BONUS: Straight Outta Nowhere

Ridiculous title but a solid movie.

Why the hell am I not told about stuff like this? You do not f*** with me when it comes to either Scooby-Doo or Courage The Cowardly Dog, you just don't and yet this crossover that I have been waiting for 84 years to happen, has gotten here and I just now know about it. There isn't a doubt in my skull that I would have adored this when I was younger, cause you know cartoon crossovers really weren't a thing at that time. I lost it when Mystery Inc. met Johnny Bravo, I just never had the concept of such a thing, and to see all the cartoon characters that I have watched my whole life have these little bumpers where they all live in a city and interact with each other was the coolest damn thing once upon a time. So what did I honestly think of this movie? Well I will get the very few negatives out of the way. First off, the fact that John R. Dilworth had nothing to do with his creations on the Courage side is inexcusable in my eyes, he had a lot of input on that show and I feel we needed his touch of horror here. Again I'm not that gaga about the title and the fact that Eustace Bagge has a rap number in this makes me break inside. Other than that, I'm fine with everything. Despite the more modern animation style they faithfully get the look of the characters and settings of Nowhere, and throw every easter egg they could think of from the show's history which is great. It is not some cash in bullshit like Return To Zombie Island you worthless, waste of what little time I have left on this earth, piece of ****, they do it with love and appreciation. They get Marty Grabstein and Thea White back to do their characters, and to know this was Thea White's last film coming back to voice such a beloved character that is the scottish angel Muriel is both so lovely and yet so heartbreaking. I'll miss her everyday and I think she has just as much magic and love in this movie as she did 30 odd years ago. Now on the Scoobert side of things, we still have our main cast who all do great work and my appreciation for Kate Micucci grows daily, it's so interesting to see them be in another show and it works just as well. I think anybody can watch it and follow it but it was made for the fans of both shows. It's a bottle movie, you crack it open, you enjoy it, you pop the lid back on and are happy you had it. It's nothing grand or special, but it has some good humor with even callbacks to Abbot and Costello and Mel Brooks, it's a decent story, you can tell they had some fun making this, and I think you'll enjoy it. I personally give it 3 stars, 7.5/10, and it made me want to dig my Courage DVD's out and watch the whole show. And that sprung an idea, an impossible idea, an idea that would take so much time and the hills would run red with the blood of movies and other shows. Sacrifices abound to achieve an impossible dream. I don't know if I can do it, cause I would review as many Cartoon Network shows, in full, one a month every month. Like wow, I'd love to do it but geez. We'll see. In the meantime get ready for a whole series, spread out starting tomorrow and ending well into December. I think we might be done with Christmas from henceforth.

Trouble With The Curve

It's been awhile since I last saw this so I figured it would be good to revisit it.

So 4 years after the supposed final acting role of Clint Eastwood in Gran Torino, he was brought back into the fray by one of his movie making pals and convinced him to do this movie and I'm very happy he did. I actually quite like the story to this movie, it takes a dash of sports movie predictability, adds some good and even really shocking family drama in, and just has Clint Eastwood being a crotchety bastard throughout as he plays a sports scout for the Braves named Gus who reconnects with his daughter and comes to terms with his failing sight while scoping a promising new draft pick. The first thing I gotta say is, holy balls this cast is something else. Grumpy Clint Eastwood, smartass yet awesome Amy Adams, pretty boy Justin Timberlake, cool John Goodman, and a surprising heel turn for Matthew Lillard which is really great to watch tell you the truth. You really have this A-grade cast and they all pull it off, even Justin Timberlake who in the pantheon of music stars turned actors does fine work. The direction is basic but good, but I actually expected that a bit since this was the first time Robert Lorenz was in the director's chair after being assistant director on many of Clint's films. I very much enjoyed the dynamic between Amy and Clint, they got good chemistry and the baggage the characters have while some of it is really out of left field, and even striked me sort of unnecessary, didn't take away from the rough impact it leaves on your mind once you learn of it. Again, not much of a sport's person and will never be but from the sports films I have covered in the past there's more to it than just the game cause that is what draws me in. It's not about Rocky Balboa boxing, it's about the character of Rocky. It's not about baseball in The Sandlot, it's the fun stories of these kids during the summer. It's not about Goldeen winning the gold at the Olympics, it's...well everything about that movie. It's probably gonna be years before you see me get to something like The Blind Side, Friday Night Lights, Major League, The Mighty Ducks, etc. mostly because I don't give a rat's ass. I gotta read like 6 Dune books before October people! But anyway, good film, solid 3 stars, 7/10, see you next time when I eat my own words.

