We've been doing the best haunted house polls now for the past three weeks, and now, it's time to pit all the winning options against each other! Before we do that though, we need a dramatic reveal for the final winning option haha. The votes were quite spread out this time. Quite a few episodes didn't do so well in the last poll. "Hollywood Knights!" got an abysmal zero votes, and "The Internet on Haunted House Hill!" didn't do much better, with only one vote. "Mystery of the Missing Mystery Solvers" was barely ahead of that with 2 votes, and "A Haunting in Crystal Cove" were just ahead of that with 4 votes. There were several episodes that weren't close to winning, but did quite a bit better than the 1 and 2 vote episodes. We had a three-way tie for seventh place, between "House of the Nightmare Witch," "When There's a Will, There's a Wraith," and "The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall!", each getting five votes. "Nightfright" came in sixth place with 6 votes. Our top five were the main contenders, and it was so close than any of them could have won had they gotten a few more votes. "Scoobynatural" came out fifth with seven votes. "A Haunt of a Thousand Voices!" was our fourth place choice with 8 votes. "High-Tech House of Horrors" came in third with 9 votes. "Escape from Mystery Manor" got 11 votes and came in second place. That means "Night Terrors" is our winner this week with 12 votes! Now, it's time to pit all the winners against each other to find out which episode you all feel best executed the classic Scooby-Doo haunted house trope. It's "A Night of Fright Is No Delight" (which won our 60s/70s round) versus "Bravo Dooby Doo" (which won the 80s/90s round) versus "Night Terrors." I have a feeling "A Night of Fright Is No Delight" is going to come out way ahead as our winner, but it will be interesting to see how close it is in the end results!
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My first note for episode 7 is “this clown appears to have hung himself.” I would say that’s a great metaphor for how WTF this episode was. Surprisingly, for once it was not WTF in the sense that there was over-the-top edgy humor or the characters doing shocking things; it was more in the sense that the writers made a lot of really odd decisions with the plot.
After the end of last episode, I would have expected this episode to be mainly centered around the killer, but it isn’t hardly at all. The killer shows up for a single scene that lasts only a few seconds up until the last four minutes of the episode. We had quite a few different developments happen in this episode, but many of them were very random. Looking first at Velma, Velma is upset about the sheriff’s law that all women need to be accompanied by a man to the Fog Fest dance. We have a brief detour where Velma investigates what the word “Jinkies” means, which was written on her mom’s note that Velma found at the end of last episode. Velma quickly realizes that her mother’s script which she’d been using to kill spiders had all the answers, and even had the killer’s phone number written on it. Personally, from a creative standpoint, I found this to be very lazy. A consistent issue I’ve had with this show is that it often uses really lazy plot devices to advance the story rather than actually creating an engaging mystery. Velma then calls the killer at the number on the script, and they breathe heavily into the phone. I thought that scene was decently creepy, even if it wasn’t amazingly done. The episode then switches a completely unrelated plot where Velma dresses up as a man to get around the sheriff’s law that women need a chaperone. For most of the rest of the episode, we get this weird social commentary plot where Velma realizes that the qualities she is chastised for as a woman are celebrated by people when she is dressed up as a man. We also are shown some weird cutaways in which Velma experiences male privilege, such as handing her potential employer a resumé that just reads “I’m awesome” written sloppily in marker, and the employer delightedly responds by handing her a huge sack of money with a sign reading “you’re hired!” I did want to find that funny, but with that particular joke, I feel like it’s been done a zillion times, and I’ve seen the same joke done so much better, so it wasn’t the groundbreaking, edgy joke that the writers expected it to be. I will admit I laughed at the cutaway where Velma exaggeratedly exclaims “oh yeah!” and puts her thumbs up after peeing in a urinal. Before moving on to the other characters, I want to talk about the humor for a moment. Like last episode, the humor felt much more toned down and not as in-your-face as previous episodes have. There were certainly a few edgy jokes, like the “nut tap” one was weird, but it seems like the writers have realized that they don’t need to try so intensely hard to be edgy every second. I have to say, that’s a nice change and even if some of the humor