'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.

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Erm...what?

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What are YOU looking at?

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You're absolutely right. If anythng this new series should have been a continuation of the mid-80s version where Shaggy and Daphne had new contemporary looks.

"Says you! I got a seat at the big conference table. I'm gonna paint my logo on it!"- The Flash

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I agree, the new series should have picked up right after the events of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, in which it would have taken place during the mid 1980's. Also, the show should have been aired in prime-time line-up on the FOX network.

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Thank you. Where were you two any time I tried to tell anyone else? It seems everyone else hated all the 80s Scooby Doo stuff. I liked that the best.

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I'm still one of the people that wasnt so bothered with Scrappy either. Anything that puts a spin on it other than the same five people going from place to place rehashing mysteries would've been better than "Whats New Scooby Doo".

"A commitment to cinema means to lead a technically deviant lifestyle."

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I think this should have been set in the 1960s-1970s and just be a continuation of the originals....besides they were the most swinging decades!

"The face of evil is ugly to look upon. And as the pleasures increase, the face becomes uglier."

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OK, it could've been worse:

THEY COULD HAVE BROUGHT BACK SCRAPPY!!!

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I agree. The 60's and the 70's were the best. Scrappy was annoying. I guess I got too old for it, when he was introduced.

Mindy Cohn's Velma sounds like the original. Wierd. I miss the original Daphne or maybe it was the second Daphne, Heather North.

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weren't the gang official careersat that point the following:

Fred - Actor

Daphne - Reporter

Velma - Research Scientist

and ironically:

Shaggy & Scooby - Private Detectives which would explain the phone in the mystery machine.

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I'm kind of surprised that they picked the 'ditzy damsel-in-distress' Daphne over the 'smart girl' Velma as a female leader of the gang as I think that was the goal for the early 80's reincarnations because of the rise of feminism in the seventies. But frankly, for me, it still worked because I really find Fred very bland and insufferable, even more than Scrappy. So I really enjoyed the Fred-less incarnations. The ones with only Shaggy and the dogs were boring for me(I think this was the most hated series, not the 80s one) but when Daphne and The Mystery Machine came back, it brought back all the nostalgia of the original series(well, only the good parts of it). This series also had some of the gang's very best mysteries like the one with the mummy and the train and the one with Shaggy's family.

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I have to agree with you, I think the late 70s and 80s versions of the show were sub-par.

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"$30 for the One True Ring. $10 each additional ring!"
-- JRR "Bob" Tolkien

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"What's New, Scooby-Doo?" has great animation and great voices and great stories. That's all I can say.

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That would be a run-on sentence, my good sir, and as such, I can't take anything you say seriously.

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As I've gotten older, I find myself increasingly annoyed with Scrappy, though I'm in the minority who loves "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" despite him. It was irreverent and it had real demons and Vincent Price... though I don't think they should have picked up where that show left off (a wrap-up would've been nice, but not a whole other series). It was never popular and now so much time has passed that it's pretty dated.

The fun thing about the Fred and Velma-less years was that the ghosts and monsters weren't silly villains in scary masks, they were real (albeit usually very cartoony). They seemed to be returning to this trend with "Zombie Island" (which is, in my opinion, the best of the Scooby films), but then someone at WB got cold feet and suddenly they reverted back to weirdos in masks.

"Danger-prone Daphne's" metamorphosis from damsel in distress to warrior chick with a keen fashion sense is strange and can probably be contributed to a combination of her condescending, self-centered characterization in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" and the fact that they completely miscast Sarah Michelle Gellar in the role for the live-action film. Oddly, I prefer her newer animated characterization, perhaps because she didn't have much to do in the original series -- other than to look pretty and set off traps. She was a little spunkier in the early/mid '80s, but not much.

