Sadly, today is the last day of the fan spotlights, but we’re not going out with a whimper.
Today, I’m excited to introduce you to one of the coolest, most badass people I know: the one and only Amelia! Amelia is an awesome goth who took inspiration from the Hex Girls and Scooby-Doo in becoming her perfectly unique gothy self. Amelia is a huge Scooby fan who I met a few years ago now. Over the years, she’s shared with me how influential Scooby has been in her life - from shaping her goth identity to learning English from the show! She’s also taught me quite a bit about the goth culture, which is super cool to learn about and you all should read more into it too! So just how cool is Amelia? As I hinted yesterday, she once drove her (now) daughter-in-law to stop and stare in awe, simply remarking “She’s so cool.” when they first met. See for yourself what a badass, empowered woman Amelia in her fan profile below: 1. What is your name? Amelia 2. How did you get into Scooby-Doo? I’m Danish and when I was a kid my father worked abroad a bit in America. Often when he came back to Denmark he’d bring either official VHS tapes or recordings of cartoons back for me to watch. Since he saw it as a good way to help my learn English, since English is the world language he considered it important I should learn it (very helpful considering later on in life I did marry an Englishman). One of those cartoons was Scooby Doo, and quickly grew to be my favorite out of them. Though I had also seen some episodes of Scooby Doo and movies on TV in Danish, but the English/original voice acting was superior so I preferred it. So along with some other shows Scooby Doo effectively taught me the basics of speaking English, inadvertent on its creator’s parts but I’m grateful none the less haha. 3. What is your favorite Scooby-Doo episode and film? Why? I don’t really have a favorite episode, there’s some I prefer more than others obviously but off the top of my head I couldn’t pick one out as a definitive favorite. Would be from either Where Are You, SD Show or Be Cool Scooby Doo though, as those are my favorite series. I can for the films though, Witch’s Ghost is easily my favorite movie. With Ghoul School and Zombie Island following closely behind it in second and third place. Partially since I love the aesthetic of the film. The backgrounds are beautiful, especially the autumnal scenes we get in the clips of the gang driving to Oakhaven (the piece of music played there really sells it). The night scenes are so well done too, it actually looks dark at night unlike in a lot of other animation. The music, both background and songs (the Hex Girls’s songs especially), are fantastic too but that’s a given for the four movies of that era. And it had a good contrast/balance of having a fake ghost and a real ghost. And it did introduce us to/create the Hex Girls, and they were definitely an influence on me ending up as a goth. I can remember as a kid seeing them, mainly Thorn, and thinking “I want to be like that when I grow up.” They were just so cool! Well be like that and Morticia Addams from the 60s Addams Family, who I’m definitely more influenced by as an adult. Still have that Hex Girls influence though, since a few years back I did get dental prosthetic fangs. Which provide amusement when I get asked by people if my teeth are really like that lol. 4. What ways are you involved in the Scooby fandom online? I’m not really that involved honestly. Most of the interaction I have with fellow Scooby fans is just talking about it in emails with friends online. Never been that into forums much. 5. In your opinion, what is the best series or era of Scooby? I’m going to say the late 90s/early 2000s era. I’m a bit biased, given that’s what came out when I was a kid, but given that’s when the franchise was rebooted and has been a consistent franchise since then (eg movies every year, regular stuff done with the franchise, etc) I do believe that. Plus it gave us the Zombie Island era movies, and I think nearly every Scooby fan can agree they’re one of the highest points of the franchise. 6. If they could make a sequel to one Scooby-Doo series or film, what would it be? Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated. I’m admittedly not much of a fan of that series, but I watched it through fully recently so it’s on my mind. It’s one of the few series to have a plot spanning multiple episodes, and whilst the series did conclude that plot I think it ended in a way you could create a sequel to with a bit of thought. Besides it’s one of the few Scooby series where a sequel would make sense. As if you made a sequel to say What’s New Scooby Doo or the Scooby Doo Show it’d just be another generic/usual formula Scooby series. Or maybe a movie further expanding on a plot of an episode or the villains from it. I loved how Frankencreepy did that. Though if they did do that I’d prefer it to be a villain who hasn’t already been reused, or only reused once. As I’m a bit sick of seeing the Black Knight, Captain Cutler, the Creeper, the Zombie, etc over and over again. 