After the open beta version of MultiVersus was quietly taken down last year, no official release ever happened. Nearly two years after the launch of the open beta, we finally have some news on the official release. According to Bloody Disgusting, the official release of MultiVersus will finally happen on Tuesday, May 28, 2024. It will be available as a free download on PlayStation 4 and 5, Xbox Series and Xbox One, Steam, and the Epics Game Store.
The official version will feature a few tweaks made to the gameplay, including a new Player vs. Environment mode, additional stages featuring reimagined environments, as well as additional environments. Shaggy and Velma will still be playable characters, but there's still no news as to if Scooby will be a character, despite that there was a leak in May 2022 that confirmed his involvement. However, it is possible that they decided to scrap Scooby's character for the gang while the game was taken down.
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Matthew Lillard was recently interviewed by Toonado, and dropped an exciting tidbit about an upcoming Scooby project. He didn't provide much details as to what it was, but he noted that it would be a unique project that will "allow kids to put themselves in a Scooby-Doo adventure." Here's his full quote from the interview:
"I’m really excited about [Scooby-Doo]. I can’t really talk about it yet, but there’s a new project I’m associated with that will allow kids to put themselves into a Scooby-Doo adventure," Lillard shared. "That’s super fun. For me, that’s my day job. It’s my bread and butter." You can watch the interview where Matthew Lillard teases this here. The interview covers a number of subjects, both Scooby-related and not, but the project is teased around the 13:00 mark. After a two-year wait, the HBO Max series Jellystone! finally released their third season, which featured a number of fun surprises for Hanna-Barbera fans. The new season featured crossover episodes with The Jetsons and Goober and the Ghost Chasers, but perhaps most interesting for Scooby fans is that one episode is a re-imagining of the Laff-a-Lympics, titled "LAFF Games". The episode features the town of Jellystone facing off against the town of New Bedrock in the yearly LAFF Games, which Mayor Huckleberry is determined to win due to the town being humiliated at every year. The participants from Jellystone are the Yogi Yahooeys, whereas the New Bedrock participants are the Really Rottens. Snagglepuss and Mildew Wolf return as the commentators. The Scooby Doobies don't make an appearance in this episode, but I still thought this would be newsworthy to share for those who were fans of Laff-a-Lympics.
I watched the episode this morning and thought it was an excellent re-imagining that captured the tone and whimsy of the original series, while also staying true to the absurdist humor of Jellystone! What I loved most about the episode is that the crossover didn't feel forced at all; it felt very natural and like an enjoyable throwback to the show. I love the humor of this series, and this episode didn't disappoint (the scene where Yakky is dealing with her guilty conscience had me laughing pretty hard). If you enjoyed the Laff-a-Lympics and liked the more absurd humor style of Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!, I would highly recommend checking out this episode. There is also a brief Scooby-Doo cameo in the episode "Frankenhooky," which is the Goober and the Ghost Chasers crossover, although I don't know if I'd say that one is worth checking out if you're not already a fan of the series. The episode got increasingly weird and while I enjoyed it as a fan of the series, it definitely felt like a fever dream and not anything notable enough to check out. GamesRadar+ has posted the solicitation for Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries #5, which will be our only Scooby comic for May. Batman fans will be excited to see that the cover art uses the style of Batman: The Animated Series!
THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES #5 Written by MATTHEW CODY Art and cover by PUSTE $2.99 US | 32 pages ON SALE 5/7/24 Dr. Kirk Langstrom believes the cure for his monstrous alter ego lies in studying the infamous Dr. Jekyll. When Batman accompanies him to Jekyll’s abandoned lab, they’re attacked by the ghost of Mr. Hyde himself! The Mystery Inc. gang has a history with this so-called spook, so Batman calls for their help. But, like, no one told them they might be facing Man-Bat, too! Courtesy of CBR, here are the comic solicitations for April 2024: THE BATMAN & SCOOBY-DOO MYSTERIES #4
SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU? #127
Warner Archive has just announced that they will be releasing a complete collection set of the Superstars 10 films on Blu-Ray! The set will include Boo Brothers, Ghoul School, and Reluctant Werewolf, as well as Rockin' with Judy Jetson, The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones, The Good, The Bad and Huckleberry Hound, Top Cat and the Beverly Hills Cats, Yogi's Great Escape, Yogi and the Invasion of the Space Bears and Yogi Bear and the Magical Flight of the Spruce Goose. Scooby Goes Hollywood will be a bonus feature on the Reluctant Werewolf disc. In addition, "Yogi's Ark Lark" from Yogi's Gang will be featured as a bonus episode on the Invasion of the Space Bears disc. The Blu-Ray set will be released on February 27, 2024, and all films are remastered in HD. Each of the ten movies will also be given an individual Blu-Ray release that day.
