On December 15, 2019, we heard about this movie for the first time after I stumbled upon a TCM listing (which was removed shortly after) for this and Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo. Now, over two years later, the movie is finally out!

A lot of people watched Scooby-Doo and Courage the Cowardly Dog throughout their childhood, so a crossover was a dream come true for them. I came into this film with a bit of a different perspective, as I never watched Courage as a kid. However, this didn't affect how much I absolutely adored this film.

Even as someone who wasn't a Courage fan, I thought this movie was so well done. It seemed like they really combined the best of both worlds here, and I thought they introduced the Courage franchise in a way that could be easily understood to someone who had never seen the show before, while not overdoing the background information. I thought it was easily as good as Happy Halloween; in fact, I would say it was even better.

One of my favorite things about the movie was the tone. It had a very dark, creepy tone to it and that made for an incredibly engaging mystery. I know some fans were worried about Courage's dark tone not fitting very well with Scooby's more lighthearted mysteries, but I thought they found the perfect balance between the two tones.

I quite enjoyed the humor in the film, for the most part. I found it amusing how Eustace repeatedly brought up that he didn't vote for the mayor. Velma's political satire at the end was quite funny as well. The clown repeatedly showing up in the film was also pretty funny. I was annoyed by the immature fart jokes with the mustard bottle, especially the fact that they went back to the joke a second time. Bodily function jokes have always seemed like very lazy writing to me, and it was unfortunate they chose to do that here as I thought all the other jokes were quite good.

I really liked the cicadas as villains! I'm usually not a huge fan of bug/animal monsters to be honest, but the cicadas were super creepy in this film and I would say I liked it just as much as the Cicada Monster from Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Speaking of villains though, while I know they were using classic villains from Scooby and Courage in the intro, I wasn't a fan of them using the green ghost, Redbeard, and the Space Kook for the millionth time. I understand that it's a cool reference to Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, but when those villains have cameos practically every other DTV at this point, it starts to feel less like a fun reference and more like they're trying to beat you over the head with forced nostalgia. If they are going to continue to reference classic villains as Easter eggs, I'd much prefer we get more obscure ones like The Wax Phantom or the Headless Spectre for example, rather than reusing the same 10 villains over and over.

I thought the film had a great balance of Scooby and Courage, and it never felt like one franchise was overshadowing the other at any point. I quite liked Courage as a character, and Muriel was super sweet. Eustace's grouchiness was quite amusing as well. Speaking of him though, Eustace rapping was incredibly cringey and him shaking his butt is not something I ever want to see again haha. I guess it makes a little sense given they riffed off Straight Outta Compton for the title of this film, but it was still really bad lol.

As a random trivia bit, I believe this is also the first time that live-action footage has been interspersed with animation, when Eustace is watching his show on TV. It's a trope I absolutely hate in animation, so it's not something I want to see again, but I thought it was worth pointing out.

I think one of my favorite parts of the film was how they explored the theme of courage, and how it doesn't mean the absence of fear, but it means being brave when there is fear. It was really neat that they chose to explore that theme, given it's such a prominent part of Scooby and Courage's character, and shows that they really did put some thought into the plot of this film instead of just trying to cash in on people's nostalgia. I quite enjoyed the self-help app Shaggy and Scooby were using too.

I thought it was neat how the culprits were two Courage villains, Katz and LeQuack. The motive behind what they did was super interesting, particularly how they dressed up as the mayor. It was quite amusing how Fred, Daphne and Velma tried to pull the mask off of Katz. Velma didn't seem overly skeptical of anything other than Katz and LeQuack not being real, but it was done in an amusing way that didn't feel overbearing like she has been in recent films.

The ending was...interesting, to say the least. The general's character honestly seemed like they just based it off of the General from those insurance commercials haha. I'm generally not a fan of movies that end with "and now everyone's dancing together!" because it seems cringey, but I didn't hate this. I'm not really sure how to feel about it though; it was just so random and out of nowhere (extra points if you got that terrible pun lol). I probably shouldn't say this, but it genuinely sounds like Eustace is saying "Where's my dang b*tches?" when he's coming down the stairs at the end hahahaha. I watched that part three times and I still can't figure out what he's saying, because I can't imagine it's that lol.

Overall, I thought this was an incredible crossover and it exceeded my expectations. They did an amazing job combining the two shows, and the message about the meaning of courage was a really cute addition. This is one of my favorite DTVs in recent years and I hope to see more movies like it in the future.

I'll admit, I never would have expected to review a non Scooby-Doo movie on this blog. I was inspired to watch a Don Knotts movie to review on here from a comment on here by Lance Rutt, although he suggested How to Frame a Figg which I unfortunately couldn't find anywhere. I've had a bunch of people recommend The Ghost and Mr. Chicken to me over the years, saying that it was exactly like Scooby. After watching it, this film totally had the same vibe as a Scooby-Doo episode. Given the Scooby undertones present throughout the film, and the fact that this is Knott an Ordinary Week on ScoobySnax.com, I wanted to write an article reviewing this film. I would highly recommend to any Scooby fan, because between the mystery aspect and the film being a bit comedic, this came pretty close to feeling like it could have been a Scooby episode! Besides, how can you go wrong with Don Knotts haha?