is still cringey, I appreciate the fact that it’s no longer constant. I’ll move onto Daphne next. Daphne’s plot was kind of weird this episode. She becomes depressed and begins binge drinking at the fog fest. Given what she went through with finding her parents, it’s kind of understandable…but it felt like the show made some leaps. She seems kinda content at the end of last episode, so how she went from that to suddenly becoming a heavy drinker is really confusing and feels like it needed some more development. While Daphne’s drunk, she runs into Velma (under her alternate persona “Manny” the man), and starts getting a crush on her. This creates a lot of drama as Velma realizes this is a chance to act on her crush for Daphne. Personally, I still don’t feel the drama is done well. It seems very random and is not developed at all. In general, this show seems to have a way of forgetting about certain aspects of the plot, and then randomly bringing them up again at a later point with no explanation as to why they ignored it for a few episodes. Also, for all the crappy social commentaries in this show, I have to admit I found Daphne’s remark “I’d punch you if men didn’t sexualize women fighting” to actually be a pretty good social commentary. It’s one of the very few in the show that worked IMO. Moving on to Norville, Gigi and him broke up off-screen (illustrating my point perfectly about how this show is really random and nonsensical with plot threads). Noriville tries to win Gigi back by asking her to the Fog Fest, and instantly does. They end up going to the Fog Fest and Gigi gets mad at Norville again…but then instantly backtracks without Norville even saying anything, and says she loves him because he treats her well. In particular, that end scene where she’s mad and then instantly falls in love with him again is really odd. Sometimes it feels like the writers just have something in their mind that they want to happen, and then they’re like “we’re gonna make this happen no matter if it makes sense with the plot or not!” Honestly, just as a side note, I feel like that was something I didn’t really care for about this episode in general. The writers were so determined to make a social commentary about male privilege that they just randomly shoved it in here, and as a result, squandered an opportunity to make an episode that focused on the mystery and the killer, in a creepy setting like the Fog Fest no less. Fred’s main plot line is that he wants to be the Fog Fest King, and is mad that Shaggy is appearing to be the front runner. They’ve completely dropped the plot where he’s learning about feminism for some inexplicable reason, which was strange. Without getting too political, there have been some theories that Velma is a right wing sysop. Honestly, Fred’s comment where he says “the serial killer is whatever you need it to be” kinda felt like something right-wing people would typically mock left-wing people with, which gives a little bit of validity to that theory. I won’t comment on the political aspect of it any further, I just thought it was interesting. There wasn’t really much notable about Fred, so I’ll just talk about his scenes with the killer. The last four minutes of the episode features the gang being chased around the Fog Fest by the serial killer, while classic Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? music is played. Personally, I felt the music was a bit forced. It didn’t really fit, and kinda screamed Mindy Kaling thinking “woah, wouldn’t it be awesome to have the gang chased by a serial killer over the classic score?” It just felt unnatural and did not really work IMO. Also, I never thought I’d hear Fred say “Damn girl, how’d you get all that ass in those little slacks?” to himself in the mirror lol. Moving onto episode 8, we once again got a clearer focus on the mystery, which was nice. The episode centers around Norville, Velma, Daphne and Gigi all getting stuck in the woods when Norville accidentally misinterprets Gigi’s request to have a romantic weekend together. I felt there was a lot of unnecessary drama and fighting in the episode: Gigi is mad at Norville because he didn’t get her obvious signals about wanting to be alone at her cabin in the woods. Daphne is mad at Velma for faking a hallucination so that she would come to Velma to investigate in the woods, instead of hanging out with Olive, whom we learn Daphne has a crush on. On a random aside, we also see that Gigi has a bloody bear rug of a skinned bear carcass in her living room, which I thought was very bizarre. A series of unfortunate events causes all four of them to fall into an underground cave and become trapped by a rock. They learn that one person will have to be crushed because of how tightly the rock is pinning them. I feel the characters express their worst qualities there when instead of someone volunteering to sacrifice themselves, they all immediately try to kill each other without hesitation. Meanwhile, Fred