A Ranking of Scrappy's Portayals

6/18/2022

Surprise! I wasn't going to write up rankings for Scrappy's voice actors initially, but I've been having so much fun seeing everybody's rankings throughout this week that I thought I'd do Scrappy's as well, given he was a main character across multiple series for ten years of the franchise.

3. Lennie Weinrib
I wouldn't say I hate Lennie's Scrappy portrayal, but the voice definitely can be a little obnoxious at times. I don't feel Lennie's voice in general is annoying, because fun fact, if you weren't aware, he also voices Uncle Nat from "The Loch Ness Mess" and I loved him there. I suppose it could have just been Lennie's personality though, as I have read some things about how he was a very "in your face" type of person to work with. If you didn't know, he was one of the few voice actors who didn't willingly step down from a voice role on this series. He was fired from the role after the first Scrappy series after demanding his salary to be raised to an outrageous amount. I don't have anything particularly against Lennie, I just found the other two portrayals better and with this one, it could be just a little bit annoying at times.

2. Scott Innes
Although Scott kinda catered more to Lennie's Scrappy voice than Don's, somehow I didn't have that same "this is a little annoying at times" feeling that I did with Lennie's portrayal. Maybe it's because Scott was kind of trying to be annoying with the voice, since that's the characterization they were going for in the live-action film, but I would say I liked his voice just a little bit better than Lennie's.

1. Don Messick
Don's Scrappy voice fits the best for me, and is miles above the other two. I feel like Don's voice almost shifts his characterization to be overeager but in a sweet, misunderstood way, whereas Lennie's voice made him feel a little bit more in-your-face at times. This is interesting because I like The Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show better than The Richie Rich / Scooby-Doo Show which is when Don started voicing him, but I would say that's mainly because the mysteries were obviously far more solid in the former. Even if Don's portrayal still had Scrappy be kind of a scrapper (a pun may or may not have been intended there haha), I felt Don's voice allowed for a little bit gentler side of the character to come out. It allowed his character to evolve and become more toned-down in 13 Ghosts and the movies he was in, whereas I don't think that would have been as easy if Lennie was still the voice, in my opinion.

That about does it for my rankings of Scrappy! I hope you enjoyed this little surprise post, and I'm looking forward to seeing some of your rankings as well!

9 Comments

Carson Maitland - Smith link

6/18/2022 10:56:05 am

Can't beat Don Messick

Matt

6/18/2022 11:03:36 am

3. Scott Innes- 2 and 3 are basically a tossup. They both fit what Scrappy was originally supposed to be, but both can get quite annoying at times

2. Lennie Weinrib- ^

1. Don Messick- Easy number one, it’s almost like as soon as he started voicing him, Scrappy became a much more likable character

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 11:48:16 am

I really debated where to put Scott too. He definitely channels Lennie's original voice in his portrayal, but he does it in a way that's a little more enjoyable IMO.

Becker

6/18/2022 01:05:58 pm

Same

3) Lennie Weinrib
I think part of the reason so many people hate Scrappy is Weinrib's performance. Most people default to 1979, it's the one that's been seen the most in reruns I think, and Lennie does make Scrappy sound a bit more annoying than he probably should be. The voice is too low and the inflection has some weirdness, stuff which the voice directors clearly took notice of after that first season, y'know what I mean lol. But it's not just the voice itself that has some issues, the performance does too – after a while it gets kinda irritable just how aggressive, energetic, feisty and randomly squeaky he is. Once Don replaced him, he toned that stuff down or least made it sound less straining. He wasn't too bad, but still not a fan of Lennie's Scrappy.

