 Thanks to some detective work by our fan spotlight today, Luigi, it seems that we may be a little closer to figuring out what Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo is. Luigi responded to a post on Facebook from an Snipple Animation employee asking for flash artists and animators, asking if there was a new Scooby-Doo series. Another employee responded, saying "It is not a series but a DTV." It's unclear if this means another Halloween DTV film (even though we just got one last year) or some type of direct-to-video special. Here's a screenshot of the original post Luigi commented on, and you can see the person's reply above. Thanks so much to Luigi for finding this information out and sharing it with me. 
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 For today’s fan spotlight, I’d like to introduce you to Luigi! Luigi is a huge Scooby fan who is very active on the ScoobyAddicts forum, and is also a frequent editor of the Italian Scooby-Doo Wikipedia and Scoobypedia. 1. What is your name? Luigi (or some may know me as scoobylover on many forums like Scoobyaddicts) 2. How did you get into Scooby-Doo? According to my grandma I started watching it when I was around 4-5 and immediately fell in love with it. I think the first series I watched was What’s New Scooby-Doo, tho I was too young to remember. 3. What is your favorite Scooby-Doo episode and film? Why? This is not gonna be an easy one. Let’s see.. I believe the one episode I keep on going back to is “All Fear The Freak”, I mean the plot twists and suspense in that episode are insane, worthy of the most intense drama series. Every time I rewatch it, it doesn’t even feel like I spent 20 minutes, it just draws you in immediately. In terms of movies, as much as I would want to mention “Zombie Island”, “Witch’s Ghost”, “Alien Invaders” or “Camp Scare” as my personal favourites I am also aware they’re pretty much everyone else’s too. So I’ll go for a highly underrated one. “Music of the Vampire” is simply one of the best animated and well-written movies of the DTV series. And this is coming from someone who does NOT like musicals. ALL the songs are soooo catchy and I probably know them by heart in two different languages by now. The story is a classic Scooby mystery and the gang interacts so much. I love the scenes when the gang is gathered in Van Helsing’s studio, it just gives me such a warm feeling. Then, of course, there’s the beautiful Shaggy and Scooby’s ode to friendship, Velma saving Daphne, Fred being the adorable himbo he is. Just a beautiful cozy movie overall. 4. What ways are you involved in the Scooby fandom online? I have been writing in the various forums (mainly Scoobyaddicts) for years, editing loads of pages for Scoobypedia, constantly looking for exclusive information for new shows and movies on social media but most importantly I’m pretty sure I can consider myself the most active Italian Scooby fan. If you jump on the Scooby-Doo Italian wikipedia pages, in fact, you will mainly be reading stuff I wrote. I’ve been editing those pages and kept them up to date since I owned a laptop for the first time. The Italian Scooby community needs me even more than you think. In fact, since a lot of DVD have never been published and barely any series are on streaming platforms I spent over 15 years collecting (in not so legal ways but for the sake of keeping the Italian Scooby dubs alive for posterity) all of the episodes and movies in Italian from the depth of the Internet. I have actually only completed the collection last year, after YEARS. I’m so proud of it. 5. In your opinion, what is the best series or era of Scooby? The Mystery Incorporated era is the best imo. It took the Scooby formula and mixed it with the best version of mystery, comedy and drama shows. And it works sooo well for Scooby I’m surprised they haven’t gone for it more than once. In terms of movies, I really can’t choose between the Mook era and the Abracadabra Doo/Camp Scare/Phantosaur era. Both are great, the first one offered us a reintroduction to the characters after years of not being on tv and it was so well done, the second one gave the franchise a well-needed breath of fresh air! 6. What one Scooby-Doo series or film would you want a sequel to someday? Well, I know it is unlikely but having a third season for Mystery Incorporated would be great. But even better would be an adult animated adaptation for Scooby Apocalypse. I love the comics although in some parts it fell flat and repetitive. I think that could be fixed with an epic reimagined version of it with a huge quest to save humanity with The Walking Dead story arc undertones. It just can work!! I want it to be dark, gritty, edgy and crude and to explore the issues of morality surrounding the idea of the zombies being real people, hence whether they could be sacrificed or not. 7. What direction would you like to see the franchise go in the future? I’m honestly pretty stoked for what’s to come already. For years I’ve been wanting an adult Scooby series and finally Velma could be the show I’ve been fantasising about. Also, I’m in the middle of reading the first Daphne & Velma novel and it is such a fun young adult mystery book that would cater to a much wider audience, and not just kids or adults. Maybe WB should go for that, just like they did for Mystery Inc.: keep the fun dynamics between the characters but add overarching elements for older kids and adults to enjoy. I