#bmoreviewsmysteryinc

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FotW: SDMI - In Fear of the Phantom

Welcome back to Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated, and now we're getting into a problem many reboots and adaptions face - what happens when you try something different. Today's episode isn't really that special, serving as a bridging point between the next stint of episodes focused on the gang's love lives.

Except for featuring the Hex Girls of course.

Not to overshadow the main villain, which would be extra funny considering their backstory, but come on that's what y'all are here for.

Yeah, they got a bit of a redesign since their last few appearances in the two billion direct to DVD films. Fans DID NOT like this, and in a later episode they had to actually address the backlash while also scrapping these outfits for the original ones. They also steal Luna and Dusk's hair dye and gave Thorn's highlights a diminished role.

My personal opinion? Eh, I would've preferred a middle ground between the two, but for reboots I encourage designers to go all out since it's their own thing. So for Mystery Incorporated I would've either kept the redesigns or gave them completely brand new looks a second time. The OGs have a more cohesive aesthetic, but I like how MI experiments by giving each girl their own Alt style. It's probably Dusk who could probably use a new outfit though, since her Tank Girl getup doesn't mesh as well as Thorn's "Pagan School Girl" and Luna's "Lesbian Thespian" outfits do. Actually, maybe one of those Scene Kid reconstructions of School Uniforms would've worked better?

Oh yeah, this nerd.

Backstory: Like most lesbians Velma is a massive fan of The Hex Girls, snagging front row tickets for the Scooby Gang just in time for them to witness a "Phantom" try to murder Thorn on stage. As with every mystery the gang decide to take it upon themselves to do the cop's job to keep the concert going while protecting the band.

This leads to an exploration of the show's two main ships, Fredphe and Shoob - again, yes really.

This show is really good trust me on this.

Scooby outright calls Shaggy a cheater for going to prom with Velma instead of hanging out with him like they always do, and replaces Mathew Lillard with a wooden dummy much to Shaggy's chagrin.

Fred meanwhile comes out as nonbinary a teenage boy with emotions as he finally grasps Daphne's romantic interest in him. All thanks to an entire song written by Daphne where she uses Fred's special interest to get through to him.

Behold, one of the best songs made for a television show in history.

Before this spectacular moment of audio interposed with occasional Zelda CDI-level animation (to be fair are you even looking at the animation in the first place) we got some Phantom shenanigans. Mostly him responding to Scoob and Shag's ability to warp time and space by just setting them on fire, probably the most effective thing one these guys have attempted so far.

Design: Obviously a homage to The Phantom of the Opera, and as we go through the series, you'll start to notice a lot more homages that Wikipedia will kindly point out for you. Though you can also see a bit of Comic Supervillain in his design, so much so that he doesn't seem to fit with the show's own aesthetic. He wears a black full body suit with a gigantic, taller than his own head, Dracula collar and grim reaper-esque hood. He has a fabricated piece of his outfit that goes over his shoulders like Football Pads, but with a sleeker design as it attaches his cape to the main costume. His cape is black but its interior is lined with a sparkling holographic material.

His mask, belt, boots, and glovers are all made of golden mechanical pieces, as they actually allow him to charge up bolts of electricity to fire at the teens in our show. This tech is never explained, and he really only uses it a few times before forgetting he has these weapons at his disposal.

His mask is the best part of the outfit, legitimately cool while evoking a gas mask. It's almost like it was made out of several pieces asymmetrically stuck to each other with large bolts, like if C3PO was mangled in an accident and put back together with recolored bits of R2-D2. There are several short, cylindrical ports on his gauntlets, boots, belt, and mask that occasionally glow green.

Reveal: Shaggy, with an extensive knowledge of obscure musical groups as we'll be shown time and time again, recognized the shiny material of The Phantom's cape as belonging to a One-Hit Wonder named Fantzee Pantz. And once that's discovered it's pretty obvious that the other suspect, The Hex Girl's manager, is not the culprit as he was just as responsible for Fantzee's obscurity as THG.

No, the true culprit is the girl's songwriter, who first attempted to sabotage them through badly written songs but was thwarted by the girl's talent and popularity - So he then turned to just trying to kill them, and Daphne. He ends up taking Scoob's dummy to jail with him, but the original duo patch things up by then - letting us look back at Velma who got sidelined so badly this episode.

2/5 Goofy as hell design for a goofy character, probably the most "Villain of The Week" we've encountered so far. In fact, he'd probably fit in better in Miraculous Ladybug than this show. Not that bad otherwise, just not as impressive.

#bmoreviews #scooby doo mystery incorporated #scooby doo #mystery incorporated #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #the phantom #phantom of the opera #the hex girls #Youtube

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FotW: SDMI - The Creeping Creatures

The Freak of the Week for today are the titular Creeping Creatures of Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated's second episode of its first season.

Backstory: The Mystery Gang begin to receive anonymous clues from a "Mr. E", a man who wants to lead them on the right path towards solving the true underlying mysteries of their hometown (in this canon) Crystal Cove. He first leads the gang to investigate the neighboring ghost town of Gatorsburg, a prospector town that built its economy entirely on Alligator-based products. Which seems to be the home of human-alligator hybrids.

Most mysteries need to settle on a single town, as this is before the gang gives up on their education to become world-travelling nepo baby sleuths. So it's fun to visit separate locations to build up the world of Mystery Incorporated, and a town that managed to latch their existence onto something more unstable than gold is definitely funny. Gatorburg is a wonderfully gloomy set-piece, the swamp casting a gloomy shadow over the remnants of a rundown tourist spot. Sad that we don't visit this place again.

