REVIEW: Scooby Doo, Mystery Incorporated
Jul. 18th, 2010 06:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
brendalaI had the TV on while I was cleaning this morning and I saw that Cartoon Network had produced yet ANOTHER Scooby Doo reboot called Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated! I left it on because I was bored and I fully expected it to be as boring and lame as the last two reboots were.
....turns out I was wrong. I actually had fun watching this! Here is an actual quote from the episode that I'm still laughing at!
-Velma: "Fred, you stole a body!? Rockin'." XD
Fair warning. I'd recommend watching the episode before reading my review because it's going to have some spoilers. You can see it here:
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REVIEW
The writing style, jokes, and the presence of the gang's families make Mystery Incorporated feel like a continuation of A Pup Named Scooby Doo. Except, unlike in Pup, the gang's parents don't approve of the whole "teen sleuth" thing and desperately wish that Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy would stop being friends and go do something normal. In this show, the gang are basically just a bunch of misfits living in a rich tourist town who band together and solve mysteries 'cause...it's just fun. And the local police chief hates them for it because they keep stepping on his toes and debunking the paranormal myths that bring paying tourists into the town.
Characters: I like the way the characters were handled here. It's very hard for people to write Scooby Doo without making the characters come across as either bland archetypes or parodies. But this show manages to pull it off:
-Velma is a lot more sarcastic and assertive here than she was in other series; but it works for her character (the tour guide scene in the beginning was great).
-Fred is a little kooky here (he's obsessed with creating Rube Goldberg style traps); but the writers managed to give him quirks without turning him into a complete doofus.
-Daphne...didn't really stand out that much in this episode. But at least she didn't constantly gush about shopping and her hair like she has in most other Scooby shows.
-And Shaggy and Scooby are...Shaggy and Scooby. Honestly, it's pretty hard to mess those two characters up.
Oddball Romance: I was very VERY surprised that the show decided to mix things up by making Shaggy and Velma an official couple (sort of) instead of Daphne and Fred. Daphne has an obvious crush on Fred; but there's no romance there yet because he's too oblivious to notice her flirting (and she's too stupid to just tell him directly). Full disclosure, I shipped Shaggy and Velma when I was little (even then, I found nerd love romantic ^_^), so this twist totally made me go "awwww" when I saw it.
However, as much as the shipper in me wants to shower kudos on the writers for pleasing my inner child and shaking up the status quo...Shaggy's explanation/excuse for wanting to keep their relationship a secret just doesn't make sense. He says he's waiting for the right time to tell Scooby. But why!? It's as if Shaggy is afraid that Scooby will go into a jealous, Kujo rage and crew off Velma's face or something! O_o
Voice acting: Some people are complaining because Casey Kasem was replaced by Matthew Lillard as the voice of Shaggy. Lillard's Shaggy isn't perfect; but at least he doesn't sound like a 70-year-old. With all do respect to Kasem, he can't pull off a teenager's voice anymore. At all. Casting Kasem as Shaggy's father was the ideal compromise/tribute.
Luckily, Frank Welker has somehow avoided Kasem's predicament and is still totally believable in the role of a teen aged character. And his Scooby Doo voice is awesome, too!
Design: Mystery Incorporated does a stellar job of mixing retro elements (like the characters' signature outfits) with modern ones (all the characters have cell phones and computers) without making them clash. And the character designs are basically a more angular version of the original Scooby Doo: Where Are You character designs. Velma looks a little too skinny to me; but other than that all the characters look great.
In summation, this show totally surprised me! Even if you're not a Scooby fan, I recommend checking out this episode anyway. It's, like, a total nostalgia trip, man! ^_^
....turns out I was wrong. I actually had fun watching this! Here is an actual quote from the episode that I'm still laughing at!
-Velma: "Fred, you stole a body!? Rockin'." XD
Fair warning. I'd recommend watching the episode before reading my review because it's going to have some spoilers. You can see it here:
====
----
----
====
REVIEW
The writing style, jokes, and the presence of the gang's families make Mystery Incorporated feel like a continuation of A Pup Named Scooby Doo. Except, unlike in Pup, the gang's parents don't approve of the whole "teen sleuth" thing and desperately wish that Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy would stop being friends and go do something normal. In this show, the gang are basically just a bunch of misfits living in a rich tourist town who band together and solve mysteries 'cause...it's just fun. And the local police chief hates them for it because they keep stepping on his toes and debunking the paranormal myths that bring paying tourists into the town.
Characters: I like the way the characters were handled here. It's very hard for people to write Scooby Doo without making the characters come across as either bland archetypes or parodies. But this show manages to pull it off:
-Velma is a lot more sarcastic and assertive here than she was in other series; but it works for her character (the tour guide scene in the beginning was great).
-Fred is a little kooky here (he's obsessed with creating Rube Goldberg style traps); but the writers managed to give him quirks without turning him into a complete doofus.
-Daphne...didn't really stand out that much in this episode. But at least she didn't constantly gush about shopping and her hair like she has in most other Scooby shows.
-And Shaggy and Scooby are...Shaggy and Scooby. Honestly, it's pretty hard to mess those two characters up.
Oddball Romance: I was very VERY surprised that the show decided to mix things up by making Shaggy and Velma an official couple (sort of) instead of Daphne and Fred. Daphne has an obvious crush on Fred; but there's no romance there yet because he's too oblivious to notice her flirting (and she's too stupid to just tell him directly). Full disclosure, I shipped Shaggy and Velma when I was little (even then, I found nerd love romantic ^_^), so this twist totally made me go "awwww" when I saw it.
However, as much as the shipper in me wants to shower kudos on the writers for pleasing my inner child and shaking up the status quo...Shaggy's explanation/excuse for wanting to keep their relationship a secret just doesn't make sense. He says he's waiting for the right time to tell Scooby. But why!? It's as if Shaggy is afraid that Scooby will go into a jealous, Kujo rage and crew off Velma's face or something! O_o
Voice acting: Some people are complaining because Casey Kasem was replaced by Matthew Lillard as the voice of Shaggy. Lillard's Shaggy isn't perfect; but at least he doesn't sound like a 70-year-old. With all do respect to Kasem, he can't pull off a teenager's voice anymore. At all. Casting Kasem as Shaggy's father was the ideal compromise/tribute.
Luckily, Frank Welker has somehow avoided Kasem's predicament and is still totally believable in the role of a teen aged character. And his Scooby Doo voice is awesome, too!
Design: Mystery Incorporated does a stellar job of mixing retro elements (like the characters' signature outfits) with modern ones (all the characters have cell phones and computers) without making them clash. And the character designs are basically a more angular version of the original Scooby Doo: Where Are You character designs. Velma looks a little too skinny to me; but other than that all the characters look great.
In summation, this show totally surprised me! Even if you're not a Scooby fan, I recommend checking out this episode anyway. It's, like, a total nostalgia trip, man! ^_^
