Thanks Shadowscooby for coming up with this week's poll question! This was a huge list, so if I happen to have forgotten any episodes or films, feel free to let me know in the comments and I'll be happy to add it as an option!
I'm excited to announce the results of the final re-do poll about favorite episode on an Army base! Like all the other re-do polls, the winning option of the original poll won again! "Gold Paw" took first place with 31 votes. In second place, we had "Area 51 Adjacent" with 20 votes. "The Night the Clown Cried" took third with 9 votes, "Almost Ghosts" came in fourth with 5 votes, and "The Crown Jewel of Boxing!" tied for last with "Dog Tag Scooby," each getting 4 votes.
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Variety has reported that voice acting legend Kevin Conroy, who was best known for voicing Batman, has passed away. He died after a battle with cancer on November 10, 2022, and he was 66 years old. Kevin voiced Batman in "What a Night, for a Dark Knight!" from Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?
Fellow Guess Who guest star Mark Hamill paid tribute to his fellow voice actor: "Kevin was perfection. He was one of my favorite people on the planet, and I loved him like a brother. He truly cared for the people around him – his decency shone through everything he did. Every time I saw him or spoke with him, my spirits were elevated.” WB also released a statement expressing their condolences to Conroy's loved ones and fans: “Warner Bros. Animation is saddened by the loss of our dear friend Kevin Conroy. His iconic performance of Batman will forever stand among the greatest portrayals of the Dark Knight in any medium. We send our warmest thoughts to his loved ones and join fans around the world in honoring his legacy.” Due to an unexplained circumstance, the second issue of the rebooted Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries did not release on Tuesday (November 8) as expected. According to the League of Comic Geeks website, the comic has been delayed two weeks from its original release date. The comic will now be released on Tuesday, November 22. This schedule change did not affect any other comics in this series, and the third issue is still scheduled to be released on December 13 as planned.
Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur marks the longest gap of a Scooby-Doo film airing in a country outside of the US before its US release. The film aired on the week of June 16, 2011 on Boomerang UK. A leak of this film was posted online shortly after, allowing fans in other countries to see the film nearly three months in advance of its US DVD release on September 6, 2011.
This is the last of the weekly polls that we're doing a redo for, and I saved a really deep dive for last! This poll is so old that it didn't even have a number (thus why it's #151), and two of these episodes ("Area 51 Adjacent" and "The Crown Jewel of Boxing!") hadn't even aired yet at the time of posting it haha. It was the first poll ever done on this site from 2014, the year the blog was first published. The results of this poll were four votes for Gold Paw, and no votes for anything else lol. I'd link you to them, but for some reason, they were never published? I don't know what I was thinking, but I couldn't find these results posted anywhere on the blog, and I had to dig through the Survey Manager on the site to even see what they were haha. Anyway, I'm excited to see the results for this eight years later!
The results are in for favorite girl ghoul! Sybella won with 26 votes, but Tanis was pretty close behind with 20 votes. Winnie came in third with 6 votes, Phantasma came in fourth with 5 votes, and as I predicted in the comments, Elsa was in last place, getting only three votes. The results are in the exact same order as the first time we did the poll in April 2020, except Phantasma and Winnie were switched around. I also forgot to mention for that the Universal Monsters re-do poll from a couple of weeks ago had the exact same results as the original poll. All seven options were in the exact same order as the original poll. A brand new DVD has been announced for release in the UK, according to Amazon. The set will include 10 discs with 10 different movies, which is the largest multi-feature pack of movies that's been released to date. The set will include Scooby-Doo and the Boo Brothers, Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire, Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster, Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King and Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare. The runtime will be 838 minutes and the set will cost 30 pounds. This will be released on November 21, 2022. It will be released two weeks after a four pack of movies is also released on November 7, which will include Zombie Island, Witch's Ghost, Alien Invaders and Loch Ness Monster. Thanks to ScoobyDooUK for the info!