is kidnapped by the serial killer and put into a locked room. In this room, he finds the brains of the murdered girls conserved in some sort of fluid, and they are still able to talk somehow through device. I found Fred’s antics with the brains to be kinda weird, especially all the jokes about Fred having a love affair with each of the girls’ brains. The joke about Fred accidentally almost getting one of the girls’ brains pregnant was particularly cringey and over-the-top. I did not find the police leaving Velma, Daphne, Gigi and Norville after already finding them so they could rescue Fred (because he’s a white person) to be funny. It was definitely another very cringily executed social commentary. Velma and Daphne separate from the rest of the group as they fall into the cave, and hear Fred. They’re able to rescue him, but Velma nearly falls into a hole in the cave when the walls begin disintegrating. Velma is saved by none other than her mother, and all five of them escape the cave. I have to admit, the joke I found the funniest was Fred running through the cave (which is collapsing due to loud sounds) screaming “Help! Help!” at top volume. It was one of those jokes that was just so stupid to watch that I found it hilarious. The episode ends with Velma’s mom going to the hospital saying she can’t remember anything about who kidnapped her, and we learn that she only has 72 hours to remember otherwise her memories will be lost forever. They don’t explain why, but I’m sure it will be for some cringey nonsensical reason lol. I'm guessing she will be the killer, and is faking the memory loss. Also, random aside, but another one of the jokes I liked the most is Velma’s shirt at the beginning of the episode, which says “Missing” has a picture of her mother holding a cat on it, and in parentheses below the picture, it says “the mom, not the cat.” It was so random and ridiculous that it worked for me. The flashback format of this episode was interesting. I don’t know if I’d say it was super well executed, but it wasn’t badly executed either. All of the meta jokes about how flashbacks are best done in TV shows definitely gives validity to the theory that I’ve seen a lot of people say on the Internet, where it seems like many of the jokes in this show were written by TV writers who only talk to other TV writers. Overall, I thought these two episodes were okay. I didn’t feel they were quite as strong as the last episodes writing-wise. I felt episode 7 squandered an opportunity to focus on the mystery in favor of a weird male privilege social commentary that has been done far better in so many other shows and movies. I liked that they focused on the mystery more in episode 8, so that was definitely a bonus. However, the constant fighting got old pretty quickly. I feel this show’s mystery has the potential to be interesting, but they are wasting so much time on drama and social commentaries that it is detracting from the ability to develop the overall plot. On the more positive side, I am glad they are toning down the humor a bit. The cringey jokes felt constant in the first four episodes, so it’s good they’ve brought it down to a more manageable level. I feel I’m able to ignore some of the more cringey jokes when they are popping up as a result, and I’m finding more jokes funny than I did in the first four. As a brief aside I didn’t mention in the main review, the one joke I felt to be extremely over-the-top in episode 8 was the joke where Velma casually asks if she can have some more edible underwear to eat, as if they are potato chips or something. I know this show loves its edgy humor, but that one stood out to me as hypersexual to the extreme. I can’t believe we only have one more week left now! The show’s gone really fast. I’m guessing with all the controversy and how it’s been commonly called “one of the worst shows ever” by many critics, this isn’t going to be renewed, so I have to believe next Thursday is it. I’m interested to see what happens, and I look forward to hearing all of your thoughts on this week’s episodes! Rankings: 1. The Sins of the Fathers and Some of the Mothers 2. Marching Band Sleepover 3. A Velma in the Woods 4. Fog Fest 5. The Candy Man 6. Velma 7. Velma Makes a List 8. Velma Kai The announcer for the Globetrotters game in "The Mystery of Haunted Island" (from The New Scooby-Doo Movies) is not just a one-off character created for that episode. He appears in other episodes of the Harlem Globetrotters cartoon from the 1970s. In addition, the Laff-a-Lympics narrator's voice sounds exactly the same as the announcer in this episode, perhaps prompting an in-universe question of if it's the same announcer.
It's time for our final poll of the Haunted House poll series! Next week, we'll be combining all three winners from today's poll and the previous two weeks, and facing them off against each other to determine the Scooby-Doo episode that does the classic haunted house trope best.