I'll begin with an explanation of the film for those not familiar with it. The film begins with a man who is so out of it that he's saying random nonsense. When the man falls to the ground near a haunted house, the town's local reporter Luther Heggs (played by Don Knotts) believes this man has been murdered. After Luther reports the murder to the police, he is ridiculed when it's discovered the "murder" was simply the town drunk who was knocked unconscious. Word soon spreads of Luther's foolish mistake, and he is ridiculed and mocked by the townspeople.

To show people that he isn't just a laughing stock, Luther attempts to write an ambitious article about the same house where Luther believed he witnessed the so-called "murder", which is rumored to be haunted by the ghost of Mr. Simmons who murdered his wife, right before he himself died too. a. According to legend, the ghost of Mr. Simmons plays a creepy old organ in the house every single night. On the 20th anniversary of the house's owner dying, Luther vows to stay one night in the house to prove he's not a chicken. While Don Knotts plays quite a comedic character, who's constantly getting scared about everything (including bumping into a tree, a record player, and even a cat), the film did a really good job incorporating this comedy with some suspense surrounding the mystery of the house, just like Scooby-Doo often does. Don's exaggerated facial expressions were also quite amusing lol.

When Luther goes in the house, he is quickly frightened away by the organ playing by itself, and when he finds pruning shears stabbed into a painting of Mrs. Simmons hanging on the wall. Luther tells everyone the story, and word eventually gets back to Nicholas Simmons - the nephew of the house's owners - who wants to tear the mansion down. Unexpectedly, Nicholas sues Luther for holding up the estate's arrangements, claiming he was making libelous statements in the article he wrote about his relatives' home. Luther is taken to court, where his grade school teacher Miss Tremaine is used as a witness, and reveals that Luther was a troublemaker when he was younger. This causes Luther's credibility to be questioned by the court, and he is accused of making up the whole story of the house being haunted so he would make himself look good as a reporter.

I won't go any more into the story as not to ruin the ending for those who want to watch it. The film did a really good job with making us feel for Luther. Though he is a goofball who does a lot of silly and foolish things, one part in particular really made me feel for him as a character - when he asks a woman he has a crush on "Do you think I'm crazy?". I never thought I'd feel a little sad from watching a Don Knotts movie, but that scene really hit me because it was so pitiful! While the viewer gets to enjoy Luther's comedic moments throughout the film, you also begin to feel for him as the film goes on, because he's constantly put in situations where his peers ridicule him despite it not really being his fault.

All the acting was on-point. Nothing felt stilted or out of place at all, it was a really genuine, funny, feel-good story. Given I was a fan of the show Bewitched when I was younger, I was super excited there was a mini Bewitched reunion in this film, with Dick Sargent and Sandra Gould both having roles in this. While I wasn't as big of a fan of The Waltons, it was fun to see Ellen Corby in a different role as Luther's teacher!

Don Knotts was truly the star of this film though. His goofy acting, his wacky karate moves (which were absolutely hilarious), and his overexaggerated reactions and facial expressions to things, were so much fun to see and I found myself laughing throughout the film. It's all very ridiculous, quirky humor that's super entertaining. I will admit, even though my political leanings aren't necessarily in line with this joke, hearing Don Knotts say "Who paid for this, a Democrat?" was really savage for the 60s lol (even if he was saying it just to get people to like him). And I pretty much never use slang except satirically, but Don Knotts is special enough to get the rare honor of me using slang to refer to his jokes haha. Wait, the youth of today still say "savage," right? There was that one Megan Thee Stallion song last year titled that, so I think I'm safe lol. Also, I should probably specify that I'm still young enough that I could probably be considered "the youth of today," given I don't want people to assume I'm super old given I just was talking about liking a 60s sitcom a paragraph above. It's a joke, y'all haha.

Overall, I would absolutely give this movie 5 stars. It's a movie you can Knott miss haha. The haunted house and the mystery aspect of this film were top-notch (or rather top-Knottch? haha), and the comedy mixed in make this film so much like a Scooby episode, and it's one I would recommend to all Scooby fans, regardless how into Scooby you are. Besides, again, it's Don freaking Knotts, how can you not like that? haha

To conclude, I just want to say thank you so, so much everyone for making our little Don Knotts Week so much fun. It's been so much fun doing a week centered around the one and only Don Knotts, and it's awesome to see people getting into it so much all the comments, and most people switching their names to Don Knotts puns in the comment section haha.

That's it for Knott an Ordinary Week, folks, and hopefully I made this a week that you all will Knott forget haha.

Today, Don Knotts would have been 97 years old!

​To celebrate this, and since I know people seem to enjoy reviews, I wanted to give my review of the two episodes that Don Knotts guest starred in from The New Scooby-Doo Movies, "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner" and "The Spooky Fog."

"Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner" remains one of my favorite Scooby episodes to date, likely in part due to childhood nostalgia given it was one of the first episodes I watched as a child. The episode starts off in the most typical Scooby-Doo fashion I can imagine: the gang getting lost and looking for directions, but they end up having to stop at a haunted mansion. At one point, Scooby sees Don Knotts and tells the gang, but he disappears before Scooby is able to show him to everyone. I always found this to be one of the most fascinating scenes in the episode, as it's literally the only time Don Knotts is mentioned despite him being the guest star. After this, Don is referred to as Homer Pipsqueak, a Sherlock Holmes-esque detective. The episode leaves it completely open to viewer interpretation as if Homer is just another of Don's disguises, or if Homer Pipsqueak is a real person that just looks like Don Knotts.