The animation in this series never struck me as cheap-looking. In a world where super-cheapo animation dominates ("Spongebob," "Foster's Home for Imaginary Friends," and the subsequent show, "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, Get a Clue"), I thought the animation in WNSD was well above average. By the '80s, the animation had gotten incredibly cheap (for example, in the "13 Ghosts" episode "Scooby in Kwakyland," there's one scene where characters vanish for a few frames).

Overall, I think "What's New" was a great comeback. It would have been more interesting with real monsters, but I still enjoy the tried-and-true original formula. At least WNSD usually set up many red herrings and even ended a time or two with villains they'd never met. With some of the old Scooby's, it was far too easy to figure out who the bad guy was, especially when they only introduced one or two characters in an episode. I like the fact that they poked fun at the characters too; it provided some amusing moments for those of us who weren't children when it premiered. And it was nice that they had some recurring characters, since they never really did in the previous series (with the exceptions of The Harlem Globetrotters, Batman & Robin, The 3 Stooges, Don Knotts, Scooby-Dum and Red Herring).

I dunno what they were thinking with "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, Get a Clue." I'm a hardcore Scooby lover, but that show's so annoyingly bad that despite numerous attempts (the most recent was this past weekend), I don't think I've ever made it through an entire episode. It makes "The 13 Ghosts" seem like it should have swept the Emmys and Scrappy-Doo seem like the greatest cartoon sidekick of all time. If they'd gone that route with Scooby's triumphant return in '98, it probably would've killed the franchise for another decade.

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I didn't really like "What's New, Scooby-Doo" that much either due to updating the gang. I really hated the "stupid Fred," which seemed to be based off of the young Fred in "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo." And it was kinda interesting how they made Daphne smarter and able to defend herself, but sometimes it seemed like Daphne was leading the gang!

The constant references and jokes to modern technology were also stupid. It reminded me too much of "The Fairly Oddparents." Now I don't mind when "The Simpsons" does that, but it has good writers that CAN make funny jokes out of them.

And the soundtrack wasn't that great either. I loved the old Scooby-Doo background music used regularly from 1969 to 1974. Here it's basically synthesizer music that vaguely resembles the feel of classic SD. And the sound effects factor, they didn't use the classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects that often, we'd only hear them maybe six or seven of them an episode. We had a new sound effect for Scooby's teeth chattering, new sounds for the Mystery Machine, etc. But the sound FX thing actually started out with "Zombie Island" and the other made-for-video movies, and unfortunately, this carried over to WNSD as well.

And what about the creep factor? "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" had genuinely creepy moments, such as the Ghost Clown, and a few scenes in "The Backstage Rage" like when the marionette opens one eye while the puppetmaster is sleeping, and in "Mine Your Own Business" with those eerie moans! "What's New, Scooby-Doo" was mainly trying to be more hip and modern than creepy like the old series did. And besides, making the old show kinda creepy helped out discuss with fear, and how it'd explain there's no such thing as ghosts, goblins and other spooks.

And Scooby-Doo, who is my favorite character on the show, didn't speak much either. In most cases he just stood there, or would just follow along with the gang. He'd agree with what Shaggy was saying with a "Reah!" and we'd hear an occasional "Ruh-roh!" and at the end, the traditional "Scooby-dooby-doooooo!" Besides, in as much as I like Frank Welker, I'm not too fond of his Scooby-Doo voice. It sounds more like Brain from "Inspector Gadget," another dog voiced by Frank Welker.

