Today’s retrospective is going to be a fun one, folks,
because we’re about to delve into one of the most iconic franchises in pop
culture history. It’s a franchise whose legacy is so strong that it has managed
to endure for half a century and still shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
Yes, folks, today we’re talking about the adventures of that lovable talking
dog, Scooby-Doo. It all began in 1969 when writers Joe Ruby and Ken
Spears developed the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! series for
Hanna-Barbera, officially introducing audiences to the Mystery Inc. gang; Fred,
Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and their talking dog, Scooby-Doo. Since then, this
original incarnation of the show has gone on to produce numerous follow-up
series that have taken the franchise in unique new directions and several
films. While most of these films have gone direct-to-video, a few of them did
see a theatrical release, and this weekend sees the video-on-demand release (which
was originally meant to be a theatrical one until the Coronavirus pandemic
stepped in) of the newest Scooby-Doo film, simply titled Scoob.
And in honor of its release, today we’re looking back at some of the Scooby-Doo
films that have come out over the years, and I do mean some since… well, there’s
like forty of them and I’d be here all day if I discussed them all. With that
in mind, I decided to primarily focus on six films; four of them animated and
two of them live-action. When it comes to the animated Scooby-Doo films,
there are four films that I feel are the ones that my generation is the most
familiar with, so those will be the ones that I’ll be focusing on even though
there were a few from the early 2000s that I remember watching when I was
younger. But, of course, Scoob isn’t the character’s first foray into
theatrically-released films (you know, back when it was meant to be
theatrical), so I’ll also be covering the two live-action Scooby-Doo films
that came out in the early 2000s. And so, with all that in mind, it’s time to
split up and search for clues (and don’t forget about the Scooby snacks) as we look
at some of the most notable feature-length films that star the one and only
Scooby-Doo.
But first, let’s
delve a little into the history behind this franchise’s run on the small
screen…
PART 1 – A History
of Scooby-Doo TV Shows
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| Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969-1970) |
It all began, of course, with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You,
which premiered on CBS on September 13th, 1969 as part of the
network’s Saturday morning lineup. The show was primarily created to counter
growing protests from parent-run advocacy groups over the increasing amount of
violence seen in Saturday-morning cartoons. And as it turns out, Hanna-Barbera
was responsible for a lot of the shows that these groups were against,
including Space Ghost and The Herculoids, which had all been
canceled that same year because of all this. To both appease the watch groups
and to revitalize the network’s Saturday-morning lineup, CBS’s daytime
programming executive at the time, Fred Silverman, approached William Hanna and
Joseph Barbera to develop a show that was like the network’s hit series, The
Archie Show. Since that show was about the characters of the famous Archie
comic series performing in a band, Silverman tasked the duo with creating a
show about a teenage rock band who solved mysteries between gigs. Hanna and
Barbera then proceeded to put two of their writers, Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, and
artist Iwao Takamoto in charge of the project, and while the idea of the main
characters being in a rock band was ultimately scrapped after a while, it would
eventually result in the show that we know and love today. And so, Scooby-Doo,
Where Are You was born, introducing audiences to the teenaged
mystery-solving gang known as Mystery Inc, consisting of their confident leader
Fred Jones, fashion-lover Daphne Blake, bespectacled genius Velma Dinkley, cowardly
slacker Shaggy Rogers, and their talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo.
The original show promptly established the series’
long-running formula. Each episode revolved around the Mystery Inc gang as they
travel to a location that’s currently dealing with a supernatural monster. Once
they agree to investigate, the gang splits up to search for clues. Fred and
Velma head off to find clues, Daphne usually ends up kidnapped, and Shaggy and
Scooby search for food before they inadvertently come across the monster. After
coming across enough clues to deduce that the monster isn’t real, Fred comes up
with an elaborate trap to catch it. And while the trap usually goes awry due to
cartoon hi-jinx, the monster is ultimately captured and is promptly unmasked to
reveal the culprit, who is usually someone that the gang had met earlier. The
culprit then proceeds to boast that they “would have gotten away with it too, if it weren’t for those meddling kids and their dog” before being taken to
jail. The show proved to be a massive hit for both CBS and Hanna-Barbera, and
after a 17-episode first season, it was renewed for a second season that premiered
on September 12th, 1970 and consisted of 8 episodes. This second
season incorporated more slapstick humor into the show and upbeat ‘chase scene’
songs that were reminiscent of those featured in The Archie Show. It was
also notable for being the season where Heather North officially took over the
role of Daphne from Stefanianna Christopherson. And while there would
technically be a third season of the show (more on that later), Scooby-Doo,
Where Are You officially ended its original run on October 31st,
1970 after 25 episodes.
