"Scooby-Doo - Mystery, Inc." News & Discussion Thread

[The Cartoon]

Yes, the latest Scooby-Doo series is on it's way. It's the first one where neither William Hanna or Joe Barbera is involved. The gang is back together and hopefully this series will be better than Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue. Here is the synopsis:

"A sleepy little village, Crystal Cove, boasts a long history of ghost sightings, poltergeists, demon possession, phantoms and other paranormal occurrences. The renowned sleuthing team of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo arrive to prove all of this simply isn't real -- but they don't realize the locals don't welcome their help."

I'm not totally sure what to think about the series yet, since we only know about the synopsis. It sounds different from other SD series, but still good and I'm looking forward to it.

 

[NewcomerDC]

When are we getting the new character designs?

 

[Jiya]

Is this series going to be animated or live action? Hopefully it is a success, I mean, it is Scooby-Doo ;3 But without William Hanna or Joe Barbera I don't know how it will turn out.

 

[ECDT1089]

Is this series going to be animated or live action? Hopefully it is a success, I mean, it is Scooby-Doo ;3 But without William Hanna or Joe Barbera I don't know how it will turn out.

Where on earth did that "live action" come from?

Also, I wish Cartoon Network Studios would do a Scooby-Doo series.

 

[Mickialla]

Also, I wish Cartoon Network Studios would do a Scooby-Doo series.

Me too, I wish that Cartoon Network still owned the rights to producing new H-B material. Flintstones on the Rocks was superb. What's New Scooby-Doo and Tom & Jerry Tales would've been so much better IMO if the CNS team worked on it.

As for Mystery Inc., I like the premise, I just hope they keep the original character designs and not the Get A Clue! designs. I'd like it if the show sticks to Scooby's original hippie style instead of trying to be more hip like "What's New!". I'm also reluctant as to how the show will be since neither Bill or Joe will unfortunately be able to work on it. Let's hope for the best.

 

[The Cartoon]

Is this series going to be animated or live action? Hopefully it is a success, I mean, it is Scooby-Doo ;3 But without William Hanna or Joe Barbera I don't know how it will turn out.

It's animated but a Live Action SD movie is coming up in 2009 as well.

Me too, I wish that Cartoon Network still owned the rights to producing new H-B material. Flintstones on the Rocks was superb. What's New Scooby-Doo and Tom & Jerry Tales would've been so much better IMO if the CNS team worked on it.

I agree, I think it would be done much better, but who knows? Warner Bros may do a really good job with it.

 

[DeanBurrito25]

This show sounds promising. But seriously, there have been countless Scooby Doo spinoffs/movies, it's amazing (in a bad way).
Hope this show stays true to the original series.

 

[RonDrakenfan17]

Yah I wonder how the animation will look also. I mean I liked the Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue I was used to the animation by half way threw season one of the show. But I do hope we get better animation here. Would I like it more old schoold style or What's new Scooby-Doo? Style? I liked both. But really I miss old school, wish they'd go back to that.

 

[Deadman]

like everyone else im kind of afraid to see what they do to scooby without bill or joe. but ill keep an open mind and check out the series.

 

[wiley207]

Where do I start? ...

I for one would've liked to see how Cartoon Network Studios would've handled "What's New, Scooby-Doo?" It surely would've been better than what Termite Terrace churned out instead! But the thing is, Hanna-Barbera was absorbed into Warner Bros. Animation (Cartoon Network Studios was a spin-off studio to Hanna-Barbera, founded around 1996-1997, and was the studio that actually handled "Cow and Chicken" and the 1996-1998 "Dexter's Lab" episodes.), and it was Warner Bros. Animation that produced the 1998-2001 direct-to-video movies (under the Hanna-Barbera brand name, like all of the direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movies are). So naturally, they decided to have the studio that produced those movies produce the TV show. This was a bad move, IMHO. Cartoon Network Studios was able to easily mimic the old Hanna-Barbera style on "The Flintstones on the Rocks" movie and the 2001-2003 "Dexter's Laboratory" episodes (the 1996-1998 episodes seemed less H-B-like and more like something out of "The Ren & Stimpy Show" episodes Games Animation produced).

