There have been quite a few different adaptations of the iconic Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? theme song over the years. By request, I'm going to rank them all for you here! I don't necessarily have a ton to say since I'm basically ranking the same song over a dozen times haha, but if for some reason I glossed over any aspect of the song you'd like to know my opinion about, you're welcome to ask in the comments1 Like with the other music post from Tuesday, I tried to find official versions of each of theme songs, but there weren't any official uploads for many of these, so I unfortunately will have to link some unofficial YouTube uploads here. 13. Guess Who Theme Song This is basically the Where Are You theme song, so I'm including it here. This is likely a hot take, but I am not a fan of this version. Someone left a comment a few months ago that said the theme song sounds like a "playground taunt against the guy who sang the original," and honestly, I kind of agree with that lol. Something about the guy's voice is sounds almost mocking and unpleasant to listen to. 12. Best Coast I want to start by saying even for these I've ranked lower, there's no version of the Where Are You theme song from here forward that I actively dislike. For this one, it's just kind of mediocre. Best Coast's vocals sound kind of generic, and the production isn't really anything special. 11. Legend of the Vampire Opening This is the last version I'm not a big fan of. The rock-inspired cover here sounds kind of generic and there isn't really anything special about it, especially compared to the others. 10. Legend of the Vampire - Velma's Cover Another version from Legend of the Vampire, but I like this one much better. I think Crystal Harris, the voice actress who was Velma's singing voice in this movie, who sounds great here. 9. Shaggy Fun fact if you didn't know, the 2002 live action Scooby-Doo film originally had a completely different opening that provides a backstory to why the gang started chasing the Luna Ghost. This opening includes a cover of the Where Are You theme song by the rapper Shaggy (not to be confused with the character of the same name haha). I think Shaggy's version sounds quite good here, and Shaggy's additional rap verses work well for what they are. 8. MxPx Surprisingly, I had actually never heard this before writing this post. I thought I had, but when I relistened to all these, I had no memory of this. In contrast to the generic sounding Legend of the Vampire rock cover, I think this sounds really good! It reminds me a bit of Simple Plan's What's New, Scooby-Doo? theme song, as it's in that same 2000s punk rock vein. I think their take on the song sounds really good! Besides the version I linked, there's also apparently the "10 hour extreme extended version" of this song lol. 7. B-52s I genuinely did not realize this version was the B-52s until now, but that's really cool! You may recognize the B-52s for their famous hit, "Love Shack." I quite like how they got famous singers to perform the Where Are You theme song for these four Zombie Island era movies. That's a concept that easily could have been cringey, but I think in all four cases, they fit in really well. I think their version sounds really good, and I like the production here. 6. Jennifer Love Hewitt Jennifer's cover of this sounds great! The electronic production works really well here, and gives it a kind of out-of-this-world feel, which fits well with Alien Invaders for obvious reasons haha. 5. Third Eye Blind I really like Third Eye Blind's version of the cover. I like the echoey sound of their voices, and it feels very reminiscent of the new wave music that was becoming popular in the 90s. 4. Scooby-Doo, I'm So Blue This version of the theme song in Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo when the gang has no monsters to catch is absolutely hilarious! It was so funny watching the gang doing odd jobs around town haha. 3. Billy Ray Cyrus The original two will always be my favorites, but this is easily my favorite cover. I think Billy's voice sounds great here combined with the groovy retro instrumental. The production feels very 60s to me, and the twang in Billy's voice sounds really good combined with it. 2. Season 2 Version The higher-pitched vocals are a cool spin on the original, and I think George A. Robertson sounds really good. However, the classic season 1 version will always be my favorite out of pure nostalgia. I'm not going to rank the unused instrumental version, since it basically just became the score music for the title card, and it was used a couple times as background music in the series. Which leaves us with my #1 choice... 1. Season 1 Version I hope you enjoyed this article! It was fun going through all the different versions of the theme song, and as always, if you want to share your own rankings, I'd love to see them in the comments!