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| The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972-1973) |
Two years later, the show was reborn as The New
Scooby-Doo Movies, which premiered on September 9th, 1972. While
it thoroughly maintained the premise of its predecessor, it was also expanded from
half-hour episodes to hour-long episodes (hence the ‘Movies’ subtitle) and each
episode featured a notable guest star who helped the gang solve mysteries. Some
of the series’ most notable guests included Don Knotts, Dick Van Dyke, and while
technically voiced by other actors, the Three Stooges. This version of the show
lasted two seasons and ran for 24 episodes, with its last episode airing on
October 27th, 1973. After that, reruns of Scooby-Doo, Where Are
You were shown until 1976 when the franchise’s run on CBS had finally come
to an end. It proceeded to move to ABC around the same time that Fred Silverman
moved to the network and started its run there by packaging new episodes of the
show with another Hanna-Barbera show, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, to create the
Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour. First debuting on September 11th,
1976, the Scooby-Doo segments came from the series’ third incarnation, The
Scooby-Doo Show, although this title technically wouldn’t be used until
1980 when the episodes hit syndication. This series introduced a new character
in Scooby’s dim-witted cousin Scooby-Dum… who only appeared in this series
(that should give you an idea of how the character was received). 16 episodes
of this crossover were produced, concluding on December 18th, 1976,
but The Scooby-Doo Show would live on in subsequent programming blocks. 8
new episodes were made for a block titled Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics,
which ran from September 10th, 1977 to October 28th, 1978
and consisted of it, Dynomutt (now known as The Blue Falcon and
Dynomutt), Laff-A-Lympics, Captain Cavemen and the Teen Angels,
and Where Are You re-runs.
 |
| The Scooby-Doo Show (1976-1978) |
The second run of this block was retitled Scooby’s
All-Stars and it ran from September 9th, 1978 to October 28th
of that same year. Whereas Scooby’s All-Star Laff-A-Lympics was a
two-hour block, Scooby’s All-Stars was condensed down to an hour and a
half one with the removal of The Blue Falcon and Dynomutt and the
re-runs of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You. With that said, though, 9 of the 16
The Scooby-Doo Show episodes that were produced that year were designated
as Where Are You episodes. And while the following 7 episodes were run
under the Scooby’s All-Stars moniker, all 16 episodes were officially repurposed
under the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You name when they were released on DVD
in 2007. Yes, folks, this is where the mythical third season of Scooby-Doo,
Where Are You that I mentioned earlier comes into play. As such, the
original series that started it all officially concluded on December 23rd,
1978 on ABC with a total of 41 episodes over 3 seasons. At this time, however,
the series was beginning to face a serious dilemma as Hanna-Barbera had begun
to feel that its formula had officially run its course. This was especially evident
in the 1979 primetime special Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood, which was a
parody of said formula in which Shaggy and Scooby attempt to move on to other
shows when the former gets tired of their same old routine. Meanwhile, in the
real world, ABC had begun looking into the show’s potential cancellation due to
declining ratings. It also didn’t help that the show’s original backer, Fred
Silverman, was now working for NBC. Thus, the show was massively retooled for
the 1979-80 season, namely by introducing a brand-new character in Scooby-Doo’s
nephew, Scrappy-Doo, and renaming the show Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.