The results for last week's poll were very interesting and kind of all over the map. A majority of the options got three votes or less. "A Fit Night for Bats" and "The Sludge Monster from the Earth's Core" both got zero votes. "Scooby's Roots" got one vote; "The Hand of Horror" and "A Night Louse at the White House" each got two votes; and "Wedding Bell Boos," "A Bicycle Built for Boo!" and "Ghost Who's Coming to Dinner?" got three votes each. Taking a look at the top 3, "The Were-Doo of Doo Manor" came in third place with seven votes. I was predicting this episode was going to win, but "Scoobygeist" ended up coming in second place with a total of 11 votes. Our winner this week got twice the amount of votes as any other option. "Bravo Dooby Doo" took the win last week, amassing a total of 22 votes! I can't believe we're already halfway through the series! I have to admit I didn't dislike these episodes as much as last week's, but the show is still by no means good IMO. More of the jokes landed for me this week, and I particularly liked the joke of somebody crashing headfirst through a window when the police said "intolerance." It was so goofy and ridiculous I'll admit it got a laugh out of me. As an aficionado of dad jokes, I also liked the "you must be this neander-tall to ride" pun haha. The Casey Kasem bit was fun too. I liked the little reference to him and I was happy they did something tasteful, given the show's track record of making everything as inappropriate as possible.
Speaking of which, the plot about Daphne's parents was really interesting. It still felt a bit rushed and could have been developed better than it was, but it was at least engaging unlike the constant shock humor in the last two episodes. I liked how Daphne's parents were dressed up like Captain Caveman, as well as the nod to Fred, Wilma and Pebbles, and the caveman from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?. The Jetsons reference was also interesting. I also noticed the eyes in the dark were drawn in the same style as The New Scooby-Doo Movies, and Shaggy has a poster of Charlie the Funland Robot on his wall. We also get to see Captain Cutler, whom Velma actually captures when fishing with her dad. While there was a little bit of mystery on Velma's end, the whole marching band plot was initially interesting, but it turned into another "WTF" moment for me. The idea of a marching band sleepover where all the band members are playing their instruments at the party was funny, but it quickly devolved when the marching band started eating Velma's carpets and furniture because they hadn't been fed. I don't necessarily feel it was inappropriate or a bad joke, it was just kinda weird. I also thought the joke with the trombone was a great example of how this show takes what could have been funny and makes it mean-spirited. I thought the guy making the "wah wah" noise when Daphne didn't get what she wanted was funny, but then Daphne kicked the guy in the crotch. I don't like this show's tendency to make the characters cruel like that. The trombone joke was funny on its own, so I don't understand why the writers feel they need to turn the knob from 1 to 100 and make the jokes as in-your-face and antagonistic as possible. That being said, there were actually a few extreme jokes that made me laugh this time. I liked the police putting out the "only murderers walk the streets at night" sign. The flashback where the mine's owner just randomly says "Mine's closed. Everyone's fired!" as all the lights shut off made me laugh quite a bit, just because it came so out of nowhere lol. That comment about Fred needing his previous actions covered up by an Israeli security firm also made me wonder what he did haha. The last joke I found funny was super quick and many people may have missed it, but I found it funny that the salad bag was marked "Salad!" with an exclamation point haha. I feel that these jokes demonstrate that the writers can actually write good material, so it's a shame they waste it on try-hard edgy stuff like Velma saying "no sweat off my underboobs!" and a cop intentionally running over Velma with his squad car. Moving to episode 6, I enjoyed this one a little more too. I thought they did a decent job with the mystery elements this time, and I appreciated that we're starting to dive more into the mystery. Out of all the episodes so far, I would say the mystery felt least overshadowed in this episode. It was still overshadowed a bit by the weird stuff with Velma's dad, however, but I liked how the mystery at least didn't feel