What's New, Scooby-Doo? - The Complete First Season

List Price: $19.98 Discount Price: $10.96

Customer Reviews:

Not as iconic as the original -- just a whole lot better [Posted on 2008-02-18]
Imagine you were a career biologist in your 30s or 40s. A general interest magazine asks you to rewrite a long bio report you cranked out in the middle of seventh grade on a typewriter while doing stuff for your other six or seven classes. How much will you be able to improve on the original report now that you're wittier; know more about the subject and have a good gauge of what the general public knows of the subject; will be working on a laptop; have access to noted, interesting people in and around your field for interviews on the subject?

That's why, just considering it as entertainment, What's New, Scooby Doo? dusts the original Scooby Doo, Where Are You? and The New Scooby Doo Movies from 1972-73.

This isn't some Gen Y kid engaging in presentism. I'm a Gen Xer who was in the first generation to grow up watching the original Scoobies on Saturday mornings. Fine enough entertainment for most of us, though it was a weakly-animated, formulaic product of the Hanna-Barbera made-for-TV assembly line. Our standards were pretty low at the time.

In doing the update, the current creators did the job that some of the Scooby Doo movies from the 1990s began. They fleshed out the characters, giving them backstory, interests, families. Velma (voiced by "Facts of Life" star Mindy Cohn) is a brilliant scientist with the kind of "smart girl" wit we always suspected she had. We find out where Fred's from and even what he can bench. Daphne was moved from the Danger Prone Daphne of the original toward being a resourceful, style-conscious Buffy the Vampire Slayer-type. (Coincidentlaly, Sarah Michelle Gellar, TV's Buffy, played Daphne in the two live-action Scooby Doo movies, and Buffy's pals called themselves "The Scooby Gang."). Shaggy, still voiced by Casey Kasem, and Scooby still are forever hungry and scared, but even Shaggy gets a few interests we didn't know he had before.

The animation, undoubtedly assisted by better technology, isn't movie studio animation level, but is superior to the stiff stuff of the original.

The plotting is improved. For example, whether the gang is in Egypt or Las Vegas, there's a reason they're there. Most of all, there's a willingness to poke fun at pop culture, each other, themselves and the original Scooby formula while still following it. Like much of the best animation, the humor works on the kid level and on the adult level.

Because of balkanized TV viewing and the varying circumstances of viewing -- some on DVD, some on Boomerang, some at night, some during the day -- it's doubtful future generations will consider this version of Scooby Doo as a piece of bonding, iconic nostalgia that Gen Xers consider the original. It'll just have to settle for being much better.

Not the old Scooby-Doo, but still funny and fun [Posted on 2008-06-03]
Having grown up with Scooby Doo, I mistakenly thought this was the "old" TV series put on DVD. Instead, it is the "What's New Scooby Doo" series, which is an updated version of the old. The new version looks a lot like the old series, having the usual mystery to solve in 30 minutes or less. They don't ever let it get too serious, as they play fun music behind the chase scenes. The jokes are funny as the characters poke fun at themselves, and each other. The voices are the same (thankfully). I love watching it with my kids, and they have watched them over and over again.

Scooby Doo Fans [Posted on 2008-07-08]
This has all of a seasons shows (unlike the ones you buy in target). That makes it a better deal if you have Scooby obsessed Fans like we do.

What's New Scooby Doo? The Complete First Season [Posted on 2008-10-25]
What's New, Scooby-Doo? - The Complete First Season
If you love the original series, you will love this one!

Love this updated Scooby! [Posted on 2008-11-18]
I bought this DVD for my Scooby Doo loving son. I have never seen the new Scooby Doo and I LOVE IT!! By the way, my son loves it too.

The music is updated with an alternative flair. The story lines have updated twists and are eaiser for younger Scooby Fans to relate too. The clothing is more current. Yet the characters still maintain their original personality quirks.

Overall excellent Scooby DVD collection that does not disappoint old school fans.

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