Scooby-Doo Return To Zombie Island

What....was that?

I mean wow, that was a special kind of bad. I've never seen a truly bad animated Scooby-Doo movie until now. I mean you had the potential to make a funny, creepy, and welcome return to one of the most beloved and influential Scooby-Doo movies ever, and this is what you do with it?? A subpar, tongue in cheek, and completely unoriginal movie? I mean, God guys! There was still stuff I enjoyed but it doesn't amount to a hill of beans in this whacked out movie. The voice cast is just as good as always with the first instance of Kate Micucci voicing Velma for me and I really liked her! The animation is still done very well, in fact every aspect except for story was done well and competently. I'll admit I wasn't getting good vibes from this movie from the start, okay so the gang has shut down Mystery Inc. for what the sixth time, and they're not sure what to do now. Okay strike one immediately, because the gang in this say they never do anything normal and it's always solving mysteries to the point they never talk or know each other all too well, but that's just not true. Sure character interaction hasn't been a major part of the series, but they know who everyone is because their personalities as individuals is clearly spoken through their actions and words, and them not knowing how to do normal stuff is the one that kills me. Because I know for a fact that they never really have searched for mysteries often, very rarely have they went case hunting because the mystery always finds them and they always do normal things before getting whisked away into a new mystery. What do they do you might ask? Well they go to the beach, they go to a dance at a barn, they go to the malt shop and spend time together, and for some new instances, they go to music festivals, they they take cruises, they go to fraking Hawaii! What is this, "We do not know this normal you speak of, we only know the mysterious mysteries to solve" bullcrap?? Strike two hits pretty close after that when the bombshell drops that Fred actually sold the Mystery Machine. For what reason you might ask? Never explained! I thought he still had friggin' PTSD from seeing it blow up in Frankencreepy but I guess in a previous adventure he sold the damn thing so goodbye beloved and classic vehicle! And strike three, you dragged poor Cassandra Peterson to do her Elvira thing cause apparently Vincent Van Ghoul was unavailable, and she has nothing to do. I mean it's kinda hard to bring the appeal and funny personality of Elvira in a kid's movie, when well Elvira isn't exactly family friendly, she can't exactly make dick jokes and have that sultry yet valley girl persona. Now I love Cassandra, she is a funny, talented, and genuinely entertaining lady and when I heard she was going to be in this I was really excited even if it was just a bit part and she's wasted! Christ on the bleedin' cross it's been awhile since I have been this angry. And this all happens in the first...10, maybe 15 minutes of this hour and twenty minute film. Oh it keeps getting dumber! Now I will admit I like that Shag and Scoob made the gang solemnly promise to not solve mysteries at all and go on a vacation, which does lead to some funny stuff with Velma practically having a breakdown since she can't use her intelligence to solve things, but it just further made me feel detached from the story cause the gang doesn't act like their usual selves. But not in a clever way where we learn about their passions and lives much like in the outstanding Mystery Incorporated show, they just don't have anything to do or say and are beyond dull until about the halfway point. Oh my God and the mystery itself, ooh boy here we go. Okay so Mystery Inc. head to totally not Moonscar Island and already suspicious events are taking place, natives telling them to get away, side characters that look almost exactly like the villains from the first movie, and zombies are up and about. Man you're going to think I am bullshitting you straight to your face but here it comes, so the twist is.....it's all a movie. The hotel manager is actually a director putting together a film. Does this lead to any cute or funny fourth wall breaks or have a meta sense of humor? Of course not, what were you expecting?!! Oh and the director's name is Alan Smithee. Ha....Ha. The movie still goes on by the way after this, they solve the "mystery" and the movie still has like half an hour left. Now throughout the vacation we actually see a legit cat person stalking our heroes and this made me think oh well they'll actually for really realsies this time actually touch base on the original film and build on the lore previously established. You poor bastard, you had hope for this movie back then. Yeah, they don't do anything with it. They don't explain who it is, how he came to be a cat person like Lena and Simone in the first movie, they pull the trope! They pull the motherf***ing s*** sucking trope of "Oooohhhh he's still out there, another mystery to never solve guys, oooohhhh!!", agggghhhh!!!