like an afterthought for a change. It was really interesting to hear the backstory behind why Velma's mom disappeared. Given we're halfway through the show, I feel like we should have found out at least a few more details about that way before now, but better late than never I suppose haha. It was neat that the general's operation was named "SCOOBI," and how they incorporated masks and meddling kids into the plot. The bit at the end with the serial killer breathing heavily was really creepy, and I would say this is the first time in these three weeks that I've actually felt a little curious to find out what happens next. I felt they still cut corners a bit when it came to the mystery...like the explanation of how Daphne's parents found her felt rushed...but overall, I really appreciated that there was a bit more of a focus on the mystery. I liked more of the humor than I did in previous episodes, although some of it still fell into the try-hard edgy category. I was surprised to find that a few of the "shock humor" jokes landed for me this time. Fred reading Yas Queens throughout History, only for his father to take it away and hand him a shot glass and loaded rifle was intense haha. Velma's mom and dad singing "just the three of us" as they spray mud all over Velma was similarly so shocking I have to admit I got a little chuckle out of it. One of my favorite jokes of the episode was Velma's father Googling "how to play catch." Let's hope that's not where our increasing reliance on the Internet is taking us lol. I also found it hilarious how Shaggy was acting tough and dressing up in a leather jacket that says "Mr. Bad Bear." This episode also had the joke that I've probably laughed the hardest at, that being the part where Velma is outraged by her father installing a tracking app on her phone. His reaction of "Sophie installed it so you wouldn't catch us in bed talking smack about you!" was so shocking and random that I found it hilarious. Given how poorly characterized most of the characters are here, I have to admit it was pretty funny to have a meta-joke highlighting what terrible parents Velma has. I still found some of the humor to be overly raunchy and try-hard edgy, most notably the bit where Velma's dad takes her to a strip club for lunch. One of the strippers being named "Chestiny" was particularly over-the-top. However, the biggest "WTF am I watching?" moment I've had in the episode, and the show thus far, was Velma deciding to do a pole dance because she's angry with her father, as guys shout things such as "Oh yeah baby, keep it all on!" This show certainly has a knack for creating unbearably weird moments to watch lol. Oh, and we also learn Velma's previous catchphrase to Jinkies was "Keep it frosty!" which was very odd haha. Overall, these two episodes were definitely an improvement on the last two, and I would say episode 6 might be the best in the show. That being said, "best" is a term to be taken lightly, since I still don't really enjoy for the show due to the poorly written characters, the try-hard edgy humor, and the cutting of corners when it comes to the mystery. However, these two episodes, particularly episode 6, were at least more tolerable and I found some enjoyment in them, whereas episode 3 and 4 were nearly unbearable slogs of nonsensical WTF moments. Perhaps a little bit of it is because I'm getting used to the inane weirdness of the show after seeing a few episodes, but I also did feel there was at least some meaningful mystery development in these episodes, which is definitely an improvement. I hope we continue to see more mystery development in the coming episodes. Rankings: 1. The Sins of the Fathers and Some of the Mothers 2. Marching Band Sleepover 3. The Candy Man 4. Velma 5. Velma Makes a List 6. Velma Kai Some early concept art for Velma has been shared, and it looks completely different than what we ended up getting. Earlier last week, artist Annie Wu posted some pieces of early concept art for the show on Twitter, which was covered in an article by CBR. In my opinion, this early concept art animation actually looks a lot better than what we ended up getting. You can view a few other pictures of concept art in the Twitter thread.
During the voice recording process for Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Frank Welker stated in an interview that he thought he might be replaced due to WB executives claiming his voice had gone down an octave since he last voiced Fred in 1984. Here's a quote from Welker on the matter from an interview with Animation Magazine.
