Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: A First Impression

Yeah, yeah, I know what you’re thinking, “This is a horror blog. Why are you talking about Scooby-Doo?” Well, it’s because it’s my horror blog and I’ll talk about whatever I wanna talk about! Besides, Scooby has monsters in it. That counts as horror.

Anyway, I’ve never counted myself as a hardcore Scooby-Doo fan, yet over the course of my life I’ve kept up with nearly every incarnation of the franchise, from the classics of the 70s, to the lows of the 80s, to the near-absence of the 90s and through the resurgence of the 2000s. I wouldn’t number Scooby among my many passions, but I like the characters and their universe well-enough to make sure to watch each new iteration of the series. Though, considering how many times I’ve subjected myself to complete series viewings of “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo”, perhaps there is a certain level of passion involved. You’d have to be passionate to some degree to subject yourself to that show without a loaded gun to your head.

So that brings me to Scooby’s latest update, a brand new series called “Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated”. The series made its proper premier on Cartoon Network a couple days ago and I made sure my butt was nestled in the couch cushions when it aired. When the half hour was up, I was pretty well surprised at how different a Scooby series “Mystery Incorporated” turned out to be, and not different in a “Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!” sort of way (where they drove around in a transforming Mystery Machine, eating radioactive Scooby Snacks that turned them into superheroes and combined those properties in an effort to protect Shaggy’s rich uncle’s mansion. I made none of that up). No, as a matter of fact, the series was about as familiar as a Scooby show could get, drawing the bulk of its inspiration right from the original “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” What was so different, though, was how modern it was in terms of storytelling in animation, adopting traits from more “young adult” animated series which a Scooby show has never tackled before.

“Mystery Incorporated” takes the Mysteries Inc gang back to their roots as teenage sleuths in a small town, solving supernaturally-themed crimes around their community when they aren’t in school. Their hometown of Crystal Cove is a veritable monster-magnet and lucrative tourist trade cash-cow, giving the gang plenty of cases to dig into, much to the chagrin of their parents (who think teenagers solving mysteries is weird), the local politicians (each ghost that’s proven a sham reduces their tourist dollars) and town law enforcement (who wish they’d mind their own business and leave the crime-solving to the professionals). Other ongoing problems face the gang, as Daphne laments her unrequited crush on Fred, Shaggy and Velma have to keep their romantic relationship a secret from Scooby and a mysterious person aptly named “Mr. E” lurks behind the curtains of each mystery they solve.

The first thing I noticed about “Mystery Incorporated” that really threw me for a loop is that the series is a “soft reboot” of Scooby continuity (if there was really any continuity to begin with). “Mystery Incorporated” appears to acknowledge only the original “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” as canon. Several aspects to the franchise introduced in later programs, such as “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo” and the deluge of direct-to-video movies have been overwritten, the characters de-aged from young adults back to genuine “meddling kids” and overall we’re sorta back to square one with the Scooby Universe.

I wasn’t sure how I felt about that, at first. I always enjoyed the Scooby series for the rich backlog of programs it has amassed over the decades, and one of the most appealing things about the more-recent “What’s New, Scooby-Doo?” series was how it would humorously acknowledge those shows from time to time (“A Pup Named Scooby-Doo”, especially). A “soft reboot” in the vein of “The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest” (which acknowledged the original “Jonny Quest” series but overwrote “The New Adventures of Jonny Quest” and the subsequent TV movies) sort of irked me, as it felt like a regression of the characters.

But that was just my immediate, gut response. Upon watching the show, I found that the characters hadn’t actually “regressed”, but had actually begun to develop more-so than ever before. Fred’s still the goofy lunkhead he’s been portrayed as ever since “A Pup Named Scooby-Doo” decided to give the guy a freakin’ personality, except now he has problems with living up to his father’s high expectations and is even more blissfully unaware of Daphne’s affections than usual. Daphne is more in-touch with her feelings for Fred than I think any Scooby series has ever permitted her to be, where she openly admits that she’s crazy about him but can’t get him over that “just friends” hurtle. Velma is more sarcastic than ever before, but still the nerdette we’re all used to. Her relationship with Shaggy was very… out of left field, but the way they’re handling it is very amusing. It’s no one-sided affection (ala Daphne/Fred), as the pair are both equally passionate for one another, only Shaggy is afraid of hurting “his best pal” Scooby with the news of their hook-up, thus forcing Velma to remain his girlfriend on the sly. Velma, naturally, is not amused at having to hide their relationship from a dog.

This is all very refreshing for anyone who has been keeping up with Scooby for the past ten-to-twelve years (when the real “development” of the characters began to take place), as the characters and their relationships with one-another are no longer stagnating, but are finally free to grow and change. Fred and Daphne have been openly crushing on each other since “Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island”, but in the twelve years since that movie, their dynamic has hardly advanced past “one gets jealous of the other when they stare at another guy/gal”. I’m especially curious to see how future Scooby media portrays the Shaggy-Velma relationship; whether it sticks or not.

But the novelty that “Mystery Incorporated” really adds to the series is the concept of an ongoing story arc for audiences to follow from episode-to-episode. Scooby has always been an entirely episodic property (unless you count “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo” as having an ongoing storyline), so the idea of adding not only a continuous plotline to the series, but a regular cast of supporting characters is pretty much uncharted territory for the Mysteries Inc gang. The strictly one-off nature of Scooby shows has pretty much forbidden returning characters; even their stable of classic villains scarcely ever make comebacks outside of Easter Egg cameos in crowd shots. The only returning characters to enter the Scooby universe in the past few years have been the Hex Girls from “Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost”. And they sucked.