Ohh what I'm going to do to the person who wrote this movie.....I'm so angry!! First I'm going to rip their lips out, yeah, that's what I'm gonna do. Then, I'm gonna gouge their eyes out! Yeah....that's what I'm gonna do. And then I'm gonna tear their arms outta the socket! And you wanna know what else? I'm gonna hit em' and they're gonna faaaaallll. And I'm going to look down and I'm gonna laugh...

Whoa. That got heavy.

They didn't even bring back Terror Time Again, you know the one thing everyone remembers from the first movie. They slapped Return To Zombie Island on another Scooby movie, this is not the sequel to Zombie Island. No, no, no, this is another movie that was about halfway made and then the producer kicks the door down and goes, "Alright people change of plans we're making a Zombie Island sequel! Oh you already made half of an original movie already? Well we can squeeze the script in, anyway have fun writing the rest of the movie!", and you know why? So that they could get old school fans like me to watch their horrible movie, to have fans of this franchise who grew up with movies like Zombie Island, and Witch's Ghost to slap down money for their poorly written, Highlander 2 style sequel. But I have fantastic news everybody, the movie doesn't start selling until October 1st at all stores, so spread the word. This movie won't make a dime if it's the last thing I do. You do not screw with my Scooby-Doo movies. You do not slap on a title that has next to nothing to do with the movie you are making, and thusly spit in the face of every fan of the original movie by bait and switching them just so that this horrible excuse for entertainment can make more money. Go to hell.

Scooby-Doo Monsters Unleashed

Now that, was unexpected.

It's like....good? It's like pretty good? Maybe because they actually took the 2 year gap between movies to seriously re-evaluate the last movie. Like every massive bomb point from the last movie has been significantly approved on. I actually laughed! It was really funny! I was shocked at how much I was genuinely enjoying myself. Okay so they do the usual but with some good and fun twists, Coolsville has just opened a museum dedicated to the closed cases of Mystery Inc. housing the costumes of all the villains from the shows but a new villain has appeared ready to tear Mystery Incorporated's reputation to shreds and re-animate the costumes as living monsters sending our gang into action once more. I get the feeling after the, ahem, less than popular first movie they decided to kinda go back to the roots of the show, the gang look very much how they did in the show with modern updates, they showcase several well known villains of the series, and honestly looking back the show Mystery Incorporated took some elements from this and built upon it incredibly so. The characters have gotten better, Shaggy and Scooby actually kind of question their silly personalities and try to be more serious, Daphne actually has character this time and Sarah gets to spread her wings a bit in the part which is really quite nice, Fred, oh Fred you actually were fun and great and to be honest and I'm probably going to kick myself in the ass for this but...I kinda got a Steve from Blue's Clues vibe from him you know kinda dopey but still likable and even funny, and of course my sun, my moon, my star lit sky Velma and ohhhh my lord she somehow got even better! And we have a new character played by Seth Green who really does give it his all and the relationship between him and Velma is adorable, and leads to um...an interesting scene. I mean, damn. But uh, yeah serious major upgrade for the characters and the writing has also been given more time and effort and it genuinely works, you actually do get the feeling they were having more fun with this movie probably because it's simple, clean, and enjoyable. So yeah, kind of a complete flip from last movie but I don't lie, the movie works. Sure it has a more crass joke but honestly 90% of the humor is just the dialogue. And the visuals aren't bad either, again going for a more practical feel with CG used sparingly, even though some of the monsters are completely CG you can tell others where legitimate costumes that were enhanced slightly so again I must commend the filmmakers on that. I feel it's more just a movie for the fans, you get a healthy dose of fanservice (You stop that line of thinking right now!), it fits more the classic characters with a smidge of depth, actually good humor, fun escapades, and a mystery that would feel right at home in one of the animated movies. So yeah I had fun, and if you got kids who really like Scooby-Doo or if you're a hardcore fan like myself this isn't a bad movie to see again.