Speaking of disguises though, all of Don's disguises throughout the episode are amazing! They really make the episode a lot more mysterious, particularly the first mate disguise in which the gang is debating whether he poisoned the food or not. That part always had a very creepy vibe to me, despite that part of the episode being a little more comical as well with Don's goofy disguises. The fact that all of Don's other personas continually mistake the gang for Captain Moody's nieces and nephews also adds another layer to the mystery and gives the episode a spooky vibe, because you literally have no idea what's going on in this house until Don - no, make that Homer Pipsqueak - explains it all at the end.

I also really liked the scene where the gang is trying to escape from the house by going through all the secret passages and such. It has a very Scooby-Doo haunted house-ish vibe to me, despite it not really being a traditional Scooby haunted house given we don't actually see any ghosts until near the end of the episode. The setting of this entire episode just screams "Scooby-Doo" to me, in the sense that this type of setting is exactly what I would want when it comes to Scooby. The gigantic house with all the different creepy rooms really enhanced this episode atmospherically.

I enjoyed the ghosts quite a bit, though my one minor complaint about this episode is that I really wish we could have seen more of them. It felt like the ghosts kinda barely were a part of the first 3/4 of the episode, and were just crammed in at the end. However, I loved the scene where Don dresses up as the ghost of Captain Moody, even if we never really do get to find out how he switches back and forth between the captain and a more ghostly form. The only logical explanation is that Don is immortal! lol

Overall, I feel like the setting and Don's presence are really the stars of this episode. The atmosphere of Moody Manor is exactly what I want from a Scooby-Doo episode, and Don's antics dressing up as all the different characters was so much fun. The only thing I would change is that I wish the ghosts were more of a part of this episode. They spent a little too much time with all of Don's disguises, and it felt like the ghosts (who had really cool designs) barely appeared before a sort of rushed ending where they got caught. In this case, I would say that this episode could have benefited from a slightly longer runtime, maybe even DTV-length?

Moving on to "The Spooky Fog," another one of my favorites from the series. While I like "Guess Who's Knott Coming to Dinner" a little better, this was still a very solid episode. I think I probably would have benefited from watching an episode or two of The Andy Griffith Show before seeing this episode, given the beginning of this episode is basically just a parody of that show, even down to the town's name (the town was called Mayberry in the show, whereas this town is named Juneberry) and the sheriff's name (Sheriff Dandy Griffith is a parody of Sheriff Andy Taylor, played by Andy Griffith in the show). One minor detail that's always amused me is that one of the restaurants is named El Taco, which just seems like a very silly, lazy name for a taco restaurant, given El Taco literally just means "The Taco" in Spanish lol. (You can read more about a real restaurant named this in Fun Fact #215 from November 2018).

While the beginning of the episode was quite enjoyable and entertaining (especially the ghostly giggling part in the jail at night, which was super creepy), I felt like the episode really picked up when the gang got to the cemetery. I'm a huge fan of episodes that have lots of different villains, which is one of the reasons why The New Scooby-Doo Movies is so high on my list of favorite series. In this particular case, I thought some of the villains were so good that they should have gotten their own episodes, including: the lady ghost (though I guess we got a redesigned version of her in "Mystery of Haunted Island" very briefly, the three-eyed ghost, and that skull carriage driver.

While the scene where Shaggy and Scooby are trapped in the cave dragged on a bit, there were still bits I enjoyed, and the dragging on wasn't as pronounced as it was in some other episodes of the show, such as "The Ghost of the Red Baron." It felt like the two of them were in some pretty real danger of being trapped down there forever, so all the different ways of them trying to get out, all of which ended up failing, amped up the suspense level for me.

As a brief aside, as a kid, I always found Velma giving the difference of "stalactites" and "stalagmites" to be super helpful. I still remember the difference because of Velma's explanation in that episode to this day haha.

Overall, "The Spooky Fog" was another really enjoyable episode, and despite being a little slow to start off, the action-packed bits in the cemetery were very entertaining and creepy. Because of how long the beginning drags on, I wouldn't say it was one of my favorite episodes, but the second-half really brings this episode's rating up by a lot for me.

Don will always be one of the most memorable Scooby-Doo guest stars to me, because he fit in so well with the gang that it felt like he could have been a temporary sixth member. I really hope you enjoyed the reviews! Even though Don is gone, he will Knott be forgotten haha.

I didn't expect to love this episode as much as I did, but wow, this was incredible! Reverend Run was a fantastic guest star with an amazing presence in the episode. He seemed like he was so into his role, and I honestly found his little raps throughout the episode to be kind of quirky and fun.

The setting of the abandoned Youth Center was super creepy and made the episode feel like it had the darkest tone of any episode in the show. The Ghost of Tabb Tatters and the Skeleton of Bones McCann were both incredible villains. I don't think they could have possibly made either of them any better. I wish we would have gotten to see Tabb Tatter's face turn into a skull more than just the one time in the cold open though, that was so spooky! The shadow of Bones McCann's skeleton coming down the hall towards the gang mid-way through the episode was arguably the creepiest scene in the show.

Another thing I found to be incredibly strong in this episode was the mystery. One shortcoming this series has repeatedly struggled with is not developing the mysteries very much in favor of focusing on the guest stars, but I thought this episode had a great balance of creating an engaging mystery and focusing on Reverend Run. The Crystal Cove reference when Velma was looking up the library database was fun too!

