'Updated' Gang
What does everyone think of the contemporary Scooby-Doo entity? I love Scooby-Doo, but even the original "...Where Are You?" series, to me, was easy to outgrow, and I think that's what's trying to be recreated here. I think they should've taken a closer look at the most original roots, keeping the dacade(s) in mind, and go from there.
See, I thought the best shows were in the '80s, after they brought Daphne back, like "The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries" and "The Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby-Doo", but still, the old premise isn't a bad one, everyone seemed to like it then, I don't think it would be too hard to adapt for the 21st century, but I think they went about it the wrong way. It's like they kept the characters exactly the same, but now they're over exaggerated, and the whole contemporary version of Scooby-Doo seems to be constantly making fun of itself. Even the animation says alot. Remember, the old animation wasn't great by today's standards, but it was a breakthrough in its own time, it was trying to be realistic, made of traced drawings painted with watercolors, all put together with quite a time limit (leading to a lot of infamous lapses in consistency). Now we have computers, but use them to almost parody the visual aspect of Scooby-Doo. And then there seems to always be that overstressed "let's mention MP3 players and the internet and hip new electronic gadgets to really drive home the fact that this is made in a new day and age" that appears in a lot of works of older cartoons and such being renewed. And finally, there is the messy timeline. To name an example, in the movies that are set up sort of like this series, I don't think the gripes I've made are as present, but the Hex Girls showed up in one called "Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire", now, this brings up the "...Witch's Ghost" movie (where the Hex Girls, a band, first appeared), in which the human members of the gang were young adults. Now I can understand the gang feeling nostalgic for their old wardrobe, but how did the Mystery Machine go back to being a VW Bus-style van after they were driving a newer looking minivan version of it? And I think the HG's managed to pop up in WNSD, in which several references are made to the gang being high school students again.
Overall, I'm not trying to be negative about the modern side of Scooby-Doo, but I think its losing to many of the original elements that made it so great.