Brainatra
02-27-2002, 12:27 AM
Seeing as Scooby has apparently become the Next Big Hyped-Up Thing for KWB/Cartoon Network, thought I'd post my two cents about various Scooby-aspects (to give us something to discuss besides "how much I hate KWB/AOL-TW/P*k*mon/etc. etc."):
While watching the Scooby Doo reruns on KWB, was wondering what was with the "Pop-Up Video" tibits they keep dropping?!
Also noted they're only rerunning the original Scooby series episodes...which doesn't seem to be enough episodes IMO to avoid seeing the same ones a zillion times. When I was a kid, the syndicated "Scooby" package consisted of the original series, the "Scooby Doo Movies" (each hour-long ep split into two-part episodes), and "The Scooby Doo Show"...which gave more than enough eps for syndication (without seeing the same ones again too soon...and Scrappy-free, I suppose :-) Wonder why they don't throw in episodes of "The Scooby Doo Show" into the mix to boost the # of eps (probably not the "Movies", given the datedness of some of the celebs appearing ["Mama" Cass Elliott? Sonny and Cher? Even though I watched the Cass Elliot one as a kid, and liked it, even if I didn't know who she was....])?
Also note that the "Pop-Up Video" tidbits that they seem to be throwing in information about the characters from "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" (they mentioned Daphne's address in today's rerun as being in "Coolsville", the town they lived in in the "Pup" series)...which I guess brings up what is/isn't considered "canonical" Scooby (I know, "it's a cartoon", so sue me...). From the tone of the direct-to-video movies/etc., I suppose the current Scooby writers are mainly ignoring the 80's episodes that had just Shaggy, Scrappy and Scooby dealing with goofy monsters ("The Ghoul School"/"Boo Brothers"/etc.) and those where they were just running from real monsters/aliens/etc. for 10 minutes (like the early 80's ones, or even "The 13 Ghosts" I suppose, given their reactions to seeing actual real monsters in "Zombie Island"). Which I suppose I can't blame them :-) That, and I guess "Coolsville" isn't necessarily any stupider than "Smallville" for a town name...
Finally, my two cents on the various Scooby spinoffs (from what I can recall):
"Scooby Doo, Where Are You?": The original series, and one of the best. Favorite foes here as a kid: the Creeper, some werewolf guy, some wax monster guy. Cons: Thought that "Charlie the Robot" episode was pretty lame as a kid, but that's about it :-)
"The Scooby Doo Movies": A favorite as a kid...remember disliking having to wait until the next day to see the second half of the episode as a kid (a la the 60's "Batman" show). A favorite ep as a kid was one with "Mama" Cass Elliot (of the sixties-era singing group the Mamas and the Papas, singers of such ditties as "California Dreaming" and "Monday Monday"). Though in retrospect, wonder what guys who should've been long-dead like Laurel and Hardy were doing meeting the Scooby gang...
"The Scooby Doo Show": Episodes in the original show's format (solving mysteries), only with slightly improved (for Hanna Barbera anyway) animation. Also cues the beginnings of seeing Scooby's extended (on a 60's Superman comics-level, almost :-) family, with occasional cameos of Scooby Dum (Scooby's dimwitted hick country cousin), who had his moments. Favorites villains on this series as a kid: some guy who came from 50,000 AD (?), and some electrical monster-guy.
"Scooby and Scrappy Doo": Thought Scrappy was (sort of) OK as a kid, but in retrospect/watching it now, wonder what they were thinking throwing him in (besides the need to keep the show going after 10 years on the air at that point). Guess I can see why various Scooby fans rip into Scrappy-among other reasons, he seems way too anthropomorized compared to his dog-talk-uncle, Scooby. Plus, seems a bit small for what I figured a Great Dane pup should be, I guess, unless he's the runt of the litter. AFter a season, they dropped Fred, Daphne, and Velma, and just had Shag, Scrappy, and Scoob running from (real!) aliens/monsters/etc. for no particular reason for 10 minute cartoons at a time, or other bizarre (even for Scooby-Doo standards) stuff happen.
