A Ranking of Scooby's Portayals

6/18/2022

We've finally come to the end of our voice talent rankings, and the last character I'll be ranking is none other than Scooby himself! Since there's only five actors we're ranking, these were the easiest rankings to write up as they are either iconic or completely unmemorable in my opinion.

5. Neil Fanning

Neil's voice isn't bad, it's just not really memorable in any way. I will admit that, like Hadley Kay, he was sandwiched between two of the biggest icons in voice acting history (that being Don Messick and Frank Welker), so it would have been extremely difficult for him to beat those two.

4. Hadley Kay

Yeah, not much to say here. It's fine, but completely unmemorable given Hadley appeared in two short Johnny Bravo episodes and a commercial that wasn't even technically from the Scooby-Doo franchise. He does a fine enough job, but admittedly he was placed in the nearly impossible shadow of following Don Messick.

3. Scott Innes

For someone who was sandwiched between Frank and Don, Scott did an incredible job voicing Scooby. His voice feels a lot more natural as Scooby than Neil's or Hadley's did, and I really enjoyed hearing his Scooby voice in the four films he was in. I think it's really cool he continued to do the voice of Shaggy and Scooby in commercials even after they replaced him with Frank Welker. I'm a big fan of his Scooby voice, and if (God forbid) Frank ever retires, I would be satisfied if Scott replaced him.

2. Frank Welker
This is where it gets really tough, because Frank and Don are such icons. Frank did such an incredible job taking over the role of Scooby after Don passed away, and I think his Scooby voice sounds very close to Don's. However, although Frank is one of my favorite voice actors in animation history, I have to go with the original voice of Scooby on this one, that being...

1. Don Messick

For as much as I love Frank, Don will always define the original Scooby to me. He fits the role perfectly and really brings Scooby to life as a character.

Today concludes our Voice Talent Appreciation Week! I hope you've enjoyed this week appreciating the voice talents and live-action portrayers of the gang! This week has been a lot of fun, and I've really been enjoying reading everybody's rankings and hearing others' perspectives on the voices in the comments! I always love doing these themed weeks, and I can't wait to do more of them in the future!

14 Comments

Carson Maitland - Smith link

6/18/2022 11:02:41 am

Don and Frank are the OGs 🤎🤎

Matt

6/18/2022 11:08:50 am

Same ranking as you, but I’ll still go through them

5. Neil Fanning- Kinda just whatever

4. Hadley Kay- Same here

3. Scott Innes- Now this one is really good. Very distinctive in between. In fact, I’d say it fits generally with Scooby’s evolution with it kinda being an in between of Don and Frank in terms of how talky he is in general

2. Frank Welker- Frank is an absolute legend, and his Scooby is still great even if he is always Fred to me

1. Don Messick- The original wins for being CLASSIC. Interestingly enough, my main 5 winners split between the originals and the modern era choices, with Don and Casey winning for original, Grey and Mindy winning for modern, and Frank winning who is both lol

Carson Maitland - Smith link

6/18/2022 11:19:11 am

6. Thor Von Schultz

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 11:47:10 am

Cool that we had the same rankings! I agree with you Scott fits really with Scooby's evolution. My main winners were split in a similar way to yours, other than I had an in-between voice winning for Daphne (since Heather North wasn't the original voice of Daphne).

Becker

6/18/2022 01:18:59 pm

5) Hadley Kay
It's ok, but sounds like a lesser Innes. He's a bit too high and squeaky, it can get a bit irritable if listened to a lot. The very little material doesn't help either. Not bad per se though.

4) Neil Fanning
I feel like he sounds the closest to Messick out of the replacements, he has the spirit, but it also does come off as a lesser Messick. And there are some lines here and there where the voice sounds kinda inconsistent. But overall he did a fairly decent job. Strange they got a different voice actor just for the live-action films instead of just getting Welker or Innes, ESPECIALLY since Innes was already voicing his nephew in the first film!

3) Frank Welker
Big jump. Welker is a legend and has done a really great job as Scooby the past two decades! He's close to #2, but ultimately I went with personal preference. I feel like Innes and Welker do sound fairly similar to each other, but there are still noticeable differences in their voices – Welker is a bit raspier and more nasally. It doesn't bother me at all though, it's great. Side note, I'm surprised it took so long for them to cast him as Scooby after Don retired though, considering he was already playing Fred, and had supposedly auditioned way back for Scooby (and Shaggy), and proved he was an awesome Scooby whenever he did finally get the part. I'm not complaining though, cuz if that happened then the next person on the list probably would've never gotten the chance to be Scooby.

