I just finished watching this special live, and I absolutely loved it! This special exceeded my expectations. It felt like a parody, homage, and 'making-of' type production all in one, and I thought it was done wonderfully. If you haven't watched this yet, you may want to avoid reading further than this point until you do, because this review does include spoilers!
The humor in this special was hilarious. I know there was some worry from fans that the special would be overly adult and raunchy, but they did a great job working in humor for adults without making it too inappropriate for kids. I have to say my jaw dropped a little when Velma said "Scooby's a nudist!" Daphne dating Captain Caveman was quite amusing as well. My favorite joke of the special though was Janel warning Scooby about saying Snagglepuss's catchphrase because "Snagglepuss is extremely litigious!" hahaha. One of the only two jokes I didn't care for was where Scooby said he peed in Snagglepuss's suit. I'm not a big fan of bodily humor, as it feels a bit overly childish. The other joke I didn't care for was the Scrappy one. I was really disappointed the moment they brought Scrappy up, because I could tell it was going to be them bashing him again. Honestly, it made me a little sad, because it wasn't even a single "What's a Scrappy?" type joke; it was repeated bashing and just felt unnecessary, particularly the comment about Scrappy defaming Scooby in AOL chat rooms. Scrappy's nowhere near my favorite character, but when they've been making this same joke over and over again since the 2002 live-action, it becomes a bit tiring as a fan to see. This was definitely a small part of the special and it didn't bother me as much as this semi-long explanation might make it sound, but I do think WB needs to move on from making the "Scrappy sucks haha!" jokes. I'm not typically a huge fan of animation/live action hybrids, but I really enjoyed the contrast between the two here. It felt almost The Scooby-Doo Project-ish, especially given this special was a parody of sorts. I didn't even mind the corny-looking Snow Ghost, in fact, I thought it fit well with the special. Speaking of the villain, I did think it was hilarious how the villain was a sixth character who was written out of the show. I would have loved to see an episode with the mechanic as a main character, especially given the episode they edited her into was "The Mystery of Haunted Island." I thought all the guest star additions were great. All the Hanna-Barbera (and DC) characters having cameos throughout were cute. All the guest stars worked really well, and I especially enjoyed Karamo. As a huge fan of The Simpsons, it made me smile to see David Silverman. Janel Parrish was a really good host. I wasn't familiar with her, but she did a nice job hosting the special. However, I don't think most people were as excited for him as I was, but did anyone notice Iain Armitage's absence? It was really strange because he was announced as a guest star, but he just wasn't there. One of my favorite parts of the special was all the various writer/animation historian stories throughout. Even if I knew almost all of the behind-the-scenes stuff about the show, it was fun to learn a few new tidbits about the franchise. It was really sweet that all the voice actors talked a bit at the end. I particularly liked hearing Frank Welker's stories...and also hearing him say "Put your hands in the air like you just don't care!" lol. It was quite unexpected and therefore funny haha. I enjoyed the little flashbacks, though there is a bit of an asterisk to that. It bugged me that they spliced in new audio in old scenes. I believe Kate Micucci re-recorded one of Velma's lines, and nearly all of the monster roars were re-recorded. I wondered at first if it was because they couldn't get the rights to such old content, but even the Slime Mutant's roar was re-recorded, and that was a very recent villain. I really don't have much knowledge about how copyright works when they're trying to use sound effects from old content, but it would be very strange if they weren't able to. I can't imagine anyone's going to take them to court and say "You used my monster roar without my permission!"...well, unless it's Snagglepuss haha. I thought it was quite mean of Scooby to use someone who was clearly idolized him as his "spit bucket cleaner." That's so cruel! The history of unmaskings at the end was interesting. I wouldn't have chosen some of the more obscure villains like the Sky Skeleton or the president ghosts as the most famous unmaskings, but I thought the montage worked well. I looked closely because I had a feeling they were going to get some of the years wrong in the history of unmaskings, and I was right..."A Night Louse in the White House" aired in 1984, not 1983; "Scooby Dudes" aired in 1988, not 1990; and "Mystery 101" aired in 2015, not 2014. It's possible they were going by production years on "Night Louse" and "Mystery 101," but it wouldn't explain why they were two years ahead in Pup. Kate Micucci also mentions she started voicing Velma in 2014, which would back up my production year theory, but it doesn't make sense why they wouldn't be consistent, or why they'd be two years off on "Scooby Dudes." The last thing I wanted to talk about was the music. Firstly, I didn't mind that they reused "Scooby Abracadabra Doo" for the chase song. It didn't feel like they just forced it in where it didn't fit like with Scooby-Doo Adventures: The Mystery Map, where they reused a bunch of old songs from recent DTVs. It felt almost like a callback to an old chase song. While I love the Anarbor What's New, Scooby-Doo? cover...wow, they've used that version so much lol. They even have used it on a bunch of DVD menus. There must be some WB executive that loves that version of the theme, and is like coming to every Scooby production meeting excitedly seeing if they can somehow work it in to yet another Scooby movie lol. That's my headcanon, at least haha. Overall, I absolutely loved this reunion special and am really happy they did something like this. It was a cute, quirky 60 minutes of fun and I felt, with the exception of a few small things, it honored the franchise wonderfully. :) Also, this is the second Scooby-Doo production in a row to end with a dance party. Is every Scooby production just going to end with a dance party now?!? haha