Here is the official press release description from Warner Archive's Facebook post: The HANNA-BARBERA SUPERSTARS 10! Ten feature-length telefilms starring all-time favorite Hanna-Barbera characters, including Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, The Flintstones, The Jetsons, Scooby-Doo and more! In 1987, the legendary animation team of William Hanna and Joseph Barbera brought forth a series of ten feature-length animated features to television, all of which would feature their most popular cartoon characters. These films were sold into syndication as the HANNA-BARBERA SUPERSTARS 10, each providing irresistible entertainment. Yogi Bear and Scooby-Doo each star in three productions, along with a one-time only meeting of THE FLINTSTONES and THE JETSONS, Judy Jetson takes the spotlight in her own adventure, while HUCKLEBERRY HOUND heads up an exciting all-star Western, and the loveable TOP CAT and his gang star is a story set in Beverly Hills. For these productions, Hanna-Barbera was able to use many of the original performers who provided their voice talents in the original incarnations to re-create their roles for these films. Animation voice talents including Daws Butler, Don Messick, and Mel Blanc, are the original voice casts of THE JETSONS, Arnold Stang, Marvin Kaplan, and Leo deLyon once again provide their TOP CAT character's voices, and of course, all of the Scooby-Doo gang is on hand to top off the fun. Each of these unique production provide an opportunity for audiences of several generations to celebrate and welcome back their favorite Hanna-Barbera favorites of years past. This first-ever complete collection, remastered in High-Definition, provides a wealth of animation history, as well as entertainment for youngsters who are discovering these characters for the very first time. EXTRA BONUS CONTENT: "SCOOBY GOES HOLLYWOOD" (HD) on SCOOBY-DOO AND THE RELUCTANT WEREWOLF "YOGI'S ARK LARK" episodes from "YOGI'S GANG" (HD) on "YOGI AND THE INVASION OF THE SPACE BEARS" Behind the Scoobs has posted another tidbit of Scooby news on Instagram. The cover of a script, titled Scooby-Doo! Gremlins Getaway, was shared in a post. The font of "Gremlins" in the title matches the font of the logo for the 1984 film Gremlins, meaning this is likely a crossover with that film. The film is written by Jane Becker. The post lists the year 2023, but it is unclear whether this film is still in production or if it was another tax write-off. It may be worth noting that the account's previous posts have all listed the production year, rather than the release year, so it is possible that this film is still coming.
Also, if you haven't been following this account's other posts, I highly recommend you check out their profile. In addition to the stuff I've shared on the blog, the account also has posted a number of other character designs for unreleased films, including a model sheet of the chef from Scoob! Holiday Haunt, plus a Hex Girls poster, some backgrounds of a rooftop concert, another character named Dylan Luke Dylan from Haunted High Rise. In addition, the account has shared some interesting information about the original concept of Scoob!, which was completely different from the 2020 version we ended up getting. The original concept involved the ghost of a mad doctor named Dr. Bandersnatch, and included other Hanna-Barbera characters such as Grape Ape and Jabberjaw. It appears the Behind the Scoobs account is becoming the account to watch for Scooby concept art, as they've just posted another piece of news from a scrapped project. Their most recent post reveals that the villain in Scooby-Doo and the Haunted High Rise would have been Johnny B. Warlock, as well as an image of the villain's design and bike. The post also reveals that the film was in production in 2021, confirming that it likely would have come out in 2023 had it been able to release.
We have another piece of news this week shared by the Behind the Scoobs Instagram account, although this one isn't about Scoob! Holiday Haunt. Some very early concept art of the Hex Girls by Jim Stenstrum was posted on Instagram, which can be seen above. The art reveals an interesting detail - the Hex Girls originally had completely different names that were references to famous witch characters from television shows. Thorn was originally named Sabrina, after Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Dusk and Luna were originally named Samantha and Serena, as a reference to the name of the main character of Bewitched and her sister. In addition, Luna was originally going to have black hair instead of Thorn, while Thorn was planned to be a brunette. Despite originally having the same color hair, Dusk was originally going to have long blonde hair.
In addition, the Behind the Scoobs account also revealed some concept art from a "Young Hex Girls" spinoff from 2000 on Instagram. Update 1/10: The sculpt/topology model for the Krampus has been shared.
Update 1/9: Another storyboard animatic featuring the gang celebrating Christmas has been posted on Behind the Scoobs Instagram account. After the monster design for the film was posted last Monday, some additional info from the film has leaked throughout this weekend. The Behind the Scoobs Instagram account has been posting a number of storyboard animatics showing scenes from Scoob! Holiday Haunt. As of the time of this post, three animatics have been shared on that account. One features the gang meeting the chef after Shaggy and Scooby have a wild ride with a man who is presumably Fred's uncle. Another features Shaggy and Scooby running into some creepy dolls in what appears to be a cave. The third storyboard animatic involves Shaggy and Scooby being forced to clean Chef Dave's kitchen after they make a mess, and also includes Chef Dave showing the gang a very fancy chef outfit. The storyboard animatics seem to allude to the fact that Chef Dave was not necessarily just a one-off suspect, but it seems like Chef Dave had a decent-sized role in the film with multiple appearances. I'm not going to directly include the link to the Instagram reels, as it's a more of a legal grey area than a traditional unreleased Scooby filmed, considering that the film was high budget and was a tax-writeoff. It's exciting that some animatics are being released though, and it looks like it would have been a great movie! |
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