The gang find themselves stranded in Gatorsburg, their entire engine missing, and thanks to a local hot mechanic's suggestion they decide to stay at a reskinned version of the Bates Motel - ran by the mechanic's sister and her gangly twink son. But before the meddling kids can rest, they are attacked by not just one, but three gator creatures who chase them out of Gatorsburg. Surprisingly, these bloodthirsty beasts refuse to chase after the gang once they cross the border.

Designs: We have three monsters to review! An entire family of gator hybrids with alligator bodies and human faces.

The "Patriarch" is the largest, heavily muscular even when on all fours with a lion-like mane of black hair. He also has a noticeable bald spot, and his face is so pale you could almost mistake it for a skull if it weren't for his glowing red eyes and tiny human nose.

The "Matriarch" is a heavyset, squat beast with a very humanoid face with red hair. Her face is similar to her brother's, only rounder, and her skin has a more blue-ish tone that contrasts nicely to the male creepers.

Finally we have the "Child", or I guess teen, who's the lankiest and funniest of the designs. He keeps all the proportions of a gangly teen, alongside black emo kid hair with the sharpest bang in the bayou.

Reveal: Rather than wasting time with the mystery, the episode chooses to focus on set up and action to tide you over until we reach the obvious conclusion. The Creeping Creatures turn out to be the mechanic, the hotel owner, and her son. All relatives, they were the remaining citizens of Gatorsburg who refused to abandon it like the others. So to bring money back into the town, they began making faux leather gator products to sell and used the gator people get-ups to scare away prying eyes to their illegal activites.

They must've really gotten into their role considering how much of their own property they destroyed through their raw strength. Once captured, the gang gets to leave and return to their status quo.

Huh, wonder if that'll have further connotations down the road.

5/5 - Ssscalie ssstay winning.

#bmoreviews #scooby doo mystery incorporated #mystery incorporated #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #the creeping creatures

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FoTw: SDMI - Battle of the Secret Fright Hound

Yeah, you read that right, and no, there is no episode actually called that. You see, the next few episodes couldn't produce enough material to make separate posts for them - especially when compared to the college episode - but I felt like giving you all a gift with an extra-long review covering the designs and stories of the next three episodes. Battle of the Humungonauts, Howl of the Fright Hound, and The Secret Serum. Let's call this the Break-up trilogy.

In these episodes Shelgma finally breaks up and created the first fracture in the group, leading to the hilariously f*cked up and nonsensical plot point of Shaggy picking his dog over a human girl woman.

This sounds like a progressive plot point for a Family Guy episode.

Let's get into this.

Backstory (Part 1): A giant ape-man interrupts the sheriff and mayor's (Fred's Dad) date at a tiki bar by destroying the locale, a scathing critique of Polynesian Appropriation in western media. This draws the gang's attention, which is necessary as Velma has reached her breaking point when it comes to Shaggy's inability to commit. She makes an ultimatum, alongside with Scooby, that Shaggy needs to pick one of them already. Fun fact, this is the first episode where the gang officially calls themselves Mystery Incorporated in the story.

Fred attempts to mend the cracking group dynamic by getting everyone uniforms, much to the group's embarrassment. As the group investigates, it's soon revealed that there are two Humongonauts - one red and another green.

As the Humongonauts continue to wreck different buildings in Crystal Cove, the gang first suspect an escaped Ace Attorney character named Rusty Gnales as the man in the mask. The gang hits there first snag however when the next Humongonaut attack targets Rusty.

With help from Mr. E, Velma puts together how to draw both Humongonauts to the same location. Once the two encounter each other, they duke it out before finally landing into a trap.

First Reveal: The culprits are first seen on-screen when they are unmasked, but both characters were revealed previously through their advertisements! A really cool way to give the answer away without making it too obvious. The Humogonauts turn out to be Max and Jax Minner, twin brothers who were both circus strongmen before entering the Insurance business. They were rivals since one of them transferred to a rival circus, the Humongonaut costumes actually being leftovers from one of their previous acts.

As rivals, they targeted buildings insured by the other to ruin their sibling's business - and Velma got them together by insuring an abandoned dock under both companies.

Design(s): The Humongonauts are two giant humanoid creatures believed by the sheriff to be aliens. Obviously based on the hokey costumes of B-Movie Monsters, the Humongonauts share the same design but with different colors. Despite their large size, they are rather squat proportion-wise, with elephant-like furless legs and gorilla arms. Their faces are orc-like, with wavy boyband member hair and goblin ears.

Interestingly, their biceps and abdomens are hairless like their face, but they also have small scale-like details. Speaking of their faces, there are markings going around their temples and over their eyes that almost resembles a domino mask - though they don't meet in the middle over the bridge of their human noses.

Overall, I find them charming and serviceable, but not that interesting in the long run. I love how they look like heels for a local hometown wrestling tournament who are clearly just there to get beat on by the town's golden boy.

Final Score for The Humongonauts:

2/5, not too interesting but fun bad guys of the week.

Backstory (Part 2): While the last episode had Shaggy avoiding the conversation entirely, this one tackles it head on before leading us to the infamous break-up scene. Before we get there, we must first deal with the Terminator homage sharing the love triangle's screentime.

