When re-watching "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo", I noticed something in particular about the Season 3 episode "Wrestle Maniacs" (originally aired on September 22, 1990). The animation in that episode appears to have partly been done by Kennedy Cartoons! And I don't just mean Glen Kennedy supervising the animation at Wang Film Productions like he did in Season 1, but I mean an episode Kennedy's studio actually animated on! I do remember someone posting that a few Kennedy Cartoons animators like Willy Ashworth and the late Harold Duckett had worked on "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" and a couple other 1990-season H-B shows, uncredited (I recall they also apparently worked on "Midnight Patrol", "The Adventures of Don Coyote and Sancho Panda", and "The Pirates of Dark Water").
"Wrestle Maniacs" appears to be the only Season 3 episode Kennedy Cartoons worked on, and even then, it looks like Wang animated a good chunk of the first act, along with providing ink-and-paint/camera duties (which isn't a surprise, since Wang had done those tasks for Kennedy alongside Fil-Cartoons, before Kennedy opened up their Manila division in 1992). Since each H-B show back then had only one closing credit sequence covering the entire season, I can see why Kennedy Cartoons wasn't credited, but on DVD and Boomerang, the episode uses the Season 2 end credit sequence! ("Night of the Boogey Biker/Dawn of the Spooky Shuttle Scare" and "Horror of the Haunted Hairpiece" do this as well, but the episodes aired in 1991 have a revised end credit sequence with a 1991 copyright notice.) The HD restoration seen on Tubi and Max has what appears to be a newly-created end credit sequence on the 1990 episodes being copyright to that year, probably done by the WB restoration team when they saw the 1990 episodes had used the 1989 credits, and again, only Wang Film Productions and Cuckoo's Nest Studios are credited.
Here are screencaps where Kennedy Cartoons's involvement in this episode is apparent. But be warned; some of this is NOT very pretty. Unlike Warner Bros. Animation and Disney Television Animation, Hanna-Barbera was pretty lax about animation quality before the Turner buyout. Of course since it's H-B, I don't know if they could even often afford retakes!
Apparently, Kennedy Cartoons's animation kicks in when Shaggy as Commander Cool and Scooby as Mellow Mutt confront the Hooded Heifer after meeting with Little Bo Peter and splitting up to find clues. Look how pronounced Scooby and Shaggy's features are compared to Wang's animation on the show at the time. Though I'm not sure who animated this scene.
Another instance of character designs being somewhat exaggerated and angular when in certain poses compared to other episodes; in this case, with the Swindleson brothers (with one of them voiced by David "Squiggy" Lander!) Unlike the character designs in "Tiny Toon Adventures" and the Disney Afternoon shows, "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" often had simpler character designs, making it somewhat harder to identify who animated what.
Worthy of note, there's only one short bit at the start of the second act animated by Glen Kennedy himself. Unlike his Season 1 animation at Wang where most of it is done on twos, here it's animated on ones like his animation from the 1990s generally is, and done in his distinctively smooth and bouncy style (complete with Scooby giving that "declarative finger" pose Glen loved animating). The character designs also appear more refined. It's visually reminiscent of his later "Tiny Toon Adventures" animation (i.e. "The Looney Beginning" or "Inside Plucky Duck") and some of his Disney work. (With that said, Glen Kennedy's animation in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" is generally more "in control" akin to his Disney animation, except for the crazy wild takes.)
Geez, Scooby and Shaggy look hideous when they first confront Baron Scuzzball. This was likely animated by one of the Korean animators working for Kennedy.
And then when they leave the ring, not only is everyone noticeably off-model, Scooby is suddenly larger than the rest of the gang, and he's walking on all fours!
But in some other cases, the characters tend to only go off-model during in-betweens like this one.
A staple of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" is the musical chase sequences. But ironically, despite Kennedy Cartoons animating this episode, it appears Wang Film Productions themselves went and reused Glen Kennedy's dance cycles for the gang done back in Season 1. Even after Glen left Wang in 1989, they still used his dance animations for the gang, in most cases, but now they had to ink and paint the dancing themselves (since Season 1 was digitally colored and composited in-house at Hanna-Barbera).
Even though Glen Kennedy didn't animate this part, his influence is strong in the animation of the Hooded Heifer running away from what's revealed to be movie footage of charging bulls. This is not surprising, since in the early years of the studio, Glen's signature style influenced many of his animators.
Shaggy doing his signature kick-dancing looks kind of "off" here. Probably because it was lifted from Season 2's "The Return of Commander Cool", and again since Glen wasn't at Wang anymore by that time, another one of Wang's animators just rotoscoped Shaggy's dance animation with his Commander Cool outfit added. Same with Scooby's signature dance animation in that one, but we don't see it in this particular episode...
...because Scooby as Mellow Mutt is doing the tango with the Hooded Heifer! I'm not sure if this was done at Kennedy Cartoons or by one of Wang's own animators.
Here's a really derpy-looking Scooby. Again, I'm not sure which animator did this shot.
But I can definitely tell Harold Duckett animated the scene where Scooby rides on the Hooded Heifer, leading to his capture. It's done in that same sketchy and frantic manner as much of his "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Darkwing Duck" animation.
It looks like Harold Duckett also animated this shot near the end when Shaggy and Scooby are doing the Commander Cool Victory Dance; it definitely has the same vibe.
