What's New Scooby-Doo?

What's New Scooby-Doo? is the ninth incarnation of the Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, and a revival of the original show Scooby Doo Where Are You! It was the first time the franchise was revived in over a decade. The series was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and distributed by Warner Bros. Television. It premiered 14 September 2002. Joseph Barbera served as the show's executive producer.

After Don Messick's death, Frank Welker, the voice of Fred, took over as Scooby-Doo's voice. Grey DeLisle took over Daphne's role (having previously voiced the character in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase after Mary Kay Bergman committed suicide), while former Facts of Life actress Mindy Cohn took over Velma's role, as B. J. Ward was unavailable. Casey Kasem is the only actor from the original series to reprise his role. This is the last series in which Kasem voiced Shaggy.

Premise

The new show follows the same format as Scooby Doo Where Are You!, but is reimagined as taking place in the 21st century, and features music from contemporary genres and all-new, original sound effects to replace the classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects. Even a distinctive thunderclap sound that was used frequently on older Scooby-Doo TV series was very rarely used on the show. A laugh track was only used for the Halloween special. The classic formula was also frequently parodied throughout (in a manner similar to A Pup Named Scooby-Doo), including the line "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids." As such, it returns to the formulaic version of humans in monster disguises, rather than the real monsters and ghosts of the prior four direct-to-video films (or the '80s versions that preceded them).

At the end credits of each episode, the copyright notice credits "Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc." as the author. Also, Joseph Barbera was one of the executive producers.

The band Simple Plan is strongly 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". Also, they contributed to the theatrical movie Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

The show features some internal continuity, as characters and places would recur from time to time. Some examples include Gibby Norton, a geek who has a crush on Velma even though she hates the sight of him, and most of the time as a villain in each episode; and the Secret Six, six prize winning puppies that would help out the gang on their cases. The Hex Girls, who first appeared in "The Witch's Ghost" movie and again in "Legend of the Vampire", were also featured in one episode. The gang also mentions places they have been in previous episodes (e.g. if they were in Paris one episode, they mention their visit at the beginning of the next episode). The episode titled "A Terrifying Round with a Menacing, Metallic Clown" established this show in continuity with A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, in which a flashback uses their kid forms from that show. Nevertheless, this series cannot have taken place in the same universe as the original series, as the characters are not 40-year-olds, and are still referred to as "kids." In addition, the Mystery Machine is determined to be only a few years old, as it was formerly owned by a kiddie pop-duo, who are now only a few years older. This rules out the original incarnation from the '70s as having taken place, essentially making this series a remake and sequel to A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.

Characters

As usual in Scooby-Doo series, the characters are Scooby-Doo, Fred Jones (both are voiced by Frank Welker), Shaggy Rogers (voiced by Casey Kasem), Daphne Blake (voiced by Grey DeLisle) and Velma Dinkley (voiced by Mindy Cohn; this is the first of the Scooby-Doo series to have Cohn and DeLisle voice Velma and Daphne, respectively).

The original characters in this series are:

• Elliot Binber: A competitive kid who often loses to Velma in contests. Voiced by Kimberly Brooks.
• Melbourne O'Reilly: An Australian adventurer/explorer who is one of Fred's heroes. Voiced by Steven Blum.
• J.J. Hakimoto: A famous director. Voiced by Brian Tochi.
• Gibby Norton: A computer nerd who has a crush on Velma, who hates the sight of him. He often turns out to be the villain to impress Velma, never succeeding. Gibby is modelled after his voice actor, Eddie Deezen.
• Burr Batson: Racer who drives a monster truck. Voiced by James Arnold Taylor.
• Professor Laslow Ostwald: An inventor whom the gang meets. Voiced first by Dave Foley, later by James Arnold Taylor. He first appears in "High-Tech House of Horrors" where his "House of the Future's" AI, "Shari", goes haywire, attacking tourists. Though the gang suspects him, it is later revealed that "Shari" herself is responsible (she was angry at the Professor due to him getting all of the attention). The gang defeated "Shari" by ignoring her (as it want attention) causing her to overload. Professor Ostwald also appears in "E-Scream" at a "Video Game Convention" where his new invention the cuddly "Osomons" turn evil. It is later discovered that the whole mystery was actually a VR simulation Velma was trying out.
• The Hex Girls: Thorn, Dusk and Luna are the members of this famous eco-goth rock band, with whom Scooby and the gang are acquainted. Thorn is voiced by Jennifer Hale, Dusk by Jane Wiedlin and Luna by Kimberly Brooks.
• Mr. B: The owner of the Secret Six puppies, who may do anything to save them. Voiced by Jeff Bennett.
• Crissie: A Golden Retriever who is the Secret Six's mother.
• The Secret Six puppies: Maize, Flax, Jingle, Knox, 14-Carat and Bling-Bling. They are six very well-trained, prize-winning Golden Retriever puppies who have a knack for getting into trouble. Maize and Knox are voiced by Jennifer Hale, Jingle is voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Flax is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, Bling-Bling is voiced by Grey Delisle, and 14-Carat is voiced by Frank Welker.