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Similar to the Scooby-Doo x Glamlite makeup collection from last year, an announcement of another more obscure piece of Scooby-Doo merch came out today. Goose Creek, a bath, body and home company, has shared that they have released a Scooby-Doo candle collection just in time for Valentine's Day. There are six candles, including the following scents:
The burn time for the candles is approximately 35 hours. The candles are now available on Goose Creek's website for $13.99 per candle. You can watch Goose Creek's promotional video for the candles here. Here are images of each of the candles (the sugar cookie candle image is above): After finding out about the show nearly two years ago, it's hard to believe that Velma will be premiering next week! Thanks to VelmaBrasil on Twitter, we've got some images from the show, which can be seen below. One of the screenshots reveals that the Malt Shop will be reimagined for the show.
We've been doing a lot of rankings on here lately, but I love doing editorial articles as well (I would say the Analysis of Technology's Evolution in Scooby-Doo article and the Another Perspective on Fake vs. Real Monsters are among my favorite pieces I've written on here). For this post, I wanted to do something completely different and random that's kind of a mix of rankings and an editorial article. For those that don't know this about me...and you probably don't, because I think I've only mentioned it once in a comment section lol...besides Scooby, I'm also really into music. There are so many amazing songs in the Scooby-Doo franchise - The Hex Girls and the Where Are You chase songs being among my favorites - but I don't necessarily listen to those outside of watching the episodes they're in. There are several songs from Scooby-Doo that I will sometimes listen to outside of their respective episodes and films when I am listening to music. I thought it would be fun to outline those 12 songs here. I'll talk about them by ordering them from least favorite to favorite. 11. The Worst Day Ever by Simple Plan From: "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman" - What's New, Scooby-Doo? This is one of three Simple Plan songs that I listen to outside of the respective episodes. Unlike some of the forthcoming artists, What's New, Scooby-Doo? introduced me to the band. Although many people call the pop-punk era cringey, I actually kind of like some stuff from that genre...Paramore, Bowling for Soup, Avril Lavigne, Good Charlotte and Green Day come to mind. This is not one I listen to super frequently, but it's a nice track from Simple Plan and always makes me think of the episode whenever I listen to it. 10. Yikes by Jack Harlow From: SCOOB! soundtrack It's really neat to me how Jack Harlow appeared on a Scooby-Doo movie soundtrack right before he became famous. The song was released back in 2020 when he was outside freely (bonus points if you get that reference lol) before he released "What's Poppin" and "First Class," which are his most famous songs. I don't have much to say about this one other than the production is nice and quite spooky, and Jack sounds good here. It's not one I return to super often, but it is a good song and one I find myself listening to occasionally. It's also notable for being one of the only Scooby songs to have a bit of a risqué lyric, that being the random lyric about him driving the Mystery Machine while intoxicated lol. 9. I Fly by Galantis & Faouzia From: SCOOB! soundtrack This is the song that Blue Falcon plays right at the end of SCOOB! during the dance party. I'd never heard of Faouzia prior to this song, and my only exposure to Galantis was his collaboration with Sofia Carson. This is a really cute song, and while it's not necessarily one I'll listen to a lot, it's such a feel-good song that I'll listen to it on occasion. The upbeat production is great and Faouzia has a very powerful voice. 8. Thank You by Big Brovaz From: Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Soundtrack This is among the more obscure picks on this list, but I've found myself listening to this occasionally. This is the song played during the end credits in Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Scooby-Doo soundtracks seem to have a knack for being full of great, feel-good songs, and this definitely falls in that category. It's a very smooth R&B sounding jam, and I think all of the members of Big Brovaz do a great job with making their vocals flow smoothly with the production. Also, fun fact, this is actually a cover of a Sly and the Family Stone song from 1969, the year Scooby came out. 7. A Donde Vas by Carolina Lao From: Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico I did a fun fact on this back in 2017, but if you don't remember it or weren't on the site back then, you may be surprised to find this out. You know that chase song in Spanish played during the pyramid chase in Monster of Mexico? It's actually a real song not made specifically for the film. It's on the debut album of Carolina Lao, an up-and-coming Spanish singer at the time. I believe this song was placed in the film to promote her album like they did with Lindsay Pagano and Simple Plan, and it would line up with that 2002-2003 time