve all been very fun as each show, movie or comic reinterpreted the character to fit their specific world - and this movie’s novice Blue Falcon who is kind of an egoistical loser, but turns out to have a lot to learn even from Scooby and Shaggy’s brand of cowardly bravery, grows on you even if he has kind of a rough initial landing.

Unfortunately, this is also a movie that very much wants that rigid hour and a half timeslot, and has absolutely no interest in a going a second longer - and that’s where it’s problems come in. I’ve said before that animated films have become more and more written with expediency in mind: plot points are rushed, denouements are minimized, side or even main characters might not get much utilization, and sometimes things come of as just kind of happening to the protagonists without much set-up. Even the best or the best animation companies fall into these traps at times, and this movie is a good example of what it looks like if you fall into that too much. Take the Scooby gang - Velma, Daphne, and Fred. They’re not really fleshed out that much in this movie, even if they were tweaked a bit with their new VAs - but that’s not necessarily a problem in itself, given the heavy focus on Scooby and Shaggy. What’s more noticeable is where this intersects the plot: for example - one of the better examples of what I’m talking about - the scene that kicks off the whole story. Fred, Velma and Daphne want to expand Mystery Inc, and call Simon Cowell to invest in them. Cowell decides Scooby and Shaggy are incompetent because reasons, and the two storm off. This is later framed as the gang abandoning the duo, that’s not really what happens. Once Cowell hits the scene, beyond one or two lines the rest of the gang essentially ceases to exist, and barely reacts to anything: there’s no moments with them where they seem to buy into what Cowell is saying, there’s nothing beforehand that implies that they’re dissatisfied with Scooby and Shaggy, there’s isn’t even really a status quo for what their dynamic is like. We cut straight from them meeting as kids to them having a supposed fight as adults - this is something that wouldn’t have taken a lot of time, but would have strengthened pretty much everything, from Scooby and Shaggy’s reaction to the trio’s guilt later, but is skipped over entirely. The others get very little beyond being summed up as “the muscle” (Fred), “the face” (Daphne) and “the brains” (Velma), and it feels less like expediency and more like we missed a scene somewhere.

Granted, this particular thing also runs a unique problem that the Scooby gang face. As characters who just turned fifty and who are well entrenched in pop culture, adaptations often assume you know who they already - and this movie definitely assumes you can do its work for it and establish a baseline for the Scooby gang on your own... and on that front, I suppose it does better than the previous film series, which based a lot of its humor on fandom in-jokes they poorly assumed everyone agreed with. But... there’s a degree to which every film needs to establish a baseline for that it itself to trying to do, and I think skipping this hurt the film more than it should have. And it’s hardly the only point where the need for speed cuts out the flow of the film. Scooby and Shaggy get abducted by Blue Falcon, whose assistant then promptly exposits on everything the audience doesn’t know yet about the plot so that they can just skip straight to more action - basically setting up a question and then answering it immediately without set-up. This essentially robs Dick Dastardy - definitely the best thing about the movie - of a strong introduction, in favor of, again, expediency, and it’s kind of baffling given that there’s later scenes where the rest follows the mystery and so repeats that exposition anyway. I mentioned that Blue Falcon himself got a rough initial landing, and that’s because his intro scene is just a lot of new element popping in with exposition, interspersed with pop culture references - and that exposition just stops the whole thing cold for a while. We hit again the “expects you to know” angle with Falcon himself, who is a legacy character of the original Falcon - who we never see, which raises the question of why they bothered to make him a legacy and not just a novice hero in the first place. I’ve always been a strong believer that you can introduce elements without needless explanation unless who introduce concepts that suggest explanation: Scoob and Shag being a fan of the original Blue Falcon, Dynomutt constantly reminiscing about him, and there being a full Falcon organization around which the movie pivots, along with lots of reference, suggest the need for at least a little more than we got - even if it’s just a thirty clip of the way Blue Falcon worked before Brian (the new Falcon) came along - but the movie just wants to rush past it. The entire quest on which the plot is centered it halfway through when we first encounter it, and doesn’t get any explanation at all until halfway through the movie. And then there’s little things like  Captain Caveman cameo, which just leave you wanting more.