 |
| Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo (1979-1980 (Half-Hour Incarnation)) |
Through this new show, the focus shifted from the original
Mystery Inc. gang to the trio of Scooby, Scrappy, and Shaggy. Fred, Daphne, and
Velma, meanwhile, were reduced to minor supporting roles. Nowadays, Scrappy is
generally considered to be one of the most reviled characters to come out of
the franchise due to many finding him to be a massively annoying sidekick; not
even Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, the franchise’s creators, were fans of him. But
back in 1979, this new addition was exactly what the show needed to stay on the
air. The first incarnation of this version of the show ran for one season,
debuting on September 22nd, 1979 and concluding on January 5th,
1980 after 16 episodes. It was then followed by a different version of Scooby-Doo
and Scrappy-Doo, which ran for 33 episodes for 3 seasons,
beginning on November 8th, 1980 and concluding on December 18th,
1982. Instead of traditional 30-minute episodes, this new version of the show
consisted of three 7-minute shorts per episode. These episodes removed Fred,
Daphne, and Velma entirely and deviated from the franchise’s formula by having
the monsters that the trio come across be actual monsters instead of costumed
criminals. The first 20 episodes were packaged with another Hanna-Barbera show,
Richie Rich, to form The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show. As for the
final 13 episodes, they were packaged with The Puppy’s New Adventures in
The Scooby and Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour. And to close out this ‘trilogy’
of shows featuring Scrappy-Doo, there was The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo
Show, which debuted on September 10th, 1983. It was later
renamed The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries in 1984 and ended on December 1st
after 2 seasons and 26 episodes. Through this show, the series returned to the
traditional half-hour long format and notably brought back Daphne to the main
ensemble while Fred and Velma returned for some episodes in Season 2.
 |
| The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985) |
The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show was also notably
the first entry of the series to be primarily developed by writer Tom Ruegger,
who would later go on to create other classic shows such as Tiny Toon
Adventures and the seminal staple that is Animaniacs. He would also oversee
the development of the next installment of the franchise, The 13 Ghosts of
Scooby-Doo, which debuted on September 7th, 1985. In this show, Scooby
and Shaggy accidentally open an ancient chest that unleashes the 13 most
terrifying ghosts in the world, resulting in them, Scrappy, and Daphne having
to travel the world to recapture them. Along the way, they are joined by a con artist
named Flim Flam and his warlock friend Vincent Van Ghoul who, as the name
suggests, was voiced by the legendary Vincent Price. Despite all this, the show
only lasted a single season that, ironically, consisted of 13 episodes and
concluded on December 7th of that year. Because of this, however, the
show ended before the gang had captured the final ghost. Thus, this whole
storyline was left unfinished until 2019 when, in an arguably unexpected turn
of events, the direct-to-video feature Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13th
Ghost was released to give this iteration of the franchise its proper
conclusion. The film also featured Fred and Velma, who were both absent in the
original series. As for the show itself, it ended up being the last main entry
of the series to feature Scrappy-Doo, who would then go on to make some appearances
in three of the franchise’s made-for-television features (Scooby-Doo Meets
the Boo Brothers (1987), Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, and Scooby-Doo
and the Reluctant Werewolf (both in 1988)). He ultimately wouldn’t return
to the franchise until the 2002 live-action film, where he was turned into the
main antagonist to poke fun at the character’s controversial reputation.
 |
| A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (1988-1991) |
While 13 Ghosts may have been a bit of a dud for the
franchise, Tom Ruegger ended up having much more success with the next
installment of the series, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, which debuted on
September 10th, 1988. Ruegger would end up leaving the show after
its first season, however, which resulted in directorial duties going to Don
Lusk, a veteran animator who notably worked for Disney on some of their
earliest features such as Pinocchio and Bambi. As for this new
show, the title says it all as it focuses on the members of the Mystery Inc
gang when they were kids. The show was meant to return the franchise to its
roots by revitalizing the classic formula of the gang investigating mysteries
that involved criminals dressed up as monsters. But if there was one notable
difference compared to previous incarnations of the show, it’s that this show
was done in a much more comedic manner that was reminiscent of the classic
cartoons made by Tex Avery and Bob Clampett. This style of humor was what
Ruegger had wanted to do with The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo but wasn’t
quite able to accomplish with that show. Suffice it to say, it worked a lot
better the second time around as A Pup Named Scooby-Doo proved to be a
solid hit. While its episode count may seem lackluster compared to other incarnations
of the show with only 27 episodes produced during its run, it did last for 4
seasons before it concluded on August 17th, 1991. On a more somber
note, this was the last instance where Scooby-Doo was voiced by his original
voice actor, Don Messick, before his passing in 1997. After this show, the
character was voiced by Hadley Kay for a pair of Johnny Bravo crossover episodes
in 1997 before Scott Innes took over the role for the first few direct-to-video
features of the era.