period where WB was doing that. I've been listening to this one often on lately, and I absolutely love her voice. The upbeat production and cheerful energy throughout the song make this one really enjoyable to listen to. This is definitely an underrated standout of Scooby-Doo chase songs, IMO. 6. You Don't Mean Anything by Simple Plan From: "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman" - What's New, Scooby-Doo? Next up, we've got another Simple Plan track which is the chase song from "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman." This is another song that always reminds me of the chase scene from that episode whenever I listen to it. The first time I listened to this, I was surprised to discover that the version we hear in the episode is actually not the full song! There is bridge and another chorus that's cut off in the episode, but it made it on their album. I find it really neat how WB struck a deal with several up-and-coming artists (i.e. Simple Plan, Lindsay Pagano) during that early 2000s period to include them in an episode. It always felt very natural, and never felt forced in. 5. I'd Do Anything by Simple Plan From: "It's Mean, It's Green, It's the Mystery Machine" - What's New, Scooby-Doo? This is the last of the Simple Plan songs that made my list, and it's my favorite of them. To me, this is quintessentially that early 2000s rock sound, and I absolutely love it. This reminds me so much of the chase scene in the episode whenever I hear it, and it remains a favorite of mine that I listen to semi-frequently. I also think it's really cool that this is the only Scooby-Doo chase song to be charting on the Billboard Hot 100 around the time when it was used in the episode. 4. Shining Star by Ruben Studdard From: Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Soundtrack I tried to find the official videos to link for all of these, but this one did not appear to have one, as you can probably tell by the image of the cartoon fish in the top left corner rather than a picture of Ruben lol. This is another smooth R&B jam that I love for how funky the production it is. I quite like Ruben's voice as well. Like the other Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed song that made my list, this is a cover of an Earth, Wind and Fire song of the same name from 1975. I've also got a bit of a fun anecdote to share with this one. Back when I was in college, my math professor would always play music for a few minutes before class while everyone was coming in. I've never heard any of these other songs out in public, but oddly, my math professor would play this song at least once every couple weeks before class. I have no idea why, or if he was a Scooby-Doo fan or not, but it was really surprising to hear this haha. 3. On Me by Thomas Rhett & Kane Brown featuring Ava Max From: SCOOB! Soundtrack This is another one from the SCOOB! soundtrack played during the end credits. While I consider myself pretty open in terms of music genre, I am generally not a fan of country. I enjoy "Be Like That" from Kane Brown and "Memory" to an extent, but I have not liked anything I've previously heard from Thomas Rhett. I have heard quite a few songs from Ava and have liked them. Surprisingly, Kane, Ava and Thomas have great chemistry together in the song. I will say it is a bit hard for me to tell Thomas and Kane's vocals apart due to the autotune haha, but overall I think their vocals sound great, and Ava's make a nice addition. The lyrics are once again very cute and feel good, and this is one I listen to more often than any of the previous ones. Also, fun fact if you didn't know, it appears there are two slightly different versions of this song. I was listening to the songs as I wrote my reviews up, and the music video version appears to make Ava's vocals at the end of chorus much quieter, whereas her vocals are the same volume throughout the whole chorus on the non music video version. 2. Summer Feelings - Lennon Stella & Charlie Puth From: SCOOB! Soundtrack This is the final song off the SCOOB! soundtrack that makes my list. It's the only song here I believe that didn't actually appear in a film or episode to any extent, but it was on the soundtrack. I'd previously only heard Lennon Stella on "Takeaway" (her collaboration with The Chainsmokers and Illenium), but I've heard a lot of Charlie Puth's music and like him as an artist. I think they sound great together, particularly in the final chorus. The production is very bubbly and atmospheric, and it works really well with their soft vocals. This is a standout in terms of Scooby-Doo soundtrack material IMO. 1. You & I by Anarbor