An exmaple: The episode I remember most, "Scooby Doo 2000": The three are clock-cleaners, Scrappy somehow knocks all of them onto the minute hand, and they start spinning around the clock dial, faster and faster until they go into a time warp. Emerging in the future, they go to "Spacey's" department store, and run from a mechanical ape for 10 minutes. They get back to the (then-)present by grabbing onto a tall pole in the dept. store, and slide down it like sliding down a fireman's poll, but twirling around it....which sends them back home. What-*ever*.... :-)
ANyway, this kept up, along with more Scooby relatives showing up (incl. Yabba Doo, Scoob's Western cousin, who talks in a normal (not dog-like) voice...). They then bring Daphne back for a few seasons in "The New Scooby Doo Mysteries", which probably brought things back to earth slightly, as they reverted away from wacky hijinks back to solving mysteries again. Also shown in this series: Mumsy and Dada Doo, Scooby's parents (who dressed up in human clothes, but talked dog-like like their son, anyway....).
"13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo": We get the gang (a la "Ghostbusters")trying to capture 13 ghosts and stick them back in a chest, on the urging of Vincent "Van Ghoul" (Vincent Price, in a late-in-his-life speaking role). Despite this classic horror actor, this show still was pretty lame....and adding (along with Scrappy) the character of "Flim-Flam" doesn't help. Lasts one season (gee, wonder if "*13 ghosts*" and a *13*-episode order has something to do with it ;-)
"A Pup Named Scooby Doo": Finally, a return to solving actual mysteries (after "13 Ghosts") and an amusing parody of the old series to boot (along with the lack of Scrappy, due of course to this being set in the main cast's middle-school years). Favorites: Chickenstein; Velma's Computer ("I MUST DELETE!"; and that "Micro-Monster" chase song number).
The various movies:
"Reluctant Werewolf": Haven't seen it, not sure I want to...
"Boo Brothers": see above
"Ghoul School": Seen it....not much to write home about (same vein as "13 Ghosts", sort of....)
"Scooby Goes to Hollywood": Haven't seen it...
"Zombie Island": Seen it, very entertaining; back-to-basics approach (no wacky monsters/extended Doo-family relations/etc.).
"Scooby Doo and the Aliens": Not as good as "Zombie Island", but still very entertaining, esp. seeing Scooby and Shaggy in love (and Shaggy holding a candle for the "Flower power"-era pop culture).
"Cyber Chase": Not as good as "Zombie", but was OK, esp. the part after they get "digitized"....
"Witch's Ghost": OK, though haven't really watched it all the way through all at once...
ANd that's about it....comments, flames, "this show suks d00d, u should watch 'Techno-samauri-she-warrior-demonspawn-Tokyo-Warrior 5000' man" remarks, etc. accepted (well, maybe not the "techno-samauri-um...whatever" remarks :-)
-B.
While watching the Scooby Doo reruns on KWB, was wondering what was with the "Pop-Up Video" tibits they keep dropping?!
Also noted they're only rerunning the original Scooby series episodes...which doesn't seem to be enough episodes IMO to avoid seeing the same ones a zillion times. When I was a kid, the syndicated "Scooby" package consisted of the original series, the "Scooby Doo Movies" (each hour-long ep split into two-part episodes), and "The Scooby Doo Show"...which gave more than enough eps for syndication (without seeing the same ones again too soon...and Scrappy-free, I suppose :-) Wonder why they don't throw in episodes of "The Scooby Doo Show" into the mix to boost the # of eps (probably not the "Movies", given the datedness of some of the celebs appearing ["Mama" Cass Elliott? Sonny and Cher? Even though I watched the Cass Elliot one as a kid, and liked it, even if I didn't know who she was....])?
Also note that the "Pop-Up Video" tidbits that they seem to be throwing in information about the characters from "A Pup Named Scooby Doo" (they mentioned Daphne's address in today's rerun as being in "Coolsville", the town they lived in in the "Pup" series)...which I guess brings up what is/isn't considered "canonical" Scooby (I know, "it's a cartoon", so sue me...). From the tone of the direct-to-video movies/etc., I suppose the current Scooby writers are mainly ignoring the 80's episodes that had just Shaggy, Scrappy and Scooby dealing with goofy monsters ("The Ghoul School"/"Boo Brothers"/etc.) and those where they were just running from real monsters/aliens/etc. for 10 minutes (like the early 80's ones, or even "The 13 Ghosts" I suppose, given their reactions to seeing actual real monsters in "Zombie Island"). Which I suppose I can't blame them :-) That, and I guess "Coolsville" isn't necessarily any stupider than "Smallville" for a town name...
