My TV Show Review on “The Scooby-Doo Show” · 2:54pm May 6th, 2019
My 9th TV show review.
Gosh, it's been a while since I last reviewed one, I'll tell ya that.
So, today, I will be making my eighth review on a television program, and quite likely one of the shortest reviews I’ve done, by analyzing "The Scooby-Doo Show".
Here's what it's about:
In this 1970s continuation of "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!", our favorite canine named Scooby-Doo (once again voiced by Don Messick), along with his human teenaged pals, Shaggy (again played by Casey Kasem), Fred (again played by Frank Welker), Velma (voiced by Pat Stevens, replacing Nicole Jaffe from the show's predecessor), and Daphne (again voiced by Heather North from Season 2 of the show's predecessor), make a comeback to the 30 minute formatting and once again travel the world, solving mysteries and hunting for ghosts and monsters.
I can definitely start off by saying that they apparently managed to kick things up a notch and I'm really proud of their successful efforts in doing so.
The storytelling for each episode was given some newly found unpredictability and thrills. As a matter of fact, when I first saw each episode, I almost couldn't tell what was going to happen next. Or if the spooks that the Mystery Inc. gang were coming across were real or fake, particularly from the episodes in the Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour DVD set. Plus, I like that they decided to have the people pretending to be the spooks not be limited to the people who tell the gang about them.
The animation in the series was also really great.
Hanna-Barbara's ability to make something done with little budget look good hasn't ceased to surprise me, but here...their upgrading in technology was apparently able to make things even better for television viewing.
The music by Hoyt Curtin was pretty well-done as a plus. It has a perfect range for each episode, going from giving the audiences thrills to being pretty light for them. The only thing about it that people will likely be bummed by is the lack of songs during chases, which isn't something critical, really. It's just something that would've been fun.
Additionally, the voice-acting in the show was really spot-on. I'm especially glad that the comedic and vocal dynamic between Kasem and Messick as Shaggy and Scooby continued being awesome. The dialogue of the characters was creative as well.
Unfortunately, while I do commend this series highly, there were some negatives that I didn't find myself comfortable with.
The voice direction used in the show seemed to have made the performers sound too whiny. On my side, it particularly made me wonder if something was wrong with my ears.
The only other thing I didn't like was how forceful and mean Fred, Daphne, and Velma were towards Shaggy and Scooby at making them help solve the mysteries.
In conclusion, though, despite the setbacks I just mentioned, "The Scooby-Doo Show" does prove itself to be an excellent successor to the "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!" series.
So, I rate "The Scooby-Doo Show" four out of five stars.
While it really isn't 'too' different from the original version of the show, there are a few notable moments that make this standout (Such as the introduction of Scooby Dum and Scooby Dee, neither who would barely get a mention in the following shows). There would definitely be some monsters in this show who'd make later appearances in other media (Essentially the movies) and the one episode I remember most fondly is the one with 'The Tar Monster'. As someone who has enjoyed the 'Scooby Doo' shows growing up, while I don't see these episodes as much as 'Scooby Doo Where Are You?' they do have some slightly decent memorable moments.
The first couple of seasons had a budget of, like, three dollars.
Norville 'Shaggy' Rogers can keep up with Scooby when running.
Scooby is a Great Dane, a breed that can get up to 30 MPH.
In Captain America : The Winter Soldier, Steve Rogers (Captain America) goes on a run with Sam Wilson (Falcon).
Sam mentions that Steve just ran 13 miles in 30 minutes, which equates to about 28 MPH.
Not suggesting that Shaggy's father is Captain America...but the math certainly supports it
I’ve never seen it before, but I definitely intend to at some point, along with the original series and all or most of the others in the franchise. It sounds really good!
I used to love Scooby-Doo growing up. In my opinion, Mystery, Inc. totally ruined it.
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The tv show known as “Mystery Incorporated”?
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That's the one.
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How so?
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They changed the character's personalities a little too much. Also, the show in general was much darker and less fun to watch.
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I’ve actually been thinking about checking out animated installments of Scooby-Doo with Matthew Lillard as Shaggy. The only trouble is that they often seem to incorporate real monsters and ghosts these days, which, for me...is less than settling.
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I agree.
I preferred it when the episodes were legit puzzles that could be solved on your own.