Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? Episode 8 Review

8/19/2019

I've read some other reviews of this episode, and know that quite a few people were annoyed by Urkel's antics in this one. But I for one thought this was a great episode, and I'd even go so far as to say that it was one of my favorites of the series.

I've personally never seen Family Matters (the show Urkel was on), but Urkel was an enjoyable character for me. I thought the silliness he brought to the table in this episode was pretty funny, particularly the flashback to Urkel's court case and the ending of him blowing up the Mystery Machine.

The location of the museum itself was pretty cool-looking, and it was perfect contextually given Urkel's habit of breaking things. I was surprised that there was an animation error in which "Coal Mine" was spelled "Coal Minn." I didn't think WB would still make such a silly mistake like that in today's day and age!

The villain being a redesign of the Green Ghosts from "A Night of Fright is No Delight" was kind of cool. I can see how one might think that it was just another lazy repurposing of an original villain, but I think it fit well here and the villain being a "Technomancer" made it different enough that it worked.

I've had a bit of an issue with Scooby seeming a bit off in past episodes. In this episode, I thought this issue was fixed. All the character dynamics were pretty spot on! Velma seemed a tad bit awkward at points, but it was still pretty good.

Overall, while this episode wasn't perfect, I thought it was still very entertaining and a good silly episode to watch when you want to just relax and turn your brain off.

For fun, I'm also going to start something new in these reviews. I'm going to give my overall ranking of the episodes from the series so far, and update the list with each review. Here's where my list, which I'm dubbing the Star-Studded Scoreboard (given this is a team-up series), currently stands (from best to worst):

Star-Studded Scoreboard:
1. Elementary, My Dear Shaggy!
2. When Urkel-Bots Go Bad!
3. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson!
4. Revenge of the Swamp Monster!
5. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces!
6. Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors!
7. Ollie Ollie In-come Free!
8. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided!

12 Comments

IkeDaKil

8/19/2019 10:44:17 am

I do agree with your opinion on all the episodes and i liked how you added scoreboard. Here is my opinion on all the episodes

1. When Urkel Bots Go Bad - Great Monster, and the guest star was incredible

2. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson! - double monsters, guest stars were fine, ending amazing, horrible elevator joke.

3. Revenge Of The Swamp Monster - great fresh start to a new series, I hoped for a better story on how Chris saved Shaggy's life.

4. Elementary My Dear Shaggy - Monsters: amazing, pacing: perfect, but the reason I put this on fourth is because I really enjoyed some episodes more than this one, but it is still fabulous

5. A Scooby Of A Thousand Faces- scooby/ wonder women was really cute, minotaur was a okay monster, but the part when Shaggy and Scooby ruined the museum was annoying to me.

6. Ollie Ollie In Come Free! - The last three episodes on my list have to do with the fact that Ricky basically took over the entire episode

7. Peebles Pet Shop Of Terrible Terrors - Guest star taking over the entire episode but monster was okay

8. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided - the pacing wasnt the best and the funky phantom crew and mystery inc arguing was just a waste of time, also it is a rushed episode.

WildwindVampire link

8/19/2019 11:13:11 am

Totally agree with all your explanations. And I'm glad you like the scoreboard, I'm going to try to keep it up and do it with every new review :)

Samuel Kirkwood

8/22/2019 04:33:14 am

Seeing as we are all doing it, here goes

1. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson!: Best guest stars in the series so far, a great monster and a brilliant twist.

2. Ollie Ollie in Come Free!: Going against everyone else, this one for me was one of the better episodes of the series. It's a homage to the long time fans who at one point or another have asked questions about how the gang solves mysteries. Throw in an awesome twist to the mummy monster and Ricky's comedy and antics and it just had me laughing throughout. Fred's catchphrase was cringy though.

3.Revenge of the Swamp Monster: A great start to the series and this one had a true traditional Scooby Doo mystery feel to it. That second golfer, Habernackle also looks like Donald Trump, which gave me a laugh.

4. Elementary My Dear Shaggy!: A great, unique villain, but could do with 1 or 2 more suspects.

5. A Scooby of A Thousand Faces: Episode surprised me by just how good it actually. Guest star was very good, but loses points for what seemed like a rushed plot, Scooby's speech which was totally out of character and a well overused monster.

6. Peebles Pet Shop Of Terrible Terrors: I liked Wanda Sykes and Magilla's cameo, but it felt very bland with not enough clue finding and 20 minutes mostly filled with running away from the monster.

