Well, I guess we’re doing this!
The world needs another live-action take on a popular cartoon like it needs an empty box of Scooby Snacks. Scooby alone has two theatrical movies, two made-for-TV movies, a direct to video movie that’s just Daphne and Velma…because, and I kid you not…a porn parody. At least one that I’ve heard of. I ain’t researching that #$%$, though I did hear it’s without Scooby. Thank God for small miracles.
Apparently movies weren’t bad enough. Now Netflix wants to do a full series in live-action. I want to say this is the dumbest thing they could do but I live in a world where Velma and the aforementioned porno exists. I could say “it can’t get worse” but I’m too smart to not know otherwise. With it still being produced we don’t know if it will be as bad as Mindy Kaling’s insult but we still have things we need to discuss. In fact, making the mistake of discussing this on X-Twitter (if you call me being called a “retard” in the first response to my post a “discussion”) is what’s bringing us here today.
Not that we are only going to talk about Scooby-Doo: Origins, though it will take up the majority of the article. There’s also some anime style Scooby to talk about, two in fact. However, we know what’s got the internet buzzing thanks in part to the video above, so let’s get into that discussion first. Then we can end on something potentially positive.
I’m not going to say much about the cast. Dye Mathew Franklin’s hair blond and maybe he can overcome the lack of Fred’s jawline. Tanner Hagan doesn’t look the part in pictures of himself, but the video is an improvement. It’s if he can pull off the Shaggy voice that I’m curious about. He might work. Abby Ryder Fortson looks like she could physically pull off Velma. Mckenna Grace given a redhaired makeover (good luck in current Hollywood) might be okay. It’s whether they can act the roles and the writers give them the right characterisation that I’m curious about. A lot of the problems come down to screenwriters and directors, but at least they tried to get the look of the characters close to their show counterparts.
Of course the big discussion about looking like the characters right now is Scooby himself. My response to the first visual of this dog playing Scooby was that he didn’t look like a great dane. The aforementioned “helpful commentator”, after insulting me, said that I didn’t know what I was talking about and didn’t know what a great dane puppy looked like. So fine, here’s the dog they’re using.
Here’s what Scooby has looked like in the past as a pup, complete with Scrappy-Doo as another look.
And here’s a Google image search result for “great dane puppy”.
I didn’t realize that great danes had such big ears as a pup. Do they shrink or just not grow as the dog gets older? The Netflix dog still doesn’t look right. The nose is short, and outside of the fur color doesn’t look like Scooby. There’s a reason the previous live-action movies went with a full CG Scooby. The things that Scooby can do, treated as unusual in most incarnations, will be as out of place in live-action as that attempt to make a photorealistic (with a live background) version of The Lion King. Until Scrappy came along and reworked the whole Scooby clan and the franchise’s tone, the only other dog we see like Scooby is his cousin Scooby-Dum. Even fellow cousin Scooby-Dee was more like a normal dog, and that’s how dogs who aren’t Scooby-Doo (whatever happened to Scooby-Dum anyway?) have been depicted since at least Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island.
Then I heard what the plot was and suddenly the dog wasn’t the biggest mistake:
“A modern reimagining of the iconic mystery-solving group of teens and their very special dog. During their final summer at camp, old friends Shaggy and Daphne get embroiled in a haunting mystery surrounding a lonely lost Great Dane puppy that may have been a witness to a supernatural murder.”
I’m sorry…did you say MURDER? In a Scooby-Doo production? When Supernatural did their crossover episode (I don’t know about the tie-in direct-to-video movie Scoobynatural), it made sense that a demon entering the show’s world would bring worse horrors than revenge seekers, criminals hiding their operations, treasure hunters scaring off snoopers, and the real estate deals too many people falsely believe was the only crimes committed. Plus it was a show for adults paying homage to the original Scooby-Doo cartoon because they were both owned by Warner Brothers at the time and someone thought this was a good idea. I don’t get how people who have a fit when a grown-up story like RoboCop or Rambo gets a kids version are the same ones giving stuff like Velma or Gunn’s original plan for his live-action Scooby-Doo movie.
