 I'm happy to announce that there has been a gigantic update to the Boomerang streaming service and app! For Halloween, Boomerang is bringing back their annual "Scoobtober" event on the streaming service. This year, however, the event is extra special as Boomerang has added nearly every single Scooby-Doo episode ever to the streaming service. This even includes the episodes which have never been released on DVD, such as the Scrappy-Doo and Get A Clue series. During the event, Boomerang also finally added the final 11 episodes of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!, which were previously unreleased in the United States besides a one-time airing back in March on the Boomerang network, which was in an overnight time slot without promotion.
The content added includes the entire series additions of The Scooby-Doo Show, Scooby's All Star Laff-a-Lympics, The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo Puppy Hour (under "Scooby & Scrappy-Doo"), The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show (also under "Scooby & Scrappy-Doo"), The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries , Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get A Clue! and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. The remaining missing episodes of The Richie Rich/Scooby-Doo Show, What's New Scooby-Doo, and Be Cool Scooby-Doo were also added. 15 episodes from The New Scooby-Doo Movies were also released, however, they are the same episodes which were released on The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies DVD. The remaining nine episodes are the only episodes in the entire Scooby franchise that were not added to the service. The episodes including The Addams Family, Phyllis Diller, Sandy Duncan, Sonny & Cher, Davy Jones, Jerry Reed, Josie and the Pussycats, Jeannie & Babu, and Tim Conway still have issues regarding contract negotiation which did not allow Boomerang to add them to the service. This is a huge day in the history of the Scooby-Doo fandom, as fans were unable to previously legally watch many of these episodes due to them not being released on DVD or other streaming platforms. I really hope this leads them to start releasing some of the missing episodes on DVD at a faster pace! Though there was a ton of Scooby content added to the service with the event today, there are still several movies and specials missing in addition to the 9 episodes of The New Scooby-Doo Movies. Besides LEGO Scooby-Doo! Blowout Beach Bash, which was also added to the service today, here is a complete list of the missing films: Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase Scooby-Doo (the first live action film) Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster Scooby-Doo in: Where's My Mummy? Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra Doo Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur Big Top Scooby-Doo Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon Scooby-Doo Adventures: The Mystery Map Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery Scooby-Doo! FrankenCreepy Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness Scooby-Doo & KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and the Bold Daphne & Velma Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games Scooby-Doo! Mecha Mutt Menace Scooby-Doo! Ghastly Goals LEGO Scooby-Doo! Knight Time Terror (No idea if they will add these, but The Scooby-Doo Project, the Behind the Scenes interviews and Night of the Living Doo could also be added) Be sure to check out all the cool new stuff at Boomerang.com, and even if you choose not to subscribe, they have several free episodes up including "What a Night for a Knight," "The Scarab Lives!," "To All the Ghouls I've Loved Before," "A Bicycle Built for Boo," "There's No Creature Like Snow Creature," "Shags to Riches," and "Mystery 101."
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 Daphne & Velma featured several meta-references to the cast and crew. In addition to Kristina Davies being one of the students on the Bloom Bracket, Carol reveals she is actually 26 in the film. This is a reference to her actress, Vanessa Marano, who is 26 in real-life but is often said to look significantly younger. Additionally, one of the major clues in the film is that one of the missing students, Olivia, always wears a blue ribbon in her hair. This is a reference to the production company, Blue Ribbon Entertainment.
 You may remember the first part of my Boo Brothers post which I wrote back in January. Boo Brothers is an incredibly complex film which could have so many different explanations for the very same scene! My original post discussed some arguments for and against some of the ghosts being real or fake apparitions. Unfortunately, I believe I wrote that post fully off of memory and I didn't actually go back to watch the film before writing the post. Last night, I continued my normal Halloween tradition of watching Boo Brothers every year around October 31 (it's never too early to start watching Halloween specials, haha). Having watched the film again, I have some new, more detailed arguments to add on which of the ghosts were real and which were fake. I've often joked with my Scooby fan friends that I'm so passionate about this film, I could write an entire essay on it. So that's exactly what I'm going to do...again!  As I said in part 1, the Headless Horseman is pretty much undeniably fake. The sheriff dressed up as the Headless Horseman when Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy arrived, and they discovered later the costume in the barn when the sheriff oddly yelled "push the button!", alerting the three that he knew how to operate it from previous experience. I'm sure you could, however, come up with a really creative theory about how the Headless Horseman could be a real spirit. For example, you could argue that the sheriff planned to dress up as the Headless Horseman, but he wasn't able to because a real Headless Horseman knocked him out in the barn, then went out to chase the gang. The Headless Horseman does, however, provide further evidence that the ghost of Uncle Beauregard was indeed real at several points throughout the movie. Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy saw Beauregard's ghost almost simultaneous with when they saw the Headless Horseman. There would be no possible way for the sheriff to have been dressed up as two ghosts in a matter of seconds.  The Glowing-Eyed Wolf is another tough villain to argue in favor of being a supernatural creature. Most wolves don't have glowing yellow eyes like that one did, so just for fun, let's say it could be a ghost wolf. You could really argue either way though, it could just be a random wolf that ran out, or maybe it's a supernatural being that's taken on the form of a wolf to further scare the gang.  Now we get to the fun ghosts whose existences are more controversial! Most people are pretty certain that the Skull Ghost was a fake, perpetuated by the sheriff to scare Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy off so he could get the treasure. However, in part 1 of this post, I argued that the Skull Ghost was real some of the time. Listening closely to the film last night, I realized I messed up in the last post. One of my arguments in the first part was that in some appearances, you could hear the Skull Ghost's bones clanking together. Unfortunately, in that final appearance before the unmasking by the fireplace, the Skull Ghost's bones clank together when he is about to pull the lever. So, the sheriff must have had something in the suit (maybe a tape recorder or something) to make the noise of bones clanking together. On a brief side note, one of my biggest questions about this film is how can the sheriff possibly exist inside that Skull Ghost costume? The sheriff is a pretty large man, while his Skull Ghost suit is practically supermodel-level skinny. The only possible explanation for this is that he was wearing an extra large corset the entire time! lol Anyways, back on topic. Last time, I sort of just gave a vague "he could have been real any of the times" explanation. This time around, I'm going to examine every appearance of the Skull Ghost in the film and make individual arguments for if the ghost was real in that particular appearance. So, without further ado, it's explanation time! The first appearance of the Skull Ghost is when he appears in the chimney, cackling maniacally as he is about to push Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy off the roof. For this appearance, I argue that the Skull Ghost was definitely real! Ever since I first watched this film, I've always thought the Skull Ghost looks a lot different in that appearance than in some of the later ones. In the later appearances, you can clearly see that it's a man in a bone suit with a black background, aka the sheriff, who may or may not be wearing a corset under his extra-small size skeleton suit. The skeleton's eyes also light up bright red, which is not something that ever happens after the first two appearances. The second appearance of the Skull Ghost is in the piano room with the secret passage. I also argue that the ghost is real in this appearance. He has bright red eyes once again, right as he tells Scrappy to let go of him. This is the final appearance that he has the red eyes, which oddly never appear again for the rest of the film. Shortly after, the Skull Ghost's bony finger presses the piano key to lock the gang in the secret passage room. Later on in the film, the skeleton's fingers were not bony at all, and appeared to be just a man's fingers in a cheap skeleton suit with a black background. This is the final appearance that I believe the Skull Ghost was a real apparition. Just for fun though, I'll go through all the other appearances to give my explanations as to why. The next appearance was in the cemetery. The Skull Ghost pops out from under a headstone several times, scaring Scooby. Presumably, this is the town cemetery, since there were so many graves. If the Skull Ghost was just haunting the Beauregard Mansion, what need would he have to follow them if he were a real ghost? Certainly none that I can see. This appearance was most certainly the sheriff, following them in attempt to scare them out of the treasure. Almost immediately after this, the ghost (whose voice notably sounds a bit different from the original appearance in the chimney) appears again, and pulls a lever causing Shaggy and Scooby to fall down a trap door. The "glowing" aspect of the ghost is certainly a cool touch, and I admit I was tempted to argue it was a real ghost in this instance, just because he never glowed at any other point in the film. However, what gave it away for me is the fact that he was scared of the Ghost Ape. If he were a real ghost, why would he be scared of another ghost (especially that adorable ape lol)? Because of that, he couldn't have been a real ghost in this case. A brief appearance of the Skull Ghost happens when Billy Bob pops out from under a bush to shoot Shaggy, but ends up seeing the Skull Ghost instead. Just by the fact that it looks like a man in a bone suit with a black background, I'd say the ghost is not real in this case. Another appearance, which I assume was the Skull Ghost, was his eyes peeking out from under a trap door in the mansion. At the exact same time, you can see the outline of Beauregard's ghost in the window, which logically is not possible. One of the ghosts would have to be real, as the sheriff cannot be in two places at once. By process of elimination, I believe the Skull Ghost is the sheriff in this case. Why? He was hiding in the house, where he could overhear Shaggy reading the clue. He wanted to find the treasure, and thus spied on Shaggy and Scooby. Beauregard's ghost, however, is outside the window and could not hear what Shaggy was saying. There would be no point in the sheriff hiding outside the closed window, as he couldn't have overheard anything. I'll get to Beauregard's motivations for being outside the window in his respective