The films also come with new slipcovers which can be seen below. Despite its cancellation back in August, Scoob! Holiday Haunt still went ahead with finishing production. Tony Cervone posted on his Instagram account to thank those involved with the movie, and shared that the movie is now completely finished with production. Even though the film was officially cancelled, Cervone still expressed hope that fans would still be able to see the film. Here is a link to Cervone's Instagram post.
The Children's Emmys have just announced that Frank Welker has been nominated for an Emmy Award for his performance as Scooby-Doo and Fred, as well as himself in "A Haunt of a Thousand Voices!", in Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? If he wins, this will be Frank's second Emmy; his first one being a Lifetime Achievement being at the 43rd Daytime Emmys in 2016. Interestingly, one of his competitors includes the voice of Daphne, Grey DeLisle-Griffin. However, her Emmy nomination is for the roles of Lola, Lana, Meryl, Cheryl, Scoots, Mopes and Mrs. Bernardo on The Loud House. Another one of Frank's competitors includes Guess Who guest star Mark Hamill, for his role as Skeletor in Masters of the Universe: Revelation. Eric Bauza was also nominated for his roles of Bugs Bunny, Tweety, Daffy Duck and Marvin the Martian in Looney Tunes. Welker's final competitor is Tom Kenny as SpongeBob. All of them will be competing for the category of Outstanding Voice Performance in an Animated Program. The Children's Emmys will be broadcast live on Sunday, December 11 at 7:00pm Central. A network has not been announced yet, but it will be streaming live on the Emmys website.
For the 53rd anniversary, I wrote up a post re-ranking each of the Scooby series from my original rankings in 2019. A few people mentioned that they would like to see a post of my movie and special rankings. I decided to split up the movies and specials, so my plan is to do the specials next month, but in the meantime, here is my rankings of every Scooby-Doo movies! Since there are 48 of them, this post took forever to write, so I hope you enjoy my rankings! 48. LEGO Scooby-Doo: Blowout Beach Bash I'll be honest, I was never a fan of this and as I posted recently, it's one of my least favorite pieces of Scooby-Doo media of all time. I enjoyed the first LEGO movie (Haunted Hollywood) quite a bit, but the mystery for this one felt really thin. While I didn't love Music of the Vampire's music, it was at least passable, whereas the songs here were actually annoying. In particular, the "Blowout Beach Bingo Bash" song at the beginning was the worst offender. 47. Scooby-Doo! Curse of the 13th Ghost Blowout Beach Bash was the only film that I dislike to the point of there being pretty much nothing I enjoyed about it. With this film, I want to start by giving the possibly unpopular opinion that this would have been decent if it were just a normal DTV. Ironically, that's also kind of the problem. Given Scooby fans waited 34 years to get the conclusion of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, this was a pretty big letdown. I don't blame Tim Sheridan at all for this. After listening to his interview with A Podcast Named Scooby-Doo, it's clear he did the best he could with what he had. It was the Warner Brothers mandates of "no real ghosts" and "no Scrappy-Doo" that were the issues. These are both core elements of the series, so essentially, WB set the film up so it could never stay true to the original series. I really respect that Tim Sheridan kind of made the film open ended so people could come to their own conclusions, and I think that was the only way he could have gotten around the mandates to make the film at least somewhat true to the original. However, the issue is that Velma is so in-your-face about it all being fake that it really clouds the ending so that the rest of the gang's perspective doesn't really show. I think this would have been a decent film if it were just a normal DTV, but it feels disrespectful to the original material to have this as the ending to 13 Ghosts. The tone was nothing like the original series, there were several huge continuity errors, and many of the core characters of the series (Scrappy, Weerd and Bogel) do not show up. 46. Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island This film has pretty much the same explanation as the last one. I do feel it's a little better because none of the original Zombie Island characters were actually excluded, but it still pales in comparison to the original Zombie Island, and the same problem with Velma being intense and in-your-face about the zombies all being fake remains. 45. Arabian Nights It's probably an unpopular opinion to place this film as high as I did, even though it's near the bottom already. To be honest, I appreciate this film for what it was. The only real issue with it is that it's marketed a Scooby film when Scooby-Doo appears in only 20% of the film. Honestly though, given the title card does not say 'Scooby-Doo,' I think it's possible they just marketed the DVD as Scooby-Doo for more sales, when it was not made with the intention of being a Scooby movie. Otherwise, both the Yogi and Magilla stories are interesting and enjoyable. I suppose it really depends on if you like the original Yogi Bear and Magilla Gorilla cartoons, but I do feel that a lot of people's opinion of these films is unfortunately clouded by the lack of Scooby. At least in my opinion, it's not a badly written film if you give it the chance. 