Episode 02: Scooby Doo, Mystery Inc

Suzannah and Jon discuss the newest incarnation of the Scooby Doo franchise. We’ll cover a few of the key players in the creative process, some of our favorite voice actors, and what makes this show so unexpectedly successful. Not unexpected in that it would be unexpected for this show to be good, but unexpected in the way that Battlestar Galactica occasionally had an unexpected plot twist.

—> Animated Things Club Episode 02: Scooby Doo, Mystery Inc. <—

Wait, stop! We know you want to learn all Scooby Doo, Mystery Inc, but in this case, a little bit of knowledge about the Scooby Doo franchise would help you! Please head over to howstuffworks.com and listen to Josh & Chuck tell you where Scooby Doo Came from. You should also subscribe to them on iTunes – they’re great!

We’ll also be putting out a minicast shortly, overviewing the previous incarnations of the Scoob.

We’ll be here when you get back!

All caught up with Scooby Study? Let’s get it going.

We LOVE this new incarnation of Scooby Doo. Scooby Doo, Mystery Inc first aired on the Cartoon Network in April of 2010, part of an effort to revive classic library properties under the guidance of Sam Register, who is Executive Producer on this property. His resume includes Hi-Hi Puffy Amiyumi, Teen Titans, and Ben 10, all incredibly successful properties. Ben 10 in particular was a great success in the fact that it’s very premise involves very clever merchandising! It’s also pretty entertaining.

Here’s the video of Sam Register that we discussed in the podcast. It’s his keynote speech from MipJr 2011. He talks about Looney Tunes, Thundercats, and Super BFF as well as Scooby Doo, Mystery Inc.

Victor Cook is our director. Victor Cook worked on Gargoyles - which we have plans to cover. Do you hear me, Kevin? He’s worked with Greg Wiseman on comic book properties such as The Spectacular Spider-Man, which seems to be regarded as the best recent animated incarnation of your friendly neighborhood webslinger. Spike Brandt and Tony Cervone are looking like our first animation theme in the podcast – they are supervising producers here as they are for the Looney Tunes Show, our Episode 01 podcast subject.

The high points of why we love this show: Scooby Doo doesn’t take itself too seriously – it embraces it’s own campy style. At the same time, it throws out a lot of references to Scooby Doo history, not just in the voice casting, but also in the plots, the history and there’s one episode that is clearly a tribute to the history of the Scoob! The original Scoobey Doo, Where Are You was pretty groundbreaking, and dark in a way that lots of other cartoons weren’t, and this incarnation definitely follows in it’s footstep there.

Also, it’s FUNNY.

Here’s the Eddie Izzard quote on how Scooby Doo can lead to international peace. Try not to get too distracted with how awesome he is, and finish the podcast!

Voice Acting! The voice cast is wonderful. Here’s an abbreviated list of them, with a short list of what you might know them for.

• Grey DeLisle as Daphne: Mandy from Billy and Mandy, Azula from Avatar: The Last Airbender
• Patrick Warburton as Sheriff Stone: Joe from Family Guy, Kronk from The Emperor’s New Groove
• Lewis Black as Mr. E: A comedian best known for his work on The Colbert Report
• Vivica A. Fox as Angel Dynamite.
• Casey Kasum as Shaggy’s Dad:  The original voice of Shaggy, Robin from the original Batman cartoon, and Alexander Cabot III in Josie and the Pussycats
• Matthew Lillard as Shaggy: Lillard played Shaggy in the live action Scooby Doo movies: Scooby Doo, and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.
• Maurice LaMarche as Vincent Van Ghoul. Just look at his IMDB page – he’s done it all! But I love him as the Brain half of Pinky and the Brain.
• Cree Summer – we’ll get to her later!
• Frank Welker as Fred: He’s the original voice of Fred and Scooby Doo! He was also in Star Trek III - which is awesome if you’re a cross-genre nerd!
• Harlan Ellison plays himself! If you don’t know who he is, just google him.
• Linda Cardellini as Hot Dog Water: She played Velma in the live action Scooby Doo movies: Scooby Doo, and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, and Lindsay in Freaks and Geeks.

Storyboarding!

Episode 2 is set up like a horror movie rather than a cartoon. Suzannah loves it when animation is given the same treatment as any other film-making would get. As an aspect of the overall storytelling, the storyboarding reflects the high-level of achievement in every aspect of production – writing, animation, and the building of a grand plot.

Character Development!

• Velma: What this show does with Velma is a great example of how they’re exploring these characters. She is very naturally adapted from her original self – with a lot of great depth. Jon thinks her dating relationship with Shaggy came out of left field, but Suzannah thinks it makes sense.
• Professor Pericles: A totally new character, he’s just fantastic, but we can’t talk about it without spoiling anythng. Sorry!

Fave Episodes!

• Jon says Episode 6: The Legend of Alice May. Jon loves the callbacks to the original series, adn the ground getting laid for the Creeper. There’s a Vincent Van Ghoul cameo.
• Jon says Episode 26: All Fear the Freak. Jon didn’t think Scooby Doo was capable of something like this. His jaw was on the floor.
• Suzannah says Episode 2: Creeping Creatures. Suzannah loves this because it’s the episode that converted her to the series, and because of how INCREDIBLY funny it is. It’s also beautiful – all neon colors and beautiful storyboarding.
• Suzannah says Episode 16: Where Walks Aphrodite. This super-creepy episode really gives us an introduction to Professor Pericles (although it’s not his first appearance.) He’s such a great character – so complex and sinister!

If you’re going to start watching the show, start on Episode 1 or 2. You really can’t start later than that if you want to get the benefit of the series storyline. Jon says start at 1 if you’re an old school Scooby fan and want the full homage, Suzannah says start at 2 if you want to be an instant convert.

So, buy the DVD set. You’ll watch the whole season once, and then watch the whole thing again to catch everything you missed! You can buy it, and sorts of other Scoob DVDs, here.

In closing: Cree Summer guests in one episode as a barista/ fortune teller called Lady Marmelade. She works in Velma’s mom’s cafe, where she makes mocha chocka lattes. I was hoping to find a video clip, but no luck! You CAN watch some video clips here. Just be careful not to watch “Who is Angel Dynamite” so you aren’t spoiled!

Hey, ATC is on iTunes! Maybe you drop by and review us sometime, huh?

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