I was introduced to Dynomutt: Dog Wonder thanks to the USA Network “Cartoon Express” anthology block of old cartoons, back when TV networks would still air shows for kids rather than shoving them over to a handful of kids channels. One of HB’s parody superheroes and the rare case of one lasting a full episode length instead of a series of shorts (which also included many early superhero shows from Hanna-Barbera), it was still a good, fun superhero series and I really liked it.
That’s why I was disappointed by Mask Of The Blue Falcon. For all the love letters that show up in the movie, NOT seeing Scooby-Doo and company hang out with the real Blue Falcon and Dynomutt in what should have been a reunion just annoys me. I wanted to see everyone joining forces again, like they did in Dynomutt’s show and was denied that as the people making the movies were doing everything they could to retcon away anything remotely paranormal from the Scooby franchise, including The 13 Ghosts Of Scooby-Doo and the original Zombie Island movie that set fake and real monsters closely together. I don’t understand it myself.
In the following video, produced by YouTube channel Scoobytopia, we get a long history of Blue Falcon and Dog Wonder’s various crossovers with Scooby and a few bonus ones just for fun.
I do admit that the Scoob! appearance is worse, but that’s because it’s also worse overall than Mask Of The Blue Falcon. While the older movie gets rid of real life superheroes and villains there’s still an overall show of respect for the Hanna-Barbera library. Scoob! created a bunch of character namesakes in a movie that isn’t nearly as good and brings in celebrity voice actors as part of Hollywood’s usual mistreatment of animation. Mask also pays tribute to actual Hollywood shenanigans when it comes to their updates going as far back at least The Legend Of The Lone Ranger, which was also a questionable adaptation and a movie so boring I couldn’t finish a proper Finally Watched review, one of two times I’ve been that disappointed in what I finally got to watch. I’ll talk about Mask Of The Blue Falcon in greater detail some other time.
I’m also not a fan of the Miller-ized Blue Falcon in the Mystery Incorporated episode. It’s not the version I’m used to, but to its credit Mystery Incorporated was a dark show even while retaining some of the classic humor and it’s still a Batman parody, just not the right Batman. Also not a fan of the comedy style of Scooby-Doo And Guess Who because it feels like they try to hard on the jokes and there are more hits than misses with me. Personally, I’d bring in Bill Farmer for Blue Falcon as he does a real good Gary Owens impersonation, as I would learn during a ConnectiCon panel he was in (or maybe it was the press junket–I don’t have time to confirm). I have no interest in Jellystone. If they’re going to be used I’d rather see something good. At least we have the Scooby-Doo Team-Up comic where BF and Dynomutt drop by.
Missing from the video is a now nonexistent flash comic in partnership with Toonami that also features a darker remake of Blue Falcon. This included Dynomutt being killed off (plus a funeral with other HB stars as pallbearers) and a bunch of new cyborg pets. It was okay but again, not really my preference.
I want to see a proper Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt team-up again, and a good return of Blue Falcon and Dog Wonder. It was such a fun show to grow up with even if it aired originally when I was too young to enjoy it. Thanks to USA and reruns I did get to grow up with it and everyone’s favorite go-go-dog person needs to find a new audience with today’s kids. They could use some good superheroes.
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