 |
| What's New, Scooby-Doo? (2002-2006) |
Surprisingly, though, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was the
last major Scooby-Doo series for more than a decade. For the next few
years, the franchise transitioned into direct-to-video features that primarily
came into play thanks to its various shows benefitting greatly from syndication
and re-runs. The last of these initial films, 2001’s Scooby-Doo and the
Cyber Chase, was the last Hanna-Barbera production that both William Hanna
and Joseph Barbera produced before the former’s death on March 22nd,
2001. After that, the studio was fully absorbed into the Warner Bros. Animation
department, who proceeded to take control of the development of new Scooby-Doo
shows. Thus, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was the last installment of the
franchise to primarily air on ABC as the next two shows premiered on the Kids’
WB block. The first of these was What’s New, Scooby-Doo, which debuted
on September 14th, 2002, exactly three months after the release of
the first live-action Scooby-Doo film. What’s New, Scooby-Doo promptly
revived the franchise’s original format from Where Are You but made
appropriate updates to reflect its modern setting. It was the first series
where veteran voice actor Frank Welker officially took on the role of Scooby-Doo,
having already been the voice of Fred since the original Where Are You series.
It was also the first time since 1997 that Shaggy’s original voice actor, Casey
Kasem, returned to voice the character after the production crew agreed to
honor his request to make Shaggy a vegetarian just like him. At the same time,
though, this would also end up being the last series where he voiced the
character before his death in 2014, although he did reprise the role for the franchise’s
various direct-to-video features and would then make a few cameo appearances in
subsequent shows before he retired from voice acting in 2009. The show ran for
42 episodes for three seasons, and while its initial run on Kids’
WB abruptly ended in 2005, its final episode, ‘E-Scream’, aired on Cartoon
Network on July 21st, 2006.
 |
| Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! (2006-2008) |
Two months later, the next iteration of the series made its
debut on Kids’ WB (which, at this point, was now part of the network’s
rebranding from The WB to The CW) on September 23rd, Shaggy and
Scooby-Doo Get a Clue. The show saw the characters undergo a notable
redesign (the second major instance of this in the franchise’s history after A
Pup Named Scooby-Doo) that was heavily based on their live-action
counterparts from the recent films. And while Casey Kasem was still involved
with the franchise as the voice of Shaggy’s uncle, Shaggy himself was voiced by
Scott Menville, best known for his role as Robin on Teen Titans. This
may explain why this new show did away with the character’s vegetarian update
from What’s New, Scooby-Doo. In the show, Shaggy ends up inheriting the
fortune of his uncle, Dr. Albert Shaggleford, after he mysteriously disappears.
This then leads to him and Scooby discovering that his uncle was an inventor
and them having to deal with his uncle’s greatest adversary, mad scientist Dr.
Phineas Phibes, who seeks to steal Shaggleford’s latest invention, nano-tech.
Like the Scooby and Scrappy-Doo shows, this series focused more on
Shaggy and Scooby while Fred, Daphne, and Velma were reduced to cameo
appearances. Thus, the two were instead accompanied by Robi, a robotic butler
that was built by Shaggy’s uncle. Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue ran
for 2 seasons, officially concluding on March 15th, 2008. A few
months later, the Kids’ WB block was officially discontinued on May 17th.
Thus, the next few Scooby-Doo shows made their debut on Cartoon Network,
which had been airing re-runs of the franchise since the ’90s.