7. When Urkel Bots Go Bad: A great twist on an original monster, I had suspicion of who the villain was, but not much of a mystery, very similar to Night of the Living Toys, and after 30 seconds I wanted to murder Urkel. Worst guest star so far.

8. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided: Excellent guest stars, disastrous plot. Purely 20 minutes of arguing in cartoon format.

Anyway that's my list.

WildwindVampire link

8/22/2019 11:02:15 am

I think one issue WB is kind of facing is that they're picking guest stars where the episode's likability is dependent on whether you find the guest star's humor funny or not, which probably isn't a great move on their part. I didn't like Ricky's humor, but I enjoyed some of Urkel's.

Samuel Kirkwood

8/22/2019 02:28:54 pm

Yeah, think that's certainly the case. I'm used to Ricky's style of comedy and find it hilarious, thus why I probably found his episode so good.

WildwindVampire link

8/22/2019 02:50:38 pm

Yeah, you hit the nail on the head there. I hadn’t been exposed to Ricky’s comedy style previously, but enjoyed the wacky style of Urkel (reminiscent of BCSD absurdist humor IMO) and thus enjoyed it.

Peralaan

8/25/2019 03:52:08 am

I might as well give my list.

1. The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson! What's there to say, great guest stars and a great mystery. Penn and Teller really complimented the gang and didn't overshadow them.

2. The Fastest Fast Food Fiend! I won't spoil the episode for you guys but it was a pretty good episode. I like Gaffigan's style of humor, and the mystery was okay. It's not a fantastic episode like episode 7, but there wasn't anything I could complain about.

3. The Scooby of a Thousand Faces! Aside from the long winded speech, I thought it was a good episode. The feminist message wasn't obnoxiously in our face, and the minotaur had a cool design. The location probably helped because I have been studying Greece lately.

4. When Urkel Bots Go Bad! This episode was just okay. I was kinda disappointed by the reuse of the green ghost. The mystery okay and more like classic Scooby-Doo. Urkel irrigated me a bit. I liked the train scene, the nerdy robot scene, and the office scene, but beyond that it seemed just a little overdone.

5. Ollie Ollie In Come Free! This was another mediocre episode for me. The mystery was fine, and Ricky was kinda funny pointing out the gang's eccentricities. It's lower due to Ricky overshadowing the gang, and the fact that he was a major jerk at the end.

6. Revenge of the Swamp Monster! This was just a decent episode in general. My only complaint is that the mystery is just lackluster. It felt like classic Scooby-Doo, and while I'm not a big basketball fan, Chris Paul was a good guest as he didn't take focus off the gang.

7. Elementary My Dear Shaggy! I'm going against the majority with this one. It wasn't a bad episode, but it just came off as "different" to me. Velma going along with the whole Watson thing is completely off character for her and I found Sherlock's interactions with Shaggy just annoying. Most of my gripes come down to personal taste but the episode just felt off to me.

8. Peeble's Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors! I liked this episode but it just felt lacking. The throwback with Magilla Gorilla was cool, but like the first episode there just wasn't much substance to the mystery. Wanda was a good guest, but I can't tell if she had too much of a presence or not enough. I think this episode is the most guilty of needing the forty minute format from The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

9. A Mystery Solving Gang Divided! To nobody's surprise this is last on the list. It was cool to see the funky phantom crew and I thought the monster was cool but that's the best I can say about this episode. There was so much potential in this episode and it was all wasted. Of all the characters, I can see Augie having the superiority complex, but it just felt wrong to see the other characters act the way they did.

WildwindVampire link

8/25/2019 08:48:54 am

Interesting perspective on episode 4, admittedly I haven't come across anyone who hasn't liked it. Your reasons definitely make sense though, and I could see how the episode would feel off to someone.

Ghani hussain link

1/24/2020 04:32:23 pm

Will jim Carrey and Jack black star in scooby doo and guess who

WildwindVampire link

1/25/2020 10:00:05 am

I'm not sure! The only confirmed ones are Whoopi Goldberg, Halsey, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Neil deGrasse Tyson, Mark Hamill, The Flash and possibly KISS.

Bigscoobydoofan

6/10/2020 05:16:32 am

Personally, I despise this episode. The plot is kinda boring and urkel is SOO annoying.

WildwindVampire link

6/10/2020 10:13:23 am

Yeah, I think this was a very controversial episode for that reason. I personally liked Urkel, but it was because to me this episode had a Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! feel to it which I enjoyed.

Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? Episode 8 Review

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