Unfortunately, "What's New Scooby-Doo" was in no ways totally true to the original series. It wasn't as dark or creepy, and they were trying to be more "hip." The show was generally a parody of the original series, it had to lampoon all the old Scooby-Doo conventions, such as Velma losing her glasses each time, Scooby Snacks being offered in every episode to Scooby and Shaggy, the Mystery Inc. kids all saying the name of the villain they unmasked in unison, the "meddling kids" line had to be used or parodied in every episode (such as having twin villains say it in unison, having a young kid call them "meddling grownups," etc.), and the villain always had to be someone they met earlier in the episode. And as for Fred's traps, they would try to make it obvious they're supposed to be funny, but in the original series the traps would wind up being unintentionally funny. And the use of modern technology on the show was annoying because they used it as a "See how up to date our show is compared to the obsolete 1969 series!" sort of manner. I remember one episode even doing an Internet joke similar to "The Fairly Oddparents!" And they didn't feature Scooby-Doo often either! It seemed to often focus more on Fred, Daphne and Velma than the whole gang. I think it's rather sad because not only is Scooby-Doo supposed to be the star, but he's my all-time favorite character too!
The characters' personalities were obviously inspired from "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo," what with a dumbed-down Fred, a hair/fashion-obsessed Daphne, etc. Shaggy and Scooby were already exaggerated to begin with, though. While Frank Welker did a good job with Fred and Casey Kasem not sounding shabby as Shaggy (pardon the Scrappy-esque pun), Grey DeLisle's Daphne sometimes strayed a little more close to Vicky or Frankie, and I think she did better on "Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase." Mindy Cohn's Velma seemed like a deeper-sounding cross between Nicole Jaffe and Pat Stevens, and a little bit of Mandy from "Grim Adventures" (I heard that Grey DeLisle actually filled in as Velma on one or two episodes of "What's New, Scooby-Doo"). Frank Welker's Scooby-Doo voice also sounds more similar to Brain from "Inspector Gadget," another character he voiced. I guess that explains why Scooby didn't talk much in the series.
The music was basically synthesizer music that tended to be more "goofy" or "action-like" compared to the music from the old Scooby-Doo series, and the chase songs typically utilized heavy metal or rock tunes. And as for sound effects, the 1998-2001 direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movies very rarely used the classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects, only limiting them to exaggerated comedy sequences with Scooby-Doo and Shaggy, and unfortunately this carried over to "What's New, Scooby-Doo" as well. This is kinda sad because the old H-B sound effects often helped enhance the soundtracks to the old Scooby-Doo cartoons, and made up for the repeating music cues the old series kept using; plus they were actually funny and unique! Instead, the sound effects on "What's New, Scooby-Doo" are basically similar to the sound effects used on the 1967-1969 Warner Bros./Seven Arts cartoons featuring Cool Cat and Merlin the Magic Mouse. Even the old Haunted Mansion "Castle Thunder" sound effect (http://www.hollywoodlostandfound.net/sound/castlethunder.html) was only used on a couple of episodes and not very frequently due to the terrible quality of the effect; instead they'd just go out into a real storm or something.
The animation is also not very good; it's just as bad as those 2003-2004 Looney Tunes shorts the studio produced!


"Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue" was [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]wrong on so many levels! Shaggy and Scooby being rich and having nano-powered Scooby snacks giving them temporary super powers, an on-the-lam uncle and an idiotic robot butler (distant cousin of Inspector Gadget?), more different music, sound effects and voices (including Shaggy!) altered personalities (Shaggy and Scooby rarely showed fear), very little mystery involved (despite "Get a Clue!" being in the title), a terrible theme song with bad dancing, and horrible animation with crude designs that look like a first-grader's attempt at drawing the live-action Scooby gang. I hated Robi more than Scrappy-Doo. I didn't need his bumbling around, or his G.I. Joe-esque safety tips ("Don't hesitate to buckle up!") At least he didn't use the "Knowing is half the battle" phrase!
[/FONT]
I have high hopes for this new Scooby-Doo series, too. But what I'd love to see is a new season/series of "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo!" [FONT=Verdana,Arial,Helvetica]Now I don't want people saying "Oh, it's gonna suck!" or "I hate the make-popular-characters-young trend!" Because the truth is, I LOVE "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo!" There are a few reasons why the crew responsible for "What's New, Scooby-Doo" and "Get a Clue!" would be better off animating the Pup Named Scooby-Doo version than the adult counterparts...

