Does Scoobtober Deliver? (TV Review)
In October the children's nostalgic channel, Boomerang chose to highlight most versions of Scooby-doo. Where usually when a kids' channel says they'll have a marathon, you can expect maybe two hours of cartoons, but Scoobtober really came to play. Every day of October offered up ten hours of Scooby-doo. They had six old shows, and luckily they didn't play Be Cool, Scooby Doo because to me that is the absolute worst rendition of the characters and story of Scooby and the gang. The six they did air daily in order were A Pup Named Scooby Doo, The New Scooby Doo Movies, Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo, What's New Scooby Doo?, Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, and Scooby Doo, Where Are You!. They also debuted their new show Scooby Doo and Guess Who?. Scooby Doo and Guess Who is a lot like The New Scooby Doo Movies. Scooby and the gang meet a popular icon and help them or get their help solving a case. The guests were a little hit or miss for me because if I wasn't into the story or the guest chances are it was either because the guests seemed pretentious or the gang wasn't treating the guest right. After the newest show Scoobtober's day would wind down with one of their movies. Their movies were also hit or miss. My favorites had to be some of the classics like Scooby Doo and the Ghoul School and Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. I found some cool ones like Scooby Doo! Shaggy's Showdown and Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost. Then there were the movies you try but just can't get into like Scooby Doo: Return to Zombie Island among a few others. All in all it was a great way to celebrate the Halloween month.
Due to the formatting of the shows they did repeat episodes of all of the shows, but not to the point where it was annoying which is even better. In all honesty though, besides Scooby and Scrappy, I remembered most episodes of all Scooby Doos pretty well. I did appreciate finally being able to see Scooby and Scrappy though because I never saw it as a kid. For me, my favorite renditions of Scooby-doo were always A Pup Named Scooby Doo and What's New Scooby Doo.
My top two favorite episodes of A Pup Named Scooby Doo were 'Curse of the Collar' where we get to meet Scooby's family and he has to save his parents from the bad guy. My other favorite episode was the short 'The Ghost of Mrs. Shushan' where Scooby and Shaggy must return a library book. My favorite two episodes of What's New Scooby Doo are 'Safari, So Goodi!' where while on a safari trip where Daphne is trying to draw public attention to why the animals are disappearing, Scooby Doo also goes missing. For my second favorite episode, the first still frame tells me exactly what episode it is. The frame of a moose about to cross a snowy street tells me it's 'Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman'. As it turns out I love that episode now just as much as I did then because there's more to the mystery than the usual formula to Scooby Doo episodes. It also helps that it has my favorite band starred in it, and the soundtrack even the .1 second of one of my absolute favorite songs of theirs in the episode.
Scooby Doo and Guess Who had one guest we're all familiar with, the Hex Girls. In the episode, Daphne was their make-up girl, and as usual a mystery happens any time the Scooby Gang is around. Turns out the Hex Girls are cursed by a mediocre musician from the past. How can the Scooby Gang help them before their make up concert to their fans? Steve Buscemi was a pretty down to earth guest, and we got to see him in Italy around his extended family not to mention you got to see Buscemi show off some of his firefighting knowledge from one of his past careers before becoming an actor. There were also two guests I never heard of prior to the show that I liked due to how down to earth they were. First there was Halsy, a musician, the gang meets her when Scooby secretly signs Shaggy up to be in a poetry contest because Scooby knows how good he is. When the prize is stolen by a sewer gator Halsey and the gang go into sewers to solve the case. The last favorite guest of mine that I have to mention is Maddie Ziegler, an artist and dancer. Maddie wins a new studio, but every time she tries to open it something goes wrong. As the Scooby Gang offers to help the ghost of the last owner shows up and curses her. The only way to break the curse is for Maddie to teach Scooby and Shaggy one of three dances. Scooby and Shaggy are very eager to learn.
Episode titles for Scooby Doo and Guess Who in order of how I mentioned them:
I Put a Hex on You!
Fear the Fire Beast!
The New York Underground!
Dance Matron of Mayhem!
Note: The show is the fan of exclamation points.
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