Honestly, even Shaggy and Scooby rapping didn't bother me at all. I found that and the "rap battle" with the Skeleton of Bones McCann pretty amusing. Shaggy and Scooby's "driver's license" rap was so cringey that it somehow became amazing because it was so bad lol. Olivia Rodrigo who? haha Scooby's rap at the end though wasn't in good as English as it was in Turkish. The Turkish version was far better haha.

I truly expected this to be an average episode, but this far surpassed any expectations I would have had for it. Maybe it's just the mood I'm in today...but just everything about this episode was amazing to me. This climbs right to the top for me, right below the Hex Girls at #2/52.

Star-Studded Scoreboard:
1. I Put a Hex on You!
2. The Legend of the Gold Microphone!
3. A Haunt of a Thousand Voices!
4. Total Jeopardy!
5. The Horrible Haunted Hospital of Dr. Phineas Phrag!
6. The Last Inmate!
7. The Dreaded Remake of Jekyll & Hyde!
8. Dark Diner of Route 66!
9. The Sword, The Fox and the Scooby-Doo!
10. One Minute Mysteries!
11. Dance Matron of Mayhem!
12. Returning of the Key Ring!
13. Cher, Scooby and the Sargasso Sea!
14. Scooby-Doo, Dog Wonder!
15. Elementary, My Dear Shaggy!
16. Too Many Dummies!
17. When Urkel-Bots Go Bad!
18. The Feast of Dr. Frankenfooder!
19. The Movieland Monsters!
20. Falling Star Man!
21. The Internet on Haunted House Hill!
22. What a Night, for a Dark Knight!
23. Attack of the Weird Al-osaurus!
24. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson!
25. A Run Cycle Through Time!
26. The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U!
27. A Fashion Nightmare!
28. The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall!
29. The 7th Inning Scare!
30. The Crown Jewel of Boxing!
31. Scooby On Ice!
32. Lost Soles of Jungle River!
33. Caveman on the Half Pipe!
34. A Moveable Mystery!
35. Revenge of the Swamp Monster!
36. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces!
​37. Scooby-Doo and the Sky Town Cool School!
38. Now You Sia, Now You Don't!
39. The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament!
40. The Tao of Scoob!
41. The New York Underground!
42. The Phantom, the Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!
43. The Lost Mines of Kilimanjaro!
44. Hollywood Knights!
45. Fear of the Fire Beast!
46. The Hot Dog Dog!
47. Quit Clowning!
48. Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors!
49. Space Station Scooby
50. Ollie Ollie In-come Free!
51. The Fastest Food Fiend!
52. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided

For those that don't know, I'm a huge fan of the original Dynomutt, Dog Wonder series that aired from 1976-1977. I was super excited when I heard this episode was coming out and was hopeful it would have a similar feel to the classic series. While this episode wasn't exactly like the original series, I definitely wasn't disappointed and felt it came somewhat close.

I really enjoyed Dynomutt and felt he was the star of the episode. I really enjoyed his quirky antics in the original show, so I liked his goofy characterization in this episode a lot. Blue Falcon, on the other hand, didn't impress me. His new voice actor, David Kaye, didn't do the best job in my opinion. A lot of his lines seemed very forced ("Let's go fight some crime!"), and good lord, I never want to hear Blue Falcon say "Click it or ticket!' again lol. I didn't even want to hear it the one time haha! Another very cringey line was Dynomutt exclaiming "it's selfie time!" Ugh lol. It was also kind of a little ridiculous that Blue Falcon immediately presumed that Dynomutt was dead when the vase fell on him, even yelling "You fiend! I will avenge you, Dynomutt!" Firstly, Dynomutt's a robot and has had much worse happen to him before in the series, so he's probably fine. But also, like, you're not even going to go over and see if he's okay first before just presuming he's dead? lol

​Velma also seemed to like adding extra "the"s to things in this episode towards the beginning. She called Medusa "The Medusa" and calls Dynomutt "The Dog Wonder." I also didn't really care for her immediately blurting out Blue Falcon's real identity, and it gave me Curse of the 13th Ghost/Return to Zombie Island Velma vibes.

I realize that was a lot of criticisms, but all the rest of the episode was great. It was cute how Dynomutt became Blue Falcon after he was kidnapped, and made Scooby-Doo become him. It would have made much more sense to just replace Blue Falcon, but it was a very Dynomutt way of doing things to switch it around like that. Seemed like Dynomutt had planned for this previously though, given he had a Blue Falcon hat haha. I liked Medusa as well as a villain and she had a cool design, though I wish they would stop just putting "Monster" after every villain name in this series. It's really not needed. I do wish they would have been more consistent about Medusa's powers though. Scooby looked at Medusa for at least a few seconds before covering his eyes, which should have turned him to stone. Also, why did Medusa need to cover her own eyes when she looked at herself in the mirror? She knows she has no real powers, because she's a guy in a costume, so that makes no sense lol. Medusa wasn't quite your typical Dynomutt villain, but I thought she still worked well. Speaking of Dynomutt villains though, I loved that they referenced Fishface and Superthug in the episode, which are two classic Dynomutt villains.

It was fun to see Radley Crown return in this episode! Radley Crown being an art dealer was a plot point of the original series, but it only lasted a few episodes before they just stopped showing that part of Blue Falcon's life, so it was a pleasant surprise to have Blue Falcon's real identity return.

Overall, while not a perfect replica of a classic Dynomutt episode, I think it came pretty close and I really enjoyed this one. This gets ranked 13/51.