7. What direction would you like to see the franchise go in the future? I’d like to see it go back to using the original (or original inspired) art style more, no more Get a Clue/SDMI/BCSD odd art styles. Though I have got my wish there with the new Guess Who series. Would prefer the movies to give up the crossover thing, as it’s gotten old, and try to make the movies standout more on their own, like how Zombie Island or Camp Scare standout and are memorable. Which I know is probably a bit hard, given how many movies there are, but I think it could be done. Oh and have the Hex Girls appear again already! 8. Who is your favorite member of the gang and why? Shaggy, since he’s funny and cute. That’s literally my only reasons lol. 9. What is your favorite villain? Why? That’s an easy question. Ben Ravencroft. He’s one of the gang’s most devious villains, considering how he was so good at being manipulative he even manipulated and deceived Velma. Plus he had good style and was voiced by Tim Curry. I like a lot of the Scooby Doo Show monsters designs though too, since they had some more out there/less generic monsters. As a note the demon shark from A Demon Shark in the Foggy Dark (I love that episode name, gets straight to the point of the episode lol) also gave me a ton of nightmares as a kid too, not sure why though as I’m not scared of sharks. 10. In your opinion, who is the best recurring (non-gang) character in the franchise? Well as guessable by my answer to a previous question, the Hex Girls! 11. Do you have a Scooby-Doo collection? If so, what’s in it? Just VHS tapes (both official and recordings) and DVDs. Do own some fan made Hex Girls t-shirts though. I should buy more stuff, but there’s been little merchandise I’ve been interested in buying. 12. What do you think has made the franchise so popular that it’s still going strong after 50 years? It’s simplicity. Some say it’s a flaw but the fact Scooby Doo has almost always followed the same formula makes it easy to understand (for kids) and memorable. Relatable too, as the fact it’s changed little means people who grew up with the show in entirely different generations can relate given they watched the same formula of show, or the same show in the case of SDWAY’s enduring popularity. Plus Scooby Doo’s just such a lovable character, everyone loves him. And whilst I can’t speak for other cultures it at least has some cross-cultural appeal, given how despite being Danish I took to it and loved it as a kid even though I wouldn’t get some references the show made. 13. What is one fun fact about you in real life? Due to the franchise being one of the shows which helped me learn English there when I was younger (between the ages of 4 to 8 I think it was) where I would say words with an R sound at the beginning when there wasn’t an R sound there. All because I heard Scooby Doo say certain words in English that way, so child me assumed that was how some words were actually spoken! Thank you so much to Amelia for offering to be our final spotlight for the month! I really appreciate her continued friendship over the years, and honestly, her story is super inspiring and I hope people take inspiration from it. That being said, thanks to all of you, the readers of this blog, for just frankly being amazing human beings. I've had so much fun this past month with this little project of mine, and I'll miss posting these every morning. Maybe again someday I'll do some more! I hope you got to meet lots of cool new Scooby fans, as well as hearing all their interesting perspectives of the franchise. This has been an amazing 50th anniversary month, and I hope you all have enjoyed reading all the content as much as I have producing it!
4 Comments
Samuel Kirkwood
9/30/2019 12:28:30 pm
And with that it's over. Been great getting to know other fans past 30 days, long live Scooby I say.
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9/30/2019 12:44:05 pm
So glad you've enjoyed it! Maybe I'll do this again sometime!
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Peralaan
9/30/2019 10:05:30 pm
Just a heads up, episode 13 is up on watchcartoonsonline
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10/1/2019 11:16:58 am
Thanks so much! I'll watch it soon and put up my review.
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