"Coincidentally, when we were doing the direct-to-video movie, Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, I was basically the only one left from the original group. I thought they might replace me because they thought my voice had gone down an octave. I personally feel I can do Freddie right up front. When we were recording it, the director kept saying, 'Higher and higher,' and I kept saying, 'No, no, I don't think so. I did that for a lot of years,' and I went back and looked at some tapes, just to make sure, because I don't want to be doing something that would be wrong for the studio, either. And so they were looking at some old tapes, 'cause they were worried about some of the old voices and matching them. She [the voice director] listened to the Freddie voice and she said, 'I'll be darned. He's absolutely right. He sounds exactly like Freddie.' It's a double-edged sword." Animation Magazine cited Cartoon Network's speeding up of episodes as a likely reason. To allow time for more commercials, the Where Are You reruns that were so popular in the 1990s had the animation and audio tracks slightly sped-up to make time for more commercials. It was a popular phenomenon at the time for Cartoon Network to time-compress the episodes by playing them at 1.05x or 1.1x speed. As a result, the characters' voices sound slightly higher-pitched than normal, which could potentially be why the WB executives believed Welker's voice had gone down an octave. It's time for the exciting second round of our Best Haunted House polls! Let's check in on our winner from part 1. "The Loch Ness Mess," "The Exterminator" and "The Ghoul, The Bat and the Ugly" all came in last place with one vote each. "The Mystery of Haunted Island" and "Nowhere to Hyde" were not too far behind in fifth place with 5 votes each. "Wednesday Is Missing" was our fourth place choice with 7 votes. For third place, we had a surprising tie between "What the Hex Going On?" and "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner?" Each option got 10 votes, and I have to admit I'm excited "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner?" made it so high! "Haunted House Hang-Up" just barely rose above those options to make second place with 11 votes. Our first place option received 28 votes, and wins the weekly poll for the second week in a row! Our winner is "A Night of Fright Is No Delight," which is the first of three episodes to move on to our final Winner's Circle poll on February 5!
The DC HeroClix game has released a team-up version of their game, including Teen Titans Go! and Scooby-Doo. For those that have never heard of the game, HeroClix is a collectible miniatures game where you can engage in head-to-head competitions with miniature action figures of your favorite characters. The game includes figures of all the gang members, including all of the main characters for Teen Titans Go!. Here's the official press back of the box description:
Looks like we have another mystery to solve! Two of the greatest clue-crunching crews make their HeroClix debut in the DC Comics HeroClix: Batman Team-Up Miniatures Game! For the first time ever, help Mystery Inc. work up an appetite as Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne go head-to-head with ace detectives Robin, Starfire, Raven, Beast-Boy and Cyborg from Teen Titans GO! Pick a team and help them gather clues to come out on top in one of the most exciting crossovers ever to come to HeroClix! Engage in up to 8 thrilling campaign scenarios for 2 players where the results matter from session to session, or sit down for a head-to-head single match of raw power! Each of the beautiful pre-painted figures comes ready to play with two different modes making this box incredible for both first-time miniatures players and HeroClix veterans! Putting those sleuthing skills to the test, brand new Mystery Cards will bring an exciting layer of strategy to gameplay as players move around the map to gather clues and earn unique bonuses and rewards! Complete with thick, double-sided map components and unique Batman Team-Up themed dice, this set contains everything 2 people need to play Heroclix. With so much exciting content in one box, it's no mystery that the Miniatures Game has been a massive hit with retailers and customers! Included in each miniatures game*:
You can purchase the game at select online retailers, but many of them are out of stock already due to the high demand for the game. Courtesy of GamesRadar+ as always, here are the two Scooby-Doo comic solicitations for April! SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? #121 Written by JOHN ROZUM Pencils by WALTER CARZON Inks by HORACIO OTTOLINI Cover by WALTER CARZON and HORACIO OTTOLINI $2.99 US | 32 pages ON SALE 4/4/23 Mystery Inc. is on the case when a small town is plagued by claims of monster sightings. What could Bigfoot, the Goat Man, the Lizard Man, and the other creatures be up to? And what will it mean for the town if the gang can't find out? THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES #7
Written by AMANDA DEIBERT Art and cover by DARIO BRIZUELA $2.99 US | 32 pages ON SALE 4/11/23 Daphne's martial arts hobby takes center stage at a national competition: Gotham's Got Talent! It's all good until her competitors start being talent-napped. Judge Bruce Wayne calls in Batman, who teams up with Mystery Inc. to infiltrate the competition. Can they solve the mystery before front-runner Daphne winds up in real trouble? |
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