section, but I argue that the Skull Ghost was not real in this appearance. I'm already kicking myself a bit here, as I should have just written this post last night when it was still completely fresh in my mind! I hope I'm not missing an appearance here, but I think the next appearance was when the Skull Ghost ran into the Ghost Ape outside. Again, the sheriff was scared of the Ghost Ape, so scared in fact that the sheriff lost his pants when he was in the patrol car at one point. Both the Skull Ghost and the Ghost Ape were frightened of each other, which again, if it were a real ghost, the Skull Ghost wouldn't have been afraid of another ghost. The ghost appears at Bear Cave using a remote control device to operate Shaggy's truck. A ghost wouldn't need or want a remote control device, and the intent clearly wasn't to scare Shaggy in this case. The Skull Ghost clearly wanted to get Shaggy out of the cave so he wouldn't find the treasure, which if it were a real ghost, presumably it could just do it by jumping out or chasing the gang away. The second-to-last appearance would be when he appears behind the curtain in the mansion, along with Beauregard's ghost simultaneously. Obviously, the same person cannot be in two places at once. The skeleton is wearing his same black background suit with bones painted on, and thus, I argue Beauregard is the real ghost whilst the Skull Ghost is the fake in this case. The final appearance is at the boathouse, which obviously was the sheriff in disguise. There would be no reason for the real ghost to leave the house or trap the gang in a net so they wouldn't get the treasure. And the final final appearance was near the fireplace, and you better believe the ghost was a fake in that scene. If not, you clearly haven't watched the movie close enough, as that's the unmasking scene lol. But a final note on this, if you compare this last appearance to the very first one in the chimney, you can seriously tell the difference in the ghost's voice. The Skull Ghost in the chimney has a booming, creepy voice whereas the last appearance just sounds like some dude with a Southern accent in a suit.  The Ghost in the Attic is the final remaining controversial ghost in the bunch. There's really no evidence either way as to whether the ghost is real or not, since we never see who did it. There is the argument that I made in the last post, that the ghost literally drops 20 feet and no human could survive that. However, clearly there's some cartoon physics occurring in this film, as the sheriff literally has a fully-grown tree fall on him at one point and somehow doesn't die haha. I do sort of stand by my previous argument that Farquard's nasally voice sounds nothing like the Southern gentleman-like voice that the Ghost in the Attic has. I suppose you could argue that some people have a knack for doing accents, for example how I can do a really good British accent :). Farquard does have the same necklace the ghost stole, however, which doesn't make a lot of sense (the ghost isn't exactly going to give it to Farquard, after all) if it were a real ghost. So, in this case, I will actually change my original answer and say that this ghost was probably Farquard in a costume.  Before we get to the ghost everyone's probably waiting for, can we talk about how cute the Ghost Ape is? He doesn't even seem remotely scary and just seems like he wants some love! (there's where you all say "aww!") To me, this one has always been obviously a real ghost. The ghost looks exactly like Beebo, the name of the ape that the colonel shot and stuffed in his house. It's doubtful that another ape would look exactly like that. I don't really need to go through the ghost ape's appearances, since I argue he's real every time for that same reason. But, what I'm going to do instead is go through every appearance and talk about how freaking adorable he is! (with maybe a few arguments about why he is a real ghost in between) In the first appearance, Farquard tells the gang and the sheriff about Beebo and how the colonel had him stuffed. A second later, the ape peeks out from behind the statue and bats his eyelashes at Scooby! The next appearance is when the Boo Brothers are trying to catch the Demonstrator Ghost (which, as an aside, I just realized last night that the Boo Brothers never actually catch him!) The Demonstrator Ghost turns on a record and begins dancing, and a few moments later, the ape appears, grabbing Scooby's hand and says "let's boogie!" Seriously, how cute is that? A ghost that just wants to dance and have a good time is a really fun concept lol. The Ghost Ape also appears by the stairs where Scooby is currently hiding under a blanket. The Ape, not feeling any urge to scare anyone at all, comes up to Scooby and begins stroking his head. It's so adorable! The Ape appears later when the gang is outside, a bit angry, probably because no one is loving him like he wants! :) The next appearance, I believe, was when Shreako opens the door while they're trying to get away from Beauregard's ghost. He's pretty perturbed in this piece too, but most likely it's because they disturbed him. Even nice people need their time alone, so maybe he was taking a nap in the closet and instinctually roared in surprise. He probably felt bad about it later! Later on in the film, Billy Bob and the ape run into each other, and the ape gets angry when Billy Bob accidentally shoots him right in his adorable little fluffy butt. I don't even need to defend the ape in this case, no one would like being shot in the ass lol. In the next scene, Scrappy calls the ape a "big overgrown jungle jerk," which the ape reacts poorly to. I absolutely love this scene though, it's so cute about the ape answering Scrappy's questions so honestly. Scrappy: He's probably frightened with all these spooky happenings around here! Ape: Uh-huh! Sooo cute! In the second-to-last appearance, the ape is shot again by Billy Bob accidentally through the log. Every time I see that scene, I'm seriously rooting for Beebo...good for him for snapping