Finally, my two cents on the various Scooby spinoffs (from what I can recall):
"Scooby Doo, Where Are You?": The original series, and one of the best. Favorite foes here as a kid: the Creeper, some werewolf guy, some wax monster guy. Cons: Thought that "Charlie the Robot" episode was pretty lame as a kid, but that's about it :-)
"The Scooby Doo Movies": A favorite as a kid...remember disliking having to wait until the next day to see the second half of the episode as a kid (a la the 60's "Batman" show). A favorite ep as a kid was one with "Mama" Cass Elliot (of the sixties-era singing group the Mamas and the Papas, singers of such ditties as "California Dreaming" and "Monday Monday"). Though in retrospect, wonder what guys who should've been long-dead like Laurel and Hardy were doing meeting the Scooby gang...
"The Scooby Doo Show": Episodes in the original show's format (solving mysteries), only with slightly improved (for Hanna Barbera anyway) animation. Also cues the beginnings of seeing Scooby's extended (on a 60's Superman comics-level, almost :-) family, with occasional cameos of Scooby Dum (Scooby's dimwitted hick country cousin), who had his moments. Favorites villains on this series as a kid: some guy who came from 50,000 AD (?), and some electrical monster-guy.
"Scooby and Scrappy Doo": Thought Scrappy was (sort of) OK as a kid, but in retrospect/watching it now, wonder what they were thinking throwing him in (besides the need to keep the show going after 10 years on the air at that point). Guess I can see why various Scooby fans rip into Scrappy-among other reasons, he seems way too anthropomorized compared to his dog-talk-uncle, Scooby. Plus, seems a bit small for what I figured a Great Dane pup should be, I guess, unless he's the runt of the litter. AFter a season, they dropped Fred, Daphne, and Velma, and just had Shag, Scrappy, and Scoob running from (real!) aliens/monsters/etc. for no particular reason for 10 minute cartoons at a time, or other bizarre (even for Scooby-Doo standards) stuff happen.
An exmaple: The episode I remember most, "Scooby Doo 2000": The three are clock-cleaners, Scrappy somehow knocks all of them onto the minute hand, and they start spinning around the clock dial, faster and faster until they go into a time warp. Emerging in the future, they go to "Spacey's" department store, and run from a mechanical ape for 10 minutes. They get back to the (then-)present by grabbing onto a tall pole in the dept. store, and slide down it like sliding down a fireman's poll, but twirling around it....which sends them back home. What-*ever*.... :-)
ANyway, this kept up, along with more Scooby relatives showing up (incl. Yabba Doo, Scoob's Western cousin, who talks in a normal (not dog-like) voice...). They then bring Daphne back for a few seasons in "The New Scooby Doo Mysteries", which probably brought things back to earth slightly, as they reverted away from wacky hijinks back to solving mysteries again. Also shown in this series: Mumsy and Dada Doo, Scooby's parents (who dressed up in human clothes, but talked dog-like like their son, anyway....).
"13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo": We get the gang (a la "Ghostbusters")trying to capture 13 ghosts and stick them back in a chest, on the urging of Vincent "Van Ghoul" (Vincent Price, in a late-in-his-life speaking role). Despite this classic horror actor, this show still was pretty lame....and adding (along with Scrappy) the character of "Flim-Flam" doesn't help. Lasts one season (gee, wonder if "*13 ghosts*" and a *13*-episode order has something to do with it ;-)
"A Pup Named Scooby Doo": Finally, a return to solving actual mysteries (after "13 Ghosts") and an amusing parody of the old series to boot (along with the lack of Scrappy, due of course to this being set in the main cast's middle-school years). Favorites: Chickenstein; Velma's Computer ("I MUST DELETE!"; and that "Micro-Monster" chase song number).
The various movies:
"Reluctant Werewolf": Haven't seen it, not sure I want to...
"Boo Brothers": see above
"Ghoul School": Seen it....not much to write home about (same vein as "13 Ghosts", sort of....)
"Scooby Goes to Hollywood": Haven't seen it...
"Zombie Island": Seen it, very entertaining; back-to-basics approach (no wacky monsters/extended Doo-family relations/etc.).
"Scooby Doo and the Aliens": Not as good as "Zombie Island", but still very entertaining, esp. seeing Scooby and Shaggy in love (and Shaggy holding a candle for the "Flower power"-era pop culture).
"Cyber Chase": Not as good as "Zombie", but was OK, esp. the part after they get "digitized"....
"Witch's Ghost": OK, though haven't really watched it all the way through all at once...
ANd that's about it....comments, flames, "this show suks d00d, u should watch 'Techno-samauri-she-warrior-demonspawn-Tokyo-Warrior 5000' man" remarks, etc. accepted (well, maybe not the "techno-samauri-um...whatever" remarks :-)
-B.