A rabid and powerful dog has begun a series of random attacks, the first of which being the tour bus Velma's mom drives. Its collar gets left behind while escaping, one remarkably similar to Scooby's. With this evidence the Sheriff decides to detain Scooby-Doo in a mental hospital/prison made specifically for intelligent, and very dangerous animals.

One such case being Professor Pericles, the talking German parrot/mascot for the old Mystery Incorporated. Pericles disposes of the guard for a minute to give some esoteric warnings to the gang, right before Mystery Inc checks up on Scoob to reassure him that they are indeed planning on solving the mystery.

Their first suspect, a boy named Jason, is considered since he's a whiz at robotics and has a crush on Velma. However, he proves to have an alibi and kicks the gang out of his house after they accuse him.

The scary dog then targets the gang, and later on Scooby himself, afterwards. The final showdown begins at the Animal Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where the guards go all out on trying to stop the "Fright Hound". A fire then starts, melting away its fur to reveal that it was a robot all along.

The robot dog then chases Scoob and the gang when they escape the asylum, following them into an abandoned factory where a Forklift-certified Scooby tackles his shadow head on. With the help of the dangerous machinery surrounding them, they proceed to brutally wreck the robo-dog until it stops moving.

The gang then spot the true culprit controlling the machine, before snatching them up with a crane. With the mystery solved, Shaggy reveals that he ultimately chooses Scooby-Doo after realizing how important he is to him.

Velma takes this badly.

Also, the bird breaks out of Arkham Asylum.

Second Reveal: The true culprit is actually Mrs. Wyatt, Jason's Mom. It's actually never even made clear why she did it like this, since attacking Velma's mom did no favors for her son's relationship with the gang. She used her experience with Military-Grade Robotics to create the Fright Hound to help protect her son in a weird, slightly incompetent way.

Design(s): The Fright Hound begins as a large dog the same breed as Scooby, with similar features as well. It's eyes and muzzle, however, are more realistic when compared to Scoob. Its eyes glow red, and long fangs jut out of its mouth past its heavy jowls.

It looks even cooler when its false skin melts off, revealing a terminator-like endoskeleton in the shape of a ferocious dog. Oddly enough, it also looks a bit like a giant robot rat. I really love this design, especially its second form, and it can look legitimately frightening in some shots.

Final Score for The Fright Hound:

5/5, it's motives leave a lot to be desired, but you can't say it isn't an awesome freaking design. So cool.

Backstory (Part 4): Our final episode for this review begins at an auction ran by Daphne's Mom, Nan Blake. It's interrupted by a Vampire who proceeds to swoop in and steal a painting that nobody else wanted.

The episode follows the fallout of Shelgma's breakup, Velma still peeved off over getting second place to a dog. This causes the boys and girls to split up momentarily before the Vampire's crime spree draws them back together to the same clues. Daphne and Velma begin to track Nan Blake's movements, as Daphne's mom has begun sneaking out late at night.

With a little forceful help from Mr. E and his assistant, the gang soon realize that the Vampire is actually stealing ingredients for an Eternal Youth Potion found in an old magazine.

Using this knowledge, they eventually capture her before she can acquire the last item on the list - Daphne being convinced that it's her mom as a real vampire.

Right before she can drive a stake into the Vampire's chest, killing her mom regardless of her undead-ness, the Orlokian removes her mask to avoid dying a painfully brutal death at the hands of a Prep.

Third Reveal: See that vampire-looking lady next to Daphne's Mom? Yeah, that's Sheila Altoonian and she's the Vampire. Resentful of Nan's natural beauty, she attempted to create the potion to avoid aging despite its dubious origins.

Yeah, everyone in the fandom agrees this is top 3 weakest motives in the series.

Design(s): I actually really like this design! It's almost like a Comic Book Villain whose a Vampire, like Morbius, and it fits the show much better than glitter boy. She's a pale bald woman, with features reminiscent of Count Orlok - the best one to do it since Big Drac.

She has an interesting costume, consisting of a heavily modified cape and full bodysuit that cuts off at the elbows and knees. Her cleavage is on full display, and her collar, like all good vampires, is popped open way wide. She wears a black choker and her eyes glow purple.

Her cape and suit are actually structured, in-canon, to use the same physics a Flying Squirrel uses to become airborne. Thus, she could fly and swoop around large, enclosed areas like a real vampire could.

Final Score for the Vampire

3.5/5. Not too original or complex, but I love its sleek design and campy appearance - I feel like a Drag Queen could probably elevate this look further though. Otherwise, a Flying Squirrel Countess is hard to dislike even with a bad motive.

#bmoreviews #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #mystery incorporated #scooby doo mystery incorporated #scooby doo #humongonauts #vampire #fright hound #late but I hope it's length makes up for it

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FotW: SDMI - Revenge of the Man Crab

Last time we talked about a not-so-dead "Ghost Truck", but we don't have to deal with any false advertising today, it's Man Crab time!

Who doesn't love crabs, they're walk funny and their eyes function like light switches! And with their giant claws and spiky shells they also make great monsters, so every series, especially if it takes place in space or underwater (which are the same thing btw) needs a Crustacean Man scuttling about.

Backstory: The gang find themselves a new mystery while attending a Volleyball Tournament being sponsored by a brand new Sport's Beverage called "Trickell's Trickquid". It's apparently a "non-fat liquid diet, no calorie gluten-free moisture supplement." This is all nonsense pseudo-nutritionist jargon for "Water but not". Considering how worse the dieting industry got, this is actually a bit too safe of a satire for what that BS Machine produces.

