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plush-anon · 5 years

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scooby doo guess who? not much really review

currently taking advantage of boomerang’s scoobiversary freebies to watch scooby doo guess who

my impression so far? the animation is weeeeeeeiiiiird. some scenes i would swear to gods on being straight up traced from older hanna barbera scooby shows, like a la 70s era - some scooby shots have that same perspective, angle, etc that you only saw used in the HB Scoobies, which is just strange to see in a modern production - even the WNSD? crew never had scooby faces this close to past animations

shots of the gang also experience this. A lot of the distance shots of them could honestly be taken from the 70s, given the lack of details in their faces, the strange framing proportions - only with cleaner line work and brighter colors (which oddly enough make it look WORSE)

also some of the facial animations in the close-ups just look... off. like the words don’t quite fit their face? In fact, a lot of the character design feels really, REALLY off, and I have no idea how to articulate it.

actually wait, I think I have it - it’s the linework. Some of the lines are really clearly defined in thick black while the rest is either the same color/sliver off-color as the main drawing or really thin - and it keeps changing from shot to shot. It’s literally like someone keeps tracing different old shots of the gang and the pen used changes with each new picture. on the one hand, it makes it look a LOT more like a cleaned-up Hanna Barbera cartoon. but on the other hand? yikes. At least Be Cool SD had their own designs and were consistent. this is just... awkward to watch, imo.

even the backgrounds feel like they’re trying to recapture the HB designs - the ones which were kinda painted looking in some shots, a little rough? but with the colors (both background and animated pieces) and linework being as vivid and clear as they are in some scenes, the clash is really apparent when the characters are on screen (also the characters are doing the HB thing where they will just... randomly teleport from one action to a different one and different positions).

combined with reused sound effects from the old shows (the Sherlock Holmes one reused the laughing sound effects from the green phantoms) was Warner Bros literally trying to re-make the Hanna Barbera stuff - down to almost traced-looking art and animation? it doesn’t work as well tho, bc the animation is pretty smooth - again, oddly a point against it, bc of how much it clashes.

the Hanna Barbera stuff worked bc everything kinda fit each other - the character animation, the backgrounds, the color pallettes, everything felt like it was part of the same design. here, it feels like a trace and repaint that is jarringly different, as we see on display in the show’s opening. they capture the design elements, ramp up the neon and very bright vivid colors, and clean up the linework to something that mimics HB Scooby, but feels off because of the cleaned up quality.

As far as the humor? It’s honestly very hit and miss. Some stuff lands, some stuff feels like I’ve seen it in other things (monster designs from other shows, primarily WNSD? so far; running gags that were lifted straight from 70s era episodes and not in an homage kinda way, but ‘literally exact same gag but with different monster’, like the Wanda Sykes ep using the werewolf barber gag) - it’s very, VERY mishmash, and I can’t tell if they wanted to straight up remake the New Scooby Doo Movies (they did the guest stars) but with prettier colors and better animation, or if they were just THAT lazy in making this (which is also a possibility - they’re working on the new SCOOB movie, but still want Scooby in the public eye, so producing a quick show like this would not be too far off for WB, if they wanna bring back older ideas of Scooby)

It’s actually pretty jarring at times to see the gang pull out modern tech (ESPECIALLY in the Funky Phantom ep) - bc they rely so much on the HB style and formula for this particular show, it’s exceedingly out of place to see smart phones and tablets. WNSD, SDMI, BCSD, and even PNSD evade this by having their own unique animation style, way of approaching humor, etc, so they can update and still feel relatively smooth about it. this tho? since they do pull so heavily on HB for style and animation and setting, modern stuff really is strange to pull up.

honestly, this all reminds me of that one Bat-Mite driven episode of Batman: Brave & the Bold crossing over with Scooby Doo. That one had more updated animation and smoother backgrounds, but still looked near identical to the original NSDM show, and matched it for tone. Kinda wondering what the game here was, but eh, who knows.

(although I am VERY PEEVED at Daphne’s design - everyone else seems okay proportions-wise, but she sometimes has a waist the samE SIZE AS FRED’S WRIST, and hips twice the size of her head. I just... what even, WB).

Credit where credit is due tho, the gang at least feels like a group of friends, and work well together as expected with the older shows. They also show that they care about each other, and do go to help each other if a plan goes wrong with Shag & Scoob in bait mode, or if someone gets knocked over/hurt. they don’t interact much on a personal level outside of mysteries, but they have the same dynamic from the 70s, so that’s good (again in the Wanda Sykes episode, Scooby affirms how much he loves Shaggy as his human, the gang worry about each other getting hurt or leap after to help each other out - it’s sweet)

The guest stars have also been kinda hit or miss - personal faves so far are Sherlock Holmes and Wanda Sykes. The funky Phantom ep was kind of obnoxious, and the others have been pretty forgettable so far, with the Ricky Gervais one being just... awkward. So very, very... VERY awkward.

Minor fun fact: Shaggy confirmed to have read Sherlock Holmes mysteries enough to know which piece of dialogue Sherlock quotes is from which story. it’s great :D

that episode also remains the best bc it contains the line ‘YES, remember: Sherlock Holmes posted your bail!’ which he actually did. the gang gets arrested, and Sherlock Holmes bails them out.

overall, it’s not a terrible showing for Scooby Doo - in fact some of the classic gags play out pretty well (the running back and forth gag, disguise tricks, etc). it’s just kind of meh bc of how oddly put together it is.

I’m working on watching more before the freebie time limit expires, so I’ll post a little bit more when I do.

#reviews #scooby doo guess who #scooby doo #plush reviews #i'm oddly ambivalent about this show #it's weird for me

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