So what the hell, we'll do one more since I don't really have a new movie to see for a bit and I'm actually in a good mood and hopeful for the next one, so join me tomorrow for the newest excursion into live action filmmaking, Daphne & Velma.

Scooby-Doo (2002)

Okay this actually warrants explanation. I hadn't the faintest clue what to do this week, and as I'm living my day to day Duder life I keep seeing these damn posts from a friend of mine about this movie. And the more I thought about it the more I needed to rant about something, and in fact I've been in this mood for quite some time so let's go!

Oh God. Tis' a sad day when one has to talk about the live action Scooby-Doo movies. I gotta be honest, I ate this shit up when I was 7 years old seeing this movie in the theater and just thank your lucky stars my movie taste got better! And man did this movie age as fine as NSYNC, calling people "dog", and that weird stilted slow-mo effect that thankfully died. I have never seen a movie so dated in early 2000s (there's no better word for it) embarassment it's almost a marvel. Try and watch this movie without 1. Rolling your eyes, 2. Facepalming, 3. Drinking heavily, and PS. I've failed miserably at this game. I'm almost 1000% certain this movie was made to sell a soundtrack, and to be perfectly honest I only heard one song that was not white noise to my ears and I don't even know the name of it! Also fair warning, this might be my longest review yet due to MASSIVE retrospective viewing of the series, me, and my better ideas for the movie. So where do I truly begin? Well....how about the good stuff though brief they are. I actually gave Matthew Lillard a lot of shit for this movie but honestly looking back and giving him some real love for his voice over work recently in the series, he is a awesome Shaggy. He really does get the character down and his interactions with Scooby are easily the best part of the movie (except for that one scene that shall not be named), he's funny, gets the character incredibly well, and has the most believable and enjoyable relationship with Scooby than any other human being in the movie. I dig the use of practical sets and effects and they only really use CG if it's absolutely necessary, and I can't honestly give good grief over how Scoob looks, they adapted a 2D cartoon character who's very exaggerated and cartoony with the best CG they had at that time so they tried their best to make it work so I shall not shun the look of Scooby. However! The rest of the CGI euuuggghhh it needed more render time. Oh and that voodoo dude was absolutely great, it's like he knew what movie he was in and decided to just say whatever, and yet it's really funny and truthful at the same time, I wish we saw him more. Goodbye voodoo dude, you were a true joy in this movie! The true shining star of this whole movie from beginning to end is Linda Cardellini as Velma. Now if you'll excuse me I will shamelessly praise her for the next few longwinded sentences. Oh lord...we thank you for this actress and the outstanding potrayal of a lesser recognized and beloved character. She is glorious, she's witty and clever, she's funny and actually gives her all to this character, and oh sweet celestial beings she is ******* gorgeous!! I mean, damn Velms! Lord have mercy, someone get me a glass of ice water I'm about to overheat, mm mmm mmm. But enough about that, let's talk about the ehhhh things. Okay Mr. Screenwriter who if you look him up you will be dumbfounded as I am, I understand the changes you did for Daphne. I can even slightly appreciate it but you still done ****** it up! Okay so they get the supreme asskicking queen herself Sarah Michelle Gellar as Daphne, literally off the set of Buffy and get her to be a black belt trained Daphne who is tired of being the damsel in distress. Which I personally never got, I mean you go back to watching those shows and honestly Daphne doesn't get kidnapped that much, hell no one gets taken captive more than Shaggy and Scooby so....whoops I guess! But they ruin her character. Now let's be real here, even as a hardcore Scooby-Doo fan, there's not that much character to the gang. You have the leader, the girl next door, the brains, and the comic relief. Now granted they built on that through now literally 50 years of show (wow), but they make her this ditzy valley girl almost useless chick. She kicks a door down and beats up one guy. Move aside Ellen Ripley, Xena, Wonder Woman, there's a new sherrif in these here parts!! Good intentions but absolute garbage delivery. Fred is bland, no disrespect to the actor, he just didn't have that much going for him but I will say that little foot stamp in the woods; priceless. And now we get to the bad. Joy of joys. Story time! So we pick up on the tail end of a mystery, the gang just got another crook and the police still condone vigilante justice from sleuth detectives maybe because they were endorsed by Pamela fraking Anderson!! I am soooo not making that up, Pamela Anderson is in this movie, probably just to