have to say I’m concerned about the DTVs since they are prioritizing crossovers a lot, tho I’m aware that many have worked so well already (Kiss, Supernatural, WWE) but I would like to keep the focus on Scooby for a while since we’ve also just had Guess Who. Thankfully, they are also making one-off specials like The Scooby-Doo Reunion which seems like a fun sorta parodistic episode which means they are trying new things. That’s it, that’s what I want from Scooby from now on. Just experiment, discover new grounds and expand the characters and stories to the fullest. Oh and also, they should really start making spin-offs. The franchise is filled with iconic characters they could have exploited but nope.. still no Hex Girls spin-off :’((( 8. Who is your favorite member of the gang and why? Well, since every iteration has a different version of each character, I would go for Be Cool Daphne, especially when she questioned gender roles (like wearing a beard) and promoted feminist ideology (I love rewatching the Salem episode and enjoy her bashing the mayor over and over again calling him an ignorant). But also, Zombie Island’s Daphne is such a badass, I love her. Almost as much as Sarah Michelle Geller’s Daphne. Also, I’m obsessed with Mystery Incorporated’s Velma. Some people complain about her being too mean to the gang or too desperate with Shaggy. What I see is a well-rounded character with flaws and insecurities who grows throughout the show.. and her sassiness is just iconic, let’s not forget it borrows a lot from her snappy personality from the classic show and takes it to an hilariously exaggerated extent. 9. What is your favorite villain? Why? It’s gotta be Cornfield Clem (from “Spooky Scarecrow”) since I’m obsessed by American Halloween vibes and I always wanted to experience a corn maze and scarecrows are the ultimate Halloween monsters! Everything about the special episode enraptures the Halloween spirit so perfectly. 10. In your opinion, who is the best recurring (non-gang) character in the franchise? Hex. Girls. The most iconic side characters, in any franchise, ever existed. They had the most badass introduction in “Witch’s Ghost” with Thorn getting such a complex background story. Also the whole concept of a Wiccan eco-punk goth band is insane.. like how do you even come up with that? They deserve their own spin-off and I will never stop saying that. Also… queer icons. What more would you possibly want from side characters? 11. Do you have a Scooby-Doo collection? If so, what’s in it? Unfortunately, living in Italy I couldn’t get stuff like comics and toys that were exclusive for the American market and never got to my country. Though, before they discontinued it in Italy, I have many DVD releases, some random magazines bought here and there, but most importantly the “Misteri a 4 Zampe” book series. Started as an Italian rebranding for James Gelsey’s “Scooby-Doo Mysteries” books, the Italian translator continued the series by writing more books herself. Stories that are only available in Italian unfortunately but it perfectly suits the vibe of Gelsey’s series. Other than that, my physical collection is quite small. I do, however, have a predisposition to digital stuff, hence I have the biggest and most organised collection of Scooby media on a single external hard drive that I would shield with my life. Inside of it, there is every piece of Scooby media in the best quality available in both Italian and English, plus a lot of ads and bumpers that can be found around the net, most of the comics released (tho some rare old ones are missing) and some books. My most prized possession. 12. What do you think has made the franchise so popular that it’s still going strong after 50 years? Interesting question. In my opinion, Scooby-Doo’s concept is so malleable, the characters balance each other out but can also be pushed to the extreme and create the opposite effect by shaking up the dynamics within the friendships, plus the mystery and adventure are such easy reusable genres that can always create refreshing new stories. It’s just such an easy IP to explore and create new content around. 13. What is one fun fact about you in real life? Well, even though I moved away from Italy long ago, I still love rewatching Scooby dubbed in Italian, mostly because it is my mother tongue and I grew up with movies and episodes being in Italian. But also, because I have a passion for Italian dubbing, since we boast one of the most important and renowned voice over industry in the world. Every time I watch a new piece of Scooby media I’m alway fantasising which voice actor will dub them in the Italian version, hoping to hear my favourites when it comes out. This is one fun fact about me which explains why I mentioned Italy so many times :) 14. Please feel free to share anything else you’d like to here! I’ll share another fun fact. I recently wrote an essay for one of my university classes (“Communication Ethics”) about the ethical implications of “turning a character gay”, which addresses the current debate on Velma’s sexuality in her new spin-off series from the side of the producers. I got an 8.2/10 for it, so in case you guys wanna check it out I’ll leave you the link here (the instructions for the assignment are also included after the reference list): 
Thanks so much to Luigi for being today’s fan spotlight! Be sure to check back tomorrow to meet another amazing Scooby-Doo fan like him!