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| Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010-2013) |
The first of these new shows was Scooby-Doo: Mystery
Incorporated, which premiered on April 5th, 2010, and after Shaggy
and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue admittedly fared poorly with fans of the
franchise, this new show went back to the traditional premise of the Mystery
Inc. gang solving mysteries. However, to keep things fresh, Mystery
Incorporated went for a tongue-in-cheek approach that parodied both the
franchise itself and classic horror films. It was also the first Scooby-Doo series
to utilize a serial-based story arc and was generally more serious in tone
compared to other incarnations of the franchise. For this show, the role of
Shaggy was taken over by Matthew Lillard who, of course, played the character
in the first two live-action films. The show even featured Linda Cardellini,
who played Velma in the live-action films, in a supporting role as Velma’s
rival Marcie Fleach AKA Hot Dog Water. The show ran for 2 seasons consisting of
52 episodes and concluded exactly three years after it premiered on April 5th,
2013. It was then followed by Be Cool, Scooby-Doo, which premiered on
October 5th, 2015. It was the third entry of the series to attempt a
new art style, which many have often compared to the long-running animated
sitcom Family Guy, and it went for a more comedic tone compared to its
immediate predecessor. It was the first series where Velma was voiced by
Garfunkel and Oates’ Kate Micucci, who took over the role from Mindy Cohn, who
had been voicing the character since What’s New, Scooby-Doo. However,
the show had a rather interesting release schedule. While the first 20 episodes
aired on Cartoon Network, the remaining 6 episodes of the first season aired on
Boomerang. After that, the show moved to Boomerang for its second season;
however, only its final 11 episodes aired on TV while the first 15 were
released via Boomerang’s on-demand service. The show officially concluded on
March 18th, 2018 after 52 episodes.
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| Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! (2015-2018) |
This brings us to the most recent incarnation of the
franchise, Scooby-Doo and Guess Who. It first premiered on Boomerang’s
streaming service app on June 27th, 2019, although it would also be shown
on Cartoon Network on July 9th. The show follows the same format as The
New Scooby-Doo Movies by having the Mystery Inc gang join forces with a
special celebrity guest star to solve mysteries. At the time of this post’s
publication, some of its most notable guests have included Weird Al Yankovic, Penn
and Teller, and even a few fictional characters such as Batman, Wonder Woman,
and Steve Urkel from the classic 90’s sitcom Family Matters. Unlike its
spiritual predecessor, however, this show’s episodes are only a half-hour long
instead of a full hour. The first season of 13 episodes concluded on September
19th, 2019, and a second season of 13 episodes has been confirmed
for a currently undetermined release date, although the first of these new
episodes (which guest-starred Whoopi Goldberg) did premiere on September 24th
via Boomerang’s Italian network. And so, ladies and gentlemen, that concludes this
little retrospective covering the Scooby-Doo franchise’s extensive run
on television. Since 1969, there have been 13 major animated series based
around the Mystery Inc gang. And while these beloved characters have undergone
quite a few changes over the decades in the franchise’s efforts to freshen up its
formula, whether by showing them as kids or by introducing new characters to
the cast, the core elements of the franchise have always been consistent
throughout. Because of this, it is quite arguably one of the greatest examples
of a franchise that can successfully appeal to any generation; there aren’t
many franchises out there who can lay claim to the prospect of maintaining a
relevant role in the pop-cultural zeitgeist like Scooby-Doo has.
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| Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? (2019-present) |
PART 2 – Scooby-Doo
Animated Features
Like I said in the
intro, I won’t be able to cover every single animated feature that has come
from the Scooby-Doo franchise simply because it would take too long to
go through them all. And while there were a few that I watched when I was
younger thanks to them repeatedly airing on Cartoon Network, like 2003’s Scooby-Doo
and the Legend of the Vampire and 2004’s Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness
Monster, I decided to limit it to the four that are arguably the most
well-known of the 33 direct-to-video films that have been made since 1998.
SCOOBY-DOO ON
ZOMBIE ISLAND (1998)
We start things off, of course, with what is arguably the
most popular installment of the Scooby-Doo films, 1998’s Scooby-Doo
on Zombie Island, in which the gang heads to a mysterious island on the
bayou that’s haunted by the ghost of an old pirate and his zombified crew. Thanks
to the franchise’s resurgence in the 90’s thanks to syndicated re-runs, this
became the first in a long line of direct-to-video feature-length Scooby-Doo
films that still runs to this very day. Like I said, this film was that big
of a hit for the franchise, and while I’ll admit that my recent viewing of it
was the first time that I ever watched it in full, I can clearly see why it has
always been so fondly remembered. For one thing, the film boasts some excellent
animation, which I know is saying something considering how Hanna-Barbera productions
have always been rather infamous for some of their cost-cutting techniques
(e.g. reused backgrounds, limited animation, etc.). By comparison, Zombie
Island’s animation was outsourced to a Japanese studio, Mook Animation, and
the crew was given more time than usual to work on it, resulting in some incredibly
atmospheric animation that perfectly matches the film’s bayou setting. And
thanks to how it sets up a new standard for the franchise by having a darker
storyline where the monsters weren’t just costumed criminals, Zombie Island ends
up being one of the best-written installments of the franchise. Plus, while the
film did get quite a bit of flak at the time for being too scary for younger
audiences, nowadays I’d argue that it’s quite tame despite its premise. Because
of all this, I’d argue that Zombie Island is the franchise equivalent of
the Batman franchise’s 1993 cult classic, Batman: Mask of the
Phantasm. In other words, Zombie Island is so well-made that it
could’ve easily been upgraded to a full-on theatrical release, and even if it
ended up being a commercial dud like Mask of the Phantasm admittedly was
when it was first released, I bet that it probably would’ve spawned the same
kind of dedicated cult following. And yet, Zombie Island clearly didn’t
need a theatrical release to become a bona fide cult classic.