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I agree completely . " Scooby Doo , Where Are You ? " was a classic and where it stood out from Hanna-Barbera`s other shows and later Scooby series was its dark and eerie tone . Sure , there were some cheesy moments but hey , it was The `60s . The later series and films lost the simple formula of the original : A gang of misfit teenagers and a lovable anthropomorphic talking Great Dane solving spooky mysteries to cheese , bad writing , guest stars , continuity errors and inconsistent characterization . " A Pup Named Scooby Doo " was an abomination . Thankfully , all later works largely ignored it aside from Shaggy and Scooby`s Real Names ( Norville and Scoobert respectively ) . " Thirteen Ghosts " had some darkness but it was undercut by bad jokes aplenty . Scrappy was not brave , he was irrational and annoying which was likely part of why he was made the main villain of the 1st Live-Action Film aside from the Screenwriter clearly having it in for him . I consider " Ghoul School " , " Reluctant Werewolf " , " What`s New , Scooby Doo ? ", " Cyber Chase " and The Live-Action Films guilty pleasures . However , " Boo Brothers " was boring , cheesy and filled to the brim with Southern stereotypes not even most Northerners actually believe . I know alot of ya`ll like " Boo Brothers " but I just couldn`t get into it . There was no energy . It was like the writers just wrote a bunch of cheesy , unfunny lines on cuecards , handed `em to the actors and called it a script . " New Scooby Movies " was more about the " Guest Star of the Week " than the gang . " Zombie Island " was a cinema masterpiece , proving that a Scooby Doo Film did not have to be cheesy , that a Scooby Doo Film could be dark and genuinely terrifying . " Witch`s Ghost " and " Alien Invaders " were also well-made .

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I do admit that in most of the Scooby Doo-movies the monster was just a bad guy in a mask, but they do sometimes throw in a real monster or two.

Exampels are: "Zombie Island"; which had real zombies and catcreatures, "Cyber Chase"; even thou it was someone behinde it, the monster was a real virus, "Alien Invaders"; it had real aliens. "The Witch's Ghost"; it had a real ghost.
These four also have one other thing in common, they where made to have the gang more grown up, in Zombie Island they actually had separated and were working (Daphne was a reporter, Fred, I think, was her manager, Velma worked in a bookstore and Shaggy and Scooby was working at the customs).
But there is one that were made later, and this one still had the gang like their old versions, and that's "Scooby Doo and the Samuraisword". This one too had a real monster in it.

So they come, not often, but they come. Who knows, maybe next year they come with another movie that has a twist in the end. :)

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Overall i feel like i've come to appreciate what's new and the movies for how they are. However when they started i felt a bit the same way the thread starter did. In all honesty i feel like a lot of what went into making a lot of the past cartoons just didn't get passed a long to the current people making them. I get that a lot of them were fans but at the same time they just don't "get" how to make it. So in a way it often comes out seeming more at ease at parody. Which in a way has become more endearing to me. Where i know it's sad i can't have more like the old but this is a decent enjoyment in the mean time.

I'd also put some money on this above sentiment is why so few other properties are touched as much now. Scooby in effect has something to work with and a bit wider fanbase. It in a way is a safer one to tackle.

However in a way i would comment that the series post What's New amplify my liking of it. Since GaC and MI both to me were pretty awful. In both cases i really get the feel that while WNSD felt like fans just not being good enough in emulation to non-fans just trying to do it their way. Given both series try very hard to seem smart and bring back or reference things, and in so many ways fail at it. I feel there's something incredibly wrong when the writers at Harvey Birdman seem to have a better grasp on making adult parody of some of these characters than the scooby writers did at just trying to let them be themselves. Just mind boggling.

But at the same time, i feel the movies have made up for this grasp. Especially things like Goblin King and Mask of the Blue falcon, which just smell so much of fans trying to show they care. Again it's not as good as the old ones but if this is what they are offering me in place of it, i feel it's decent enough.

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On just general scooby factors. I was a 90s Cartoon Network kid so i got to see all the then scooby series alongside one another. And I LOVE them all. Some more than others but i really don't get a lot of the hate on Scrappy. I always liked him.

My favorite series was always 13 ghosts, but in general i will say i appreciate the other 80s incarnations quite a bit more than i did before. In fact now a days i would rank them above A Pup and the New Scooby Movies, i just really feel it's sad more was not done of the Scooby/Shaggy/Scrappy/Daphne team. I think they worked well together.

Gamefaqs has a far worse population than IMDB

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