the gun in half and facing up to his fears! In the final scene, the ape throws a temper tantrum, to which Scrappy gives him the mechanical horse to ride. All I'll say about this scene is that the smug look the ape has on his face while riding the horse is awesome, he just looks so pleased with himself lol! Thank you all for making it through my fawning over the ape haha. He's such an awesome character and I think it's super cute how timid the big guy is! :)  Let's get to the final ghost, my favorite of the bunch and the one you've all been waiting for. At the end of the film, it's hinted that the ghost is definitely real, since he shows up again on the road after the sheriff has been arrested. But what about all the appearances in between? Was it the sheriff every time, or was it the real ghost some of the time? Let's find out! The very first appearance is one I've already briefly discussed. Beauregard's ghost appears almost right after the Headless Horseman does, holding his hands up and telling them to "go back" and "leave this place!" With the given explanation of the sheriff dressing up as the Headless Horseman, there is no way that he could be in two places in a matter of seconds. That means that it would have been the real ghost in that first appearance. The one question that this poses is, why would he want them to leave the mansion that he personally willed to Shaggy? Well, I argue that he probably didn't know that the sheriff was planning to steal the treasure. Clearly, the sheriff was willing to do anything, even murder a human and two dogs for this treasure. Uncle Beauregard would naturally be concerned about his nephew going into a dangerous situation like that one, so he most likely wanted Shaggy to "leave this place" to get out of danger. Maybe Uncle Beauregard was going to personally scare the sheriff away, but wanted his nephew and dogs away while he took care of the situation. I know what you're probably thinking. My explanation above makes it way too broad, and it could have been the real ghost or the sheriff any of the subsequent times. The answer to that hypothetical question would be no, there are possible explanations for every appearance Beauregard's ghost makes! The next appearance is in the bedroom. The ghost goes through a solid wall on his bike, warning his nephew to leave. There is no way any human could do that, so the ghost is definitely real in this case. Additionally, on a brief side note, if I ever become a ghost, I want to have those super creepy glowing yellow eyes that Beauregard has! You literally can't even see any pupils in his eyes, which is really disturbing! The ghost also shows up right outside of the door when Shaggy is running from Billy Bob ("hey boys, we got another Beauregard!"). When Shaggy runs a few feet away from the door, he immediately runs back to the door when he sees Billy Bob shooting at him. In that couple of seconds, the ghost disappears and Shaggy is able to go back in the door the ghost was just standing at. Surely, the ghost would not have been able to go in the house that quickly without Shaggy noticing, especially since he barely ran at all before making a beeline back to the front door. I argue that the ghost must have disappeared before Shaggy ran back to the door. The ghost does not appear again in the film until the scene where he comes through the secret passage. That alone is pretty self-explanatory. The ghost rode his bike through a solid wall earlier on in the film, so why would he need to use a secret passage to get through the wall? That's another odd inconsistency which makes me believe that there were two different versions of Beauregard's ghost, one real and one fake. Beauregard's next appearance is in the cemetery. This time, however, it was likely the fake ghost who frightened Shaggy and the dogs. The ghost immediately grabs the clue and begins reading it, which would make no sense for the real ghost to do, seeing as Beauregard was the one who wrote the clue. As I explained earlier, the ghost of Beauregard and the Skull Ghost both stalk Shaggy while he is reading the clue, the Skull Ghost being the one inside hiding under a trap door. The shadow of Beauregard's ghost is also eavesdropping, however, as I argued above, the sheriff cannot be in two places at once, so one of them must have been the real ghost. I also identified that Beauregard was the real ghost, as he could not overhear what Shaggy was saying from outside the closed window. Thus, there would be no purpose for him to be there, if it was the sheriff trying to listen in on what the clue was. What was Beauregard's ghost doing out there then? Well, I argue that he was trying to watch over Shaggy, as he likely knew that the sheriff would be watching over his every move and wanted to protect his nephew. In the next appearance (including a brief flash to the ghost of Beauregard riding his bike in the cemetery), Shaggy opens the trap door on the ghost's feet, to which he yells "ouch!" (which for the record is a very unghostly thing to say, lol). Obviously, the headstone should have gone through the ghost's feet if he were actually a ghost, given the fact he was able to float through walls in another scene. The second-to-last scene is where the ghost chases after Shaggy's truck on his bike and tries to kill his nephew and dogs. That's a bit of a no brainer, seeing as that's classic uncle behavior right there. Haha I'm obviously kidding, given the fact that his uncle was just trying to warn his nephew away, it wouldn't make sense to literally throw him and his dogs off a bridge. Thus, the ghost is fake in this appearance. The sort-of final appearance was when Beauregard's ghost was hiding behind the curtain. Arguably, the ghost is real at this point. The same "the sheriff can't be in two places at once" argument applies here. The Skull Ghost also appears behind a curtain, as I mentioned above, and thus Beauregard must be the real ghost, as the skeleton is wearing his same black-backgrounded suit. There's also the very ominous scene before