The titular Man Crab has been terrorizing the sports event, kidnapping both worker and player alike with its burrowing skills. Able to pop up from the beach's sand like a land-shark, the crab man proceeds to snatch up people in broad daylight during a match, popping up again to further destroy the nearby bleachers and stands.

The gang soon find themselves at odds with the adults, as it's a running plotpoint that the mayor - and by extension the Sheriff - wishes to capitalize on the weekly "supernatural" threats with merchandising and tours. Peter Trickell, the owner of Trickquid, also brushes off concern to not impede his profits. The group's main suspect is a recurring character named Skipper Shelton, a clam-restaurateur whose nose was taken by a wild clam (Resisting SpongeBob Reference). He's crabby because his restaurant had to be moved for the event, which happens any time the beach is rented out.

Later, for their butting in the crab man kidnaps Daphne and escapes with her in tow when Fred's trap fails. Leading Fred to spiral as he's a bit of a dumb jock who can't understand his feelings for Daph - the sport he's obsessed with being trapmaking by the way.

They eventually find a cove's entrance leading to underground caverns right beneath the beach, revealing an entire system of bridges and pathways that the Man Crab's been using to travel up and out of the sand with.

Design: The Man Crab is a straightforward Human-Crustacean hybrid with a red shell, mustard yellow mandibles and underbelly, and black tips on its claws and extremities. Its arms are asymmetrical, with the right ending in a gigantic and gnarly crab claw. Its left harm is more humanoid, with actual fingers on its hand, and its digitigrade legs are fairly short with two toes each.

Because of this, we don't see it walk in a way similar to a human, instead it has two additional pairs of limbs jutting out from its sides that are more accurate to a crab's real legs. Whenever the Man Crab needs to move, it grows out these extra limbs and walks with them like a spider.

Its head is interesting as its entire body is muscular but meant to resemble a crab lying on its back in silhouette. It even has a cute, segmented belly that resembles a "six-pack". Its head is humanoid, but it's almost trapezoidal in shape, with mandibles peeking out from under its chin. Its eyes sit on stalks sprouting from the top of its dome-shaped head. It has cute little vampire teeth in its human-like mouth, the whole head is position in an awkward area that almost feels like it's extending outwards from the shell like a turtle.

It's such a cool design, especially when it scuttles around, and I love both its silhouette and body plan. My favorite aspect is the muscle-like flesh making up it's lips and the connecting tissues between each crevice in its shell.

Reveal: After finding the Man Crab's lair the gang eventually find Daphne and the other kidnapped teens locked up in a giant cage. It's after freeing them that the Crab Man chooses to chase after the Mystery Gang to put a permanent stop to their meddling, eventually following them out of the caverns and back towards where the first trap was planted. The second times the charm, and it actually captures the Big Crab and secures it inside of a big cooking pot. The pot turns out to be too small and gruesomely tears apart the creature's legs, revealing the thing to be a robot.

And who was piloting it?

Yeah, this guy. No, we don't get the gang interacting with him at all before they hand him over to the sheriff. His name is Shinji Bud Shelton, no relation apparently, and he's the real inventor of Trickell's Trickquid - which was originally called Bud's Bloosh, and Velma only figured out his identity thanks to an old photograph taken of him and Trickell in a newspaper.

Bud wanted revenge for having his idea stolen by Trickell, and probably for also being forced to work as a salesman/mascot(somehow). When asked why he didn't just sue, he states that this whole Man Crab Revenge scheme was just cheaper than getting a lawyer.

Yes, it feels really slapped together, and the Scooby-pedia points out several technical errors such as his name being "Bud Coleman" in the credits so I think it was a rush-job. In fact, Trickell never shows up during the rest of the episode and we move on from Bud's capture to focus on a new clue regarding the overarching mystery. Genuinely, I think if he just wanted revenge for being forced to dress up like a giant water bottle for below minimum wage, I'd buy it more.

6/5 - Yeah, I'm going there. Genuinely one of the best designs in the show and one of the few I'm mad are not the real deal. Don't even care about the lackluster motive, love his legs and cute crabby head.

Not accepting any counterarguments, Crab Army attack!

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#bmoreviews #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #mystery incorporated #scooby doo mystery incorporated #man crab

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FotW: SDMI - The Shrieking Madness

As you can tell by our episode's title, today Mystery Incorporated tackles the Chthulu mythos! Gotta love those weird ugly squid gods, and the fact that their writer chickened out when it came to describing them only adds to their charm. Everyone loves designing creatures that can "break" the mind of anyone who looks at it directly.

Scooby-Doo was neither the first nor the last children's show to tackle this topic, but MI is our first real representation of it for the franchise. Let's talk about it and the gang's first college tour.

Backstory: The gang are all driven to the Darrow University by their parents whose motives are far different from their children's. Meanwhile, the college is playing host to two popular writers who couldn't be any more different. Harlan Ellison is a no-nonsense tightwad whose work is more "respectable" than the cosmic horror tales written by H.P. Hatecraft - this universe's version of our H.P.

One of Ellison's fans disparages the works of Hatecraft, and is swiftly attacked and kidnapped by the main villain of those stories. The gang mostly stumbles into this mystery by accident, preoccupied by their early brushes with college life. Daphne becomes a communist, Fred is put through homoerotic hazing, and Shaggy points out that he's no longer voiced by a vegetarian in a very unsubtle way.