This happens again and again, with plot points, characters, all sorts - things introduced halfway and then brushed past as though they’re not. People don’t expect much from animated movies, and stuff like this is one of the reasons why - this movie feels sometimes like it was written for tv, which is ironic given how it ended up being released. But the movies that were themselves DTV or released to TV, like Shaggy’s Showdown or Legend of the Phantasaur, the aforementioned Mask of the Blue Falcon or - my perosnal favorite - Moon Monster Madness, even tend to not have these problems themselves, because they’re more measured and precise about what they want to introduce and why. It’s great to be childish, as long you do childish well.

But now that the criticism portion of the review is done, I will say that this doesn’t hamper the movie’s desire to be fun and easy to follow, it just makes it not as much so as it clearly could have been. If you wanted more Falcon, or more Scooby and Shaggy, more Mystery Inc shenangians, more Dastardly, more adventure, more of a certain gag or humor, more of really any of the movie’s best points, you weren’t getting them that much because the movie was trying to do all of them all at once. But one the movie starts getting traction, about halfway through, that starts to fade as everything coalesces. All the characters meet, we finally know what the heck is going on, and it’s just a straight shot to the end with lots of what this movie does best: cool visuals, silly characters doing silly things, and brave characters doing brave things. Much as I wish there was more to the Captain Caveman segment, it’s one of the most visually hilarious parts of the movie, with the stark contrast of these hi-tech, modern character colliding with these explicitly more cartoony prehistoric designs and antics, and its just wonderful. Everything about Dick Dastardly’s story is great - though I was wishing for a Penelope Pitstop reference - and he even gets a heartwarming conclusion to the whole thing.

I don’t know where the series is going after this - whether they do indeed intend to make more Hanna Barbera movies in this vein. The credits teased Johnny Quest, Frankenstein Jr, Grape Ape (who according to concept art was supposed to be in this one), Atom Ant, and even a bit of Wacky Races, and it’s clear they have the love for classic Hanna Barbera to make it happen. I just hope that if they do, they go with a series who can expand this in a more concise way, with a little better character introduction. I’ve still got my fingers crossed for Future Quest.

The film is still very recommended by me. I loved it, I watched it twice, and it a heck of a lot of fun even with its hang-ups. If you haven’t seen it, there are worse ways for a parent, a kid, or just a big ol’ child at heart to spend an afternoon.

[ravenwolf1132]

Scooby Doo Au One-Shot

(OK! I'm sure you guys saw the Chimera fusion of Shaggy and Scooby post I reblogged, and I said I'd make an au so here we go!)

When Shaggy and Scooby volunteered to do the research for the case they were doing, Fred wanted to object and say that the girls should do it. But, then again, the older boy and his dog deserved a break from monsters once in awhile, so he allowed it. Only once they swore they would actually do the research. When Fred, Daphne, and Velma came back to the library late that night, they were surprised to see that the boys had actually kept their promise.

Shaggy was passed out cold on the table laying on a binder open to one of the many pages tucked inside, with a large, old, textbook propped up on one of the piles of other books surrounding him. Loose leaf paper was scattered across the table top with strange diagrams, complex equations, and sloppily written notes. Next to him, there was a neat pile of books with a handwritten note on top. Scooby was collapsed underneath a pile of books with a couple open under his paws. The boys were definitely hard at work.

“Wow.” Velma said, stunned. “I've seen them asleep surrounded by food before but never by books!”

“I guess he wasn't kidding when he said he'd take up the research this time…” Daphne muttered.

Fred stared at Shaggy, he never thought the older boy had it in him. He smiled, proud of his friend. “C'mon girls,” he said, “Let's just let him rest. He deserves it.”

“Wait, what's this?” Daphne asked, picking up the note on the smallest stack of books.

