What's New, Scooby-Doo? is the ninth incarnation of the long-running Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo. A revival of the original show, What's New, Scooby-Doo? aired for three seasons on the WB Television Network's "Kids WB" programming block as a half-hour program, before being put on an indefinite hiatus in 2005. Reruns are shown on the Cartoon Network.
42 episodes have been produced so far, in 3 14-episode seasons (2002-3, 2003-4, 2004-5).
About
The show follows the original mystery-solving formula of the series, but done in a more "realistic" manner compared to the previous shows, with the classic gang encountering monsters who invariably turn out to be people in disguise. Most of the stories make an attempt to modernize the Scooby universe by introducing plots spotlighting modern trends and technology, such as the Internet (ala The Fairly Odd Parents). The characters remain mostly the same as always, with a few cosmetic changes (most notably, Fred no longer wears his famous ascot in this series), and a few minor personality changes (most notably Fred being less intelligent than he was in the franchise prior to the late 1980s.)
With Don Messick's retirement in 1996 (he died the following year), Frank Welker, the voice of Fred, took over as Scooby's voice. Casey Kasem returned as Shaggy, Grey DeLisle took over Daphne's role (having previously assumed the role in 2001 for Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase), while former Facts of Life actress, Mindy Cohn, took over Velma's. The new show follows the same format as Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, updated somewhat for the 21st century, but with new-age music genres and unique newly-recorded Foley effects to replace the classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, the studio famous for bringing Looney Tunes to life, which had by this time absorbed Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. (It should be noted, however, that the copyright notice at the end of each episode credits "Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc." as the author).
Cast
- Frank Welker as Scooby-Doo and Fred Jones
- Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers
- Grey DeLisle as Daphne Blake
- Mindy Cohn as Velma Dinkley
Recurring Characters
- Eddie Deezen as Gibby Norton
Episode Guide
- For a complete guide see What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode list
- Season Overview
DVD Releases
Volumes
- Volume 1: Space Ape at the Cape (August 19, 2003)
- "There's No Creature Like Snow Creature"
- "Space Ape at the Cape"
- "3-D Struction"
- "Big Scare in the Big Easy"
- Volume 2: Safari So Goodi! (March 9, 2004)
- "It's Mean, It's Green, It's The Mystery Machine"
- "Riva Ras Regas"
- "Roller Ghoster Ride"
- "Safari, So Goodi!"
- Volume 3: Halloween Boos & Clues (August 10, 2004)
- "The Vampire Strikes Back"
- "Mummy Scares Best"
- "High-Tech House of the Future"
- "She Sees a Sea Monster by the Seashore"
- Volume 4: Merry Scary Holiday (October 5, 2004)
- "A Scooby-Doo Christmas"
- "Toy Scary Boo"
- "Homeward Hound"
- "Recipe for Disaster"
- Volume 5: Sports Spooktacular (June 14, 2005)
- "The Unnatural"
- "The Fast and the Wormious"
- "Wrestle Maniacs"
- "Diamonds Are a Ghoul's Best Friend"
- Volume 6: Monster Matinee (August 9, 2005)
- "A Scooby-Doo Halloween"
- "San Franpsycho"
- "New Mexico, Old Monster"
- "Big Appetite in Little Tokyo"
- Volume 7: Ghosts on the Go (November 8, 2005)
- "Pompeii & Circumstance"
- "Large Dragon at Large"
- "It's All Greek to Scooby-Doo"
- "Ready to Scare"
- Volume 8: Zoinks! Camera! Action! (February 21, 2006)
- "Lights, Camera, Mayhem!"
- "E-Scream"
- "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman"
- "A Scooby-Doo Valentine"
- Volume 9: Route Scary-Six (June 6, 2006)
- "Go West Young Scoob"
- "Camp Comeoniwannascareya"
- "Farmed & Dangerous"
- "Fright House of a Lighthouse"
- "Gentlemen, Start Your Monsters!"
- Volume 10: Monstrous Tails (December 5, 2006)
- "Uncle Scooby and Antarctica"
- "Block-Long Hong Kong Terror"
- "Reef Grief!"
- "Gold Paw"
- "A Terrifying Round With A Menacing Metallic Clown"
Complete seasons
The complete first season released in February 20, 2007.
| Name | Release date | Special features |
|---|---|---|
| What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Complete 1st Season | February 20, 2007 | A Scooby-Doo Valentine |
| What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Complete 2nd Season | June 5, 2007 | |
| What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Complete 3rd Season | January 8, 2008 |
Notes/trivia
- The band Simple Plan is heavily connected to What's New, Scooby-Doo? They perform the theme song, and appeared as themselves in the episode Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman. Two of their songs appeared in chase scenes: I'd Do Anything in It's Mean, It's Green, It's the Mystery Machine, and You Don't Mean Anything in the former.
- In some episodes it is seen that Velma is a fan of hockey.
- In a flashback to Velma's fifth birthday, the characters are drawn as they are seen in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
- Daphne, Velma, and Fred are in all but one episode of the series, and appear less in subsequent episodes of Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get A Clue!.
- This is the first Scooby-Doo series since 1970 that didn't feature Heather North as the voice of Daphne.
- In the episode Large Dragon at Large, the dragon that tries to scare Scooby and Shaggy is a machine similar to the one that was the "Snow Creature" in the series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
- The Hex Girls, a fictional band that appears in Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost and Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire are featured in the episode The Vampire Strikes Back.
- The opening and closing credits features silhouettes of the gang running across the screen, similar to the titles in the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, but for some reason, the opening credit silhouettes omit Fred. Fred is present in the closing credit silhouettes.
- This is the second Scooby-Doo series to have the characters drawn in a slightly different animation style (the first one being A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
- In the halloween episode many ghost from the original series appear as monsters for example the Creeper and Werewolf.
- This is also notably the final series where Casey Kasem does the role of Shaggy before he retired from the role and it was taken over by Matthew Lillard.
References
Banks, Clive. "Scooby-Doo". Retrieved from http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Scooby-Doo%20Intro.htm on September 4, 2005. Baxter, Joel (2003). The Big Cartoon DataBase. Retrieved from http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Hanna-Barbera_Studios/index.html on September 3, 2005.