 The Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? episode "Don't Fool with a Phantom" features a cameo by Black Widow, a villain from Space Ghost, in the wax museum. Space Ghost is another Hanna-Barbera series which ran on CBS from 1966-1967.
Thank you so much to Joel for coming up with the idea for this week's fun fact!  On September 19, the New York Yankees are having their first ever "Scooby-Doo Day" at the stadium for their game versus the Cleveland Indians at 1:05pm. A collectible bobblehead of Scooby-Doo will be given away to the first 10,000 guests who are 14 and under. The bobblehead features Scooby wearing a Yankees jersey, with a SCOOB! logo on the platform Scooby is sitting on.
Thank you so much to Greybishop for letting me know about this and for sending me the flyer for the event that you see above!  Though the end of Guess Who hasn’t been aired in the U.S. yet, many of us have thankfully been able to watch them from airings in other countries. If you’ve seen any of the remaining 11 Guess Who episodes and you’re from the U.S., today’s fan spotlight is the person you should be thanking! Peralaan is a very active commenter on this blog who has been a Scooby fan since he was 2 years old. Check out Peralaan’s fan spotlight below:
1. What is your name? My name is Alex, but Peralaan works just fine. 2. How did you get into Scooby-Doo? I remember watching SDWAY on Boomerang with my grandparents when I was really young, my earliest memories are from when I was two years old. I also remember my parents owned ten episodes or so on three different vhs tapes that I frequently watched when I was young. 3. What is your favorite Scooby-Doo episode and film? Why? My favorite episode is definitely A Tiki Scare is No Fair. Growing up the only way to watch any episodes of Scooby-Doo were either on the aforementioned vhs tapes or by catching the episodes aired on Boomerang. A Tiki Scare is No Fair was an episode I was only able to see a couple of times when younger, but the Witch Doctor's colorful costume and the scene with the revolving door stuck with me for some reason. As for my favorite movie, that's a little more challenging as there's never been a movie that has jumped into my mind as the greatest ever. For recent movies, both Moon Monster Madness and Frankencreepy pop out for being enjoyable. As far as movies go, the negative ones tend to stick out more in my mind such as the Kiss movie. Choosing a favorite is somewhat difficult, but my least favorite is a no-brainer. 4. What ways are you involved in the Scooby fandom online? I've posted a little here and there on the ScoobyAddicts forum and on Scoobypedia, but the main site I comment on is your blog. My major contribution to the community was definitely creating Google Drive links for many episodes of Guess Who, but most people reading this probably already know that. 5. In your opinion, what is the best series or era of Scooby? This is another tough question, but I think I have to give it to The Scooby-Doo Show. The whole show was like a continuation of Where Are You, but the show was more established and was able to try new things. 6. What one Scooby-Doo series or film would you want a sequel to someday? I know this is going to be a controversial/unpopular opinion but I really liked the 15 episodes of the original Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo Show (Ransom of the Scooby Chief was a misfire). I'd like to see another show try something similar and feature Scrappy as a prominent member of the gang, and air as full episodes. 7. What direction would you like to see the franchise go in the future? I don't have a strong preference for how the franchise should proceed. The most definitive thing I'd like to see is Warner Brothers actually release episodes and market future projects better. The upcoming Velma series will likely muddle the brand, so I wouldn't be surprised if another series releases that plays on nostalgia, similar to Guess Who. 8. Who is your favorite member of the gang and why? My favorite gang member is definitely Velma. I've always had a strong appreciation for intelligence, and that's what Velma is known for. 9. What is your favorite villain? Why? This is mostly nostalgia, but the Hawaiian Witch Doctor is definitely my favorite villain due to his colorful costume and amusing personality. 