Velma is the one who actually came to meet Ellison at a book signing, and the gang soon cross each other's paths before finding Ellison being terrorized by green Squidward.

The gang still have their hang-ups, much more strained thanks to everyone's love troubles. They even get distracted from the mystery thanks to their previous college antics, until Char Gar Gothakon attacks Shag and Scoob directly. When the gang confronts Hatecraft, he first gives them the "whispers from another world that I translate into the best-selling written word" spiel. However, to dispel the beast he decides to reveal to an entire class of people the truth.

He made it all up, there is no dark force from an alternate dimension giving him material to write. This upsets his number one fan, but that pales in comparison to how badly Charizard Gengar Gothita takes the news. The Gangrene Illithid kidnaps his creator and takes him back to Hateman's house, which is also where the Ellison fan was being kept prisoner in.

Chary Gary becomes another attempted murderer, deciding that Hatecraft deserved an appointment with the ground after a trip to the roof. The gang distracts the monster long enough to save both Hatecraft, and Char Gar Gothakon, when they nearly fall off the roof. They finally muzzled his tentacles, a trick Fred learned from his college buddies, solving the mystery you already did several minutes ago.

Design: Char Gar Gothakon is a humanoid octopus-human hybrid wearing cultish robes, obviously based on Chthulu and Illithids from D&D. Octopus-faced monsters are just awesome, with the sea creature they're based on already being some of the coolest things on our planet. Did you know all of them are venomous, and some of the best hunter-killers in the sea? They're like wolves in that way, creatures we can both hype up as supernatural omens of death and real-life predators you don't mess with.

Char Gar Gothakon: The Beast with no name, is rather lanky despite how stocky its wearer is. It has diamond-shaped eyes with orange irises and yellow sclera and pupils. It has a globular smooth head and wriggling tentacles encompassing most of its lower face. It's body, especially its "forehead", is covered in skin patterns resembling green splotches like the markings of a frog. It also has small siphons, two on each side of its head, in place of ears. Another easy to miss detail are the gillman-like fins on its forearms.

Its outfit is rather flamboyant, resembling a priest's dressing with a turned-up high collar that's too large for its already giant head. Its shoulder pads are gigantic and connected to the rest of the outfit by the belt. It's belt and bicep bracelets are all gold.

It doesn't even wear a shirt, the middle piece of its outfit being mostly made-up of intersecting strips that expose its shoulders, ribs, and V-line.

Honestly, it's a pretty slutty costume. Besides it's vertical striped long skirt it also wears fingerless, elbow length gloves that also has gaps to exposed MORE of its skin.

For powers, it uses a sonic screech that's powerful enough to Lauch a grown man onto a car's hood. Its face tentacles can also stretch out, revealing a large circular maw full of sharp teeth underneath, to entangle a victim. The tentacles also stretch and contort in a way that shouldn't even be physically possible since they were taken from a real dead octopus.

Reveal: The true culprit turns out to be Hatecraft's own superfan and student assistant, Howard E. Roberts (named after Robert E. Howard). He decided to bring Hatecraft's monster to life to get back at the haters. However, when Hatecraft declared himself a fraud the superfan decided that the author needed to be destroyed. He made his sonic death blast technology with the help of his college courses by the way.

It is actually through deriding their fans that Ellison and Hatecraft actual find companionship, leaving the gang to discover the archived documents stolen by Mr. E left in the Mystery Machine.

The plot thickens.

5/5, Western Media needs more Mindflayer rep. Nice Gregorian Chants by the way.

See, you can talk about Lovecraft without mentioned his cat being named N-Word.

#bmoreviews #scooby doo #scooby doo mystery incorporated #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #mystery incorporated #illithid #chthulu #char gar gothakon

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FotW: SDMI - The Grasp of the Gnome

Today's Freak of the Week is a more serious take on a creature type seldom seen outside of Children's Fantasy, Gnomes!

Yep, for years the fair folk and their kin have been delegated to just tiny humans with magic - ignoring years of folklore and cautionary tales that describe these creatures as actual monsters born from the earth with all sorts of nasty plots in their minds.

We have since turned around once again, around the same time superheroes started to scoff at tights in their shows and movies to an annoying degree, and as we get more public domain horror movies expect ANOTHER switch back to sincere fairy tale fodder.

But until then, let's talk about this parkour elf and his blue cheese touch.

Backstory: Crystal Cove has a Reneissance Faire! Which the gang attends, displaying all their personalities in the costumes they chose to dress in. Notice how Shaggy and Scoob are dressed like pirates? Well that's plot relevant!

An Evil Gnome has been terrorizing the faire, attacking those who come as pirates despite the medieval themed dress code. I don't know why, I'm pretty sure by 2010 pirates as a fandom were already petrified by a certain Disney Franchise's later films.

Yep, Petrification! A really cool power that's seldom used, but when it is doesn't it look cool? I love the iridescent glowing blue veins that grow on the victims as they freeze in place. Neither freezing them in ice nor encasing them in stone, but still immobilizing them in a way that would be indistinguishable from "real" magic.

As for the rest of the plot, you may have started to notice that almost every gang member has been getting kidnapped at some point to give the gang something to act irrational over - Velma and Scooby fighting over the parrot from Shaggy's pirate costume when he's taken for example, giving Daphne some reprieve.

