The BEST Scooby Doo Ever?

[Antonio E. Gonzalez]

. . . and he doesn't even get to Patrick Warburton's brilliant turn
as the town's incompetent sheriff, or the Hot Dog Water/Velma LesYay .
. .

Great show, sequestered to CN's afternoon slot, and still getting
better ratings than some primetime shows:

<http://www.cartoonbrew.com/tv/the-best-scooby-doo-ever.html>


"I never thought I’d be posting about Scooby Doo ever again, much less
be enthusiastic about it – but I happened to catch a few episodes of
Warner Animation’s new Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated on my flight
back from a quick trip to New York last month and became fascinated
with them. My mind was saying “hate this”, “turn the channel”… but my
eyes and ears were sorta digging it. I’d totally ignored this show for
over a year – and now I found myself liking it. A lot.

I’d always been partial to A Pup Named Scooby Doo, but there’s
something odd – and cool – about this latest take on the series. First
off, there’s now a story arc for the entire show, Scooby apparently
has more “dialogue”, Jonny Quest and Yogi Bear make cameos, Harlan
Ellison (!!) plays himself (see clip below), Shaggy gets a crewcut
(and it takes several episodes to grow back!), the characters poke fun
at their personalities, yet stay true to the original series — and
dammit, it’s fun! Heck, it even looks a hell of a lot better than any
of the previous “takes”. So I contacted producer Tony Cervone and
asked him to give me the scoob… err, scoop on this show. Here’s what
Tony had to say (edited for space):

“We started with the premise that they really are “meddling kids”;
teenagers going to high school, doing things they shouldn’t be doing.
The show is a reboot universe, but we borrowed things from the entire
history of Scooby-Doo. The characters elude to things in the past,
from Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, they meet characters they met in the
direct-to-DVDs, references to things in the live action movies,
Vincent Van Ghoul from The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo is in it. We pick
and choose what to include.

“There is a 52-episode story arc, and in Season 2 (currently
airing) every episode counts to tell the larger story. The characters
are now more like normal teenagers – they hook up on occasion and
break apart. We started the series with Shaggy and Velma paired off,
but then Scooby found out and there was a weird romantic triangle.
Yeah, Shaggy broke it off with Velma because he didn’t want to upset
his best friend too much.

“We learn who the original “Mystery Incorporated” were. They were
a high school club from decades past. They come back as adults (voiced
by Lewis Black, Vivica A. Fox, Tia Carrera, Udo Kier and Tim Matheson)
and they’re not what the gang thought they were. It’s deep and it’s
dense and it only gets deeper, denser and stranger from here on in.
Dan Krall art directed the first season and set the style for the
show, Steve Nicodemus has followed up on the second 26 episodes. It’s
so great – I don’t even know how why they let us make it.”

The show airs every weekday at 2pm EST/11am PST on Cartoon Network,
right after the classic Looney Tunes, and it’s worth a look. Cervone
tells me that next Thursday’s episode (Heart of Evil) contains a new,
“Dark Knight” take on Dynomutt and The Blue Falcon. Those who hate
Scooby-Doo will never watch this (and I totally understand) – but I’d
love to hear from anyone who’s been following it. What’s your take?
C’mon Scoobie fans, back me up on this."


--

- ReFlex76

- <http://twitter.com/ReFlex76>