the last commercial break spot, where Shaggy comments "I bet there are no real ghosts here at all!" Immediately afterwards, a mysterious creepy voice replies "Oh no?" This is proof that at least one of the ghosts was real. I mean, it's not like some random guy off the street suddenly broke into the mansion and just happened to yell that at the exact time Shaggy made his comment. Obviously, a real ghost heard Shaggy's comment and decided to reply to frighten him. The final final final appearance of Beauregard's ghost is at the end of the film, when he appears on the road after the sheriff has been taken into custody by his brother. The ghost does not try to harm him or tell him to leave. Rather, he sits there and intently watches them, almost if he's paying his last respects. Well, that covers all the ghosts! I hope part 2 was even better than part 1 (I certainly think so!), and also that you were at least somewhat entertained by my theories and silliness. The only other "paranormal" happenings in that film that weren't explained was Beauregard throwing his sword off-screen, which I argue was something Farquard rigged up in advance to scare them. There was also the cannon scene, which was probably Beauregard. Given the bridge theory, Beauregard obviously isn't going to want to kill his own nephew, so it was probably the sheriff dressed up once again. There's also the mysterious hand which scratches Scooby out of the wall in the bedroom, which there's not really conclusive proof for either way given the appearance was so brief. Given Beauregard appears a second later, and I argued that he was real in that instance, I would say that the hand was maybe another ghost (possibly aiding the ghost of Beauregard) trying to scare Shaggy off so he wouldn't be put in danger by the sheriff's plan. I do realize that these could all be animation or plot mistakes on behalf of lazy writers at Hanna-Barbera. However, it seems like a bit too many coincidences in my opinion. It may be far-fetched, but I really love the concept of Hanna-Barbera making this super detailed, intricate mystery for the hardcore adult fans to be entertained as well as kids. There are so many ways you could interpret the mystery in this film, and I hope you've enjoyed reading my interpretation of it. Oh, and I know the question you've all been on the edge of your seats waiting for me to answer: were Shaggy's ghostly dancing pants real? Why yes, yes they were.   If you saw my post earlier this week highlighting the December 2018 comic solicitations, you are probably wondering what happened to the Scooby-Doo! Team Up issue for the month. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You's recent demotion to a bimonthly comic caused many fans to wonder if Team Up would suffer the same fate. Some even speculated that Team Up had been completely cancelled.
Luckily, none of the above speculation was true. The final Wednesday of the month landed on December 26, which DC decided was too close to Christmas. According to Newsarama, because of this, all comics set to be released that week were moved back to the first Wednesday of the next year, January 2. So, the premise and cover art for Scooby-Doo! Team Up #45 will be in next month's solicitations. While this is unconfirmed, the last-minute switch may also effect Scooby Apocalypse. Since there are five Wednesdays in January, Apocalypse could also be pushed back a week to January 16, instead of the typical January 9, since everything was pushed a week back. I'll keep you guys updated on what I hear! Why are we already looking to the end of the year when it's only September? Because the December 2018 solicitations for the Scooby-Doo comics have just been released today! Check out the comics that will be released in the final month of 2018, courtesy of Newsarama!  SCOOBY APOCALYPSE #32 written by KEITH GIFFEN and J.M. DeMATTEIS art by PATRICK OLLIFFE and TOM PALMER backup story art by GUS VAZQUEZ cover by CHRISCROSS variant cover by WILL CONRAD While the resurrected Fred Jones unleashes his army of monsters on Scooby and the gang, Daphne continues to spiral further into guilt and depression, terrified of losing Fred twice. Fortunately, the gang has another secret weapon: Scrappy-Doo and his mysterious mentor. Plus, the trials of Atom Ant continue as another member of the JLA tests the super-insect to see if he’s worthy of joining the League! ON SALE 12.12.18 $3.99 US | 32 PAGES FC | RATED T  SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? #96 written by IVAN COHEN art and cover by WALTER CARZON and HORACIO OTTOLINI The owners of an amusement park at a seaside resort hopes a new Ferris wheel will revive the local businesses, but no tourist attractions and freak shows can compete with real-life monsters! Can Scooby and the Mystery, Inc. gang capture a “Boardwalk Vampire”? ON SALE 12.19.18 $2.99 US | 32 PAGES FC | RATED E  SCOOBY-DOO TEAM-UP VOL. 6 TP feat The Atom, Atom Ant, The Legion of Super Heroes, Birds of Prey, Yogi and Boo-Boo Bear / Ranger Smith & Angel and the Ape / The Inferior Five / Stanley and His Monster
written by SHOLLY FISCH art by DARIO BRIZUELA, SCOTT JERALDS and others cover by DARIO BRIZUELA In this latest all-ages collection, Scooby and the gang cross paths with the Atom, the Legion of Super-Heroes, the Birds of Prey and more! Plus, the gang takes a trip to Jellystone Park and runs into Ranger Smith, Yogi Bear and Boo Boo! Collects issues #31-36. ON SALE 01.16.19 $12.99 US | 128 PAGES FC You probably noticed that there's not a regular issue of Scooby-Doo! Team Up this month other than the Vol. 6 collector's edition coming out in January. I'm not sure why Team Up #45 was pulled for this month, but I'll keep you all updated on further developments.  In the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode, "Wrath of the Krampus," Velma reads information regarding Nibiru to the gang from what she says is her "favorite Internet encyclopedia." The info she reads to the gang is almost word-for-word from the real-life Wikipedia article on the event.