Mr. E offers his two cents on Shelma at the end of the episode, for reasons that'll become apparent later.

As the day goes on and the suspects, all dwarves or otherwise very short people, are dismissed, the gang finally trap the athletic Gnome with a good old pit. But not before Daphne actually gets to one up the gnome, using the one thing all fairies and other anklebiters fear - steel!

Design: The Gnome is a classic fairy tale creature, and I love how MI's version has been redesigned to keep all the goofy, fantastical elements in place without straying too far to make it scary. It wears tattered clothing barely held together by some stitches where the sleeves connect, consisting of a simple tunic with red pants. It has boots, though it could also just be black wrappings around its feet. It also wears black gloves, metal arm bracelets with large bolts attached to them, a buckled sash, and a large, stitched-up red gnome cap.

Its face is where it gets really good, with regular humanoid features exaggerated as they would be for a regular gnome - mostly a large nose and ears that stick out - but made extra freaky with beady yellow eyes with no irises, only red pupils. Its skin is also warty and a decrepit, green-tinged blue. Its eyes are even sunken in, making it look more like a corpse that's begun to mold.

Its powers include the ability to run and hop like a trained athlete, leaping around so fast he can't be captured or evaded, alongside a touch that paralyzes. This actually makes him one of the more physically threatening foes the gang's faced. And I like that the applies to a goofy man with a cowboy mustache and long beard tied into pigtails.

Reveal: Daphne evades the paralysis touch by hiding steel gauntlets under her dress, catching the gnome off guard. He then tries to escape but only ends up trapping himself in a previously failed spike pit. Once captured it's revealed that of the three main employees of the ren faire, it was actually the pirate-supporting jester Gill Littlefoot all along. He tried to frame his wife, the pirate-hating queen, in order to get control of her money.

I am not qualified to discuss any protentional ableism displayed by Patrick Warburton in Scooby-Doo Mystery Incorporated.

5/5 Really cool take on a classic archetype seldom used for Horror, and so well executed that I think it'd actually work well for its own folk horror movie like The VVitch. I am genuinely surprised by how much I like The Evil Gnome.

P.S. I love the explanation that the petrification was caused by the toxin of a made-up species of Jellyfish. I love when shows tries to explain away gimmicks by using an exaggeration of real-life biology, like how Pufferfish toxin can be used to create "zombies".

#bmoreviews #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #mystery incorporated #scooby doo mystery incorporated #scooby doo #gnome

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FotW: SDMI - The Song of Mystery

Well, it looks like we have a special case on our hands, as we have not one but TWO creatures for our fifth MI review. For this occasion, we'll do things a little differently than usual. Can our new ghouls beat the Crab Man as our current contender for best monster so far? No.

However, we still have to review them so let's talk about Que Horrifico and the use of Mayans in Horror Media. Yeah, we gotta address this at some point. Cultural influence is unavoidable in all genres, but there is a tendency to use a very quickly researched creature or even deity from other cultures to give a name to what might as well be an original demon or spirit in a kids cartoon or other horror media. This can range from passible, and sometimes informative, deep cuts in mythology getting representation in the mainstream for future creators to further research and enjoy - or it can result in what happened to many Indigenous Spirits I cannot name.

Not gonna' go deep into the Cannibal Deer furries white people call a name you aren't even supposed to state if you don't want to bring misfortune upon yourself but understand that I think the "let artists do what they want" mantra is a cowardly and reductive way to excuse poor research and abysmal treatment of Non-White folklore. Though sometimes, like today's episode, we're just talking about a fully original entity who's meant to "evoke" a culture rather than represent it.

Lets talk about the Made-up Mayan Monster from the talking dog show.

Backstory: During a random stint of babysitting for Daphne (genuinely the weirdest member of the gang to use for this role, and she never does this again), she hears a pan flute being played outside of her kid's house. Before she can check it out, a commotion draws her to the boy she was sitting to find him transformed into a monster. Now "Spookified", as the show puts it, the child proceeds to attack Daph and chase her out of the house.

The kid doesn't follow her as she runs outside, but Daphne soon discovers that the entire neighborhood has had its children turned into monsters. Before the intro, we see the mummified pan flute player disappear into some mist.

Daphne draws the rest of the gang into the mystery, and they soon discover that the entire town of Crystal Cove has slowly been overrun by the monster kids. The adults in town - including those without children possibly? - are then literally driven away, unable to return to their homes as the kids remain Spookified even during daytime hours. Effectively abandoning their kids to their own bestial devices.

This will not be the worst parenting you'll see in this show.

The first suspect, and not just for the Mystery Gang, is Luis de Potrillo, an exchange teacher for Honor's Social Studies. It is through his class that the cast find out about the fictional "legend" of Que Horrifico, who has no real origin but acts as a Pied Piper-esque boogeyman for South America.

Mr. Potrillo also suspects himself, believing that he's turning into the monster like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Sometimes these weird one-off characters show up in future episodes, but it feels odd when some just drop off the face of the earth like this guy. Especially since he's one of the few adults in town who don't treat the gang like garbage.

Reveal: The culprit is fairly obvious since she's the only other newly introduced side character of the episode, child genius and Fred's current Civics tutor Mary Anne Gleardan. The children turn out to not be actual monsters, as a turned-on television eventually makes them break character just to sit down and watch a cartoon. The kids were merely dressing up as miniature ghouls at the behest of Mary Anne who promised them "Utopia" - before finally getting their full cooperation with the promise of free candy instead.