Rating: 4.5/5
(It’s also worth
noting that this film ended up getting a sequel in 2019, Scooby-Doo: Return
to Zombie Island. However, to keep this retrospective from going on too
long, we won’t be looking at it today… plus, based on what I’ve read, this one
isn’t exactly popular amongst fans of the original for various reasons that
range from a controversial retcon to a considerable tonal shift).
SCOOBY-DOO AND THE
WITCH’S GHOST (1999)
Thanks to the success of Zombie Island, a second
direct-to-video feature was put into production to come out the following year,
Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost. However, whereas the filmmakers were
able to work on Zombie Island without any direct influence from the
studio, it wasn’t the same case with Witch’s Ghost, namely through the
hiring of different writers whose original ending saw the titular ‘Witch’s
Ghost’ revealed to be a fake. And yet, despite both this and the decision to
tone things down after the darker proceedings of Zombie Island, the
core crew was able to work around this by having a real ghost at the end
so that they could maintain the ‘realistic monsters’ approach of its
predecessor. With all this in mind, Witch’s Ghost is another solid
installment in the series and once again features some excellent animation. It
may not necessarily be as well-polished or atmospheric as its immediate
predecessor, but as a native New Englander, I do appreciate how the film
perfectly captures the beauty of the region in the fall. This one also has some
fun supporting players headlined by Tim Curry as a popular horror novelist who
asks the Mystery Inc gang to accompany him to his hometown in Massachusetts,
which is supposedly haunted by the ghost of his Wiccan ancestor. The film is
also notable for the introduction of the Hex Girls, an eco-Goth band who would
end up becoming major fan-favorites and recurring characters in the franchise with
appearances in some future direct-to-video features and shows like What’s
New Scooby-Doo and Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated. And so, despite
the setback of the original crew having to deal with new writers that weren’t
as familiar with their methods, Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost is
another delightfully dark and entertaining adventure with the gang. While it
may not be ‘as good’ as its immediate predecessor, this one does just enough to
maintain its more mature and atmospheric style.
Rating: 4/5
SCOOBY-DOO AND THE
ALIEN INVADERS (2000)
The title for this one says it all as the Mystery Inc gang comes
across a bunch of aliens while they’re stranded in New Mexico. And luckily for
the crew that had been responsible for these initial direct-to-video features,
the production of Alien Invaders was a lot more like Zombie Island rather
than Witch’s Ghost in that they were able to work on it without any
major demands from the studio. However, it is worth noting that, of the direct-to-video
features we’ve discussed so far, Alien Invaders is perhaps the most
light-hearted of the bunch. While the titular aliens are excellently designed
and the film still does a decent job of maintaining the solid animation style of
its predecessors, its overall proceedings feel much more in line with the traditional
atmosphere of the franchise’s past incarnations. It’s also easily the most straight-forward
of the bunch in terms of its script and doesn’t pull any major punches except
for one major reveal near the end regarding two of its new characters. Overall,
though, that doesn’t stop the film from being another entertaining adventure
with the Mystery Inc gang since I do feel that its lighter and arguably more
comedic tone matches the typical campy nature of classic sci-fi B-films. The
film even sees Shaggy and Scooby get to have their own love interests when they
meet a photographer named Crystal and her dog Amber. Granted, the two of them do
turn out to be aliens at the end, but it’s rather nice to see Shaggy and Scooby
get to partake in a romantic subplot since that’s not the kind of storyline that
they usually get involved in when it comes to this franchise. And so, Scooby-Doo
and the Alien Invaders ends up being quite a lot of fun. While those who
prefer the truly atmospheric and haunting style of Zombie Island might
be disappointed by how this film ends up going back to the traditional antics
of a typical Scooby-Doo mystery, I’d argue that there’s nothing wrong
with that classic Scooby-Doo vibe.