 Yesterday for Scooby's 49th anniversary, I decided to do my typical Scooby mini-marathon of "What a Night for a Knight" and Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins. This year, however, I decided to also throw in the most recent Scooby film (which was released on Tuesday), Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost.
Before I give my review, I'd like to warn that spoilers are ahead! Overall, this was a great movie and probably my favorite so far of the crossovers. The film had a really solid, interesting plot, and didn't overly focus on the guest stars at the expense of Fred, Velma and Daphne. In the past crossover movies, it feels like they have been ignored and not focused on enough. However, this movie seemed to have the perfect balance between the guest stars and the main characters. I personally have always been fascinated with the history of America's beginnings and the Revolution, so naturally I really enjoyed that aspect of the film. The time-lapse opening was so cool, probably one of my favorite openings to any Scooby film. The historical feel of Rocky Harbor Resort provided a very nice setting. Honestly, I'm not sure how I feel about Bobby Flay being Fred's uncle. It seems odd, given how good of friends the gang is, that Fred would never mention he had a famous uncle. If Bobby Flay was my uncle, I would be telling everyone haha! Also, as a in-universe observation that the writers probably didn't even consider, Fred has a lot of uncles! Did his parents grow up in the 1900s were the normal amount of kids was like 13? lol Bobby's cat Nacho was so cute! He's such a helpful little guy. :) I'm a huge cat person, so I loved that they included both of the chef's cats in the film. As for the other guest stars, for the most part, I liked Giada and Marcus. I have no idea how famous Marcus Samuelsson is in the chef world, but it seems like he really got the short end of the guest star stick. It felt like he was barely in the movie! One large complaint I had about the film was the humor. The jokes all seemed very cringeworthy, and none of them were particularly that funny. I hated Skip Taylor, it was painful to watch some of his scenes. I normally like characters who are bit silly or dimwitted, but this was just over the top. Speaking of which, did anyone else find Fred's comment about TV personalities to be really strange? The part where he says "It's not like a TV personality to flake out of their responsibilities." in a super sarcastic voice? I mean, what the crap? lol Another scene that really annoyed me was when Daphne gave Fred an angry look for clapping for Giada, just like everyone else was. The "Daphne is jealous of Fred" joke had its ship sail a long time ago, it's to the point where's it's not even remotely funny any more. It's just plain painful. I really liked the Red Ghost in this film. He was genuinely creepy looking, especially the "shushing" pieces. It felt like something out of a horror film! The mystery was pretty good, though it was relatively easy to figure out. From the moment we met Henry Metcalf, I knew he was the Red Ghost. It was pretty easy to put the pieces together that he wanted to preserve the image of Edward DuFlay after Noseworthy revealed that there was speculation that he was a British spy. I did not, however, guess that the realtor and Henry were the same person. That was a cool twist! For the most part, this was a really solid Scooby movie which definitely gave me hope for the future of the franchise. The plot was excellent, and it was cool how they worked the history of the American Revolution into the film. There were some genuinely spooky moments in the film, and a fantastic mystery! My one complaint was that the humor was pretty poor, as the writers mainly relied on bad puns and slapstick humor for the film, which wasn't particularly funny. Quick side note, I apologize for not including pictures in this post like I normally have for reviews. I decided to buy it digitally on iTunes, and apparently, you aren't allowed to take screencaps off of iTunes? The second I try, the screen grays out and I get a message saying that screenshotting any film from iTunes is no longer allowed. So sorry about that guys!  Exactly 49 years ago today, the very first episode of Scooby-Doo was airing on televisions across the world.