Celebrity Guest Stars

• Chris Klug
• Lindsay Pagano
• Mike Piazza
• Ryan Sheckler
• Simple Plan
• KISS
• Brett Hull
• Smash Mouth
• JC Chasez
• Taylor Lautner
• Kathy Griffin
• Josh Peck
• Miranda Cosgrove
• Willa Holland
• A.J. Cook
• Tegan and Sara

Episodes

Main article: List of What's New Scooby-Doo? episodes

Availability

Warner Home Video has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1. The series was initially released in ten volumes of four or five episodes between 2003–2006 and later re-released in season sets in 2007–2008.

Season Sets

DVD Name	Ep #	Release Date
Season 1	14	February 20, 2007
Season 2	14	June 5, 2007
Season 3	14	January 8, 2008
Complete Seasons 1–3	42	2010 (exact release date unknown)

Volume Releases

The episodes in each volume were at first picked in chronological order but were later picked to be part of a theme (volumes in the United Kingdom continued to be released chronologically). The volumes and the episodes they include in the United States are as follows:

• Volume 1: Space Ape at the Cape (19 August 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! (9 March 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 and Clues (10 August 2004)
  • "Vampire Strikes Back"
  • "Mummy Scares Best"
  • "High-tech House of the Future"
  • "She Sees a Sea Monster by the Sea Shore"
• Volume 4: Merry Scary Holiday (5 October 2004)
  • "A Scooby-Doo Christmas"
  • "Toy Scary Boo"
  • "Homeward Hound"
  • "Recipe for Disaster"
• Volume 5: Sports Spooktacular (14 June 2005)
  • "The Unnatural"
  • "The Fast and Wormious"
  • "Wrestle Maniacs"
  • "Diamonds are a Ghoul's Best Friend"
• Volume 6: Monster Matinee (9 August 2005)
  • "A Scooby-Doo Halloween"
  • "San Franpsycho"
  • "New Mexico Old Monster"
  • "Big Appetite in Little Tokyo"
• Volume 7: Ghosts on the Go (8 November 2005)
  • "Large Dragon at Large"
  • "It´s All Greek to Scooby"
  • "Pompeii and Circumstance"
  • "Ready to Scare"
• Volume 8: Zoinks! Camera! Action! (21 February 2006)
  • "Lights, Camera, Mayhem"
  • "E-Scream"
  • "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman"
  • "A Scooby-Doo Valentine"
• Volume 9: Route Scary 6 (6 June 2006)
  • "Go West, Young Scoob"
  • "Camp Comeoniwannascareya" (bonus episode)
  • "Gentlemen, Start Your Monsters"
  • "Fright House of a Lighthouse"
  • "Farmed and Dangerous
• Volume 10: Monstrous Tails (5 December 2006)
  • "Uncle Scooby and Antarctica"
  • "Block Long Hong Kong Terror"
  • "Reef Grief"
  • "Gold Paw"
  • "A Terrifying Round with a Menacing Metallic Clown" (Bonus episode)

In the United Kingdom all ten volumes were later compiled and released as What's New, Scooby-Doo? - The Complete Collection, sold in a container resembling the Mystery Machine, complete with motion-activated integrated sound chip which played an excerpt of the show's theme tune.

References

• Banks, Clive. "Scooby-Doo". Retrieved from http://www.clivebanks.co.uk/Scooby-Doo%20Intro.htm 4 September 2005
• Baxter, Joel (2003). The Complete Scooby-Doo Episode Guide. Retrieved from http://web.archive.org/web/20050826000359/http://www.execulink.com/~joelb/scooby/doobydoo.htm 3 September 2005
• "Hanna-Barbera Studios" (and subarticles). The Big Cartoon DataBase. Retrieved from http://www.bcdb.com/cartoons/Hanna-Barbera_Studios/index.html 3 September 2005