From: Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed Soundtrack I've talked about how I like that pop-punk sound previously in this post with the Simple Plan songs, so it seems only fitting that the #1 song here is "You & I" by Anarbor. It's another obscure one that was played briefly during Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins when Scooby and Shaggy first meet each other (and it's also played during the end credits). This is the only song of the bunch where I have any comments about the music video, but this music video is so cute. You can tell the band really had a lot of fun dressing up as monsters and playing in an old spooky barn. To me, the best music videos are always the ones that either tell a story, or where you can really tell the artist/band is having fun. I'm honestly not much of a fan of music videos where the artist is just posing or mindlessly dancing around. It's the ones where you can really tell the artist was passionate about making it that are the most enjoyable for me, and this one certainly fit the bill. The tone of the song is so carefree and lighthearted that you can't help but love it. I really love Anarbor's vocals here...and clearly I'm not the only one, since WB has put their cover of What's New, Scooby-Doo? on pretty much every DVD menu since lol. My personal head canon is that one of the WB executives is up in their room full on head-banging to Anarbor's What's New, Scooby-Doo? cover every night lol. This was definitely an unorthodox post, but I hope you enjoyed reading it! I do have three more rankings posts written up that have been pre-written since October now (and I'll post them in the coming months), but I also don't want to get caught in the rut of having the monthly articles be rankings every single time. I plan to start doing some more editorial articles here at some point mixed in with rankings, just so there's a bit more of a balance than there has been lately. I really enjoyed writing this up and doing something different, so I'm excited to continue experimenting with different types of posts like this! :) The controversy over whether the Ship Captain is one of the 13 ghosts is well known, since it's never explicitly stated in the episode whether he is one of the demons from the chest. However, one interesting fact I observed upon rewatching the series is that Vincent and the other main characters never mention Rankor by name at any point in the episode, or even acknowledge him for that matter (with the exception of the end scene when they put him in the chest, and when Vincent is turned to stone).
Note that I didn't include the Snow Devil from "Scooby on Ice!" (Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?) as a villain, since unlike the Snow Ghost from "That's Snow Ghost" which he's based off of, he's not explicitly stated to be a Yeti.
I'm going to present last week's poll results a little differently than usual. I showed you my list of my favorite Scooby content from last year, so I'm going to present the results as the collective list that you all made with your votes. Note that MG Collectibles Figures, the Scooby-Doo x Glamlite Makeup Collection, and the Mystery Machine Air BnB all received zero votes, so they will not be included in this list. 6. (Tie) Daphne & Velma Book 3: Buried Secrets and Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries Both of these just got one vote each, but I'm glad the former option was able to show up on the list. Even if it was my least favorite of the Daphne & Velma books, I still thought it was a super solid ending to the trilogy. This series deserved more recognition than it ended up getting IMO. With Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries, I haven't checked out any of the reboot series so I don't have anything to say about it. 5. (Tie) Wendy's Scooby-Doo Pop-Up Mysteries and Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Comics These two options tied, but they just barely made it on the list with only two votes each! While I personally haven't been following the Where Are You comics, the fact that they've finally stopped using stock art is a welcome change. 4. MultiVersus MultiVersus is our first option that didn't just make it on here by a couple votes. Six people voted MultiVersus as their favorite thing in the Scooby franchise this year. I know this was a dream come true for a lot of people that were wanting Shaggy to be a part of the Mortal Kombat franchise, so I'm really glad this happened! 3. Mystery Incorporated YouTube series Even as someone who writes fanfiction, I didn't have high expectations for this. Admittedly, I wasn't even planning on checking this out right away until one of my friends in the fandom recommended I watch it, and when I did, my expectations were far exceeded. I am so excited for the next episode and I'm really hoping we'll get it in the next few months. Although this is a surprising addition to the year-end list, this definitely earned the 14 votes it got. 2. Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? The Complete Season 2 DVD I was a little surprised this came out so high with 16 votes. I honestly was expecting the Mystery Incorporated YouTube series to come in second place, but this is certainly a worthy contender too. Although I like the ease of streaming services, I still think there's something to be said about DVDs. Even as someone who isn't into the collecting element of the franchise, there's something so gratifying about physically owning a piece of media (not to mention that there's also no risk of it being suddenly removed like there is on a streaming service). I was really disappointed that they seem to have skipped over releasing Be Cool, Scooby-Doo season 2 on DVD, so I'm glad we got season 2 from Guess Who on DVD. I'm a big advocate for getting all the unreleased episodes on DVD, and we haven't gotten one in a long time now, so here's hoping they'll pick up the DVD production a bit in the coming years and maybe finally get some of those missing episodes out. 1. Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo! There was no doubt in my mind that this was going to come out on top, and it did by a huge margin. This got nearly triple the votes of any of the nine other options here, totaling out at an impressive 47 votes. As I've mentioned, I love that this movie tried something different after the constant crossovers we've been getting over the past few years. I hope we get something in this same tone again for the next DTV. Happy New Year to everyone! While 2022 was personally a great year for me, it was a very rough year for Scooby-Doo content. I'm really looking forward to seeing what 2023 brings. I'm excited for Velma next week, and I'll be doing reviews of every episode on the blog regardless of how bad or good it is. I've also got a few surprises hopefully coming for you all soon, including a fun little article on Tuesday that I'm excited to share with you all! Prior to Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated's "Mystery Solvers Club State Finals," many Scooby-Doo fans wanted Scooby to crossover with more clones than just Josie and the Pussycats. However, what a lot of Scooby fans don't realize is that there was a crossover with Captain Caveman in the 1970s! Despite not being advertised at all on the cover, Marvel Comics' Scooby-Doo #9 featured a crossover with Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels.
Thanks to Tom Holste for coming up with the idea for this fun fact, and providing these images! Merry Christmas and happy holidays! This past Tuesday, I made my annual Year in Review post listing my favorite things that happened in the franchise, but now I want to give you all a chance to vote for your favorite thing that happened this year! The results will be posted on New Year's Day in 2023. Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster won our Loch Ness Monster poll last week with 46 votes! It won by a huge margin, as the next closest episodes had 14 votes, less than 1/3 of the votes that movie got. "A Highland Fling with a Monstrous Thing" is the episode I'm referring to that came in second. Surprisingly, "The Loch Ness Mess" came in last with 12 votes.
It appears Velma will be premiering a bit sooner than we thought...in three weeks! WB-Discovery put out an official press release with all of their January TV shows on their website, and listed Velma as premiering on HBO Max on Thursday, January 12, 2023.
TVLine has confirmed that two new episodes will be posted every week. Given the previous confirmation that the first season will be ten episodes, that means the first season will conclude on February 9, 2023. In addition, an edited teaser has been released in Australia, and Fox 8 will be airing the show beginning January 15. However, the series will be able to be streamed on demand the same day as in the US. I imagine that the series will be treated similarly in other countries. TVPassport has also confirmed all of the titles for the episodes in season 1 for us: 1. Velma 2. The Candy (Wo)man 3. Velma Kai 4. Velma Makes a List 5. Marching Band Sleepover 6. The Sins of the Fathers and Some of the Mothers 7. Fog Fest 8. A Velma in the Woods 9. Family (Wo)man 10. The Brains of the Operation It's been an unexpectedly light year for Scooby after we got tons of content last year. I joked with someone in the comments that the Year-in-Review post for this year would be blank; but thankfully it didn't end up being that light thanks to Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo. It will be very slim pickings for this year's list, given there was hardly anything released. For those of you who are new to the blog this year, I always write up a post at the end of each year ranking my favorite things that happened in the franchise each year. I don't include any announcements of content happening in the future (i.e. the Velma teaser would not count, since the series itself won't be released until 2023), and I also don't typically include any non-official content or trivial stuff (i.e. Tracy Mark Lee sharing the designs for the Dolly Parton and Mel Brooks Guess Who episodes). Since it was a light year, I made one exception this year which I'll explain when I get to it. We also had a bit of sad news this year, that being Scoob! Holiday Haunt was cancelled by Warner Brothers' new CEO David Zaslav it was supposed to be released around this time. I'm glad this doesn't seem to be affecting any other Scooby content, since we have confirmation that Mystery Pups and Velma are going ahead with production. I'm not really sure on Krypto, though, since there's been speculation that it was cancelled. I don't really have a lot to say about the first few things up until we get to #4, but I'll quickly go through them just to include everything that's happened this year. 10. Wendy's Scooby-Doo Pop Up Mysteries Although I won't be getting them myself, I think it was a cool idea for Wendy's to release pop-up mystery playsets based on classic Where Are You episodes! 9. MG Collectibles Figures Don't have much to say about this, but it's neat we got figures for Captain Cutler, the Space Kook and the Tar Monster (even if they were nearly $400 lol)! 