Weekly Poll #309

11/16/2025

18 Comments

Evil Masked Figure

Black Knight

Captain Cutler

Miner 49er

Zombie

10,000 Volt Ghost

Pterodactyl Ghost

Skeleton Men

The Tar Monster

Cotton Candy Glob

This week, we're returning to the villain polls! There are a handful of other movies and episodes I thought it would be fun to do polls like these for. Monsters Unleashed was one of the first films to come to mind for this topic. In my opinion, the film did an amazing job adapting these classic villains for live-action! I'll be really curious to see which monster ends up winning this week.

It was a super close race between What's New and Where Are You, but What's New was able to pull off the win by just a couple votes!

Which Scooby series has the best chase songs?
What's New Scooby-Doo? - 37
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You - 32
Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! - 7
A Pup Named Scooby-Doo - 5

18 Comments

WildwindVampire link

11/16/2025 09:01:31 am

10. The Tar Monster - This is the only design of the group that doesn't really work for me. He looks like a weirdly CGIed combo of a Shrek and Monsters University character lol.

9. Evil Masked Figure - easily the odd monster out. He makes a good evil boss, but he's quite lacking in the design department.

8. Cotton Candy Glob - Interesting they decided to include one villain that wasn't a part of the franchise previously.

7. Zombie - Not my favorite design, but he looks pretty good!

6. Captain Cutler - Pretty cool design!

5. Skeleton Men - The eyes don't quite look as good as they could imo, but otherwise their designs are awesome!

4. Miner 49er - They did an amazing job making his design look terrifying! He is way creepier here than in Where Are You.

3. Black Knight - Even though he looks quite different from the original, I really like this design! The glowing eyes and mouth are really cool.

2. 10,000 Volt Ghost - Such a neat design! They did amazing with this.

1. Pterodactyl Ghost - This design feels the most down-to-Earth and accurate to the original. They did an amazing job with this, and I like that they used a villain from such an obscure episode!

Mr Neither

11/16/2025 11:56:09 am

What do you mean not part of the franchise previously. The Cotton candy glob was from Cass Elliots candy factory, just pink instead of green.

WildwindVampire link

11/16/2025 05:14:44 pm

I'd never thought of it being an adaptation of one of the green globs, but you may be right! I guess they were made with taffy in the original if I remember, so I suppose cotton candy wouldn't be too far off from that.

Mr Neither

11/18/2025 12:34:23 am

Fair enough, that's what I always believed anyway!

ZoinksDude

11/16/2025 09:35:33 am

i gotta go with Tar Monster for this one cause it was terrifying how he nearly suffocated the gang towards the end

WildwindVampire link

11/16/2025 05:12:36 pm

Although I don't love the design, I agree that scene was pretty creepy!

Shadowscooby

11/16/2025 09:50:51 am

Black Knight Ghost he was so cool design and personality.

WildwindVampire link

11/16/2025 05:12:45 pm

Agreed!

Mr Neither

11/16/2025 11:56:50 am

Have to go Cotton Candy Glob, so nice that finally Scooby and Shaggy get a break.

Matt

11/16/2025 01:44:41 pm

Truthfully, I don't care for these designs very much. I think they are weird, and I don't have any nostalgia to carry them either because I don't care for this movie. So I will do a ranking, but I have pretty much nothing to say

10. Skeleton Men

9. Evil Masked Figure

8. Zombie

7. Cotton Candy Glob

6. Miner 49er

5. The Tar Monster

4. Black Knight

3. Captain Cutler

2. Pterodactyl Ghost

1. 10000 Volt Ghost

Matt

11/16/2025 01:48:33 pm

Truthfully, I just went from ugliest at 10 to least ugly, with the masked guy and the cotton candy glob just thrown in there somewhere

Dimitri brenick

11/16/2025 03:08:25 pm

picking Tar monster just cause I vaguely remembered being frightened by how it would choke people. honestly I do question if that one guy in the car wasn't killed.

Becker

11/16/2025 07:06:49 pm

The skeleton men are the most memorable.

Spooky Space Ghost

11/16/2025 08:00:01 pm

The Monsters Unleashed team did a great job creating a darker, more realistic story than the rest of the franchise. The choice of monsters initially surprised me. I expected only iconic monsters to be present. However, the Space Kook and the Creeper are absent. A shame, as the Space Kook would have been particularly terrifying in a live-action film. In any case, my favorite monster in this movie is the Black Knight. Its first appearance is unexpected, and it's much more menacing than in Where Are You. I found it odd that Captain Cutler had a rifle. Comparatively, the Black Knight having a sword seemed more natural.

Just out of curiosity, but I was wondering why you labeled Fred as narcissistic in the first two live-action films in your 2022 ranking. I felt Fred had a similar personality to the one he has in What's New? He's not presented as a brilliant detective, but more as someone who suspects the wrong people. I haven't seen Scooby-Doo 1; perhaps Fred is more narcissistic in it?

I'd also like Warner Bros. to add interview segments to their DVDs. They're included on the Tom and Jerry DVDs, but like the Looney Tunes, that series predates Hanna-Barbera. Maybe Warner simply doesn't have any material from the Hanna-Barbera era? I did some research on the 4 Kids Favorites, and it seems the Looney Tunes one with the special features came out a few years (2015) before other discs without them. Perhaps Warner Bros. used to include the special features but removed them from the 4 Kids Favorites? Were any Scooby-Doo 4 Kids Favorites released before 2015?