The characterizations and plots, of course. Like"What's New," Fred was heavily dumbed down (and I believe this was the inspiration for the dumb Fred we've seen on "What's New, Scooby-Doo" and some of the later direct-to-video Scooby movies) and frequently used the "Let's split up, gang!" trend. Daphne was totally obsessed with her hair and fashion, and sometimes her girl-power would kick in and she could help run the gang when Fred goofs up again. Velma doesn't speak much: just "Jinkies!" whenever a clue is found, and explaining how they solved the mystery at the end or when she concocts a pan.
This show was a parody of the original series, but was actually funny while "What's New, Scooby-Doo"'s wasn't, IMO. They loved poking at "Let's split up, gang!", the standard Scooby formula, the musical chases (complete with the gang stopping to dance a bit, and them turning on the music some way like a record player!), the "meddling/pesky kids" line, Scooby-Doo's "reech rinrediment" ("No, speech impediment!") and ending each episode with "Scooby-dooby-DOOOOOOOOOOO!" In fact, some of the episodes/villains featured in "What's New, Scooby-Doo" could've easily been done in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo!"

And as far as the whole "modern technology" thing goes, in the Pup series we often saw Daphne with a cell phone, and Velma with a giant desktop computer. Here they actually put them to better use than "What's New Scooby-Doo" did! In fact, I could picture this in a newer Pup episode...

(Velma pulls out her giant computer to type data into it.)
Shaggy: Like Velma, why don't you just buy a laptop?

Or even some funny bits like this...

Fred: The monster is none other than... (Daphne stomps on Fred's foot) OUCH!!!
Daphne: Don't even THINK about it, Freddie!

Velma: Now let's see who this ghost REALLY is!
(The gang discusses who it might really be, but before the usual Red Herring blame, it cuts to Special Announcement title card and the newscaster.)
Newscaster: We interrupt "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" for this special announcement! I think it's really (insert suspect name here) Thank you!

As far as music/songs go, they can simply just use the 1988-1991 "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" intro, but add the Warner Bros. Animation logo at the beginning (used on the new Batman series and "Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword") so they'd know it's a newer episode. And they could easily rehire John Debney to write the chase songs for the episodes, and have him write some new background music (as well as reuse the background music he wrote for the H-B series, because that music is VERY distinctive to that show). I know the opening theme runs 60 seconds, and the closing credits run 25 seconds, which is standard running times for WB Animation's current opening and closing credits too.

And as for voices, they'd probably need new voice actors for young Fred and Velma, so they could sound younger (but they would need a boy that sounds like how Carl Stevens's Fred sounded in the 1990-1991 episodes of the series to make it sound in continuity where the series left off). But Casey Kasem would still be able to voice Shaggy (as they could easily incorporate the vegetarianism into this series!), Kellie Martin could reprise the role of Daphne, and Frank Welker would take over as Scooby-Doo. He's gotten quite better with the voice recently, I'm happy to say.

As for animation, this could easily be done. Why? Because there was a 2005 episode of "What's New, Scooby-Doo" entitled "A Terrifying Round with a Menacing Clown" that does a flashback sequence to Velma's fifth birthday, and they show the gang (as well as the clown that destroy's Velma's encyclopedia set) drawn perfectly in the "Pup Named Scooby-Doo" style! It looked almost exactly like a scene out of the first season of the Pup series!
And if they're able to lure Glen Kennedy back to WB, they could have him animate the wild takes and dance numbers like he did in the show's first season! Or if not, they could at least reuse the dance cycles like the show did in the second season after Glen left. The wild takes and the dancing was one reason why I enjoyed this show so much. It was very Bob Clampett/Tex Avery-ish, with a hint of "The Mask" as well.

I think WB should go for it! It could be a neat tie-in to the live-action Scooby movie coming out this year. Any comments? [/FONT]

 

[warnerbroman]

This show sounds promising. But seriously, there have been countless Scooby Doo spinoffs/movies, it's amazing (in a bad way).
Hope this show stays true to the original series.

11 sequels

 

[Spideyzilla]

11 sequels

That is simply amazing.

 

[Zen Man]

I wonder why Warner's doesn't attempt new shows with the rest of the Hanna-Barbera properties?

