DVD Review: Scooby-Doo Where Are You Vol. 3
Warner Home Video Distributes Hanna-Barbera Cartoon Series
Sep 2, 2009 Dominic von Riedemann
Of the thousands of shows that the Hanna-Barbera animation factory cranked out over its 65-year history, one of the longest-lasting was Scooby-Doo Where Are You? which debuted in 1969.
A mix of mystery, ersatz horror and slapstick comedy, the show featured 5 teens and the titular Great Dane touring the world in their psychedelic-painted Mystery Machine, solving mysteries and getting into trouble.
To celebrate the show's 40th birthday, Warner Home Video is packaging the show's first season on DVD. Volume 3, subtitled Hello Mummy, features the gang battling ghost clowns, eerie puppets, Egyptian mummies and the trifecta of horror movie villains: Dracula, the Wolfman and Frankenstein.
This show looked cheap n' cheesy when your older brother and sister were getting naked and muddy at Woodstock. So why is Scooby-Doo Where Are You so much fun to watch in 2009?
Warner Home Video's Scooby-Doo: Get a Clue Volume 3: Hello Mummy Features 4 First Season Episodes
As mentioned before, Hello Mummy features 4 episodes from the first season:
- "The Rage Backstage": Scooby and pals take on a counterfeiting puppeteer
- "Bedlam in the Bigtop": The gang investigates a jinxed circus
- "A Gaggle of Galloping Ghosts": Mayhem at a haunted Transylvanian castle.
- "Scooby-Doo and a Mummy": The gang gets involved when an Egyptian curse starts turning people into statues.
If you're unfamiliar with the series, here's every episode in a nutshell: the Mystery Machine crew stumble onto a spooky area that has a supernatural mystery attached to it. Scooby and Shaggy get chased by monsters while Velma, Fred and/or Daphne find clues. Eventually, they turn the tables on their pursuer, pull off the mask, and expose the monster as some criminal who'd utter a variation on, "And I would have gotten away with it, if it hadn't been for those meddling kids!"
Rinse and repeat for 17 years.
While we're at it, the animation used tons of recycled footage – Hanna-Barbera were big on keeping costs down – the character designs were from the oh-so-groovy 60's, the plots barely hung together, and the jokes were limper than a 10-year old pickle. So why are these shorts surprisingly fun to watch?
You can chalk part of it up to nostalgia: these episodes landed in syndication so fast that they've become part of nearly everyone's childhood.
However, in addition, you get the sense that Scooby-Doo's artists and writers knew they were making kitsch, and weren't sorry. It's like they said to the audience, "Sure, the plots make no sense, and you know exactly how this sucker's going to go down. But we're having fun!"
And that's what sells these Trudeau-era cartoons . . . well, that and the drinking game you can play every time Scooby downs a Scooby Snack, Velma says "Jinkies!" and loses her glasses, or Shaggy and Scoob miss a perfectly good opportunity to take down the villain.
DVD Extras
Other than the usual trailers, WHV has added a bonus episode, "High Society Scooby," from the more recent (and vastly inferior) Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue. It features Shaggy and Scooby trying to protect three famous scientists from being captured by Dr. Phibes' minions: a ninja wannabe and his persnickety sidekick. The best thing you can say about this episode is that it's short.
The Final Analysis
While time hasn't been kind to these 40-year-old shorts, they still have a goofy quality that allows the viewer to ignore the cookie-cutter plot, lame jokes and cheap animation.
Scooby-Doo Where Are You Volume 3: Hello Mummy gets a 6/10.
Scooby-Doo Vol. 3 cover art
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