2) Scott Innes
I feel like Scott is an in-between of Lennie and Don. So with that comes the baggage of Weinrib faults as well as Messick strengths. It's good overall, but I wish it had more Don-ness to it. And I'm gonna try my best to put aside the horrifyingly mean-spirited plot and writing they gave him in 2002... why tf did they have to do that, just to make Scrappy's reputation even worse? I'm not gonna hold Scott accountable for what happened in that movie at all, he just did his job, he didn't write that shit. I prefer to think of Scott's prior performances as Scrappy (many people don't realize he didn't voice Scrappy for the first time in 2002, or even that Scrappy had roles after Reluctant Werewolf until 2002). He was already playing him since 1999, and I thought he did very well in The Scooby-Doo Project and those 3 Microsoft video games from The Learning Company.

1) Don Messick
Without a shadow of a doubt, by far the best Scrappy! For the life of me I'll never get why they didn't cast Don from the get-go, especially with how much of an impact his great audition seemed to have on the shaping of the Scrappy character overall before he even made his debut in Blue Scarab. Lennie was literally saying catchphrases that Don came up with. Thankfully the voice directors had some common sense and gave the role to Don for the whole duration of the 80s, aka the best era of Scrappy as a character (especially after the 7 minute shorts). Don, through his performance, played a big part in the improvement of Scrappy during that time period. His voice and portrayal is WAY better, makes Scrappy a whole lot more likable and fun. Love his Scrappy! Don's a beast, no surprise.

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 02:41:59 pm

3. I'm glad the voice directors pushed into making Scrappy more toned down. I also didn't like how low the voice sounded. The portrayal was kinda too aggressive for my liking, so I wasn't a fan.

2. Yeah, I tried not to let the terrible writing of Scrappy in that film influence my ranking of Scott, because that wasn't his fault at all. I haven't heard his voice in the Learning Company games, but I thought he did a good job in The Scooby-Doo Project, even if the intent was similar to the live action film and have him be kind of annoying. I also wish his portrayal in the live-action film had more of Don in it, but to be fair, it worked well with what they were going for so you can't fault Scott for that.

1. It seems like it would have been such an obvious choice to cast Don right away, given he was already voicing Scooby. Plus they also wouldn't have had to listen to Lennie's unreasonable salary raise demands haha. Even though the writing of the 7 minute shorts was not great in my opinion, he definitely improved the character and helped Scrappy grow a lot even in those episodes.

Becker

6/18/2022 03:36:16 pm

Scrappy's writing in the live-action film was quite simply abominable, it damaged his already mixed legacy more than anything ever did. It's because of that movie that he's not appeared in a Scooby episode/dtv for 2 decades. I felt like he sounded significantly cuter in The Scooby-Doo Project than the 2002 film (because his purpose was very... specific let's say... in the latter).

If I say so myself, Lennie was already getting paid too much for the quality he was providing lmao. The moment Don stepped in, he immediately improved Scrappy by himself in those shorts. The writing soon got better and better after the shorts as well.

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 04:18:54 pm

Totally agreed that Scrappy's a lot cuter in The Scooby-Doo Project! Yeah, and it also led to 20 years of Scrappy bashing jokes, which is unfortunate IMO. The bit's gotten worn out and I wish they'd stop with the anti-Scrappy jokes. And I agree about Lennie's salary haha.

Jacob Staggs

6/18/2022 06:11:33 pm

Yay!, I was hoping you would do this ranking.
3) Scott Innes - A generic albeit pretty good Scrappy voice. Exceptionally good in the Scooby Doo Project.
The next two are very close.
2) Don Messick - I may be wrong here. It is hard to say. They are neck and neck for me. Don does a spectacular job with great delivery and supplied Scrappy with a multifaceted personality but...
1) Lennie Weinrib - He is hilarious as Scrappy. There were many times where I was laughing out loud. The fact that he doesn't sound like a youngster strangely adds to the appeal.

WildwindVampire link

6/18/2022 06:13:16 pm

Thanks for sharing your rankings! The fact Lennie didn't sound like youngster to me kinda made him less appealing for me, but that's really cool he's your favorite! Neat to see different perspectives.

A Ranking of Scrappy's Portayals

Leave a Reply.

Author

Categories

Archives