Showing posts with label Scooby-Doo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scooby-Doo. Show all posts

Monday, October 31, 2022

Quick Reviews: Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo!


By Claire Rhode

Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! (2022) is a love letter to the franchise, but Warner Bros isn't Shakespeare. The premise of the film is that every case from the original series had one mastermind behind the costume villains -- Coco Diablo. Coco is suave, knows her way around a wardrobe, and has a cat for a personal assistant (an opportunity, as always, for Scooby Doo to hate cats. Rude boy). However, when Mystery Inc. tracks down Coco, they create a whole new problem: without good costumed creeps, there are no new monsters to chase. At least, there are no new monsters until the gang's ancient doppelgangers show up to wreck havoc on Halloween, which means that the gang has to team up with an unexpected ally. 

 Not the sort of doppelganger you want to run into in a dark alley

This movie isn't deep, but it is a fun romp that managed to give each member of the gang their own subplot, which is rare in a Scooby-Doo movie. Velma's reveal is well-known -- if you saw the clips of her swooning over Coco Diablo, you're not alone. And, honestly, I respect Velma's taste. Daphne is questioning her place in the gang. Fred doesn't know how to live in a world without weirdos dressing up in costumes trying to commit land related crimes. And Shaggy and Scooby? Well, theirs is food focused, of course. 

Some pros include:

  • Fun music! Wouldn't be a Scooby-Doo chase scene without it.
  • A morally grey character. Weird, but Scooby-Doo rarely goes there.
  • Refined versions of the characters we started to see in the earlier Mystery Incorporated series. Each member of the gang gets a bit more personality than we saw in the original series, but they are definitely reliant on fans already recognizing aspects of the characters from Mystery Incorporated specifically - so they've brought in Fred's himbo energy (but toned him down a bit so he isn't too stupid to live), given Daphne agency, explored Velma's sexuality without having to include a character named Hot Dog Water, and actually differentiated a bit between Shaggy and Scooby's personalities. 

Hot Dog Water, for the uninitiated

  • Pulls off a twist ending. You don't have to be Sherlock Holmes to solve a Doo mystery, but I do like when they at least try to throw you for a loop.

 Some cons:

  • Scooby-Doo supports the prison-industrial complex.
  • The animation, a return to an almost traditional 2D style, occasionally veers into uncanny valley, especially with some facial expressions.
  • Mostly I liked it, but there is a little part of my heart that gets grumpy when they retcon or change things about earlier series.
  • The shushing librarian stereotype. We've moved past it. Our librarian training is firmly anti-shushing. That said, I do love that a scene happened in a library!

I consider myself a Scooby-Doo aficionado. I've been watching since I was a kid. I've seen the rough ones. I've sat through Scrappy-Doo episodes on purpose. Trick or Treat won't be going down on my list of favorites, but I've seen it twice now and I can imagine rewatching again next Halloween season. It's delightful, lighthearted, and includes a lot of Easter eggs and small callbacks for fans of the franchise. Overall, I give Trick or Treat Scooby-Doo! four out of five stars. 

 Claire Rhode, a former children's bookseller, is now studying to be a youth librarian.

Sunday, September 06, 2009

Post on Scooby-Doo's 40th, NY Times on comics

Hank Steuver thinks the 40th anniversary of Scooby-Doo doesn't deserve a press release - "Enough Already! All '69 Anniversaries Should Be 86ed," By Hank Stuever, Washington Post Staff Writer, Sunday, September 6, 2009, and honestly, it's hard to disagree with him.

Also in the Style & Arts section is a caricature of Jay Leno by Hanoch Piven.

The NY Times, having apparently decided that comic art is just another form of culture had a bunch of articles today besides Ms. Gerberg's marriage.

Two articles on animation -

A Tribute to the Man, Beyond Just the Mouse, By CAROL KINO, September 6, 2009 on the Walt Disney Family Museum -

- and an interview on 9 - "Scrap-Heap Heroes for a Digital Age," By MEKADO MURPHY, September 6, 2009 -

- one on the Berndt Toast Gang, a group of Long Island gag cartoonists that didn't make it into the Washington print edition - "Pen Strokes and Gag Lines, a Stimulus Package for All," By JAMES KINDALL, New York Times September 6, 2009-

- one on a musician comic book writer whose new comic is Fall Out Toy Works- "A Night Out With | Pete Wentz; Song-and-Spoof Man," By TRICIA ROMANO -

- and Jason Lutes illustrated Paul Krugman's article on economics in the Magazine.

Thursday, June 11, 2009

Scooby-Doo play and Gigantor featured in Express

See "Jinkies! Our Psyches!: 'Spooky Dog'," Written by Express contributor Stephen Deusner, June 11 2009 for the 'Scooby-Doo' play and "Still Stronger Than Strong: 'Gigantor' on DVD," Written by Express contributor Paul Stelter, June 11 2009 for the anime review. Both are in the physical paper too as is a Hollywood Reporter interview with Mike Judge.

Friday, May 22, 2009

A Scooby-Doo play is not appearing in Frederick

But tonight and tomorrow, Spooky Dog and the Teen-Age Gang Mysteries is, before coming to DC - See "'Spooky Dog' is NOT the Saturday morning cartoon you remember ... or is it?" By Lauren LaRocca, Frederick News-Post May 21, 2009.