Jamie Neutron here wanted to be part of the Town's council, since she's obviously smart enough to actually run it, but was rejected for her age. And like most child geniuses, she had the technical skill and smarts to create a convulated scheme to scare every adult out of Crystal Cove to turn it into some kind of Kinderstate. However, she still retains the child-like logic of not realizing what that actually entails since she'd have to eventually create her own police state filled with nothing but toddlers in Halloween makeup.

They canonically throw this child into jail for how much money the town wasted on trying to merchandise Que Horrifico.

Design: Que Horrifico, which you can tell with a rudimentary knowledge of Spanish means "How Horrific", is a "Mayan inspired" monster that is otherwise a fully original creature. It wears a semi-golden mask and ragged poncho based on the South American culture. Its mask is evocative of a monkey, with those Rangda teeth that jut outwards and "earring"-like shapes built beneath its molded ears. There's a metal piece attached to the "hat" that's also part of the mask, resembling those antennae-shaped features you'd see on a samurai helmet.

The show surprisingly never makes an Egyptian mummy, which is a staple of Scooby-media, and instead makes Que Horrifico a mummified ghoul with dull blue skin, black nails, and tattered bandages wrapped around most of its body with a few gaps for easier movement. Its hair is also long and white, connecting its design to the Spookified kids in a cool way.

As for The Spookified, they all resemble the child extras under the makeup, but with longer white hair and eyebrows, clawed extremities, fangs, and glowing yellow eyes. They mostly act like Gremlins and use their youthful energy to leap and flip around like a swarm of fast zombies. They're clothing is also torn up a bit, and they resort to hissing and growling while in-character.

I'm at odds with Que Horrifico, though I think the creature kids are a decent design for what amounts to a non-zombie "Horde". It feels odd how they avoided actually drawing any inspiration from real mythology and mostly did a South American "take" on the Pied Piper. It's not even bad, just weird, but as a Horror enthusiast who's experienced the way media and their fandoms butcher cannibal spirits and Hoodoo it does make me more forgiving when a show plays it safe.

In a way, I feel like Que Horrifico WOULD exist as a folktale, but specifically one made up by locals to scare tourists into behaving better. ESPECIALLY, if they're dragging their kids along for the trip. It's design is also just really cool, I can't comment on the mask because it could just be utter nonsense from a Geographical or Historical standpoint - I'm not the crazy teacher, I don't know what those masks specifically mean.

From a quick glance though, the semblance to a monkey might be intentional because Howler Monkeys in Maya culture are considered wise and are often connected with artistry - fitting both the culprit and her gimmick.

Final Ratings

Que Horrifico: 4/5

The Spookified: 3/5

Hmmm, maybe I should review the creature design of Maya and the Three...

#bmoreviews #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #scooby doo mystery incorporated #mystery incorporated #que horrifico

[bearmemesreviews]

FotW: SDMI - The Secret of the Ghost Rig

Ghost Trucks! Welcome back to Freak of the Week, we continue with Mystery Incorporated and find ourselves with a trope that Scooby-Doo only did a few times before - one of which had the Mystery Machine itself be the self-driving ghoul of the week!

Best demonstrated in Maximum Overdrive, and by a lesser extent the Cars Franchise, we sure do love to think of trucks and other vehicles as "alive". Even outside our Christines and Speed-Buggeys, it's just fun to think of these big and highly destruction-prone things as having their own souls.

Backstory: After their tryst in Gatorsburg, the Mystery Gang finds themselves in the middle of the mayor's - Fred's dad - re-election campaign. His rival being a Mr. George Avocados. Mr. Avocados runs despite the fact that his father, a previous Mayor of Crystal Cove, was sentenced to prison for stealing a diamond during his turn - one that was never found.

Daphne's parents also take the time to try and matchmake with their daughter. Despite hooking her up with the heir of a ladder company, the rich boy hits it off better with Freddie than Daphne. This won't be the last time you'll have to worry about your boyfriend's budding bisexuality Daph, remember - if you can't beat them, join them.

Anyway, while all this is happening the gang must also deal with a Ghost Truck running rampant through the town and a string of door-knob robberies. The gang then decide to trap the entire truck after a little encouragement from Mr. E.

Design: The Ghost Truck is exactly what it says on the tin. It's a luminous Big Rig that's heavily weathered, every inch rusted over, with a transparent green algae of sorts draped over its entire body. It has additional spikes added to the front, alongside an entire spike pronged cage attached to its bumper. This 10-wheeler, when active, also has flaming wheels and headlights so bright that it even lights up the driver's seating area.

Off-topic, but why does google images refuse to show me any actual 10-wheelers if they aren't from Dora the Explorah.

For something as simple as "Ghost Truck", they went all out on making it a memorable, and very formidable being. This metal beast actively tries to run anyone in its way off the numerous cliffs near the cove. It is out of luck that more people haven't been killed by this guy. The only downside is that the Trucker's motives are so focused on, we never even get any lore regarding the truck itself.

One way I could fix this would be to have Senior Avocados dead rather in jail, not like this show is all against people getting Disney Villain Death'ed already. Have him try to escape the police in a truck he stole, ending the chase with him driving it off the cliffside to an unseen demise. This would tie all the plot points together in a way that'd make the "Ghost" part of the monster's name make sense.

