Scooby-Doo

[Avaitor]

It doesn't seem like we ever had a general Scooby thread. We've used the thread for Be Cool and another asking about his longevity, but I think it's time that we make one for the pup. We can probably also use this to talk about Velma as it develops.

But anyway, tis the season, so I've been finding the time to watch a bit of Scooby, and I'm trying to hit up some of the movies that I haven't seen yet. I recently watched Frankencreepy, which I've heard is one of the creeper movies, which is definitely an overstatement. It's basically Young Frankenstein with weaker gags. And a subplot where Daphne gets fat and it's the worst thing in the world, naturally.

Still, I liked seeing Velma get obsessive to resolve her family's legacy. I can understand if hardcore fans don't like seeing her penchant for mystery solving come down to some half-baked family explanation, but whatever, Scooby-Doo and continuity isn't much of a thing outside of Mystery Incorporated. I turn these on for a laugh and maybe some atmosphere.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I haven't watched any of the Scooby DTV movies in a while. The last one I saw was the Return to Zombie Island one that I thought was crap. Just a tawdry refutation of the first Zombie Island, and Velma's "Those probably weren't magic cat people. We were just hallucinating." mindset got irritating. Still wish they'd at least make one extremely weird and experimental Scooby-Doo movie to shake up the franchise, because even if it bombed, these movies will still get churned out into DVD shelves one way or another, so they wouldn't have anything to lose by letting out their inner Ari Aster just once.

Though I caught that CW thing last year that's a mockumentary of the franchise, and I thought that was cute.

[Avaitor]

That's next on my list, but I'm not expecting much out of it.

The Courage movie from last year was pretty good, though. I like how they resisted the franchise's recent urge to retcon previous uses of the supernatural and say "lol no that was another guy in a mask" like that and the 13 Ghosts movie and instead let Courage's villains be genuine. Granted, here it turns out to be a giant government conspiracy that allows Nowhere to be a Hellmouth, but that also kind of fits?

[Dr. Insomniac]

Yeah, I heard all right things about that, and the one Maxwell Atoms made where the franchise went "Shit, we got Elvira just for a cameo in the last movie? What's wrong with us? Let's bring her back."

[LumRanmaYasha]

Happy Halloween Scooby Doo was a lot of fun! It's definitely got Maxwell Atoms' sense of humor and weirdness, and they really had fun making Daphne more quirky in it with offbeat jokes and her Elvira obsession. They also made great use of both Elvira and Scarecrow in the story, as strange of a crossover combo that is.

I really liked the Courage crossover movie too - the characters bounce off each other so well it's honestly surprising it took them so long to do something with the concept outside of old promos. And I was certainly relieved that it didn't try to retcon all the weirdness in Nowhere as illusory and all the monsters and Katz and Le Fou are what they are, and appreciate the bit of lore expansion since it's interesting and doesn't take anything away from the series.

I've been meaning to watch Trick or Treat Scooby Doo, which looks like one of the best-animated installments of these yet and a fun premise. And ngl, it having an openly gay Velma crushing on an anti-villain girl who designed all their previous villains' costumes is the main reason I'm excited to watch it. 

I've been wanting to rewatch some of the older Scooby movies and finally get around to Be Cool and Guess Who, haven't had the time to watch much except for Cyber Chase though, which was disappointingly more boring and uncreative than I'd remembered it. But I have enjoyed Offbeat Kiki's videos on the Mook Animation era Scooby films, which are half and half on how they hold up.

[Dr. Insomniac]

I remember Cyber Chase being pretty dull, especially compared to the previous three. It lacks the drive those movies had and it only gets any traction because a lot of people who grew up on those movies see the first four as the important ones and all the ones that came after as disposable, regardless if they watched any of the later movies or not. And admittedly, part of why I disliked Return to Zombie Island was just from me thinking "God, I wish they made a Scooby-Doo movie tonally like the first three again instead of this".

[Avaitor]

I did a rewatch of some of my favorite childhood Scooby movies a year or two ago, doing the 80's movies (they're mostly not very good, but Ghoul School will always have a special place in my heart- props to OK KO for bringing the girls back) and the first three "revival" movies, intentionally stopping before Cyber Chase. I recall that one turning me off from the movies, making them something I'd maybe catch if they aired on CN rather than instant buy or at least rents like with Zombie Island, Witch's Ghost, and Alien Invaders.

Even the animation is less impressive, but I think that's mostly due to coloring. I'm not going to check now, but I think those first 3 movies were hand colored, while Cyber Chase onward were done digitally, and it looks a lot blander.

Although I'll be honest, Zombie Island is still head and shoulders above the rest. I don't think Witch's Ghost is as tight, although it at least has the Hex Girls and Tim Curry going for it, and Alien Invaders doesn't have as interesting of a backdrop- I know many people are interested in Roswell, but give me New Orleans or Salem any day- and it's a little less invigorating than those first two, but still has its charms.

Oh, and I'm with Lum, Happy Halloween is cute. I wish Maxwell Atoms could have stuck around with the franchise longer, but his energy is still alive.

[Dr. Insomniac]

Just saw Happy Halloween, and it's great. Maxwell Atoms adds in some much needed flavor to these movies. Best part is how they take the problems from some of the other Scooby movies I watched and turned it into a character arc for Velma.

[Peanutbutter]

I heard from a different forum that the reason why they moved away from doing the "real monsters" like the first four is because the people that took the leadership of Scooby Doo at WB are people whom were on the original staff of Scooby Doo Where Are You?. They basically think since they can churn out a new Scooby DVD, they don't need to deviate from the original formula.

Which is.....really stupid, rigid thinking. I can understand them not being able to keep using the studio behind Zombie Island-Cyber Chase but there's no good reason they can't do a few movies where the monsters are real again.


With Return to Zombie Island, they didn't let Velma fully win the argument by showing that one cat creature which made it clear that everything in ZI definitely happened, but it still wasn't very good. At least it wasn't a total slap in the face like the 13 Ghosts movies was to the series..... 

[Dr. Insomniac]

But Where Are You was over 50 years ago and most of the staff are either retired or dead. Even if some of the younger staff were the ones who took leadership, it's strange for WB to let a bunch of guys in their 70s/80s run a series of children's movies. Then again, that would explain the more anachronistic celebrity guest stars.