This new dynamic for the series (they even stress the ongoing nature of the show by numbering each episode as a “chapter”) invites a bit more sophistication to show than Scooby fans are probably used to, showing through in everything from the writing to the animation quality. The jokes pack a heavier punch to them in “Mystery Incorporated”, with snappier dialogue, quicker rapid-fire gags and a lot of clever moments that play on the audience’s perspective of the scene. The further strengthening of the characters and their relationships with one another revitalizes them with newfound energy and personality that might catch you off-guard (Velma’s tour guide sequence being a prime example of this). The writers don’t seem to be falling back on the usual decades-worn Cartoon 101 jokes that a lot of Scooby shows, no matter how modern, tend to fall victim to. You know, jokes such as, “Wait a minute… If I’m standing here, and you’re standing there, then wh-wh-who is that standing behind me!?” Any cartoon writer in this day and age who puts a joke like that in their script has no business sleeping soundly at night.

“Mystery Incorporated” also invites a higher quality of animation than we’ve seen in any Scooby series in the past. The characters have retained their classic wardrobes but have had their designs streamlined into something more modern, with sharper, more angular edges (but without being too geometrically reduced). Velma seems to have gotten the greatest makeover, having been slimmed down and given a “cuter” hairstyle than even her most recent redesign in the TV movies. More attention is paid toward choreographing action sequences, quick cutaway gags and fast-paced scene transitions that take you by surprise (Fred stealing a “corpse” from the back of an ambulance, stuffing it in the Mystery Machine and screaming, “Shaggy! Start the car!”). There’s a better illusion of dimensional depth to the characters and a more evocative atmosphere to their universe, forgoing the flat-coloring of previous Scooby shows (“What’s New, Scooby-Doo?” was a pretty dull-looking show, in particular).

Voice-wise, we have some new and some old. Frank Welker returns as Fred Jones, naturally, having voiced the character since as far back as 1969. It’s a little tough to hear him playing a “teenager”, especially with exactly the same voice he’s been using for “grown up” Fred for the past few decades, but he’s still as good as he’s always been. Welker’s back as Scooby, too (having taken over the role from Scott Innes, who in turn had taken the role from the late Don Messick, the originator of the character). Scooby in “Mystery Incorporated” is perhaps the only character of the series not to really “change” in any fashion, but what with him being the franchise mascot (and a dog), that’s probably for the best.

Velma Dinkley is still being voiced by Mindy Cohn, who took over from B.J. Ward in 2004 beginning with “Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster”. She plays Velma with a lot more energy than in previous iterations, being sarcastic and a bit hipper than the shy bookworm/knowitall you may be used to. She feels more like a “real” teenager, actually, though seeing her aggresively trying to get her freak on with Shaggy in the back of the Mystery Machine was kinda… weird.

Grey Delisle is still doing a bang-up job as Daphne Blake, having inherited the role after the untimely death of Mary Kay Bergman. Just going by the first episode, Daphne seemed to get most of the best lines and her unrequited crushing on Fred isn’t half as annoying as it may sound (“There must be other boys." “Not like Fred! He’s like one of those geniuses that no one understands until they’re dead”).

The big changeup to the cast, though, is that Shaggy is now being voiced by Matthew Lillard, who as you probably know, played Shaggy in both live action Scooby-Doo films. I had the chance to familiarize myself with Lillard’s voice-over performance before sitting down to the first episode of “Mystery Incorporated”, as he made his cartoon-Shaggy debut in the most recent direct-to-video film, “Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-doo”. His Shaggy is very different from other actors who have attempted to fill Casey Kasem’s shoes in the past, such as Billy West, Scott Innes and Scott Menville. Lillard sounds less concerned with overly aping Kasem’s voice as much as getting all the necessary Shaggy-beats down and putting his own spin on the character. It was a tad off-putting at first, I suppose, but I quickly began to dig his new take and now I look forward to hearing him in the role in the future. Kasem, though officially retired from the character, still made time to lend his voice for a cameo in the first episode, appropriately as Shaggy’s exhausted father. I don’t know if he’ll be appearing more in the show (the parents of the gang all got spotlight segments in the first episode and seem to be important supporting characters), but it came off as a nice “passing of the torch” moment.

Patrick “One Voice But It’s Awesome” Warburton plays the frustrated Sheriff of Crystal Cove (notice that it’s no longer Coolsville?), who has no compunctions about throwing the Mysteries Inc gang in jail whenever they interfere with a police investigation. He, along with Mayor Jones (voice by Harvey Birdman-himself, Gary Cole) seem to be prime suspects for overarching villain material, as they seem to not-so-subtly support the influx of goofy monsters so long as it fuels the tourist dollars. Lewis Black, that’s right, Lewis Black, plays the enigmatic “Mr. E” and I can’t wait to see how that turns out. In one of the more “what the…?” moments in the episode, the kids apparently hang out at a radio station run by the Vivica A. Fox-voiced DJ, Angel Dynamite, who talks like she just stepped out of “The Warriors”.

Anyhow, time to sew my rambling up.

The more sophisticated ongoing plots, the smarter gags and the higher level of animation quality really makes “Mystery Incorporated” feel like a Scooby show for the “Ben 10” or “Generator Rex” generation. It takes the classic “Scooby-Doo, Whare Are You!” formula and breathes new life into it with modern day animation aesthetics and after one episode, I’m already hooked. I’d recommend it to both old fans of Scooby (whether you’re put off by the “soft reboot” or not) and more casual animation enthusiasts who might have written the franchise off a while back. So far, it’s looking pretty good.