Saturday, October 30, 2021

Scooby-Doo, Where are you now?

7/10

This special on the CW looks at the long history of the Scooby-Doo franchise and has the Mystery Inc. crew interviewed by Pretty Little Liars' Janel Parrish and, not unexpectedly, have to deal with a monster haunting the studio they're in. 

This does a good job of going over the over fifty-year-old franchise in approximately forty-five minutes. It manages to look at the series' staples and provides some fun facts about it's creation, including preliminary sketch art. Plus, equal time is shown to clips from the shows' various incarnations over the years. (Well, the better liked ones. I don't think I saw the likes of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo or Scooby-Doo and Shaggy get a Clue. As has been the practice in later years, not a word is mentioned of Scrappy. A little unfair. I'm not fond of the character, but you can't deny that he had a significant affect on the course of the show for a while.) I like that there is a fair amount of interviews with the behind-the-scenes talent, like directors or voice artists instead of just interviews with public personalities. 

The characters are represented with their original 70's character designs. I find it nostalgic to see these brought back. I would've thought they'd gone with the style they've gone with the for the last decade of the made-for-DVD films and the Supernatural crossover.

However, this is still light CW filler. There are a few fun lines, but many of the attempts at humor don't really land, especially quickie interviews with other cartoon characters.

Parrish does not make for the best host. Her interactions with characters who aren't really there is pretty awkward. Her talking to the audience isn't that great either.

It's a decent time-waster and fans of Scooby-Doo will like this, but it's not required viewing.

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