Star-Studded Scoreboard:
1. I Put a Hex on You!
2. A Haunt of a Thousand Voices!
3. Total Jeopardy!
4. The Horrible Haunted Hospital of Dr. Phineas Phrag!
5. The Last Inmate!
6. The Dreaded Remake of Jekyll & Hyde!
7. Dark Diner of Route 66!
8. The Sword, The Fox and the Scooby-Doo!
9. One Minute Mysteries!
10. Dance Matron of Mayhem!
11. Returning of the Key Ring!
12. Cher, Scooby and the Sargasso Sea!
13. Scooby-Doo, Dog Wonder!
14. Elementary, My Dear Shaggy!
15. Too Many Dummies!
16. When Urkel-Bots Go Bad!
17. The Feast of Dr. Frankenfooder!
18. The Movieland Monsters!
19. Falling Star Man!
20. The Internet on Haunted House Hill!
21. What a Night, for a Dark Knight!
22. Attack of the Weird Al-osaurus!
23. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson!
24. A Run Cycle Through Time!
25. The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U!
26. A Fashion Nightmare!
27. The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall!
28. The 7th Inning Scare!
29. The Crown Jewel of Boxing!
30. Scooby On Ice!
31. Lost Soles of Jungle River!
32. Caveman on the Half Pipe!
33. A Moveable Mystery!
34. Revenge of the Swamp Monster!
35. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces!
​36. Scooby-Doo and the Sky Town Cool School!
37. Now You Sia, Now You Don't!
38. The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament!
39. The Tao of Scoob!
40. The New York Underground!
41. The Phantom, the Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!
42. The Lost Mines of Kilimanjaro!
43. Hollywood Knights!
44. Fear of the Fire Beast!
45. The Hot Dog Dog!
46. Quit Clowning!
47. Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors!
48. Space Station Scooby
49. Ollie Ollie In-come Free!
50. The Fastest Food Fiend!
51. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided

So I'm sure the first question everyone is going to have is how I saw this episode. While I wish I could share the link with you all, I've been given the link by a friend from HBO Spain, and I was unfortunately told I can not share it similarly to what happened with the second half of Guess Who last March. I'm really sorry I can't share the link so you all can watch it, but I hope everyone knows that I absolutely would if I could. I'm more than happy to answer any questions about the episode (or provide any screenshots of that missing section from the Turkey recording) if anyone wants. I'm really hoping the episode airs very soon so everyone can watch it! Nonetheless, I wanted to review it since I've seen it, and I will keep this review spoiler free and not reveal the culprit since I know no one else has seen it.

I really liked this episode! Carol was definitely a very animated guest star who felt like she played a big role in the episode. I'll admit I haven't seen three out of the four movies the gang (virtually) were in, so I didn't have anything really to say about the first three films - Casablanca, The Searchers, and A Night at the Opera other than the settings were cool. I have seen The Wizard of Oz, though, and I felt like they did an amazing job with parodying that film. I thought Daphne's voice being different when she was Dorothy was pretty cool, and I also thought it was interesting how they had both Carol and Daphne be Dorothy in the film.

I think this villain was one of my favorites of the entire series. The glowing blue eyes and the fact it could shapeshift was amazing! The villain's name, though, was the absolute worst of the series, and possibly of the franchise. The villain is called "The Ghost Monster" which is just such a cringey and unoriginal name for such a cool monster.

Having seen this last episode, I can definitely say that the voice actor episode should have been last. I get what they were going for here: a tribute to classic movies of sorts, because Guess Who is comprised of television and movie stars, but the voice actor one still felt like it would have been a more special one to make the finale. Carol singing her trademark goodbye song from her TV show was really sweet though, and is likely another reason they put this one last. 

The episode did kind of feel a lot like "A Run Cycle Through Time!" pacing-wise. Cramming four different movies into 20 minutes didn't do the parodies as much justice as they could have done. It felt a little rushed, but not horrible. The Wizard of Oz one felt like a perfect amount of time, so maybe the fact that I hadn't seen the other three films influenced how I saw the pacing.

I liked this episode a lot, but it's definitely not top 10 material for me, so I'm going to place it at #17/50.

Star-Studded Scoreboard:
1. I Put a Hex on You!
2. A Haunt of a Thousand Voices!
3. Total Jeopardy!
4. The Horrible Haunted Hospital of Dr. Phineas Phrag!
5. The Last Inmate!
6. The Dreaded Remake of Jekyll & Hyde!
7. Dark Diner of Route 66!
8. The Sword, The Fox and the Scooby-Doo!
9. One Minute Mysteries!
10. Dance Matron of Mayhem!
11. Returning of the Key Ring!
12. Cher, Scooby and the Sargasso Sea!
13. Elementary, My Dear Shaggy!
14. Too Many Dummies!
15. When Urkel-Bots Go Bad!
16. The Feast of Dr. Frankenfooder!
17. The Movieland Monsters!
18. Falling Star Man!
19. The Internet on Haunted House Hill!
20. What a Night, for a Dark Knight!
21. Attack of the Weird Al-osaurus!
22. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson!
23. A Run Cycle Through Time!
24. The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U!
25. A Fashion Nightmare!
26. The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall!
27. The 7th Inning Scare!
28. The Crown Jewel of Boxing!
29. Scooby On Ice!
30. Lost Soles of Jungle River!
31. Caveman on the Half Pipe!
32. A Moveable Mystery!
33. Revenge of the Swamp Monster!
34. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces!
​35. Scooby-Doo and the Sky Town Cool School!
36. Now You Sia, Now You Don't!
37. The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament!
38. The Tao of Scoob!
39. The New York Underground!
40. The Phantom, the Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!
41. The Lost Mines of Kilimanjaro!
42. Hollywood Knights!
43. Fear of the Fire Beast!
44. The Hot Dog Dog!
45. Quit Clowning!
46. Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors!
47. Space Station Scooby
48. Ollie Ollie In-come Free!
49. The Fastest Food Fiend!
50. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided

Last review, we had a special guest review the episode with me and I'm happy to say I have another even specialer guest this time! It's none other than Frank Welker...oh wait, I've just been handed a note. It seems Frank won't be able to make it today, so I guess it's just me reviewing it.