One defense I’ll give is that the idea of Shaggy and Daphne being friends, intentionally or not (my money’s on not as I don’t expect them to pay that much attention), plays into the later Scrappy years when Daphne was the only one to return, Fred and Velma doing a couple of cameos in the last of the pre-13 Ghosts series. They also meet Fred and Velma at the camp, which is fine. (By the way, extra credit for the name of the camp, Ruby-Spears.) I don’t think we need yet another origin for how the team came together. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo and Scoob! had them coming together as kids while The Mystery Begins had them meeting in high school. Control the origin, control the story is in effect here but that makes a definitive origin harder. Not that kids, who are probably excluded as even Scoobypedia marks this as mature, ever cared. We also never assumed Fred and Daphne were an item because fanshipping hadn’t yet ruined our lives. This might turn out to be a better Scooby for grown-ups than Velma but we don’t seen Scooby for grown-ups. To use an annoyingly common phrase, it wasn’t made for you. This is a kids franchise.
Speaking of kids, and getting Shag and Scoob back into animation, we have Japan trying to actually make Scooby-Doo, or at least people influenced by Japan’s style. It’s worked for classic Disney characters and Marvel characters with Japanese and Korean video games understanding the source material better because they don’t hate animation over there. Yokoso Scooby-Doo! (which translates to “Hello Scooby-Doo” apparently, and was originally announced as Go-Go Mystery Machine) will be taking a cue from 13 Ghosts but with a Japanese makeover. From Deadline:
In the series, while visiting Japan on the ultimate foodie adventure, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy unwittingly unleash hundreds of mythical monsters that are causing trouble across the country. With the help of Scooby’s uncle, Daisuke-Doo, along with new friends, a magical girl Yume, and gadget whiz Takumi, the group embarks on an all-new mystery filled with monster chasing and fun chaos.
Yokoso Scooby-Doo! is produced by Warner Bros. Animation with production services provided by OLM in Japan. The series will be directed by Itsuro Kawasaki with Francisco Paredes serving as co-Producer.
The show will air on Tubi, because Warner Brothers Discovery doesn’t know what to do with it’s characters or it’s huge animation library. Tubi and MeTV Toons seem much better at it. (There’s talk about Paramount selling Cartoon Network if the Warner Brothers merger goes through. I’d say sell it to one of them. Thrown in the library and they’ll actually do something with it.) I kind of like it, provided they don’t do the fourth wall breaking humor of 13 Ghosts. I know this is a comedy mystery horrorish franchise but it always felt weirder on that show than it did on A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. Even Be Cool Scooby-Doo didn’t go that far. Frank Welker will continue as Scooby as he has since Don Messick’s passing and Casey Kasem chased Scott Grimes out of the franchise, with replacement Matthew Lillard, the only thing Gunn got right (a pattern continuing with DC), continuing to voice Shaggy.
There’s also Scooby-Doo Gokko, a series of shorts similar to the Tom & Jerry version, set to debut in 2027, and a preschool show Scoobypedia says was canceled, but we’ve seen My Adventures With Superman and Coyote Vs Acme rescued. So who knows? I wish they made that instead of Velma.
So that’s the state of Scooby-Doo as a franchise. I’m not going to go as far as to say it’s in bad shape. The old stuff is still widely available on Tubi, MeTV Toons, and scattered on a few other free streaming sites or on home video. Newer stuff is hit or miss but at least hits are still possible. I’m not going to watch the live-action Scooby because I don’t want live-action Scooby (plus I don’t have Netflix anyway) but the rest? Could be good. I hope so, because I’ve seen enough of my childhood favorites taken away from today’s children and/or so totally bungled by fun-hating “adults”. I want something to survive for the next generation.
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