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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 Today with us, we have a special guest reviewing this episode! This person has actually not only met Terry, but co-starred in a commercial with him! This individual is my best friend, Bradford N. Smith, who starred in an Associates commercial with Terry when he was 7 years old. It’s also B’s 30th birthday today, so this made for a perfect opportunity for a joint review :)
WildwindVampire’s review: I really liked this episode! Terry Bradshaw was a wonderful guest star, and his friendship with Shaggy and Scooby was so cute! <3 He for sure was not one of those guest stars that just felt like they were there. He seemed incredibly enthused about his role and it enhanced the episode through the great character interactions with the gang. The bit about him saying he was a sex symbol seemed very odd for a Scooby-Doo episode, though. The “There’s an alien in my kitchen #yolo #blessed” text was very cringey, even though I knew it was coming from the Turkish airing lol. The alien was a pretty cool and weird looking villain. It definitely was one of the creepier alien villains that we have seen in the Scooby franchise. I can’t believe they just let the villain get away with it, and even gave him the money! That’s a first for a Scooby episode, and not something I was expecting at all. Atmospherically, I thought Terry’s house was super neat and kind of had a spooky cabin-ish vibe to it. Overall, I found this to be a very enjoyable, feel-good episode, mainly because of how much energy he brought to his role and his interactions with the gang. I would rank this at #16/48. Since B isn’t going to have a list of all the episodes ranked like I do, I’m also going to give this episode a number ranking of 8/10. There were a few cringey things in the episode, but overall it was a very fun and entertaining 20 minutes. 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. Falling Star Man! 17. The Internet on Haunted House Hill! 18. What a Night, for a Dark Knight! 19. Attack of the Weird Al-osaurus! 20. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson! 21. A Run Cycle Through Time! 22. The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U! 23. A Fashion Nightmare! 24. The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall! 25. The 7th Inning Scare! 26. The Crown Jewel of Boxing! 27. Scooby On Ice! 28. Lost Soles of Jungle River! 29. Caveman on the Half Pipe! 30. A Moveable Mystery! 31. Revenge of the Swamp Monster! 32. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces! 33. Scooby-Doo and the Sky Town Cool School! 34. Now You Sia, Now You Don't! 35. The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament! 36. The Tao of Scoob! 37. The New York Underground! 38. The Phantom, the Talking Dog, and the Hot Hot Hot Sauce! 39. The Lost Mines of Kilimanjaro! 40. Hollywood Knights! 41. Fear of the Fire Beast! 42. The Hot Dog Dog! 43. Quit Clowning! 44. Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors! 45. Space Station Scooby 46. Ollie Ollie In-come Free! 47. The Fastest Food Fiend! 48. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided Bradford’s review: I too thought this was a fun episode. At first, the idea of Terry Bradshaw as a guest star seemed like an odd choice, but seeing him bring so much personality and excitement to the episode made it clear he was a good fit. His bond with Shaggy and Scooby was adorable and I loved that he was animated with a Super Bowl ring on -- sorry, a “football championship” ring, since the proper term couldn’t be used in the episode. It was also nice to see Terry not shy away from poking fun at himself, including making a comment about liking Shaggy and Scooby’s terrible acting, I assume in reference to all the criticism he’s received for his own acting talent. While Shaggy, Scooby and Terry definitely got the majority of the spotlight, there were some enjoyable moments with the rest of the gang as well. I particularly found it amusing to see Velma, Daphne and Fred waiting around for the alien to spring their trap, when Velma was so confident that the monster was after Terry’s rings. Also, this is one of the seemingly few times where Velma got to drive the Mystery Machine, which is something I’m always on board for! As far as the monster of this episode - the alien - is concerned, while I do think it had a very cool design, I’m a little on the fence about how I felt about it as a whole. The villain’s motivation and the revealing of an entire backstory after the unmasking was a bit of a let down and even more concerning was that Terry decides to just let the bad guy get away with it! On top of those, I was a little disappointed we were never given an explanation for the meteor that sent the gang off the road to begin with. Was it an actual meteor? Was it the spaceship the bad guy rigged to explode? They kind of just leave that up in the air. So overall, while I can’t rate this episode in the same way WildwindVampire can, I think I would at least put this episode within my top 20 of the series, with a rating of 8/10. However, I’d like to single out Scooby’s line, “I like the circles, Terry.” as possibly my favorite of the series. It was incredibly unexpected and made me laugh. Good work, gang! Thank you so much to B for guest reviewing this episode with me! He’s actually coming out with a brand new pitch for an original series tomorrow, titled “Scooby-Doo! Monsters,” which you should absolutely check out! If you haven’t checked out his scripts or need to catch up on a few, you can read them all on bradfordwritesscooby.com. 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 |
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