Like,

Hey Gang!

I'll probs be out cold by the time you guys get back, so here are the books I found on our “monster”. Just don't touch my own, personal, research. (That means you, Velma!)

~ Shaggy

“‘Personal Research?’” Velma echoed, reaching for one of the loose leaf papers. “What could he possibly be working on--?”

In that moment, just before she could grab one of the papers, Shaggy's hand lashed out and snatched her wrist. “Like, didn't I tell you not touch my research?” Shaggy said with a tired growl. “How would you like it if I looked through your computer?”

“I - I was just--” Shaggy gave her a practiced bitchface. “Ok, ok, fine. Sorry…”

Shaggy let go of her arm and stretched. “Scoob!” he called. Scooby jerked up, books flying everywhere. “C'mon, bud. Let's clean this up.”

“Right Raggy!”

Shaggy and Scooby quickly got to work gathering up the books and putting away their notes. Scooby took some of the books he had and disappeared into the many shelves of books. Shaggy began to organize his papers and filing them away into specific spots in the binder. Each of the other members of the Mystery Inc managed to get small glimpses of the notes but they couldn't make heads or tails of them.

“Hey, Shag?” Fred asked. “If you don't mind me asking, what were you even working on?”

Scooby had come back in that moment and froze along side Shaggy. The boy and his dog shared a wary glance.

“Raggy,” Scooby said, slowly. “Rhy don't re just tell them? Rhey could relp us…”

“Scooby…” Shaggy started.

“Shaggy, if something’s wrong, you know you can always--” Daphne said, before she was violently interrupted by Shaggy with an angry snap.

“Is your name ‘Scooby’, Daphne?” He snapped with a cold glare, his tone shocked everyone into silence. He gave a sigh, “I'm sorry, it's just… I know you guys want to help, but this is, like, personal.”

He took the last of the books and disappeared into the numerous rows of shelves. Scooby sighed and turned to them.

“Ri'm sorry, everyone.” He said with a bow of his head, “Rit's just… this ris a… touchy subject for him. For both of us.”

[reallyhardy]

It's not something I think I've seen you draw before, but how do you feel about Shaggy x Daphne? In some series in the franchise, I think it works (13 Ghosts and the first two live action movies especially).

oh man!!! this is a big one for me yeah! it never really occurred to me watching the live actions but in 13 ghosts – definitely. there’s the one episode where daphne goes all sleeping beauty and she needs a kiss of true love and, against years and years of fred/daph and shaggy/velmster i was like oh BOY shagster better smooch her. it was that day i realised i could ship poly mystery inc and nobody could stop me, and any and all combos of fred+daphne+shaggy+velma are good. are great.

but specifically shag and daph??? love it. in my personal modern AU they’re the furthest from each other in terms of upbringing (rich girl, poor boy) (can you say diamonds on the soles of her shoes as a song for them?) and initially daphne’s more an alpha bitch who might sneer down on him a bit, but as they get to know each other she’s amazed by how generous this boy is despite growing up with very little, and she desperately wants to shower him with affection. and also - stuff. she buys him so much stuff, mainly clothes and at first she starts trying to buy him fashionable, nice, smart things in a desperate bid to shape him from thrift store scruff to the kinda guy her mother would approve of, but after a while she realises that he’s just not comfortable like that, so she stops trying to get him to comb his hair and instead starts finding things in vintage stores that still suit him, but they’re nicer than his pre-owned-by-like-five-people tees and jeans.

in return, shaggy practices baking to impress her. (he’s good at making burgers and the greasy, truck-stop stuff that he, fred, velm and scoob all wolf down, but daphne’s a superfood shakes kinda gal). so he practices making gluten free desserts and tries super, super hard to make them pretty. at her giant fancy birthday bash, he makes her a cake and even wears a suit she picked for him, even though his ruffled 70s shirt was begging him to wear it. yeah, i LOVE shaggyxdaphne. thanks for asking!