It is Saturday morning here so let's talk toons. When I was young Saturday morning cartoons were what I lived for. It was something I waited for all week. To tell you the truth I still love my cartoons. I just don't think that the shows they have on today are cartoons. The artwork is very low rate. The story lines are all the same (bad) and I don't think that kids should be watching some of them. Most of the cartoons when I was a kid taught you something each week, to quote "G.I. Joe" "Knowing is half the battle." They showed you the difference between right and wrong and a lot more. For the topic today let's talk about "Scooby Doo", it is fresh on my mine because I started watching the 2011(?) "Scooby Doo" on Netflix this week. What do you think, like, dislike, about Scooby and the Gang?
P.S. We are redoing the weekly line up and "Saturday Morning Cartoons" will be the new morning post.
I Loved Saturday Morning Cartoons as a Kid, the only problem was I grew up with 3 younger sisters in an apartment with only one TV so ended up being forced to watch a lot of stuff I did not like. (The cartoon JEM for example ). So being the oldest the Weekday after school cartoon line up was more important to me, especially once I started Middle school and got home earlier then my sisters.
As for Scooby, I have to say that while it is then and is now an ok cartoon it is not one of my favorites as I tend to gravity more towards action adventure cartoons, and do not like Mystery shows all that much ( with a couple exception ). I do enjoy a good funny cartoon, and while Scooby Doo has some humor in it I don’t really put it in the realm of “funny cartoon”.
Scooby Doo has always had high production value. The early cartoons were very heavy on background and scenery. The newer series, even more so. There is a lot of detail and thought that goes into colors and shading.
I’m indifferent to Scooby Doo as far as the characters and writing. Mostly for the reasons Kaldath gives. I watched it primarily because there was nothing else on during that time slot. The show benefited from the fact that there just wasn’t much competition. Probably one of the first cartoons to target tweeners and high school kids.
The new Scooby cartoons have the same audience in mind. Older kids get the jokes while little kids just sit and watch. I refuse to watch any of the live action movies. To this day, I wish whoever came up with Scrappy Doo would be publicly flogged.
I’d have to say SOME of the artwork was better than most out there. The writing was formulaic, but so were the others? The odd thing was that I think the lesson it taught best was that teenagers should always be nosy, make plans that don’t work, trespass, and try to out-stupid those out to get you.
All the local bullies and most of the managers I knew as a teenager reminded me of Scrappy-Doo.
First, great topic for Saturday mornings. Can’t wait for “Super Friends” and “Spiderman and His Amazing Friends” to be the topics.
But as for Scooby Doo, I gave up on the Mystery Incorporated gang about the time Scooby’s extended family started to become recurring characters. There was something unique about Scooby Doo, that adding Scrappy Doo, Scooby Dee, and Scooby Dumb just sort diluted. Of course that might have been an excuse. It was also around the same time that I realized every mystery ended the exact same way.
Scooby Doo was one of my favs growing up. I liked the fact that the monsters were kinda cool looking but always turned out not to be real…a pretty cool idea to show small children that monsters werent real. The other cool thing about the show back then was the guest stars that would lend their voices to help a cartoon! Jonathan Winters, Don Knotts, Sandy Duncan, Don Adams, Adam West, The Harlem Globe Trotters…just to name a few. And of course the legendary Casey Kasem as Shaggy! Pretty cool if you ask me! As for later versions which included Scrappy Doo, Scooby Dumb, Dino Mutt and Blue Falcon to modern versions…not a fan at all! The theme song was good too!
I agree that Scrappy Doo should of never been born. He did take the show to it’s lowest level. Some of the other Doo family were bad, but I did like Scooby Dumb (I could copy his voice really good). But if you remember right Scooby was not the only one to have family members as guest on the show. One of Shaggy’s uncles look just like him. Now on the new Scooby I started watching the other day the kids parents look nothing like them or like the early versions of their parents. Plus they have the gang in High School. I can’t remember any ages being mentioned on the first show, but I think they were older and out of school.