 

[wiley207]

I wonder why Warner's doesn't attempt new shows with the rest of the Hanna-Barbera properties?

Easy: they think Scooby-Doo is a Looney Tunes character and treats him that way

 

[Mickialla]

I wonder why Warner's doesn't attempt new shows with the rest of the Hanna-Barbera properties?

I'd rather they didn't try. They probably can't properly capture the original style of shows like Yogi Bear or The Flintstones. That's why I wish Cartoon Network still retained the rights to create new H-B programming. Compare The Flintstones: On the Rocks, to What's New Scooby Doo. On the Rocks wins hands down.

 

[Jack_6428]

yeah, i gotta admit i didnt and dont like "Whats new Scooby-Doo?"..to me it looks ugly..i prefer the "old style" animation...

 

[wiley207]

yeah, i gotta admit i didnt and dont like "Whats new Scooby-Doo?"..to me it looks ugly..i prefer the "old style" animation...

Finally, more people besides me that don't like "What's New, Scooby-Doo!" You're not alone, my friend.

 

[Jack_6428]

Finally, more people besides me that don't like "What's New, Scooby-Doo!" You're not alone, my friend.

well, your welcome...i really dislike the way shows are animated thesedays...it looks weird and ugly and all the same..nothing that would make you go "wow, thats really nice..." or "looks variable and colorful.." .. no offense to animators, its probably the problem of the cartoon industry as a whole today..but tell me, how many cartoons nowdays dont look the same or atleast similiar ? If you look at Canadian YTV shows, shows from Disney...same crap, different color.. WB? Hm, ok, they look slightly more mature..good..but still, nothing made today matches the visual quality of the cartoons from the last 30-40yrs (mid 90s and older), the classics. Maybe "Scooby-Doo Where are you" doesnt have all that flat shiny 3D rubbish all around it, but it has spirit, personality. I could watch it all day. And if people want something that looks cool and action, then folks, go watch Centurions, Thundercats, Swat Kats, Silverhawks, Transformers G1, Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, 90s Batman, etc. THOSE are real cartoons, not the bs they feed kids today with. I hope Cartoonstitute will set a new trend, otherwise the industry is finished.

 

[Radical Raven]

well, your welcome...i really dislike the way shows are animated thesedays...it looks weird and ugly and all the same..nothing that would make you go "wow, thats really nice..." or "looks variable and colorful.." .. no offense to animators, its probably the problem of the cartoon industry as a whole today..but tell me, how many cartoons nowdays dont look the same or atleast similiar ? If you look at Canadian YTV shows, shows from Disney...same crap, different color.. WB? Hm, ok, they look slightly more mature..good..but still, nothing made today matches the visual quality of the cartoons from the last 30-40yrs (mid 90s and older), the classics. Maybe "Scooby-Doo Where are you" doesnt have all that flat shiny 3D rubbish all around it, but it has spirit, personality. I could watch it all day. And if people want something that looks cool and action, then folks, go watch Centurions, Thundercats, Swat Kats, Silverhawks, Transformers G1, Real Adventures of Jonny Quest, 90s Batman, etc. THOSE are real cartoons, not the bs they feed kids today with. I hope Cartoonstitute will set a new trend, otherwise the industry is finished.

I'm sorry, but you think "Scooby Doo Where Are You" is well animated? I respect your opinion one-hundred percent, but... you know they re-used a whole lot of animation in that show, right?

 

[Jack_6428]

I'm sorry, but you think "Scooby Doo Where Are You" is well animated? I respect your opinion one-hundred percent, but... you know they re-used a whole lot of animation in that show, right?

thanks for agreeing with me...about Scooby..well, i do know that...but the fact is, the shoe as a whole - speaking about animation and character models, does look and act better than Whats New Scooby Doo...I mean, its a bit hard to describe the feeling, but if i look with no bias view on the new Scooby and old Scooby, i would choose the old one any day..and i saw it dozen of times already thanks to CN's reruns. Simply, the show feels well, eventhough the animation aint flawless, and thats what it counts. I think that quite frankly its the mentioned animation, visual style and general show apperance, what makes todays shows worse compared to the old. And im not being nostalgic...there are many bad old shows..but today their number is greater than before..