reassure the audience that the nails in the coffin have been properly set. She's not even playing a character, it's just Pam as Pam in a nonsensical and completely pointless cameo. Whatever. Moving on. And are you ready for some buuullshit? The gang then decide they quit. Huuuhhhh?? Wha-wha-why? There is no setup to it, they're just like, "Op I quit, peace bitch!" and you have so not even earned this you don't even get a participation trophy. So they quit for mysterious reasons that even the screenwriter couldn't solve and we flash to 3 years later. Fred has been on a book tour, Velma has been working with NASA, Daphne has been training with Ra's Al Ghul in the Himalayas or some shit, and Shag and Scoob have been well...Shag and Scoob. And they all get invited to a, let me get this straight, a theme park based on some abstract weird creepy shit that I have no idea what it is, that is run by Rowan Atkinson who is completely wasted in his part (we'll get to him later) with help from an admittedly kinda creepy and memorable right hand man, AND a luchadore wrestler.....okay. And it turns out the theme park is secretly a cult where they summon a more fake looking CG bunny from Donnie Darko who can't survive in sunlight because of the Mogwai gene in them so they possess people's bodies as like this far out new sunscreen trick, are you with me so far? Oh and they steal people's souls like Shang Tsung did I mention that? This gets complicated so fast and the payoff is so not worth it! And this is where the movie completely falls off the deep end because it is so not Scooby-Doo. Now you might be saying no shit Dude they're fighting demons, but they've done supernatural stuff before and it worked in many ways. Witch's Ghost for example, they fought the ghost of a witch with the help of my taste in women-uh, I mean Thorn and that was awesome! And I can pin it down to 2, maybe 3 big points. The threat was dangerous, and these bunny demons are so not a problem and hold no threat, they are more slapsticky and cartoonish than Scooby. Now I'm not saying comic relief can't be done, there was a Wizard Of Oz reference and them threatning to baste a giant turkey in The Witch's Ghost but here there's no menace in any respect except that tatted up dude but he doesn't really do much and the comedy is insufferable with these creatures. Second, the whole reveal is the fact that the person who wants to summon demons, take over the world, and envelop the Earth in 10,000 years of darkness, is Scrappy-Doo. Hwhat??? And guess why? Come on guess. Throw out anything. You ready? You're not but here we go. He does alllll of that to get revenge on Mystery Inc. for dumping him because he was an annoying ****. News flash! You already won 3 years before this potdream began. Mystery Inc. disbanded, they quit, they left, they were done so may I ask whyyy you're doing this?? My head hurts now. Some would call this movie a mixed bag but there's so much stupid caked on layer after layer after layer, it just fails. You get a comedic actor like Rowan Atkinson and give him nothing to do, he got one laugh out of me and that is a crime in my eyes. And do you know who they wanted to get for the part? Tim Curry! And he said no! For the reason it had Scrappy in it because he's a big fan of the series (And come on no one likes Scrappy, even Cartoon Network throws Scrappy under the eighteen wheeler.) that's why he gave it 120 beautiful percent as Ben Ravencroft, but I suspect he didn't like the script either and got out. Oh my God, I almost forgot this and you need to see it with your own eyes. Okay go to the IMDB page of this movie and click on the images tab. Not only is there essentially an appreciation volley of Linda Cardellini but the very first image is not from the movie. I dare even say what you all will think, and state it is from a porn parody because well the site name is um...what's the word? Obvious. And that is clearly not Linda in the picture soooo, yeah. That was just something I noticed and had to tell you cause that got a massive kick out of me. Wow, how did we sink this low? To me, this hurts, to others it's just another subpar/bad movie. Scooby-Doo is my favorite cartoon ever, it means the world to me, pretty much made me the person I am today, and to see it go through so many phases and most of them being good it hurts. There's material you can work with here, build on the characters, you can keep the theme park premise but drop this bullshit demon stuff cause it really does not work in any way. Keep Velma the way she is, keep Shaggy and Scooby the way they are, give Fred....anything, give Daphne more than a breaking tradition damsel trope. Keep it simple in terms of plot, and complex in terms of character. I can always love you Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated. But this movie.....they betray me, they didn't keep their promise. They trick me, and, I don't care anymore. And we might as well do the second movie tomorrow cause I'm not talking about this series ever again for God's sake what the fu-