10. In your opinion, who is the best recurring (non-gang) character in the franchise? The best recurring character is Sheriff Bronson Stone. He appeared in most episodes of SDMI, had time to actually develop his character, and he showed multiple layers throughout the series. Aside from that, Patrick Warburton is a fantastic voice actor who really brought the character to life. 11. Do you have a Scooby-Doo collection? If so, what’s in it? I do have a collection, although it isn't anything special. I still have the vhs tapes I mentioned earlier along with various DVDs. Aside from that, I have around a hundred or so Scooby comics in my comic collection, and I have the entire collection of Scooby-Doo Mystery novels written by James Gelsey. 12. What do you think has made the franchise so popular that it’s still going strong after 50 years? I think the franchise has been popular for a few reasons. There is plenty of humor that both children and adults can appreciate, and there's also personality shown by the gang that's relatable. I think the actual mysteries also draw attention to the show, even if some iterations have better mysteries than others. The final factor is the villain of the week format, those types of shows always seem to find an audience. 13. What is one fun fact about you in real life? Like Shaggy and Scooby, I'm known in real life to have a bit of an appetite. In my junior year of high school, I was in a pizza eating competition in which I won by eating two whole extra large pizzas in under three minutes. 14. Please feel free to share anything else you’d like to here! It's really cool to be part of this community, especially the one on your site. I'm glad I was able to provide people links to new episodes and was able to help this community grow and thrive. Regardless of the actual quality of the Guess Who, I'll remember it as one of my favorite series purely for the way the community grew around it. Thank you so much to Peralaan, both for being today’s fan spotlight and for helping us see so many of the Guess Who episodes via recordings from other countries. I’m truly grateful for how he helped the Scooby community grow!
Besides the Old Mystery Incorporated, there are two major villains within Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated that relate to the overall mystery and end their respective seasons. I thought it could be a fun idea to pit the two of these up against each other to see what people's favorites are.
Here are the results for last week's poll: What type of project do you think Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo is? Special - 41 Series - 22 Mini-series - 13 Film - 10 Something completely different - 4 A few brand new clips from the upcoming Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo Meets Courage the Cowardly Dog have just been posted online from iTunes. The first clip (above) has a scene from presumably the beginning of the film. The person also posted a video of the DVD menu, which has the revamped Courage theme song from the film. Thank you so much to Ben, The Cop and Amber Noel for sharing these links with me!  Today’s fan spotlight is Peter! Peter is a big Scooby-Doo fan from Sweden. Here's his fan spotlight:
1. What is your name? Peter 2. How did you get into Scooby-Doo? I began to watch episodes on TV and fell completely for it! 3. What is your favorite Scooby-Doo episode and film? Why? Favorite episode is “Who’s Afraid of the Big Bad Werewolf” (Where Are You) and the reason for that is that Scooby is so cute in it! Shaggy is very funny and I love the song, “Tell Me, Tell Me,” in it too! I only wish Daphne would have been running with them too. I love a lot of episodes, but this one is one of my favorites! A movie I like a lot is Music of the Vampire, especially the scene in the beginning. I also like the first Zombie Island very much, and also the Sword and the Scoob too. 4. What ways are you involved in the Scooby fandom online? I am following your website close. I am checking it out almost every day. I like it! 5. In your opinion, what is the best series or era of Scooby? In my opinion, one of the best series is The Scooby Doo Show (70’s show) because of the plots and the villains. I like many episodes from that, but What’s New, Scooby-Doo and the classic Where Are You are amazing too! Almost every series has at least some good in it: some nice episodes and some nice villains. 6. What one Scooby-Doo series or film would you want a sequel to someday? I would like to see a sequel to Sword and the Scoob, but this time, Daphne as a damsel. Scooby and Shaggy could be brave and save her!! I would also like to see a better sequel to Zombie Island. It was a cool movie. I would also like to see a sequel or a series with episodes of Scoob. 