Since then, we've had a lot of interesting incarnations of the franchise. Scooby-Doo has gone from the original "Where Are You" format that we all know and love, to episodes featuring the gang teaming up with famous guest stars, episodes that show what the gang was like when they were kids, episodes involving Scooby's nephew Scrappy-Doo, and even a series where the gang takes on "13 of the most terrifying ghosts upon the face of the Earth." With the latest series, Scooby-Doo! and Guess Who?, recently announced, there has been a lot of talk among fans about where the franchise is going, especially since we are quickly approaching 50 years of our favorite cartoon canine. One large complaint among fans lately is in regards to all the films which feature celebrity guest stars helping the gang solve a mystery. While most fans enjoy crossovers, many feel that Warner Brothers is relying on the crossover idea too much. In the past five years, 7 of the 11 direct-to-video films have featured Scooby-Doo crossing over with a famous celebrity or property (i.e. LEGO). A lot of fans also feel that the quality of the franchise is significantly declining, claiming that Warner Brothers is using the crossover idea as a crutch rather than a plot device. Many people feel that WB is no longer trying, and just copying elements from previous crossover films to make new crossovers. This comment on the ScoobyAddicts forum from Russm sums the situation up humorously. Writers meeting: Writer 1: "Well we could write a tight script that is focused on the interactions between the gang as they solve a mystery, how they have each others' back and how each contribute towards the solution." Writer 2: "But we have celebrities to service and it's getting late." Writer 1: "OK, just take the script from Speed Demon, do a global find and replace on wrestler with cook and we're done!" Writer 3: "Wooo-hoo home early!" Okay, obviously the situation isn't that bad, but I thought it was an amusing way to sum up the complaints of declining quality from fans. In my personal opinion, I fully agree that the quality of the franchise is declining, at least somewhat. While the more recent Scooby-Doo movies are still entertaining, they tend to overuse celebrities and focus on Shaggy and Scooby too much. This causes the plot to be a bit thin, and while the writers' attempts are in good faith, it takes away significantly from the plot. In the films that they are not using celebrities, however, the quality is still very good and stays true to the classic style of the show, while deviating just enough to make each film different and interesting. Shaggy's Showdown, for instance, was one of the best Scooby-Doo films in years and contained a very entertaining plot and good character development in my opinion. The most recent live-action film, Daphne & Velma, was a really fun, silly little feel good movie which provided an interesting plot and very three-dimensional characters. Daphne & Velma is for sure my favorite live-action movie, and is definitely up there in my top 10 favorites list for Scooby films. One large issue with this is that most fans want different things from the franchise. Some people want a return to the classic Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? style, others want a more updated What's New, Scooby-Doo? look for the animation. When it comes to tone, some people want lighthearted and silly like Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!, while others want a much darker, more serious tone like Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated had. Some people want Warner Brothers to play it safe and stick with the simple formula we all know and love, while others are more deviant and want radical changes made to the formula, such as the Shaggy/Scooby/Daphne and Scrappy format to make a return. I could probably go on and on, but I'm guessing you all probably got the point that everyone's idea of "great" is different. While I am looking forward to the upcoming Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? series, I am a bit worried for what it means for the future of the franchise. I love a good crossover every now and then, but after a while, it gets to be a bit much. Having an entire series dedicated to celebrity crossovers might be a bit excessive, especially when future crossover movies have already been announced to happen in the near future, such as Scooby-Doo and KISS 2. I hope that if WB decides to continue with their current pattern of mainly crossover DTV films, along with the new series, that they will mix it up a bit plot wise. That meaning that they focus more on the gang, develop the characters throughout the series, and not rely on the celebrities as a crutch. Where should we go from here, though? As unfortunate as it is to say, it feels like the franchise doesn't have a very clear direction at the moment. With the extensive celebrity crossovers, it feels like we're spinning in circles. One huge example demonstrating this is the whole "Daphne's in love with Fred" plotline in Stage Fright, despite that the relationship has been explored so many different times already. I think the whole Scooby fandom simultaneously cringed when Daphne "shockingly" announced that she was in love with Fred lol. Initially, I was a bit saddened when I heard the comment at the end of this video. For those who haven't had a chance to watch, the narrator mentions that after Cyber Chase, he never had the urge to watch any other Scooby content because he knew the quality of the content was declining (presuming he heard from friends or something). However, in the past few months, I can actually say that I definitely understand why a less invested Scooby fan might lose the urge to keep up with the franchise. On the other hand, as a hardcore Scooby nerd (and just a generally dorky/quirky person in general, lol), I don't think I would ever stop watching Scooby until the quality got to the point where it was just a one-dimensional line across a white background haha. Silliness aside, I argue that the franchise should go back in the direction of the "revival" era movies, those being Zombie Island, Witch's Ghost, Alien Invaders and Cyber Chase. I can honestly say that I have never met a Scooby fan who doesn't like those movies. While there may be a rare outlier, I would say the majority of fans enjoy the more mature tone and character dynamic throughout the films. I think it would be the perfect tone for the franchise, because the films are mature enough to please the adult fans, why not being overly mature or scary to alienate the fans that are children. When I first saw Scoobynatural earlier this year, my first thought was "They should totally make a whole series like this!" That particular crossover was the only one, in my opinion, that even came remotely close to the revival films. I believe that making a full series in that sort of tone would please the vast majority of the fandom, at least more so than the current tone is. Scoobynatural was certainly the most hyped up Scooby-Doo related thing of the year, so clearly it would be beneficial for WB to push the franchise back in that direction, both to please fans and for them to bring in more revenue from the films. While it's unfortunately doubtful we'll ever get a full series like this, I hope someday, we at least get another taste of the tone of the Zombie Island era films. In those films, it felt the franchise was evolving and growing (unlike the current films), which I would argue is necessary for any franchise to flourish. Let's keep our fingers crossed that WB will someday bring us back to that wonderful era of films, or better yet, that they're reading this post! :D  When the series was first pitched, Fred was originally going to have thick brown hair. Fred was later changed to a blonde shortly before the show made its premiere. Additionally, Velma did not originally have glasses in the first promo art for the show.