This was an incredible episode and one of my favorites of the series. Everything felt so meta all throughout the episode with the various character gags (i.e. Shaggy complimenting Matthew Lillard, Scooby helping Frank Welker make a dog sound, etc.). It was honestly a Scooby fan's dream to watch the voice actors interact with each of the gang members. The voice actors seemed super energized about their roles and were full of personality, which made for an amazing episode. I also liked all the various references they sprinkled throughout, and the reimaginings of old scenes such as Shaggy and Scooby messing with Redbeard's picture and Frank getting swiped at near the beginning of the episode in the same way that Daphne was in "Hassle in the Castle." There were a lot of enjoyable moments and character interactions in general in the episode, notably Frank's conversation with the gang at the beginning about what voice acting is, and Kate's song during the door scene which I found to be very cute.

While it was fun to see the old villains again, there's a small part of me that wishes we would have gotten some lesser-remembered classic villains. It feels like any time we get references to old villains now, it's kinda just the same ones over and over again. I would have liked to see something like the Wax Phantom, the Headless Spectre or Zen Tuo appear, since we never see those. I also didn't love the voices for Captain Cutler or The Creeper as much as the originals, but they weren't bad by any means. I also thought it was odd that Velma called The Creeper "The Ghost of the Creeper" during the unmasking scene. It seems like they love making all the villains ghosts in this series, especially given we're getting a villain called the "Ghost Monster" according to the credits of the Carol Burnett episode lol. 

Speaking of the villains, I thought it was kind of interesting how the gang never really acknowledged they had met these villains before. They sort of indirectly said that the villains seemed "familiar" to them and that seeing these villains again felt "close to home," but never directly said that they had captured or run into these villains before.

The culprits were super easy to guess for me. Given the voice actors were the only four people there, and a villain always seemed to appear whenever one of the voice actors wasn't there, it seemed obvious that the villains were the guest stars almost from the beginning. I thought the voice actors' motive that they wanted to voice each other's characters was super fun haha. It made me a little surprised that they didn't choose to switch characters at the end, given there was no overlap where two people wanted to play the same character, so it easily could have been done haha. The scene at the end where Scooby thanks Frank Welker after his typical "Scooby Dooby Doo!" line was sooo adorable! That was the best way that they could have possibly ended the episode, IMO.

The line "It's not just a cartoon, cartoons are serious business!" also resonated with me so much. I think many of us Scooby fans have likely heard the line "it's just a cartoon!", which I hate, because I feel like people say that sort of comment in attempt to make it seem like cartoons are only for young kids. Cartoons can definitely make you feel all the emotions, even as an adult, so I'm super happy they put that line in this episode. So many adults enjoy cartoons as well, and you definitely don't have to be a kid to like watching cartoons.

Overall, I think I can safely say that this is my second favorite episode of the series. The Hex Girls still edges this out a little bit for me, but this was such an incredible, entertaining, heartwarming episode that I will definitely be watching again and again. I feel like this should have been the last episode of the series, because it would have made for an amazing series finale. 

Star-Studded Scoreboard:
1. I Put a Hex on You!
2. A Haunt of a Thousand Voices!
3. Total Jeopardy!
4. The Horrible Haunted Hospital of Dr. Phineas Phrag!
5. The Last Inmate!
6. The Dreaded Remake of Jekyll & Hyde!
7. Dark Diner of Route 66!
8. The Sword, The Fox and the Scooby-Doo!
9. One Minute Mysteries!
10. Dance Matron of Mayhem!
11. Returning of the Key Ring!
12. Cher, Scooby and the Sargasso Sea!
13. Elementary, My Dear Shaggy!
14. Too Many Dummies!
15. When Urkel-Bots Go Bad!
16. The Feast of Dr. Frankenfooder!
17. Falling Star Man!
18. The Internet on Haunted House Hill!
19. What a Night, for a Dark Knight!
20. Attack of the Weird Al-osaurus!
21. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson!
22. A Run Cycle Through Time!
23. The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U!
24. A Fashion Nightmare!
25. The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall!
26. The 7th Inning Scare!
27. The Crown Jewel of Boxing!
28. Scooby On Ice!
29. Lost Soles of Jungle River!
30. Caveman on the Half Pipe!
31. A Moveable Mystery!
32. Revenge of the Swamp Monster!
33. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces!
​34. Scooby-Doo and the Sky Town Cool School!
35. Now You Sia, Now You Don't!
36. The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament!
37. The Tao of Scoob!
38. The New York Underground!
39. The Phantom, the Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!
40. The Lost Mines of Kilimanjaro!
41. Hollywood Knights!
42. Fear of the Fire Beast!
43. The Hot Dog Dog!
44. Quit Clowning!
45. Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors!
46. Space Station Scooby
47. Ollie Ollie In-come Free!
48. The Fastest Food Fiend!
49. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided

I enjoyed this episode! Billy Dee's "Cool School" was cute and I liked him as a guest star. The villain was just okay to me. We've already had so many pterodactyls (oddly one in another episode with a winter scene from Be Cool, Scooby-Doo!) that it really didn't feel like anything special to me. I thought the culprit was pretty easy to figure out. There were a lot of cute scenes in this episode, but I definitely wouldn't say the episode was epic or anything. This ranks 32/47 for me.