44. Scooby-Doo and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery I'm gonna be honest with you all, I did not rewatch all of these films for these rankings. I rewatched certain ones, but my schedule has been increasingly busy lately, so rewatching nearly 50 full-length films wasn't an option without making you all wait until next year for these rankings haha. That being said, there are a few films (like this one) that I've only seen a couple times that I don't remember quite as well, so I may forget some details. This film was one that I somewhat enjoyed at first, but it is very weird haha. I personally enjoyed "A Scooby-Doo Halloween" with KISS much more. I like the bizarre, fantastical plot of Goblin King much more, but this one didn't do much for me. That isn't to say it's bad though, I just liked most of the other films better and it's not one I'd want to return to often, hence it's ranking. 43. Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire I liked the plot of this, but the musical didn't quite work into the plot as well as it could have, in my opinion. I personally liked "The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament!" from Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? much more, because it fit better with Christian Slater being a guest star. The gang randomly breaking out into song in this film didn't feel quite as natural. 42. Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster While you'll soon see that I found Mystery Begins to be an excellent prequel, this one didn't work as well for me. I liked all of the actors and actresses as much as I did in Mystery Begins, but I didn't enjoy all the romantic stuff. They borrowed the Shaggy/Velma romance element from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, and it didn't work well here either. At the very least, their relationship wasn't toxic like it was in SDMI, but it felt like it completely overtook the mystery which was not particularly enjoyable. I also first watched this film when Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated was first airing, and since this movie premiered right in the middle of the Velma/Shaggy/Scooby drama in SDMI, it felt like way too much romantic stuff. 41. Scooby-Doo This is one that I'm a bit conflicted on. I like the self-parody element of some aspects in the film, but other elements were really annoying and/or bad. As I mentioned this June when I did the voice talent rankings, Fred is characterized as a narcissist here. I think there is a way they could have made it funny, but to me, it felt like he was actually an unlikeable jerk. I would also say that Scrappy being the villain soured me on this film, mainly because it led to 20 years and counting of "Scrappy sucks!" jokes. In terms of the other actors/actresses they picked, while I did like all of them, Matthew Lillard was the only one that really stood out as screaming "this is Shaggy." Daphne and Velma were decent, but neither of them felt like a perfect fit for the roles, even if I did think they did a good job. On the other hand, the plot of the gang breaking up and finding each other again to solve a mystery on an island with demon rituals being performed was interesting. 40. Scooby-Doo Adventures: The Mystery Map Although it is low on my rankings, I will say that I think this movie gets more hate than it deserves. The most typical complaint I've heard from people is that puppets freak them out. I've never been frightened by puppets, so maybe that's factoring into it, but I like how they tried to reboot A Pup Named Scooby-Doo here. The plot itself is very simple and a bit boring, but I didn't dislike it. Its biggest crime, IMO, is being forgettable. 39. Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed I really liked the element of having the gang's old foes come back to haunt them. It was very neat to see the monsters in live-action form. My criticism about Fred from the first movie still stands, Velma and Daphne's actresses feel decent but not perfect fits, and the parody aspect of this is hit or miss for me depending on the scene. This isn't a least favorite, but I wouldn't say I love it either. 38. Big Top, Scooby-Doo! This is another one of those more forgettable films, IMO. Tbh, I don't know if I've even seen this film since it first came out. I liked the werewolves as villains and the gang becoming part of the circus was fun. I honestly don't remember much else about this film, which I guess further accentuates how forgettable this was to me. I would have been interested in seeing the original DTV for this, which was a combo of Music of the Vampire and this film titled Circus of Vampires. 37. Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Speed Demon In 2012, I remember being shocked when they announced WWE was teaming up with Scooby-Doo for a crossover. It seemed like such an odd choice, especially since we'd never had a crossover movie at that point unless you count Arabian Nights (which isn't really a crossover, I'd argue, since each show was separate). I liked WrestleMania Mystery far more than I thought I would, and I enjoyed this one too, but the first one was a bit better to me. The idea of wrestlers racing each other was certainly a creative idea, I'll give them that haha. 36. LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood This LEGO crossover is much better than Blowout Beach Bash and represents how to do a differently animated film properly. It was neat to see classic villains like the Mummy, the Headless Horseman and the Zombie in LEGO animation. They worked these classic villains into the plot very well as being roles of a classic horror actor. I also liked the tongue-in-cheek inclusion of the gang being LEGOs, where they could detach their legs and arms and such. That was a clever way to promote the Scooby LEGO sets that didn't feel intrusive or like the LEGO executives were shouting "hey, buy our product!" at you haha. 35. Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword I feel bad putting this so low since it was Casey Kasem's last time ever voicing Shaggy. However, in an otherwise super solid era of DTVs, this one was a bit more forgettable. The Black Samurai was definitely a cool villain and without ruining anything, I liked the twist at the end. However, the film being so focused on Shaggy and Scooby at the end brought it down a bit, because Goblin King and Chill Out had already just done that, so it would have been nice to have the focus be more on the whole gang. 34. Scooby-Doo! Moon Monster Madness I enjoyed this movie and the villain being a parody of the movie Alien was super neat. We had some good side characters in this one, particularly U-Boat. I didn’t necessarily feel that this was that memorable of a movie, and it’s not one I’ve returned to after the first watch, hence its placement here. 33. Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur I thought this was a really cute movie. The velociraptors and Phantosaur were great villains. Velma’s crush on Windser was an example of romance done well in Scooby, in my opinion. It was a side plot that didn’t take over the mystery, and tbh, it felt like a breath of fresh air as compared to Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated where Velma’s relationship with Shaggy was in-your-face. There are so many good Scooby movies that it’s a little hard to rank them, because I don’t want to put any too low, but I like other movies better than this one. This one wasn’t super memorable in any way, I guess except for it creating that Shaggy meme lol. 32. Scooby-Doo! The Sword and the Scoob I liked this film quite a bit. After Velma began obnoxiously declaring everything was fake in the 2019 sequels, I was admittedly worried about what would happen with this film since there was time travel involved. However, I thought they handled it really well. I liked the little twist at the end regarding Merlin too, although my one complaint is that I thought they made Merlin a little too ridiculous, particularly how he wore jewelry that said “posh king.” I thought the villain was excellent and it was cool to dive a little more into Shaggy’s ancestry. 31. Scooby-Doo! WrestleMania Mystery I was pretty surprised when they first announced Scooby would be crossing over with the WWE in 2012 (keep in mind, we’d had no crossover films at that point). I have to say, I liked this much better than I thought I would. The wrestlers all fit decently well with the mystery and it didn’t feel forced like I thought it would. The villain was neat as well, and made sense with the plot. I liked this moreso than the second one, although I like the celebrity chef, Bill Nye, Batman and Courage crossovers better than this one. 30. Scooby-Doo! FrankenCreepy We’re getting into the top 30, and since there are so many great Scooby movies, it’s getting harder and harder to pick which film should go out next. I quite liked FrankenCreepy, but it’s not one I’ve returned to as often, so that’s going to be my choice for the #30 spot. It was really interesting to explore Velma’s ancestry, and I liked how they incorporated four of the gang’s most classic foes into the mystery. I thought this was an example of referencing classic villains in a way that’s done well, and not just forced in for the sake of having them there like some of the later DTVs would go on to do. The one thing I didn’t like about this film were the transitions. They were over-the-top from the start, and began to wear on me as they continued to be done throughout the film. They didn’t significantly impact the quality of the film, but I would have preferred more subtle transitions instead of ones that were like someone practically screaming “alright, onto the next scene everybody!” in your face lol. 29. Scooby-Doo and the Gourmet Ghost I thought this was one of the better crossovers that we got in the era of constant crossover films, that *fingers crossed* is hopefully over for now at this point lol. I enjoyed the celebrity chefs and thought they fit really well into this plot, unlike KISS and the second WWE movie. The villain was also super cool. It was odd they made Fred's uncle Bobby Flay, but I thought Bobby and Giada made good guest stars. I will say though that I have never watched their cooking shows, and I've heard from other people that they were off-model from that. I don't feel anything else about this movie was particularly super memorable, but I do remember walking away from watching this film feeling like they executed this crossover quite well. 28. Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright I want to start out by saying I think the twist in this film was amazingly executed, and I really liked the setting of the theater. The Phantom was also a very cool villain. However, what brought this movie down a bit for me was the Fred and Daphne romance stuff. I don't tend to mind some level of romantic stuff if it's executed well, like Velma and Windser in Legend of the Phantosaur, Fred and Daphne in SDMI, or Velma and Coco in Trick or Treat. I think this had the potential to be executed well. However, creatively speaking, I think it was a very odd choice to frame it as if Daphne came to the sudden realization that she was in love with Fred. Fred and Daphne being a couple has been done so many times throughout the franchise, so it was very weird to have the writers make it seem like it was this revolutionary concept that had never been explored in the history of the franchise. Particularly coming off of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, I feel like it would have been better to just have had Daphne and Fred already be a couple, rather than making fans go through Daphne's hopeless pining for Fred that had already been explored so many times. Don't get me wrong, I don't think this made the film bad in any way. However, I feel the romantic subplot here was focused on too much and detracted from the main plot a bit, which is why this is a little lower than it could have been. 27. Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and the Bold I had the disadvantage of not watching the Batman: The Brave and the Bold series when going into this movie, but I imagine it was amazing for fans of this series to have what was essentially a reboot of the series with this crossover. The fact that this movie explored Batman's one unsolved case was a really neat plot. The Crimson Cloak was such a creepy villain. They did a great job of picking a villain that fit well with both franchises. I also thought it was really neat how so many of the old Batman villains showed up in the movie. Overall, I would say this is one of the more memorable crossovers, but it's just slightly beat out by Courage and Bill Nye for me. 26. Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! I could see people being a little surprised that I have this ranked so high, but I have a bit of soft spot for this film. While I do wish Fred, Daphne and Velma would have had more of a role in this film, I really liked seeing Shaggy and Scooby venture of on their own. I liked the Abominable Snowman as a villain, and the setting of the Himalayas had an excellent atmosphere. It was cool Del showed up again, too! 25. Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy We're at the top 25 of my favorite Scooby-Doo films, and I feel like we're really getting into the good stuff now. It was so cool they brought Tim Conway back in this film to voice Fred's father. I really enjoyed meeting Fred's parents. The gang solving all the mysteries on that mystery cruise so quickly was hilarious haha. The pirates were really amazing villains, and the fact that there were so many of them significantly rose the stakes. A classic for sure! 24. Scooby-Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon Althoguh I wouldn't really consider this a crossover film since Blue Falcon and Dynomutt were basically just characters in a movie, I do really like this movie. It was neat how they explored Dynomutt lore and incorporated Mr. Hyde from the first Scooby/Dynomutt crossover into this. The plot of the gang being at a Comic Con was very engaging, and I really enjoyed this film overall. 23. Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! Although I know this film didn't work for a lot of people because of the car chase being nearly the entire movie, I actually really liked this one. It captured the Halloween vibe well, and the Jackal-Lanterns genuinely felt super creepy. Although it was a bit random, I thought Bill Nye fit very well with the plot here. I didn't like his Guess Who episode very much because I felt his performance was a bit flat, but I really enjoyed his performance here. 22. Straight Outta Nowhere: Scooby-Doo and Courage the Cowardly Dog This is my favorite Scooby-Doo crossover film. After a bit of a sketchy history the preceding few years about incorporating real monsters, this film did a great job striking a good balance between