8. Scooby-Doo and Glamlite Makeup If there was one thing I wasn't expecting in 2022, it was getting an announcement for a Scooby-Doo makeup line lol. I think it's neat they made this, though! I'm a little confused why they didn't have the names correspond with the package designs, though (for example, the "Creeps and Crawls" eyeshadow has a picture of the witch on it rather than the green ghosts). 7. Matthew Lillard Rents Out 2002 Live-Action Mystery Machine on Air BnB The title says it all, but this was another thing I would have never expected to happen. I thought it was so nice of Matthew to do this! 6. Scooby-Doo, Where Are You and Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries Comics I guess this is kind of a placeholder, since I haven't read any of them, but six more Where Are You comics were released this year. I'm really happy to hear that some of the comics finally included original art. One of the big reasons I lost interest is because they just used stock art for all of the comics, and the stories weren't all that well-written in my opinion. It's great that they are using original art again. I enjoyed the few Batman and Scooby-Doo Mysteries comics I checked out. I haven't read them all yet, but it's neat they rebooted the series after the original run ended in March. Overall, six of these comics were released this year. 5. Multiversus We've arrived at the last thing that I'm mostly indifferent to lol. While I didn't personally play it, I thought it was really cool they included Scooby in this universe and essentially granted the wishes of all those fans who were wanting to see Ultra Instinct Shaggy in the Mortal Kombat games. Even though it wasn't technically in the Mortal Kombat universe, the fact that it had a connection with the creator of those games was very cool and I'm happy it happened for the thousands of fans who wanted it. 4. Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? The Complete Season Two I'm super happy that we got this season on DVD. Given Be Cool Scooby-Doo season 2 was never released, I was worried Guess Who would suffer the same fate. I would love to have all the Scooby episodes, specials and films on DVD someday, so I'm happy they didn't choose to skip season 2 here like they did with Be Cool. 3. Daphne & Velma Book 3 While I didn't like this quite as much as the other two, I was really happy they finally released the third book in the trilogy after waiting over two years. The book was a very fitting end to the trilogy. It was really cool that the author, Morgan Baden, drew upon previous Scooby-Doo episodes and movies to create her own continuity for this trilogy. She also did a great job building suspense and horror all throughout the book. The villain was excellent, and the culprit was very unexpected. The only things I didn't like were the Fred/Velma romantic stuff, as well as the fact the book ended on a cliffhanger for seemingly no reason. Overall though, I thought Morgan did a great job writing these books and making the plots/characterizations very compelling. This trilogy makes an awesome addition to the Scooby franchise, and I wish these books got more attention than they did because they're great. 2. Mystery Incorporated I don't typically include fan content, but I have to admit, I was super impressed by this and didn't want to exclude it. In a year that was extremely light for Scooby-Doo content, this was really nice to get what was basically a piece of Scooby-Doo fanfiction with cinematic quality. I thought the acting was excellent and the plot was super engaging. The common complaint people seem to have about fanfiction is that it doesn't stay true to the characters, but I felt the writing for each of the characters was very compelling here. Like with Daphne & Velma, it was neat how they took bits of pieces of canon from previous Scooby content here and creatively interpreted it to create elements of the gang's characterization. I thought all of the actors and actresses did a great job. The one minor issue I had is that Fred's actor looked like he was much older than high-school age (I'd guess at least 25, possibly 30), as well as that one guy at the party I mentioned in my review that looked like he was 40 lol (I'll add him to the list of characters I stan for, along with Sassy Fred and the Arm-Crossing Gators from Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo! haha). That's a pretty common thing in media to have cast people who are much older than the characters they play though, so I don't fault this series for it. The monsters in the series were great and seemed like something straight out of a horror film. I also loved how this series struck a bit of a darker tone. In addition, I thought they did a great job using references. I've complained in posts on here before that I don't like how they sometimes just reference the same things over and over for no reason, so it was very refreshing to see references worked well into the plot. It seems like they've run into a bit of a delay with episode 2 because they didn't quite meet their goal, but I'm really hopeful that episode 2 gets funded, because I can't wait to see what happens next! 1. Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo!