Star-Studded Scoreboard:
1. I Put a Hex on You!
2. Total Jeopardy!
3. The Horrible Haunted Hospital of Dr. Phineas Phrag!
4. The Last Inmate!
5. The Dreaded Remake of Jekyll & Hyde!
6. Dark Diner of Route 66!
7. The Sword, The Fox and the Scooby-Doo!
8. One Minute Mysteries!
9. Dance Matron of Mayhem!
10. Returning of the Key Ring!
11. Cher, Scooby and the Sargasso Sea!
12. Elementary, My Dear Shaggy!
13. Too Many Dummies!
14. When Urkel-Bots Go Bad!
15. The Feast of Dr. Frankenfooder!
16. The Internet on Haunted House Hill!
17. What a Night, for a Dark Knight!
18. Attack of the Weird Al-osaurus!
19. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson!
20. A Run Cycle Through Time!
21. The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U!
22. A Fashion Nightmare!
23. The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall!
24. The 7th Inning Scare!
25. The Crown Jewel of Boxing!
26. Scooby On Ice!
27. Lost Soles of Jungle River!
28. Caveman on the Half Pipe!
29. A Moveable Mystery!
30. Revenge of the Swamp Monster!
31. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces!
32. Scooby-Doo and the Sky Town Cool School!
33. Now You Sia, Now You Don't!
34. The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament!
35. The Tao of Scoob!
36. The New York Underground!
37. The Phantom, the Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce!
38. The Lost Mines of Kilimanjaro!
39. Hollywood Knights!
40. Fear of the Fire Beast!
41. The Hot Dog Dog!
42. Quit Clowning!
43. Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors!
44. Space Station Scooby
45. Ollie Ollie In-come Free!
46. The Fastest Food Fiend!
47. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided

​There are a lot of excellent Scooby-Doo seasons out there, but the one I feel is the most forgotten yet deserves the most praise is the second season of The Scooby-Doo Show. Compared to the rest of the series, the eight episodes in season 2 had a consistently noticeable darker tone to it which I feel was so well executed. There were genuinely some of the creepiest plots in the franchise in this season, which makes it all the more unfortunate that four of these episodes haven’t even made it to DVD yet. In this post, I want to give my review of the season episode-by-episode.
 
“The Curse of the Viking Lake,” while not the darkest episode of the season, definitely had some pretty creepy moments in it. The episode focuses on the premise of Velma’s uncle being kidnapped by Viking ghosts. As a kid, I always found the idea of Viking ghosts and their ghost ship pretty unique, and still do to this day. The mystery begins quickly in the episode, with one of the most frightening scenes happening right away…Daphne having no mouth! Haha, just kidding…though there was a very odd animation error in which the animators somehow forgot to draw Daphne’s mouth for part of a scene. The actual scene I was going to refer to was Scooby being watched by the Viking in Velma’s uncle’s cabin, but disappearing any time Scooby looked. It’s pretty creepy that the Vikings were still hanging around Velma’s uncle’s house despite the fact that they’d already kidnapped him! It’s even more creepy that the Viking is literally somehow able to open the window from the inside despite his full body being outside at the time…like how is that even possible? lol This episode also did a great job with having the entire atmosphere be very creepy despite the gang going to multiple places: Velma’s uncle’s cabin, the museum, the ghost ship, and finally the Viking cave. I always found the cave to be especially creepy, and also demonstrated how elaborate the villains’ plan was given they hung a picture of the Viking God Odin and prayed to it, despite not actually being real Vikings. There are no weak episodes in this season, which is rare, but if I had to rank them, this one would probably be on the lower end of the season rankings compared to the others.

​Moving on to “Hang in There, Scooby-Doo,” we get a little reprieve from the dark tone, but not much. I think much of the episode taking place during the day made a difference here, but nonetheless, some of the settings were still pretty creepy. The episode centers around the gang entering a hang-gliding competition, but Scooby is captured by a ghostly pterodactyl and they have to search through a spooky cave to find him. Though the cave was spooky, I found the hotel scenes even creepier, particularly the part where the pterodactyl ghost is watching them from the window as well as the scene with Mr. Morguely burning the papers outside. The latter scene had a particularly spooky tone because at one point, the background music completely stops and just has the gang looking for clues in silence. There’s not really a lot to say about this episode, other than the setting of the cave (and the hotel) really made this episode for me. Otherwise, this one would kind of stand out from the rest of season 2 given the mystery itself didn’t have a very dark tone like the others.

