Advertising Picture for What's New, Scooby-Doo?
What's New, Scooby-Doo? was 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. Forty-three episodes have been produced so far (fourteen in 2002-2003, fourteen in 2003-2004, and fourteen in 2004-2005, and one in 2005-2006).
About
The show follows the original mystery-solving formula of the series, 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. 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.)
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, 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 all-new, original sound effects to replace the classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects. The show was produced by Warner Bros. Television 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.)
Episode List
See List of What's New, Scooby-Doo? episodes
DVD Releases
It has been announced by TVShowsOnDVD.com that the complete first season will be released on February 20, 2007 [1]. It is listed to have 13 episodes with a bonus episode, with the bonus episode most likely being the Christmas special.
Volumes
With the release of the tenth volume on December 5, 2006, the entire series will have been released on DVD in the United States. Each volume included four or five episodes, which were at first picked in chronological order but were later picked to be part of a theme. The volumes and the episodes they include in the United States are as follow:
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"
"Riv 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"
"Demon Farmer: 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"
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 the episode It's Mean, It's Green, It's the Mystery Machine, and You Don't Mean Anything in Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman.
- 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!
- Interestingly, the reveal at the end of E-Scream (that Velma is participating in a Holo-Mystery) completely fails to explain the Osomon's presence in the pre-titles, a sequence that seems to take place the night before the gang even arrive at the convention...
- 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 & the Witch's Ghost and the Legend of the Vampire is featured in the episode the vampire strikes back the title of the episode may reference the star wars movie the empire 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.
References
Banks, Clive. "Scooby-Doo". Retrieved from http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Scooby-Doo%20Intro.htm on September 4, 2005. Baxter, Joel (2003). The Complete Scooby-Doo Episode Guide. Retrieved from http://www.execulink.com/~joelb/scooby/doobydoo.htm on September 3, 2005. "Hanna-Babera Studios" (and subarticles). The Big Cartoon DataBase. Retrieved from http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Hanna-Barbera_Studios/index.html on September 3, 2005.