I agree that having a movie where Daphne and Velma are alone is the best way to develop their friendship. I think it would have been possible to develop this friendship back in Mystery Incorporated. Given their respective romantic failures, the first season of the show would have been a good time for Daphne and Velma to grow closer. We were heading in that direction a bit in episode 11 where they get manicures together, but the normal flow of the episode and the appearance of the monster disrupted that opportunity. It's possible the writers preferred to focus on the relationship between Velma and Marcie. Incidentally, I wondered if Marcie's name wasn't related to the character of the same name in Peanuts!

I also see Velma as an independent character compared to the rest of the gang. In Where Are You, she mainly serves as Shaggy's foil, but her development starting with A Pup Named Scooby-Doo allowed her to break free from that role. I liked that she wasn't just presented as a smart girl in What's New. As with Fred and Daphne, it was interesting to learn more about her interests, see her working on science projects, and meet members of her family. I liked her personality a little less in Mystery Incorporated and Be Cool, but Velma remained a very well-developed character within the gang.

Winter Wonderdog is a little less interesting now that it's possible to get all the Where Are You episodes on a single DVD, but it's really nice that A Nutcracker Scooby-Doo is available on this compilation. I should probably check out the special features. Warner Bros. does a great job with the Christmas compilations! I managed to get Winter Wonderdog with bonus features like Tom and Jerry episodes and a Looney Tunes movie, including special features. The Yogi and Flintstones Christmas specials were also included on another disc. It would be great if similar compilations could be released for Halloween. Other Hanna-Barbera franchises and Looney Tunes are less Halloween-oriented, which explains why Scooby-Doo is being promoted on its own in October, but we could, for example, have a DVD compiling Scooby-Doo episodes like A Halloween Hassle at Dracula’s Castle, The Flintstones Meet Rockula and Frankenstone, and Daffy Duck’s Quackbusters.

WildwindVampire link

11/16/2025 09:05:12 pm

I was also surprised by the unique choice of monsters! Personally, I really like that they didn't just go with all the Where Are You villains. Having a variety of villains from different series made things a lot more interesting imo. It is a bit odd they chose to give Captain Cutler a rifle! I wonder what the creative logic behind that was.

In the sense of suspecting the wrong people and being a strong detective, Fred is quite similar to his What's New self in the first two live-action films. However, to me, his personality feels more arrogant in the live-action films. He seems rather full of himself, unlike his sillier, more laid personality in What's New. I thought he was a bit more toned down in the second film, but I do still feel like aspects of his arrogant personality from the first film were there.

That's a very good point! I think it's totally possible that they may have had a limited amount of special interviews from the Hanna-Barbera era, and have moved away from that since releasing all the classic era series in the 2000s.

Good question about the 4 Kid Favorites DVDs! I don't know the answer off the top of my head, but I just quickly checked the List of Releases guide on here. It looks like the first 4 Kid Favorites DVD was released on January 17, 2012, and combined the first four volumes of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. That was the only 4 Kid Favorites DVD released prior to 2015.

I really like your idea of having Mystery Incorporated focus on developing the girls' friendships after the relationship drama! I think that would have fit really well with the series. It would have been interesting to see the writers explore a subplot like that!

I agree that later series developed Velma's character in more depth, although she does have a strong personality throughout the entire franchise. I would say she's more three-dimensional (as are the rest of the gang) starting with Pup. I really liked how multi-faceted her personality was shown to be in What's New! I'd go as far as to say its my favorite characterization of her in the franchise. Her Mystery Incorporated characterization is a bit middling to me too. I like certain aspects of her, like how they took some of her wittiness from What's New, but I wasn't a fan of the way she acted when she was dating Shaggy at all. It was one of my least favorite aspects of the series. Her characterization in Be Cool doesn't stand out to me too much either. I'd say she's probably my least favorite character of the group in that series, but I don't have any issues with her characterization in that series. It just isn't quite as memorable as the other four.

That's really cool that you found a version of the Winter Wonderdog DVD with all those other specials as bonus features! I wasn't aware there was a version that had those bonus features. Considering how promotion there is for Scooby every Halloween, I also find it really odd that there's never been a Halloween DVD compilation before! I would totally a buy a Hanna-Barbera compilation like the one you suggested! I think something like that could be really cool. "A Halloween Hassle at Dracula's Castle" and the Rockula and Frankenstone movie both have a lightheartedly spooky vibe to them, so I think they'd fit great together on a compilation. "Stone Age Werewolf" from The New Fred and Barney Show also kinda has that same vibe to me, so that could be another good one to include a compilation like that. (I think an argument could also be made for including "The Flintstones Meet the Frankenstones" from that same series. I guess a lot of the late 70s/early 80s "spooky" content from Hanna-Barbera had a similar vibe, haha)

Boo Brothers #1 Fan

11/16/2025 11:46:23 pm

It's the pterodactyl ghost for me! Overall, even though some of the CGI is very...interesting now, I still think that this film adapts many of the monsters into live action very well. I agree with you on how awful the tar monster looks though. He's like an evil version of bob from monsters vs aliens

WildwindVampire link

11/17/2025 08:18:47 am

I completely agree with you! The CGI hasn't aged the best now, but I think they did a good job with what they had at the time. Lol right?!? He definitely looks like something out of those 2000s CGI era kids movies, and in the most dated way possible imo haha.

Sdf

11/22/2025 07:09:25 am

I like all of them for what they are and I feel very nostalgic for every single one. If I had to pick a favorite I would have gone for the pterodactyl ghost

Weekly Poll #309

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