 Greetings all you beautiful mammals!
For those of you who don't know, four years ago today, I published this site for the first time after numerous months of hard work. Since September 3, 2014, this site has come such a long way. Every year, I like to write a post discussing the highlights of the site, as well as talking about the future of the site and what new plans I have for the upcoming year. While I didn't make a lot of updates to the site for the remainder of 2017 after the site's third anniversary, I did add an episode list to the site. I decided to add this list to give people who just wanted to quick reference the episode titles (rather than scrolling through the very in-depth episode guide) a way to quickly look through all the titles. The list also has each episode listed by chronological episode order in the franchise, as I had a lot of people ask "how many episodes of Scooby-Doo total are there?" For those curious, there are 487 episodes of Scooby-Doo out currently, counting each Scrappy-Doo short individually and including the Scooby's All Star Laff-a-Lympics episodes. Earlier this year, I also updated the List of Releases guide to include several very rare VHS compilations. Speaking of which, I want to take a moment to specially thank TriggeredWeegee, who sent me tons of pictures and information, and actually was the one who inspired me to update the page. Thank you so much again for all your help! This summer, I decided to do some major updates to the site. In June, I added the Voice Actors page to the site. This page gives a lot of detailed information about the lives of each of the voice actors who provided their talents to the Scooby-Doo characters over the years. If you haven't checked this page out yet, be sure to because you have definitely been missing out! Additionally, I created a page on the History of the Scooby Series in June. This page highlights the unique behind-the-scenes info for all of the Scooby series, and discusses the production behind all the shows in the franchise. I also got the amazing opportunity to interview Tom Konkle this year, who is one of the writers for Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!. It was so fun getting to meet him, and getting to hear more about his work on the show. Tom was also super nice and offered to do the site's 200th Fun Fact of the Week post! Thanks so much again to Tom Konkle for taking time out of his busy schedule to talk with me! Speaking of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!, you may or may not be aware that the show has been cancelled, and aired its final eleven episodes in an unfortunate overnight slot with no promotion whatsoever. After discussing with Jon Colton Barry privately on the ScoobyAddicts forum about how disappointing the show's cancellation was, I decided to do an entire week dedicated to celebrating Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! on March 18-24. Each day, I wrote a post discussing an aspect of the show (which included the villains, episodes, characters, a series finale review, and two top ten lists). The week ended with a special Q&A with the show's head writer, Jon Colton Barry, where the fans (you guys) sent in questions which JCB wrote in-depth responses to. A huge thank you to Jon for agreeing to do this again, and for being an awesome conversationalist and friend these past few years! I briefly mentioned earlier in the post that my weekly blog series, Fun Fact of the Week hit its 200th post milestone on August 6, 2018. Every Monday since January 2015, a new post highlighting an interesting Scooby-Doo fact has been published on the blog! Currently, including today's post, there have been 204 weeks of fun facts posted on the site. Writing these fun facts every week has definitely brightened up my Mondays, and I hope it's done the same for yours! I certainly don't plan to stop anytime soon, so keep checking back every Monday for a new interesting fact about Scooby-Doo! I hope to do something special again for the 250th fun fact, so keep an eye for that on Monday, July 22, 2019! It's been amazing to see how the site has grown over the past few years, and of course that's mainly because of you guys! I continue to be so grateful for you all every day, and I have loved getting to know you all over the past four years. It's great getting to meet new fans and continue to chat with old friends as well! Scooby fans are the best! Next year, I have several hopes for this site's evolution. 1. More Articles I feel like this one's going to be on the list until the end of time, given I've put that on here the last two years, haha. But seriously, I do want to start writing more articles for the blog! I wrote numerous articles this year, though I'd like to be more consistent and continue to write about new Scooby content as it comes out. The "Why Scooby Fans Should Give Daphne & Velma A Chance" article was one of my favorites to write this year, and I'd love to write more stuff as in-depth as that was. 2. New Pages Looking back at the update poll from March, it looks like you all want to see a Theme Songs page, a Comics page and a Fan Art page! I'm still working on starting to create those, but if you have any ideas for those or other pages, I'm always open to suggestions! I have a few other ideas in addition to the pages I listed, so hopefully those will be added soon! 3. 50th Anniversary In September 2019, Scooby-Doo will have officially been on the air for 50 years! I'd like to celebrate Scooby's 50th anniversary with style, and I already have a bunch of really cool things planned for that month! There are a bunch of other hopes I have for the site, some of them not worth mentioning like just keeping the site up-to-date, and others I'm keeping a secret for now! I love hearing feedback from people on the site and blog, so if you have any suggestions, feel free to let me know via the contact form. Thanks everyone as always for being so awesome, and here's to another amazing year of ScoobySnax! |
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