​“The Creepy Heap from the Deep” again has one of the most terrifying premises in the Scooby franchise. The gang’s beach party is interrupted by a sea monster, and they have to run up to safety at a creepy old house on a cliff. They discover a captain lives there and he tells them the sea monster they saw is a legendary creature named the Creepy Heap from the Deep, who steals souls. That in itself is an incredibly frightening plot for a series technically targeted at children. However, it gets much creepier when the gang leaves the captain alone for a moment, but return to find out the monster has stolen his spirit. As a kid, the utterly blank and ghostly look on Captain Clemens’s face when his soul is stolen freaked me out so much, in addition to the fact that he scrawled a message on the desk that at first look appears to be in his own blood. However, when it’s shown from a different angle, it looks more like it was written in the dust on the table, but still, it’s pretty creepy. Later, when Shaggy and Scooby are alone watching the captain in the house, the spiritless captain gets up and says that now that his spirit is stolen, he has to steal others’ spirits. A brief chase ensues, until Shaggy and Scooby become trapped in a room with the soulless captain trying to break down the door yelling “I must have your spirits!” I was honestly scared of the captain when I was younger because of this scene. Despite me holding this episode in high regard, I feel like the quality dips a little after the “room” Shaggy and Scooby are in is revealed to be an elevator which allows them to escape. I really wish they would have just stayed in the creepy house on the cliff the entire episode, because that was one of the spookiest haunted houses there is in Scooby-Doo IMO. The rest of the episode takes place on a submarine, but the captain somehow gets much less creepy to me. If I may make a comparison to in Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated here, I found the captain’s digression to be really similar to The Freak’s. In “Pawn of Shadows,” The Freak holds a giant knife and recites creepy, threatening rhymes. However, in the next episode, “All Fear the Freak,” he speaks broken English and can barely put a sentence together, as well as no longer holding a knife. This always bothered me so much, because they his characterization perfect in “Pawn of Shadows” so I don’t know why they made him so much less scary in “All Fear the Freak.” Anyway, I feel very similar about the captain in the second half of this episode. The captain just kind of makes vague threats (“You will never leave!”) and at one point, a recycled sound effect from the zombie in “Mamba Wamba and the Voodoo Hoodoo” is used in place of his voice. That just always bummed me out because like The Freak, they had the captain’s characterization perfect in the first half of the episode, so I don’t know why they watered it down so much later. Despite my criticism here, I still hold that episode in high esteem because of how terrifying the first half of the episode is.

​“The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race” is arguably the most famous Scooby-Doo episode that hasn’t yet made it to DVD. The episode focuses around the gang investigating the Grand Prix Race of 1977 after some drivers disappear. A phantom racecar driver then appears and kidnaps Shaggy, and the gang has to get him back. I really liked how experimental this episode felt. Despite that a race isn’t typically thought of as a dark place for an episode to take place, the entirety of the episode takes place at night (except the very end) which makes it kind of eerie. I also loved how they had Shaggy be the one kidnapped instead of Daphne. At this point, it was almost a given that if anyone was going to be kidnapped in the episode, it was going to be Daphne, so it was nice to see that trope switched up. I thought the Phantom Racer was a very creepy-looking villain as well, and arguably, was the most dangerous foe the gang had fought yet. Most of the villains simply tied people up, but the Phantom Racer attempted to seal Shaggy up in a brick wall forever, which is pretty dark for a Scooby episode! Though I loved the creepy atmosphere of the episode taking place at night in general, the old abandoned house the Phantom Racer brought Shaggy into was super terrifying! They never did end up explaining where that phantom bone at the end came from though haha.

​“The Ozark Switch Witch” is another creepy one just because it takes place at an isolated cabin in the woods, and everyone knows that by law, isolated cabins in the woods have to be creepy haha. I loved Witch McCoy as a villain and it was a very elaborate plan on her part to replace all the Hatfields with frogs so quickly. Her lair in the woods was so spooky looking! The zombie was…meh. I don’t want to complain about him because he wasn’t bad, he just wasn’t in the episode enough. He was in one scene before they trapped him, so he felt kind of tacked on, which is unfortunate because I think he could have had a lot of potential as a villain if he were used more.

​“Creepy Cruise” is the final episode in the season, and while the plot was very unorthodox, it still has its appeal just due to its dark tone, strange monster, and super elaborate plan. You have to be super dedicated to literally build a time machine (even if it didn’t work) just to swindle people out of their money lol. The creepy bug monster from 6984 was a really interesting villain! And yes, he was from 6984 even if they didn’t say it in the episode. I’ve seen so many sites that say he’s from 6977, but the professor does indeed say “five thousand and seven” (years in the future) right before the monster came out, which would make it 6984 given the episode was released in 1977. Anyways, the ship was a pretty spooky setting, however, that one scene where Shaggy and Scooby dress up to trick the monster at the costume ball is really dumb IMO and does not fit the tone of the rest of the episode at all. It’s the only scene in season 2 I don’t like. There’s just no reason for it to be in there and it feels like time filler. Fun fact though, when I watched this episode on the USA network as a kid (on some VHS tapes my parents recorded), they actually had this scene completely cut (presumably for extra commercials)! I did not know this scene existed until it was rerun on Boomerang when I was a teenager. Normally I would hate the idea of a network cutting a scene out just for extra commercial time, but in this case, I like their edited version better lol.

​Despite having some of the most amazing monsters in the franchise, like the vampire, the Creepy Heap and the captain, I think it’s safe to say in analyzing the season as a whole that the dark atmosphere and creepy settings are really what make this season as good as it is. It’s really unfortunate these episodes have not been released on DVD (or across scattered DVDs for a few), because this is one of the most memorable and best Scooby seasons in the franchise IMO. The day we get a season set for these episodes will be a very happy day for myself and I’m sure many other Scooby fans!