7. What direction would you like to see the franchise go in the future? I would like to see the direction go darker/serious tone, but the concept can be similar to classic Where Are You and The Scooby-Doo Show. 8. Who is your favorite member of the gang and why? My favorite member/members are Scooby – he’s cute. Shaggy – he’s funny and nice. And Daphne – she’s kind and very hot. I love these three! 9. What is your favorite villain? Why? My favorite villain/villains are the Willawaw and also the Purple Space Ape from What’s New Scooby-Doo. I also love the Fire Flame Villain from the comic “Wax Attack” but there are soo many nice and cool villains! 10. In your opinion, who is the best recurring (non-gang) character in the franchise? The best recurring character would be the Hex Girls! I love them! I wish they could get their own mystery cartoon series! 11. Do you have a Scooby-Doo collection? If so, what’s in it? Yes, I have a lot of DVD’s and other things. Coloring books, posters, figurines, plushes etc. I have a big collection and I love it! 12. What do you think has made the franchise so popular that it’s still going strong after 50 years? I think because it seems to suit both young and old, both boys and girls. It’s funny and it’s serious, and has lots of cool villains and different places. Plus Scooby is so cute! 13. What is one fun fact about you in real life? I make unofficial fan trading cards for Scooby-Doo villains! Thank you again so much to Peter for being today’s fan spotlight!  It's so hard to believe that seven years ago today, this site and blog were published online for the first time. For those who have been following the blog for a while, you know that every year, I like to do a special post giving a brief overview of everything that has happened with the site in the past year. It's essentially a yearly journal that I'm sharing with the world :)
Going chronologically, starting all the way back last September, just like we're doing again this month, we had a pretty action-packed month, with multiple posts per day between all the 13 fan spotlights and a poll every single day, in addition to all the other news. It's always so fun to do the fan spotlights every year and get to show off all the amazing contributions that people are making to this fandom! In December, I finally published a brand new page on the site that I had been working on for it seemed like forever. I'm referring to the Music page, which lists every song that has appeared in all Scooby episodes and films, as well as providing a guide to all the soundtracks that have been released over the years. I'm super proud of this page and excited it's finally out into the world! Towards the beginning of 2021, I also completely redesigned the home page to include buttons for easier navigation to each of the pages, and changed the site logo. In addition to keeping up the monthly editorial articles, I also really enjoyed doing two themed weeks on the blog during the past year: Guess Who Week on June 13-19, which celebrated the end of the series after the final episodes aired in Canada; and "Knott an Ordinary Week" on July 18-24, a silly week that celebrated the legacy of Don Knotts on what would have been the week of his 97th birthday. It was a lot of fun to provide some closure on Guess Who and celebrate the show, given we all know Warner Brothers hasn't really done a good job doing that themselves with the past two Scooby series. It was also so much fun to see people enjoying the Don Knotts Week, with most commenters even changing their names to something Don Knotts related. It was definitely "Knott an Ordinary Week" here on the blog as the name promised, but it was a lot of quirky fun. The week definitely sticks out in my memory - maybe because I'm writing this post waaaay in advance and we're actually still in the middle of Don Knotts Week at the time of writing this, but that's beside the point lol. One of the most special things that happened in the past year was that I got to talk to one of the writers of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, Roger Eschbacher, who collaborated with me on the 350th fun fact. Roger was so nice, and I'm honored that he was generous enough to do an interview with me. Thank you so, so much to everyone for making this another amazing year for the site. I'm super lucky to have such amazing, kind, lovely people frequenting this site, and I love that this blog has become such a great community for Scooby fans over the years! Here's to another great year of ScoobySnax.com! :)  Happy Friday, everyone! Today, we’re spotlighting a very special Scooby fan: Emily! Emily runs the Emmasaurus YouTube channel, which showcases her adventures collecting and building LEGO content, including the Scooby-Doo LEGO theme.