2) Scott Innes
Another Innes voice, another runner-up. Innes fanboy alert, it's no surprise at this point lol. Copy paste what I said on the Shaggy one, Innes managed to be sound so similar and loyal to the original portrayal while also keeping it distinct and makinh it his own. He's a less raspy and a bit higher (just like with Shaggy) compared to Don. I wish we would've gotten more of Innes' Scooby and Shaggy, but tbf he did get to voice them in probably the best stretch of years in the franchise's history since the late 70s. Those 4 movies (plus specials) are gold and he's a part of them! I also love his performances in video and PC games during the whole 2000s as Shaggy and Scooby. At least they let him voice the duo in games and commercials instead of throwing him to the side once WNSD came along (which they kinda did later starting with 2010 but that's beside the point). And final note: bonus points for being the cutest, most innocent sounding Scooby, it's endearing to listen to haha.

1) Don Messick
Of course it's Don Messick. Absolutely classic! He gave so much more to this role than what was even on the script! This was the time of the less talkative Scooby (well, at least in the first couple of shows, he started talking a bit more with TSDS and steadily kept that trajectory till A Pup where there was quite some talking), and yet Don made him such a felt presence through the performance every time! Very memorable portrayal, iconic voice, iconic everything. Easy number 1. Can't believe it's been so long since he last voiced him. Passed too soon.

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 02:35:38 pm

4. I also found it really weird that they didn't just get Innes to voice him, given he'd done it previously and it would have saved them money, probably.

3. I definitely agree with what you said on Frank. He is a bit more nasally, but I'm not bothered by it. I've also always found it surprising that he didn't get the role of Scooby sooner, since it would have made sense rather than bringing somebody else on. I knew about Shaggy but I didn't realize Frank originally auditioned for Scooby too. That's really cool!

2. I love how Scott made the role his own, while still channeling Don's original portrayal. He does such a great job playing both Shaggy and Scooby. He definitely helped Scooby evolve in those four movies and it was a nice bridge into Frank getting the role. Aww, yeah, I find Scott's Scooby voice vute too haha.

1. Definitely! You could tell Don really put a lot of heart and soul into the role. It is really sad how sad he passed away.

James Dixon

6/18/2022 03:32:51 pm

That Mystery Incorporated fan series is getting the ball rolling on episode 2. While I can't say I like it, I admire their commitment and dedication, which is something I wish Warner Bros. had themselves.

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 04:16:44 pm

That's great to hear! I'm looking forward to the next episode. I just looked at their IndieGogo page and apparently somebody donated $5,000 to them for episode 2, which is incredible. I also wish WB would have their level of commitment and dedication to the franchise!

Jakob123

6/18/2022 04:21:27 pm

Do not get me wrong....

Don Messick was a really great voice for Scooby-Doo during his time.

But I honestly think Frank Welkers voice for Scooby sounds even better.

That is my opinion

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 06:14:10 pm

That's cool that you like Frank's voice better! I grew up watching the stuff with Don, so that may have influenced my opinion I guess. Thanks for sharing your opinion!

Jakob123

6/19/2022 12:26:07 pm

What I mean to say is that I grew with both Don messick's Scooby voice and Frank Welker's Scooby voice.

I never said that I perfer Frank oven Don.

WildwindVampire link

6/19/2022 06:20:13 pm

Oh gotcha, sorry I misunderstood what you meant!

Jacob Staggs

6/18/2022 06:35:06 pm

5) Neil Fanning - Not good at all
4) Frank Weller - Okay most of the time but I really like his performance in Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue and Moon Monster Madness. Also that fantastic cameo in Looney Tunes Back in Action.
3) Hadley Kay - Same reason I like Marla Frumkin, the performance is weird.
2) Scott Innes - Perfection in Zombie Island. After that, he doesn't seem to give it his all to me.
1) Don Messick - Just fabulous. I like the fact early on that he would bark, yelp, and whine like a dog. All the sniffing noises. Fully embodying the character. Later, the whimpers became more and more perfected. He's a dog so he talks imperfect. You know he wants that sandwich. He is not going to give you a speech, he's gonna take it.
I would also argue that Don is the only one who can really sing well as Scooby.

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 08:52:31 pm

Very interesting to see Frank Welker so low on your list! I also really appreciated how Don made Scooby seem very dog-like with all the barking/yelping/sniffing noises. Don definitely got Scooby's dog-ish-ness down better than Frank, in my opinion. I definitely liked Don's singing voice as Scooby better than Frank's as well.

A Ranking of Scooby's Portayals

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