Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? (2019) Reviews

Have been a huge fan of the Scooby Doo franchise since late single digits. The various incarnations vary in quality, with the best being the original 'Scooby Doo Where are You' and 'The Scooby Doo Show', also like a few of the shows that have a not so good reputation. And the worst being 'Shaggy and Scooby Doo Get a Clue' and most of 'Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo' other than the surprisingly good first season. Also really like a lot of the animated films, 'Witch's Ghost' and 'Zombie Island' being my favourites.

'Scooby Doo and Guess Who' sounded very interesting and really liked the idea of the gang solving crimes with various guest stars (a mix of real life celebrities in the film, music and sporting industries and popular characters). So a more modern version of 'The New Scooby Doo Movies', loved that show as a kid and quite a lot of episodes and guest stars hold up but some episodes and guest stars don't quite do it now. 'Scooby Doo and Guess Who' is a very entertaining and well made show in my view that goes back to basics and stays true to the franchise's roots while having its own flavour. It's not consistent sure, but it was a show that showed promise from the beginning and continues to get better.

Admittedly not all the guest stars work, with some being annoying (Steve Urkel, Wanda Sykes, Jim Gaffigan though am going to rewatch their episodes and all of the show for that matter) or under-utilised (Abraham Lincoln, Christian Slater). While the humour mostly worked very well indeed, some of it went overboard on the silliness and felt forced (the Wonder Woman episode on first watch was too reliant on it).

Do agree with some regarding Kate Micucci's voice acting for Velma, which here comes over as too abrasive. Some of the clues could have gone into more depth, when Velma declares "it all makes perfect sense" or "it's all starting to come together" the viewer is like "it does/is?" Especially found it true of the earlier episodes. Again, this might all change on rewatch.

On the other hand, so much is good about 'Scooby Doo and Guess Who'. The animation has a lot of atmosphere, rich colour and even richer attention to detail. The music is dynamic and groovy, also loved the modern spin on the iconic classic theme tune for 'Scooby Doo Where are You'. The rest of the voice acting is very good, Matthew Lillard nails it as Shaggy (a more than worthy successor to the unsurpassed Casey Kasem) and Frank Welker shows no fatigue or long in the tooth-ness as Fred (and he's been voicing him for over half a century). The guest stars are also very well done and the guest stars that are not voiced by the real person resemble them surprisingly accurately (doing better in this regard than 'The New Scooby Doo Movies').

Writing is funny and smart on the whole, the classic Shaggy and Scooby goofiness endears. The stories may be generally formulaic structurally (true of much of the franchise though) are lively in pace, hugely entertaining and has suspense. Really liked that 'Scooby Doo and Guess Who' went back to basics and stayed true to the franchise's roots even when modern, with nice references to past cases and villains (ie. The episode with The Flash). There are some very creative chase scenes visually and some of the reveals are not as obvious as those in most of the previous incarnations (a few surprises actually) due to more suspects than usual rather than a frequent case of "it could only have been one person" (unlike 'Be Cool Scooby Doo').

A big standout story-wise is the unique story structure for "The Last Inmate" (one of the best episodes of the show) and the creative concept for the Malcolm McDowell episode. The villains are very cool and creepy and also loved the exotic and varied locations that include Italy, ski settings, prisons and even space. The guest stars vary, but hit more than they miss. Morgan Freeman was a major hit and also really liked Hex Girls, Batman (both franchise favourites), Malcolm McDowell and Sia. Also liked how the mysteries revolved a lot around the guest stars' jobs and made the most of seeing them in action (i.e. Darcy Lynne). The Mystery Inc are on the whole on good form, with Shaggy and Scooby spot on, apart from instances where Velma came over as too much of a know it all.

Overall, very good and certainly enough to rewatch it, namely to see whether my thoughts on the earlier episodes fare better, worse or the same. 7.5/10.