Ever since the Hanna-Barbera original series, Warner Brothers has been trying to reboot the Scooby-Doo franchise in a way that lasts. One outing saw them eschewing all but Scooby and Shaggy and posing them as avid snowboarders that also solved mysteries. It was awful for a number of reasons, not the least of which was its attempt to pander to youth while completely betraying the source material. With Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, they’ve finally found a combination that works by restoring the original characters but taking their personalities and adventures to humorous extremes in a final product that’s capable of keeping a youngster’s attention but which aims its comedy at the ears of adults who remember where the Scooby legacy began. Warner Brothers has been releasing the first season of this new series piece-meal as they build to a complete season set, and while 4-episode releases are despicable, the show is entirely enjoyable.
The two characters that remain the same are Shaggy and Scooby, ever the lovable slackers with a permanent case of the munchies, but this time around their boundless loyalty to one another is complicated by Shaggy’s still private relationship with Velma, still bookish but even more sarcastic. Then there’s the expected romance between Fred and Daphne, but whereas the original series just implied their relationship as the two alpha personalities in the bunch, this time around it’s more of an amusing distraction. As Daphne pines for Fred and hopes to earn his affection, she finds her efforts end poorly with Fred only having eyes for traps. He loves traps. He dreams about traps. He contextualizes everything in relation to traps. The group dynamic plays as a straight comedy this time around and all of the ambiguity has been replaced by repressed frustrations that result in some great throwback jokes.
Volume 3 of the 4-episode DVD releases features the episodes “Battle of the Humungonauts”, “Howl of the Fright Hound”, “The Secret Serum”, and “Shrieking Madness”, with plots ranging from large monsters causing real estate damages to an evil twin of Scooby-Doo to a vampire to a nice little riff on Lovecraft’s works.
DVD Bonus Features
There are none.
"Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Season 1, Volume 3" is on sale September 27, 2011 and is not rated. Animation, Children & Family, Mystery. Directed by Curt Geda, Victor Cook. Written by Mitch Watson, Jed Elinoff. Starring Frank Welker, Grey Delisle, Matthew Lillard, Mindy Cohn.