real and fake. They really combined the best of both worlds with this film, and as somebody who hadn't watched the show as a kid, they did a good job providing background information on Courage without feeling like it was too much. I liked the dark, creepy tone of the film and the mystery was great. The clown randomly showing up throughout the movie was also funny lol. The only thing about the movie I didn't like was the fart joke, and that was so brief it didn't really bother me at all. The cicadas were amazing villains, even as somebody who isn't a fan of bug/animal villains usually. What my favorite part of the film was, though, was the exploration of what it meant to be courageous. That theme fit so well with both of the franchises, and they did a great job incorporating it into the plot without making it seem like some cringey lesson for kids. I was super impressed with this crossover, and it's my favorite of any of the crossover films. I know this was originally going to be one of the Guess Who episodes, but I'm so glad that they made this into a movie. 21. Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown Besides the 2010 films, this is my favorite of the animated 2010s era DTVs. I really like films that explore the gang's ancestry, and I thought this film did a really good job with that concept. I thought the Ghost of Dapper Jack had a super creepy design, especially due to his skeletal features. The ending (which I won't ruin) reminds me quite a bit of the ending of Boo Brothers, which is neat. I found all of the minor characters in this film to be well-developed, which made for an engaging plot. 20. Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster This is easily my favorite version of the Loch Ness Monster. As I just mentioned, I like plots where we get to know more about the gang through meeting their family (and I hadn't really thought about how heavily explored that type of plot is in these DTVs until writing up these reviews haha). It was really interesting that they explored that Daphne's danger-prone tendency is because it runs in the family. The atmosphere of being in Daphne's ancestral castle is amazing and really makes this movie for me. The film had a very cinematic feel to me, which greatly contributed to my enjoyment of this. 19. Aloha, Scooby-Doo! I really love this film, and like the last one, a big part of that is because of the setting. The Hawaii setting is so atmospheric and the whole movie gives off a summery vibe, which is when I often watch this film. The Wiki Tiki was a super creepy and menacing villain, and the plot around the surfing contest is a lot of fun! 18. Scooby-Doo! Camp Scare A ranking of #18 seems too low for this, but I guess it just goes to show how many stone cold classics are left! Tony Cervone and Spike Brandt did an incredible job with this film, and it really captures that same dark tone that I love so much from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. The Woodsman in particular is a terrifying villain that looks like he came out of a horror movie, but the Spectre of Shadow Canyon and the Fishmen were also amazing. The setting of the camp felt very spooky, even during the daytime scenes. The twist at the end with one of the campers was also quite shocking. 17. Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins Besides Daphne & Velma, this is my favorite of the Scooby live action films. I don't necessarily feel all the actors and actresses did a perfect job with playing the roles of the gang, but they had nice chemistry with one another throughout the film. The plot of the gang meeting at school and bonding over a mystery worked really well, and it was fun to see them become closer throughout the course of the movie. Even if it's not perfect, I thought this was a really nice origin story for Scooby. I still watch this pretty much every year on the anniversary. 16. Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico This is such a classic when it comes to Scooby movies. I love that they got the original cast back, and while I wouldn't say that this felt like a Where Are You episode, they certainly did a good job capturing the classic tone. It was fun seeing the gang go to Mexico to meet up with Fred's pen pal. Alejo and Luis fit super well with the gang and I enjoyed the large chunk of the movie that was spent exploring the city and nearby area. 15. Scooby-Doo in Where's My Mummy? Similar to Loch Ness Monster, this film has a very cinematic feel to it. I absolutely love the twist at the end regarding the culprit. The hordes of mummies marauding in the tomb gave this film a dark tone, although even the scenes where the gang is outside the tomb are fun little adventures. I thought Cleopatra's ghost was an amazing villain. While I wouldn't usually like this type of character, I even thought Amelia and the other tomb raiders were good characters and that was an interesting plot point to explore. This movie kind of stands out as notable in the sense that Velma wasn't in most of it, and I found it interesting to see the gang's dynamic when it was just Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne and Fred. 14. Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo! There are going to be a few moments coming soon where a good chunk of readers probably are going to exclaim "how did this get so high?", and this is one of them lol. It may just be recency bias, but Trick or Treat really worked for me as a DTV. While I wouldn't want Coco creating all the monster costumes the gang has ever faced to become canon, this worked very well for me as a one-off. I've seen some people complain about the last 20 minutes of this divulging into randomness, but that was my favorite part lol. That's right up my alley in terms of humor, so that was great to see and I'd honestly love if it happened again in future films. I just wrote up a whole review on it about a month ago where you can read my full thoughts, but yeah, this one really clicked for me more than I thought I would. This is my favorite regular DTV in the last 12 years. 13. Scooby Goes Hollywood This might be another surprise for people, as I don't think a lot of people would put this so high. A theme you'll notice as we get higher up here is that I love Scooby movies that take creative risks like this. I guess there was no creative risk yet since this was the first ever Scooby film, but I really liked how meta this special was. Watching Shaggy and Scooby's adventures chasing stardom was really entertaining, and this remains a classic for me even though it's completely unlike any of the other films. I really liked the musical numbers and in my opinion, this is a good example of how you do a Scooby-Doo musical film right, unlike Music of the Vampire which I found to be just okay. 12. SCOOB! And we have yet another example where many of you are probably saying "how is this so high in your rankings?" haha. I know this is kind of a polarizing film where people seem to either love it or hate it, but I really liked this film. The most frequent criticism I see about this film is that it's more of an adventure than a mystery, but I've honestly never really been one of those fans who is hardcore "Scooby must be mysteries and mysteries alone." This was a really fun adventure film and I liked the attempt at creating a Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe, even though it seems like that concept has been completely scrapped after this film. I don't really have any amazing case to make for why this is such a top tier Scooby movie; I guess I just found this to be a really fun, feel-good adventure and that's why this is so high for me. 11. Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra Doo I'm going to fully admit, this probably wouldn't be as high as it is if not for my high level of focus on this movie for my current fanfic. The atmosphere of Whirlen's castle is amazing, and I really liked Madelyn's character. I know many people didn't like her having a crush on Shaggy, but it honestly didn't really bother me and felt like background. I loved what unique villains this movie had. The gryphon was a super cool choice of villain that fit really well with the magic school, and I loved how the banshee was able to switch between looking like a beautiful woman and a hideous crone. 10. Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire So we've arrived at my top 10, and we're kicking it off with Legend of the Vampire. Having the gang solve a mystery at the music festival was a really cool setting, but the stars of this film for me were the villains. The Yowie Yahoo was a more menacing, freaky vampire than we'd ever seen before in Scooby, even with Gramps the Vamp being a tough act to follow. As for the Wildwind vampires...well, it's my username, so you can imagine my opinion on them isn't exactly negative lol. I loved seeing the Hex Girls again too! The only thing I think could have been improved is that I wish the Hex Girls were more prominent in the film. As compared to Witch's Ghost, they almost feel like background characters here, which is a shame since they were so well-loved in Witch's Ghost. 9. Daphne & Velma I guarantee you that 99% of the Scooby fandom does not share my opinion here. This movie gets way more hate than it deserves in my opinion, and it saddens me a little bit that most people don't even bother watching this film. I can totally understand that it's not for everyone and that most people aren't going to think of highly of it as I do, but I wish people would give it a chance before bashing it. This film felt honestly like what we'd get if Disney announced they were making an original movie around Scooby-Doo. I know that genre isn't for everyone, but I felt like it really worked here. Even without a monster, this was a really fun, feel-good mystery plot and it was cool to see a different take on the origin story of how Daphne and Velma met. 8. Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King Unless you're counting the 80s movies (all of which are in the top 7), I believe this is the last controversial opinion of the bunch. Most people seem to think this movie is absolutely bonkers, and I completely agree with them...except I think it's weird in a good way. This movie is probably the wackiest Scooby film out there, but it's executed so well. What I enjoy most about the film is how it incorporates Halloween into almost every aspect of the film, while staying super lighthearted and fun. When I first saw the film, my reaction was "what the heck did I just watch?", but on subsequent watches, I really warmed up to this. This is easily the best Scooby-Doo Halloween film, and I still watch this every single year close to Halloween. 7. Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf All of the 1980s films are absolutely top tier for me, but this one is just slightly below the other two. I love the concept of Shaggy being dragged back to Dracula's monster realm to be put in a race. The atmosphere of the castle is top notch and the racing antics are so much fun. I thought Googie fit really naturally into the film. The only thing I will say against the film is that the racing segment is just a tad bit long. 6. Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase While it's my least favorite of the "Revival Era" DTVs, that certainly should not be taken as a diminishment of how incredible this film is. It's such a cool plot idea to have the gang be sucked into a video game based on their own mystery-solving adventures. The Phantom Virus was a very creepy and menacing villain, and the film got even better when the gang's old foes appeared in the video game. It was super amazing how the gang got to meet the past versions of themselves through the video game and solve the mystery with them. 5. Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders I absolutely adore this movie. Shaggy and Scooby's relationship with Crystal and Amber was so sweet, which makes the ending even more heartbreaking. In my opinion, this is the best done romantic plot in the entirety of the franchise. Besides the Space Kook (because there's just no way to live up to him lol), these are also easily my favorite aliens in the entire franchise. Everything about the plot and atmosphere of this movie is amazing. 4. Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost Besides the fact that this movie (and Zombie Island) has the best writing in the entire franchise IMO, the setting is also what makes this film so incredible. Oakhaven's small-town setting feels so quiet and peaceful, and I love how the movie progresses slowly at the beginning to allow us to get to know each of the side characters. The twist at the end is also hands-down the best twist in the entire Scooby franchise (although it does have some fierce competition from "Wrath of the Krampus). This movie also gave us the Hex Girls, who are my favorite recurring characters in the entire franchise. 3. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island If we got another film in this tone someday, I think I would be over the moon. I love the maturity of this film, both tone-wise and in terms of the characters' personalities. The Ghost of Morgan Moonscar and all the zombies are incredible villains 2. Scooby-Doo and the Boo Brothers Some people say the Scrappy-Doo era didn't do mysteries very well, but I find the mystery in this film to be absolute perfection. I love scavenger hunts and haunted houses, and the omnipresence of all the different ghosts was amazing. I loved that element in The New Scooby-Doo Movies, so it was really cool to see it brought back here in a more developed way. The Boo Brothers being parodies of the Three Stooges never personally bothered me like it does some others. Some of the ghost designs here were incredible, particularly the ghost of Shaggy's uncle. He's such a creepy villain and remains one of my favorite ghosts in the Scooby franchise to date. Although this isn't exactly like a Scooby-Doo mystery, I'm in love with the plot of this film and how it provides a little bit of a twist on the classic Scooby-Doo formula. 1. Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School
This comes as no surprise if you've been following this blog for awhile lol. This is such a creative concept for a Scooby film and I have so much nostalgia over this film. The girl ghouls are absolutely adorable and I like the plot of Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy having to save them from an evil witch and her minions. The puns are also top notch haha. This is such a unique contribution to Scooby's filmography and I really appreciate how different this film was. Wow, this ended up being a gigantic post lol. If anyone else is up to the daunting task of ranking every single Scooby film, I'd love to see your rankings! Since we're getting new DTVs every year, I'm also thinking about keeping a running list of my rankings at the end of my reviews for all future DTVs, similar to what I did with Guess Who. I tried to keep my reviews decently condensed so this post was a manageable length (not to mention that writing 48 paragraphs certainly took a good chunk of the day to type up lol), but if you're curious about my opinions related to anything I didn't mention, you're always welcome to ask in the comments! |
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