Rating: 4/5
SCOOBY-DOO AND THE
CYBER CHASE (2001)
I can safely say that the last of the direct-to-video Scooby-Doo
features that we’ll be looking at today, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase,
is the one that I’ve watched the most out of these four. Simply put, the fact that
this film revolved around the Mystery Inc gang getting transported into a video
game instantly made it appealing to me when I was younger since I’m just as passionate
about video games as I am with films. However, I should note that, for the crew
that had been working on these direct-to-video features, this was,
unfortunately, another case like Witch’s Ghost where they were severely
hindered by studio interference. Just like that film, they had to deal with the
studio bringing in a new writer who had no experience with the franchise and
delivered a script that the crew was vastly underwhelmed by. And because of
this, Cyber Chase was ultimately the final entry of the series that the
core crew behind Zombie Island was personally responsible for; with that
in mind, I can see why some may consider this to be the weakest of the first
four direct-to-video features. Not only is the main villain, the Phantom Virus,
an incredibly passive antagonist, but the plot itself is even more basic in its
execution than Alien Invaders. This one also happens to have the
weakest animation out of these four films. While I wouldn’t call it ‘terrible’,
I also wouldn’t be surprised if some people thought that this was just an
extended episode of What’s New, Scooby-Doo (ironically, though, this is
the only entry of the four that’s been given a Blu-Ray release). At the very
least, there are a few worthwhile moments here and there, especially towards
the end when the gang meets up with their digital doppelgangers since the game
that they’re in is based on their adventures. And so, because of this, I still find
this to be an entertaining outing despite its various shortcomings. We may be
far removed from the quality of Zombie Island at this point, but for
those like me who grew up with this one, I’d say that it’s still a decent watch
even if it isn’t quite as good as its predecessors.
Rating: 3/5
PART 3- Scooby-Doo
Live-Action Films
Once again, I want to
preface this next section of the retrospective by noting that I’ll only be
covering the first two live-action Scooby-Doo films since they were the
ones that were released in theaters (that and they’re the only ones of these
that I’ve seen) while the others were direct-to-video releases. In 2009, there
was a prequel, Scooby-Doo: The Mystery Begins, which was then followed
by a sequel in 2010, Scooby-Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster. There was
also a spin-off that was released in 2018, Daphne and Velma, which
focused solely on the titular duo.
SCOOBY-DOO (2002)
After being in the works since the mid-’90s, a live-action Scooby-Doo
film finally came to fruition in the early 2000s under the direction of
Raja Gosnell, a long-time editor in the industry who has worked on everything
from the Home Alone films (he would end up directing the Macaulay
Culkin-less third installment in 1997) to Mrs. Doubtfire. But perhaps the
most interesting member of the film’s crew is one of its writers, James Gunn.
Yes, more than a decade before he became known as the director of the Guardians
of the Galaxy films, Scooby-Doo served as one of Gunn’s first major
outings as a screenwriter. Originally, the plan was to have the film be a dark
parody of the franchise that would be based around many of the classic fan
theories about the original show, such as Shaggy being a stoner and Velma being
a closeted lesbian. In other words, this version of the film would’ve very much
been in line with the kind of projects that Gunn would become known for. And yet,
while Gunn has since gone on to state that an R-rated cut of the film does
exist, it was ultimately toned down to a more family-friendly PG rating. That
said, though, several of the intended adult jokes can still be found in the
film, resulting in a fascinating hybrid that, while technically geared towards
kids, still wants to have something there for the adults (e.g. Shaggy finds a
new love interest (Isla Fisher), whose name is Mary Jane. His response? “Like,
that is my favorite name!”). However, this didn’t stop the film from garnering a
mixed-to-negative reaction from both critics and fans of the franchise; thus,
nowadays many tend to view it as one of the prime examples of a lackluster
live-action adaptation of a popular animated franchise along with the likes of Alvin
and the Chipmunks and Yogi Bear. And yet, while I fully recognize
that this may just be my nostalgia talking since I watched this one quite a lot
when I was growing up, I’d argue that there are some genuinely good things in
this film and a lot of it has to do with the main cast. Say what you will about
the rest of the film, but I think most would agree that the casting of the
Mystery Inc gang was quite perfect.