Scooby-Doo Mask Of The Blue Falcon

Talk about a trip down memory lane.

Mask Of The Blue Falcon is not only a good Scooby-Doo movie, but a love letter to Hannah-Barbera. The gang accompanies Shag and Scoob to a comic convention where, shock of all shocks, a mystery springs up based off the classic Blue Falcon series with the original actor of the Blue Falcon TV series as the main suspect, thus spurring Shaggy and Scooby into action to protect their childhood hero and solve the case. Again very much like Frankencreepy, Mask Of The Blue Falcon holds a special place in my heart if only for the sheer amounts of nostalgia. The film is a love letter to the Hannah-Barbera cartoons from the 60s and 70s, I mean you name it and it's here! Blue Falcon, Space Ghost, Herculoids, Speed Buggy, Hong Kong Phooey, Frankenstein Jr., every single last one of them is seen in some form or another. And the first time I saw this I was with my grandma, Cartoon Network is still one of my favorite channels if not my absolute favorite and a Scooby-Doo movie was coming on and being a lifelong fan I was down for it. I was floored by all these characters cause I was born at the right time to see all those old cartoons along with the new ones, Cartoon Network had reruns of these shows back in the day and later on in life I got Boomerang where I watched countless classic cartoons from the 60s to the 90s so I grew up with all these characters and being home at that time, I couldn't get more nostalgia if I ever tried. It's just wonderful to go through this movie and fully enjoy all the references. And it doesn't even stop there. The original Blue Falcon has heavy ties to the 60s Batman series, with the old show not in syndication and not on video, the star only gaining money from con appearances and being forgotten in light of new more dark and realistic super hero movies. I feel it was a huge missed opportunity to not have him voiced by Adam West, now people might say well it would be too on the nose and obvious, to which I counter with well the voice actor does an Adam West impression anyway so why not? It's interesting to know that Shaggy and Scooby were influenced by the Blue Falcon and to know they are heavy into the con scene, hell even Daphne has an obsession with these collectables they're like a mix of My Little Pony and Beanie Babies, Fred is a fan of new comic book movies, and poor Velma is just a stick in the mud I mean you think she would be all for sci-fi or mystery books. But I had a blast with this movie, and while it may not be as funny as Frankencreepy it still holds something special to me at least.

And tomorrow on my birthday we look at my #1 favorite Scooby-Doo movie of all time.