I was beginning to get worried that it was going to be the first year with no new Scooby DTVs since 1997, so I was really excited when we got the trailer for Trick or Treat, Scooby-Doo! I know this film created a lot of drama within the fandom because of Velma's sexuality, but I absolutely loved the film. Although Scooby-Doo has not done well with retcons in recent years (looking at you, Curse of the 13th Ghost and Return to Zombie Island), I thought they did it well here. The fact that Coco creating all the costumes the gang has ever encountered seemed to be in a separate universe worked quite well. I know that some people thought Velma being romantically interested in a woman was cringey, but I thought it was very well done. It wasn't in-your-face; it felt natural and didn't completely overtake the movie. Honestly, the whole media reaction was the only thing that bothered me. There was one article in particular from a news source that I just thought was awful, in which they say "a Scooby-Doo writer confirmed Velma is a lesbian, so you can't even deny it!" In general, a lot of media sources used "the Scooby-Doo writers" as their source, which I thought didn't make sense, because there is no one entity of "the Scooby-Doo writers." Different people write each series and movies, so one writer is not an authority over the entire franchise. However, my main issue with the media coverage of this is that Velma being interested in one woman does not mean she's uninterested in people of other genders (Velma could be bisexual, for example). I think the movie did a great job representing Velma being interested in women, but I didn't like how the media slapped the "lesbian" label on Velma, since it's not specified what sexuality she is. That's more of a problem with society in general though and is nothing specific to this movie, so I digress. The mystery was also quite good, and I really enjoyed the villains. I also liked how the animation allowed for characters' expressions to be more emphasized. I thought that was a really interesting touch. I loved how zany this film was. The fact that the film divulged into random chaos in the last twenty minutes was amazing, because I love that kind of humor lol. I would love if they used this humor style again in the franchise. My only real complaint about the film is that Daphne's character element felt rushed. It could have been a good character arc, but they only mentioned it once at the beginning and then it was never brought up again until a brief moment before the end of the movie. Overall, it was an amazing movie though and I really enjoyed it. I hope everyone enjoyed reading this list! In terms of things I'd like to see next year, I'm not going to make a whole post, but all the stuff with WB cutting back on streaming projects made me think big-picture about what I want for next year. I think it would be great if we could get Scooby-Doo and Krypto Too!, but given that was never officially announced, I don't think we'll get an official announcement if it's cancelled either. It would be great if we could go back to getting the two DTVs per year we're accustomed to. However, to be entirely honest, I wouldn't mind switching to getting DTVs once a year if they were all great quality, rather than just pumping out crossover after crossover like they were for quite a few years. It was a breath of fresh air to have a movie that wasn't a crossover this year. Don't get me wrong, I enjoy the crossovers, but it gets to be a bit much when we have both a series (Guess Who) and all the movies being crossovers at the same time. I'm hopeful that the WB-Discovery merge doesn't affect anything beyond Scoob! Holiday Haunt, but I also wouldn't mind if they dropped down to one DTV per year if the quality was even better than what they were doing with two DTVs. The other thing I'm a bit worried about going forward is the backlash involving Velma. Even now before the show is released, I know there is going to be a ton more backlash over the show, probably even more than we saw with Trick or Treat, which is unfortunate. My hope is that the backlash isn't too bad, and that people remember that this is just one Scooby show separate from the rest of the franchise. No matter how bad it is, isn't going to "ruin" Scooby-Doo. All of the previous shows are still available for everyone's viewing, and it's safe to say it's not going to affect anything else in the franchise and suddenly turn the franchise into Family Guy or anything like that. This next year is going to be very interesting for the Scooby franchise, both because of Velma and the fact that since it happened pretty late in the year, this will be the first full year that we'll be seeing the affects of WB and Discovery's merge. It will be fascinating to see what happens, but I'm keeping my hopes up for a great year! |
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