Just because it's glowing doesn't mean it's dead guys!

Reveal: The gang survives enough attempted murders to find the truck's hideout, discovering an entire secret video game level cave filled to the brim with doorknobs. Specifically crystal doorknobs. They find a journal belonging to Avocados' father, where he reveals that he did in fact steal the diamond and hidden it before being caught by the pigs.

It's only after chasing the gang for finding it's cave that the truck is lured into Fred's shark tank trap. And to avoid giving the meddling kids a manslaughter charge, the driver of the truck hops out on his own volition.

It's Rung Ladderton, heir to the Ladderton Ladder Company and Fred's Daphne's suitor. Turns out that rich people don't like the fact that usable products are less likely to be replaced, and thus, they don't get enough constant revenue to satisfy their lifestyles. Yeah, he says he's broke, but let's be real - that just means he needs to get his fancy ascots from a company that only has 200 active sweatshops rather that 20,000.

Rung Ladderton admits that he was stealing all the doorknobs because Avocados Senior replaced one of them with the diamond. However, there was no hint towards which doorknob it was - so Rung Ladderton had to steal all of them, using the Ghost Rig to smuggle them out of town.

We are only a few years away before a new Scooby-Doo show has a villain be a crypto dude trying to rob people while wearing a gorilla suit.

4/5 - Very simple concept with great execution.

If Rung Ladderton was well-endowed, do you think he'd be called Hu-

#bmoreviews #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #mystery incorporated #scooby doo mystery incorporated #the ghost truck

[bearmemesreviews]

FotW: SDMI - Beware the Beast from Below

Welcome to Freak of the Week, where every Sunday I tackle something Non-Skylanders since that series has a billion characters I need to give their own individual reviews. Fotw is my way to get more content out on a decent schedule, tackling the Monsters, Villains, and Foes who take turns every week to harass the Hero of their specific media.

For these first few months we'll be covering a series dear to my heart, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Every episode covers a crook who, for reasons that will become known eventually, decides that the best way to successfully commit a crime is to dress up as a giant crab or Cthulhu while doing it. Luckily a gang of budding stoners and college dropouts are there to solve the mystery and do the job the police are too lazy to do themselves.

Points to realism.

Let's begin with our introduction episode, and first baddie, The Slime Mutant!

Backstory: Sewer Workers working underneath the town of Crystal Cove knock down a wall revealing a hidden cavern system that contains barrels of unknown, radioactive material. These caverns seem to run underneath the entire town and will come back in several episodes holding their own mysteries.

The Sewer Workers, playing into their roles as the pre-intro horror movie victims they are, decide to pop open one of these barrels to investigate further. This seemingly unleashes a mutant made of radioactive slime, who thanks their help by cocooning them in vibrant green goo.

Please appreciate how horrific these cocooned victims look and remember this when we get to the reveal.

Design: The Slime Mutant is a humanoid creature with exaggerated human anatomy whose skin is see-though. It's covered in a coating of iridescent green slime and has a muscular body type with a cinched waist. Its skull has needle-like fangs and glowing red pupils in its empty eye sockets.

While most of the anatomy we see through its slimy epidermis is bone, similar to a cartoon x-ray gag, some of its skeleton still retains muscle tissue around limbs, neck and lower jaw which gives the monster a really cool appearance reminiscent of someone who's been half-melted in cartoon acid. The muscles also seem to exist as a way to explain how the creature moves, as its body lacks the full viscous stretchability most slimes have. It instead lumbers around like a zombie, with muscle tissue remaining in places where they'd be needed for movement. This attention to detail is especially fun when you realize who the culprit is and why they'd include that detail.

Combined with the show's sharp art style, it turns a pretty simple creature concept into an iconic new monster. Its powers include the ability to petrify, and also mummify(?), victims in its green slime - which it blasts from its palms like a Dragonball character.

Reveal: Mystery Incorporated is hailed as one of the best interpretations of Scooby-Doo, taking the concept and allowing its characters to exist in a setting that changes every episode as it ditches the episodic formular of past series for a story-driven reboot with multiple arcs and an overarching mystery each season. It's still Scooby-Doo however, so every episode follows the same formula more or less.

You get two or three suspects (oftentimes just additional named side characters tied to the plot of this episode), whoever the gang settles on prematurely as the culprit is innocent, and the gang traps the crook and unmasks them at the end of the episode.

Our first suspect is Franklin Fruitmeir, a strange clown man who recently moved into town to sell his dessert product, which is neither ice cream nor gelatin, but something else entirely. Scooby ends up tasting the slime mutant's goo and discovers that its ooze is not radioactive waste, but radioactive frozen treats.

One can only imagine what it does to your insides if getting covered in the stuff turns you into a pickled corpse.

We never really get to see what happens to the sewer workers in this episode, so I assume they died.

Our first culprit is Professor Emmanuel Raffalo, who worked as a science teacher at the gang's school. Turns out that he was going to use the caverns to dig under Crystal Cover bank to rob it - framing Fruitmeir for the crime by using the dessert product in his scheme.

Yes, it is because a teacher's salary isn't cutting it anymore.

5/5 -Great Start with a unique execution of a classic monster, who doesn't love slimes?

#bmoreviews #bmoreviewsmysteryinc #mystery incorporated #scooby doo mystery incorporated #slime #slime mutant #cw body horror #scooby doo #bearmemesfotw