Scooby-Doo Frankencreepy

Holy shrimp this is amazing!

I mean whoa man, this could easily be top 3 in my favorite Scooby-Doo movies of all time, not only is it hilarious, not only is the story fun, not only is it chock full of references to Frankenstein, but this movie got these characters and gave them a bit to work with. So the story goes, Velma is contacted to inherit her great great uncle's castle who performed experiments to create a monster, and is thus discovered that Velma's ancestor was the inspiration for Mary Shelley to write her now famous book, and Velma sets out to disprove the experiments of her relative and hijinks and hilarity ensue. There is so much good to talk about, the editing I swear was done by Edgar Wright, it has his distinct stamp on fast editing and it adds so many laughs to this movie. The movie references not only the classic Universal movies but also heavily takes from Young Frankenstein, to the point where you could literally splice scenes from that movie in this one and it would still work and still be funny. I especially love how the movie brings up older cases from the gang, and I mean they straight up show clips from the old shows, how friggin' cool is that? And the movie takes bold steps as well, this movie kills the van. They blow up the Mystery Machine. Dang. And the traits and emotions of the characters help the movie in my opinion, all the gang goes to a dark place. Fred gets practical PTSD from seeing the van blow up, Daphne has to work out some serious vanity issues, Shaggy and Scooby lose their appetites and start acting brave (PS. I adore that 5 second montage of absurdities coming true when they say that.), and Velma starts to not act on logic and falls victim to the Frankenstein curse. And I'm not gonna lie, it's beautiful. We don't see these characters like this like....ever and it is terrific. Plus I'm happy Velma gets some serious attention and screen time, and that mad scientist outfit...ooh lord. I love this movie so much, I love it to tiny pieces, I would buy it in a heartbeat, I can not reccomend it more. Go see this movie, watch it either with your kids or solo because it is well worth your time. You know what's really weird? Every movie has some link between each other. Zombie Island and Boo Brothers had a southern plantation, Boo Brothers and Frankencreepy had inherited property, granted I don't know if there is a connection between Frankencreepy and tomorrow's movie which will be Scooby-Doo Mask Of The Blue Falcon.

Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated

Yeah, another tv review and an animated one at that! This is easily top 5 when it comes to animated shows.

Scooby-Doo was the first cartoon I ever saw in my life, I still have all my old tapes, I've seen every single show, every movie, and it never gets old for me. But this show, which is not the newest but it just takes every single element of the original show and makes it a thousand times better than it was. The characters, the mysteries, there's an arching storyline in both seasons and that's the only bad thing is it was only two seasons long which is criminal because of how great it is! The first time I watched it I was late (like I am with many shows) about a few episodes into the first season, and it didn't take long for me to realize, holy smokes this show is different! Look, there's character development! There's this creepy overarching storyline, that's new! Damn this show is really funny, and weird, and awesome! I can't wait to see more! That was pretty much my first reaction to the show. I hunted down the first season, watched it from the beginning, loved every episode, and it just kept getting better. It's very hard to describe, it's a great show with nods to all the old shows and movies, but when you keep delving deeper and deeper into it you find new fascinating stuff. Dang it, the more I think about it the more I want to talk about. So more than likely there will be a follow up to this review later today. The best thing this show has going for it is the character development, these are characters with history together, with funny little quirks about them, and the fact that they are teenagers who date! That is a prominent feature in this series is the fact that the gang has relationships. Fred and Daphne date and it's hilarious to no end, Velma and Shaggy have a relationship and I'm just geeking the hell out over it! This is a show for the fans. I mean really and truly. Maybe that's why I love it so much, it is a great show by itself but then you add little tidbits of the mythos of the whole franchise and you get something even better. I cannot recommend this series enough if you are a fan of Scooby-Doo or just appreciate good animated shows. I'm gonna write more about the mindset I have and just various things that come to mind when I think of shows like this. So stick around, and in the meantime have fun unravelling the mystery.