I’m super excited to introduce you to Emily as today’s fan spotlight! 1. What is your name? Emily (Emmasaurus on YouTube) 2. How did you get into Scooby-Doo? I loved Scooby as a kid and remember watching VHS tapes of the movies on repeat! I was so young I don’t even remember the first time I saw the show or movies - I think it was always something I loved watching! 3. What is your favorite Scooby-Doo episode and film? Why? My favorite Scooby movie is Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost. I loved the New England setting, the story was spooky and exciting, and I obviously loved the Hex Girls! My favorite episode is “Which Witch is Which?”. I remember this was one of the TV shows my parents had recorded on VHS (very old school) and I just get so much childhood nostalgia whenever I watch it! 4. What ways are you involved in the Scooby fandom online? My YouTube channel heavily revolves around LEGO and I create content about LEGO Scooby-Doo semi-regularly (the theme recently retired). The LEGO Mystery Machine is one of my favorite LEGO sets! I also enjoy keeping up with the latest Scooby news online - when the next movie is coming out, people’s critiques on the TV shows or movies - and I follow a few Scooby-Doo Instagram accounts! 5. In your opinion, what is the best series or era of Scooby? My favorite era of Scooby-Doo was the late 1990s to the early 2000s when Zombie Island, Witch’s Ghost, Alien Invaders, and Cyber Chase were released! I was young when these movies came out, but I remember being so excited to get to watch them! They’re still my favorite Scooby movies! 6. What one Scooby-Doo series or film would you want a sequel to someday? A sequel I’d like to see from Scooby-Doo is probably a sequel to Alien Invaders. It would be interesting to see the aliens return to Earth. This was one of the only times we saw real aliens in Scooby-Doo. Plus, Shaggy and Crystal were adorable together! 7. What direction would you like to see the franchise go in the future? I love the recent character development and I hope they stick with it! Daphne used to be my least favorite member of the gang, but now she's one of my favorites for sure! She’s absolutely hilarious, especially in “Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo!”, whereas in the TV series “Where Are You, Scooby Doo?”, she didn’t have much of a personality at all. 8. Who is your favorite member of the gang and why? My favorite member of the gang is Daphne now! It used to be Shaggy, but I absolutely love how funny Daphne has become, especially in recent years! 9. What is your favorite villain? Why? I honestly don’t have a favorite Scooby-Doo villain, but I like the Headless Horseman a lot (mostly because we got him as a LEGO minifigure!). 10. In your opinion, who is the best recurring (non-gang) character in the franchise? The Hex Girls are the best recurring characters for sure! I loved them in Witch’s Ghost and it’s been so fun seeing them pop up in later Scooby TV shows and movies! 11. Do you have a Scooby-Doo collection? If so, what’s in it? I don’t have a massive Scooby-Doo collection but I’m still proud of it! I have a giant (life-size) animatronic Christmas Scooby-Doo that sings Christmas songs in Scooby’s voice, a decent sized collection of the DVDs, a Scooby-Doo plush from Build-A-Bear, some children’s books from the 90s, two pairs of Scooby-Doo Converse, and of course the entire LEGO Scooby-Doo collection! I’ve also got a few other things like Scooby-Doo pez dispensers or a lunchbox that I think are pretty neat! 12. What do you think has made the franchise so popular that it’s still going strong after 50 years? The thing that makes the franchise so popular is that it has changed slightly through time in order to remain relevant while still being the same show that we grew up with! The characters have always been who they were from the start, but there’s been some character growth and development along the way. They’re always trying something new as well, which makes it fun and exciting! 13. What is one fun fact about you in real life? A fun fact about me is that I used to rewatch the early Scooby-Doo TV shows constantly in college! I’d be doing math homework with Scooby playing in the background. It made calculus a lot more bearable :) 14. Please feel free to share anything else you’d like to here! I’m currently building a LEGO City and working on including a LEGO Scooby-Doo world! It is still very new, but I’m excited to be making it spooky, yet cartoonish and fun at the same time. It’s so much fun being able to combine two of my favorite things: LEGO and Scooby-Doo! Thank you so much, Emily, for being today’s fan spotlight! It was a lot of fun getting to read her answers and I definitely found myself agreeing with a lot of what she said, especially Daphne’s characterization being an improvement in recent years and why the franchise has remained so popular through the years. Scooby’s ability to have its characters grow and change over time, while also remaining the same franchise we’ve known and loved now for over 50 years, definitely makes Scooby-Doo one of the special franchises out there! I wish Emily the best of luck with her LEGO Scooby-Doo World - which sounds amazing, by the way - and I hope you enjoyed getting to know her a little better! |
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