Scrappy killed the wholesomeness of the show and replaced it with a “third wheel conflict thingy”Making it a bit of a Scooby don’t for me.That aside,I wasn’t the biggest Scooby dooer,but I was more of a Isis,Wonderwoman,Shazam on saturday mornings.Cartoons in general were not my thing aside for,Thundercats,and Bugs and the Loony crew!Oh yeah and I can’t forget Popeye!I really like to laugh and unfortunately Scooby Doo didn’t do it for me.Anyway I hope I didn’t give away too much of my age with my likes in saturday morning entertainment.Oh well.Bidi bidi bidi datz all folks!
Scooby Doo was one of those cartoons that was on every Saturday from the first moment I could remember watching Saturday Morning cartoons to the point that I stopped watching them altogether. I’m not saying it was one of my favorites, but since it was always there, there was something reassuring about that. Having the Mystery Inc. gang there every week was like the cartoon equivalent of comfort food.
Well, at least until Scrappy Doo showed up. After that, I noticeably lost interest, and that probably led more to my losing interest in Saturday morning cartoons altogether as much as getting older and finding other interests did. Obnoxious little brat and his “Puppy Power” needed to get punted.
Yeah, I watched the first live-action movie and didn’t much care for it. Don’t watch the new Mystery Inc. cartoon. I still do watch some cartoons, and have for most of my life, although a lot of that would be geared to the more adult animation programs like Family Guy or Futurama, and the like (also anyone who’s been paying attention to the clues, or at least seen the Geek Quiz thread on the forum would know I have a thing for the current My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic series; don’t judge unless you’ve watched at least one episode yourself).
i liked scooby doo. it was funny. but i was irked that they were always scared of ghosts or whatever when every week it was just some old guy. and the laugh track i hated.
I think I watched alot of Scooby Doo because I was waiting for the next show after. Wasn’t a fan, but it was tolerable ’til the big superhero show was on after. I probably know many more endings to episodes than seeing the mystery unfold right from the beginning. Darn you meddling kids……..
My attitude was similar: by the end of 1st grade, I was already getting annoyed at seeing the same adventures over and over, after school every day. In recent years, however, I’ve lightened up.
I now realize that whatever the show’s failings, they came up with some genuinely inventive ghosts, monsters, and horrors: ice cream phantoms, pterodactyl ghosts, flying Indian bull-spirits, angry Aztec kings, etc. (This was especially true during my favorite incarnation, “The Scooby-Doo Show,” in the late 70’s.) Some of the best of these actually taught me something, like the Hatfield-McCoy story, the Aztec king, or the ghost of Benedict Arnold. Even the 2-parters introduced me to a lot of celebrities I hadn’t heard of before.
They took on some really dangerous enemies, too, engaged in all sorts of crime: crooked lawyers, cattle rustlers, bank robbers, kidnappers, plane hijackers, even supervillains! (That 10,000-volt ghost was dangerous enough to call in the Superfriends, I think.) And they escaped dangers like watery deathtrap, storms in the Bermuda Triangle, and being shot out of torpedo tubes. These “kids” were big-league crimefighters, and kicked some serious butt!
The show did a good job of blending light horror and humor, showed the importance of finding laughs in scary situations, and demonstrated that any mystery can be solved if you keep your wits about you. I didn’t feel that way at the time, but I’ve come to appreciate the show more as I’ve gotten older.
I liked the Scooby Doo cartoons, but hated the movies with Freddie Prinze Junior and Sarah Michelle Gellar!! I mean, come on people, you ruined Scooby Doo for everyone (or at least for me)!! I did like Scooby Doo: The Mystery Begins and Scooby Doo: Curse of the Lake Monster because I felt the cast did a much better job and the plot was better. I would know. Theatre was my major in college.
No judgement here: I’m a “Monster High” fan, myself. 😉
Monster High is pretty good in my Opinion also. My 6 year old nieces in majorly into it and watches the one Movie she has of it on DVD as much as possible, meaning I have seen it several times, lol .