Given Hanna-Barbera's aforementioned being lax about animation quality, it's kind of interesting to see what Kennedy Cartoons's animation in 1990 could've been like without doing any retakes. But of course when they began working for Disney, they were on a tighter leash yet also given more money, so their animation looked a lot more on-model, even Glen Kennedy's signature bouncy animation (at least most of the time; I have a feeling with "Goldijitters and the 3 Bobcats", being a very wacky story, Disney let Glen Kennedy go all wild with that one, so it's more like his "Tiny Toon Adventures" work).
"Wrestle Maniacs" appears to be the only Season 3 episode Kennedy Cartoons worked on, and even then, it looks like Wang animated a good chunk of the first act, along with providing ink-and-paint/camera duties (which isn't a surprise, since Wang had done those tasks for Kennedy alongside Fil-Cartoons, before Kennedy opened up their Manila division in 1992). Since each H-B show back then had only one closing credit sequence covering the entire season, I can see why Kennedy Cartoons wasn't credited, but on DVD and Boomerang, the episode uses the Season 2 end credit sequence! ("Night of the Boogey Biker/Dawn of the Spooky Shuttle Scare" and "Horror of the Haunted Hairpiece" do this as well, but the episodes aired in 1991 have a revised end credit sequence with a 1991 copyright notice.) The HD restoration seen on Tubi and Max has what appears to be a newly-created end credit sequence on the 1990 episodes being copyright to that year, probably done by the WB restoration team when they saw the 1990 episodes had used the 1989 credits, and again, only Wang Film Productions and Cuckoo's Nest Studios are credited.
Here are screencaps where Kennedy Cartoons's involvement in this episode is apparent. But be warned; some of this is NOT very pretty. Unlike Warner Bros. Animation and Disney Television Animation, Hanna-Barbera was pretty lax about animation quality before the Turner buyout. Of course since it's H-B, I don't know if they could even often afford retakes!
Apparently, Kennedy Cartoons's animation kicks in when Shaggy as Commander Cool and Scooby as Mellow Mutt confront the Hooded Heifer after meeting with Little Bo Peter and splitting up to find clues. Look how pronounced Scooby and Shaggy's features are compared to Wang's animation on the show at the time. Though I'm not sure who animated this scene.
Another instance of character designs being somewhat exaggerated and angular when in certain poses compared to other episodes; in this case, with the Swindleson brothers (with one of them voiced by David "Squiggy" Lander!) Unlike the character designs in "Tiny Toon Adventures" and the Disney Afternoon shows, "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" often had simpler character designs, making it somewhat harder to identify who animated what.
Worthy of note, there's only one short bit at the start of the second act animated by Glen Kennedy himself. Unlike his Season 1 animation at Wang where most of it is done on twos, here it's animated on ones like his animation from the 1990s generally is, and done in his distinctively smooth and bouncy style (complete with Scooby giving that "declarative finger" pose Glen loved animating). The character designs also appear more refined. It's visually reminiscent of his later "Tiny Toon Adventures" animation (i.e. "The Looney Beginning" or "Inside Plucky Duck") and some of his Disney work. (With that said, Glen Kennedy's animation in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" is generally more "in control" akin to his Disney animation, except for the crazy wild takes.)
Geez, Scooby and Shaggy look hideous when they first confront Baron Scuzzball. This was likely animated by one of the Korean animators working for Kennedy.
And then when they leave the ring, not only is everyone noticeably off-model, Scooby is suddenly larger than the rest of the gang, and he's walking on all fours!
But in some other cases, the characters tend to only go off-model during in-betweens like this one.
A staple of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" is the musical chase sequences. But ironically, despite Kennedy Cartoons animating this episode, it appears Wang Film Productions themselves went and reused Glen Kennedy's dance cycles for the gang done back in Season 1. Even after Glen left Wang in 1989, they still used his dance animations for the gang, in most cases, but now they had to ink and paint the dancing themselves (since Season 1 was digitally colored and composited in-house at Hanna-Barbera).
Even though Glen Kennedy didn't animate this part, his influence is strong in the animation of the Hooded Heifer running away from what's revealed to be movie footage of charging bulls. This is not surprising, since in the early years of the studio, Glen's signature style influenced many of his animators.
Shaggy doing his signature kick-dancing looks kind of "off" here. Probably because it was lifted from Season 2's "The Return of Commander Cool", and again since Glen wasn't at Wang anymore by that time, another one of Wang's animators just rotoscoped Shaggy's dance animation with his Commander Cool outfit added. Same with Scooby's signature dance animation in that one, but we don't see it in this particular episode...
Here's a really derpy-looking Scooby. Again, I'm not sure which animator did this shot.
But I can definitely tell Harold Duckett animated the scene where Scooby rides on the Hooded Heifer, leading to his capture. It's done in that same sketchy and frantic manner as much of his "Tiny Toon Adventures" and "Darkwing Duck" animation.
It looks like Harold Duckett also animated this shot near the end when Shaggy and Scooby are doing the Commander Cool Victory Dance; it definitely has the same vibe.
Given Hanna-Barbera's aforementioned being lax about animation quality, it's kind of interesting to see what Kennedy Cartoons's animation in 1990 could've been like without doing any retakes. But of course when they began working for Disney, they were on a tighter leash yet also given more money, so their animation looked a lot more on-model, even Glen Kennedy's signature bouncy animation (at least most of the time; I have a feeling with "Goldijitters and the 3 Bobcats", being a very wacky story, Disney let Glen Kennedy go all wild with that one, so it's more like his "Tiny Toon Adventures" work).