While the 2003 Looney Tunes film Back in Action poked
fun at his performance by having his animated counterpart accuse him of making
him sound “like a total space cadet”, Matthew Lillard nails the role of Shaggy
to the point where, as noted earlier, it led to him officially taking on the role
from Casey Kasem after his retirement. Meanwhile, Linda Cardellini is an
equally pitch-perfect choice for Velma as is Freddie Prinze Jr. as Fred. And when
it comes to casting Daphne, who gets a great character update here where she
evolves from being more than just the damsel in distress, you honestly can’t go
wrong with Buffy the Vampire Slayer herself, Sarah Michelle Gellar. Pair this
with some solidly funny lines here and there and some delightfully quirky
production design and you have a film that I’m not afraid to admit that I still
enjoy even after all this time. Now don’t get me wrong, this is far from being
a flawless flick. Is it incredibly cheesy in that early 2000’s family film kind
of way? Yeah. Is it rather confused as to what kind of film it wants to be,
potentially alienating both sides of its target audience in the process? Yeah, especially
since it strays heavily from the franchise’s well-established formula by opening
with the gang splitting up a la Zombie Island. And unlike that film,
where the gang disbanded on completely amicable terms, this film’s split ends
up being far more bitter by comparison. Ultimately, though, while I do understand
why this film doesn’t exactly have the best reputation amongst longtime fans of
the franchise, it still manages to be a lot of fun. All in all, it’s a
perfectly undemanding popcorn flick that, thanks to its reasonably short run-time,
never ends up overstaying its welcome. And as far as being one of those infamous
live-action adaptations of a popular cartoon, I’d argue that it’s far from
being one of the worst to come from that genre.
Rating: 4/5
SCOOBY-DOO 2:
MONSTERS UNLEASHED (2004)
While the first live-action Scooby-Doo film wasn’t
exactly a critical darling, it was still a sizable hit at the box-office, grossing
over $275 million worldwide. Thus, a sequel was promptly put into production,
reteaming the main leads with director Raja Gosnell and writer James Gunn. And
instead of a plot that was fully intent on satirizing the franchise, Scooby-Doo
2: Monsters Unleashed features a far more traditional Scooby-Doo plot
as the gang deals with a mysterious masked figure who’s been bringing all the
monsters that they’ve caught in the past to life. It’s also worth noting that
this sequel does away with a lot of the adult jokes that were left over from
its predecessor’s R-rated origins, resulting in a more generally light-hearted
adventure. However, this also means that a lot of the lowbrow humor that was in
the first film is even more common here. And yet, this is another case where I’m
fine with that, for the most part, because the film ends up being just as fun
as its predecessor. Just like before, a lot of this has to do with the lead
quartet of Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, and
Linda Cardellini continuing to prove why they were perfectly cast in their
respective roles. And because this one doesn’t revolve around the gang
splitting up, their overall dynamic is even better than it was in the first
film. Plus, the film also has a genuinely heartwarming subplot in which Shaggy
and Scooby try to prove that they’re more than just a pair of screw-ups. And
so, while I once again want to make it clear that this is by no means a ‘masterpiece’,
Scooby-Doo 2 is just as much of a fun and easygoing popcorn flick as its
predecessor. Those who were turned off by the first film’s major deviations
from the franchise’s formula may find this one to be more enjoyable as a
classic Scooby-Doo adventure thanks to its ‘back to basics’ approach.
And really, one of the reasons why I can’t bring myself to rag on these films
too much is because, in a lot of ways, they were largely responsible for making
me a fan of the Scooby-Doo franchise and these characters.
Rating: 4/5
And that concludes
this big retrospective on the Scooby-Doo franchise when it comes to its
extensive history on television and a selection of its most notable cinematic outings.
As always, thanks for following along and be sure to sound off in the comments
below with your own personal experiences with this historic franchise. And yes,
you can expect a review of the franchise’s newest cinematic adventure, Scoob,
sometime soon.
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