Showing posts with label Scooby Doo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scooby Doo. Show all posts

Friday, November 8, 2024

Scooby Doo & Batman The Brave and the Bold DVD

 

TITLE-Scooby Doo & Batman The Brave and the Bold
SOURCE-WB DVD

Back when Brave and the Bold was airing I worked the night it aired. Would record it and when I got home  at 8am the next morning sit and watch it before going to bed. Fun show that combined the silliness of the Batman66 tv show with a great selection guest stars. Can't hate a show that produced at least 4 Plastic Man Figures.

In 2018 I saw this got released. Normally with these Scooby Doo movies I wait a year and find a used copy for a few bucks. This one I paid the full retail price.

Mystery Inc is trying to solve a mystery about a ghostly puppetmaster. When they do and learn the puppet master is Martian Manhunter and the puppet is Detective Chimp we learn this was a test. To see if Mystery Inc is good enough to join this mystery solving team Batman has formed. And what a team,the Question,Plastic Man,Black Canery,Aquaman and the previously mentioned Detective Chimp and Johnn Jozz.

Batman has 1 unsolved mystery from early in his career. And this film is about how him and the Scooby Gang solve this mystery.

Loaded with cameos and references that the comic fans and older Scooby fan will love. My favorite is the gang being told to goto the "Corner of Spears and Ruby." 

Now I haven't watched this since I got it 6 years ago. And until 10 minutes from the ending I had forgotten who the big bad was. The Crimson Cowl,who I nicknamed Red Booger,is a interesting attempt at creating a new Batman Rogue. At least I think he is new.

Good animation,good voice acting and with this being a tiny bit over 70s minutes a good length. Extras are the 2 episodes of the New Scooby Doo Movies show with Batman and Robin.

Scooby Doo & Batman The Brave & The Bold gets a B+

Wednesday, October 13, 2021

31 Days of Horror 2021 Day 13 Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost

 

TITLE-Scooby Doo and The Curse of the 13th Ghost
SOURCE-Warner Brothers DVD

Back in the fall of 1985 one of the odder and most fun Scooby Doo series started. 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo ran from early September until early December the same year. With only 13 episodes it is also AFAIK  the shortest of the many Scooby Doo tv series.

In this series you had Scooby,Shaggy,Daphne and Scrappy teaming up with Flim-Flam and Vincent Van Ghoul. If you think Scrappy Doo is hated by Scooby fans go ask any of them about Flim-Flam. Flim-Flam was a kid conman that got added to the gang. Vincent on the other hand was great. Voiced by the great Vincent Price. 

The basic plot was Scooby and Shaggy had opened up the Chest of Demons. Which releases  the 13 most terrifying and powerful ghosts and demons ever to walk the face of the Earth.  This of course happens in the first episode. And you would think well there are 13 ghosts and 13 episodes,they catch one per episode. Nope! One ghost was never caught. The series got cancelled,being replaced by re-runs of Scooby Doo's Laff Alympics.

Pretty much now if people talk about this series they are gonna mention how it was the first Scooby series where the ghosts and demons were real and not just people in costumes. And this was the last tv show to use Scrappy.

As a kid back when this aired I missed a few episodes. Then in the mid to late 90s caught it one weekend on Cartoon Network saw all 13 episodes and thought "Well this series is forgotten they will never wrap it up."

Then in late 2018 I hear that early the next year a DTV Scooby movie is coming out. Titled Scooby Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost. Which after over 3 decades would resolve this dangling plotline. At the time I figured I would catch the film on Cartoon Network.

Skip ahead to back in the spring of 2021.I was looking at the dvds at a local store. Saw the above pictured set. Which contains all 13 episodes of the tv cartoon plus the follow up DTV movie. And with it being 7 bucks I grabbed it. One lazy weekend I re-watched the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo and had a blast. Then this DVD set got put in a box and I kind of forgot about it until a week ago.

After a prologue where we see Vincent and his assistant Mortifer capturing all 13 ghosts and sealing them in the Chest of Demons it skips ahead to present day. The Scooby Gang is solving a mystery in a local mall. And get told by one of the local cops that with them turning 18 soon they run the risk of being arrested for criminal negligence.

The gang decide to break up. They hold a garage sale. Selling off everything including the Mystery Machine. Then in a box someone finds the crystal ball Vincent used to communicate with Scooby,Shaggy and Daphne. There is no Scrappy in this film and the one time he gets mentioned Fred and Velma act as if they have no clue who Scrappy is. Which is a nice inside joke for the long time Scooby  fans.Vincent contacts the gang and now Daphne,Shaggy and Scoob must explain to Fred and Velma what happened one summer while Fred and Velma were gone. And how there are real ghosts.

The gang meets up with Vincent and we find out Shaggy sent the Chest of Demons to the Himalayas. So the Scoobs head that way. We find out the last Ghost/Demon they must catch is Asmodeus. Who is one of the creepier looking and acting villains I have seen in Scooby.

I love how Fred feels left out cause Daphne takes charge in this adventure. And how Velma keeps trying to prove that there is no ghosts,demons and magic. Flim-Flam shows back up. Grown up and running a Chest of Demons inspired gift shop.

Asmodeus attacks Vincent in a castle. And thanks to Velma's ever spying eye she figures out that Asmodeus is another human in a costume. So yea really the 13th ghost isn't caught. But we get a nice wrap up. And it is left up to the viewer to decide if the ghosts are real or not.

Most of these DTV Scooby animated films are ok at best. This one I fucking loved. Being a sequel to one of my favorite Scooby tv series. And all the little inside jokes and references they have in this film had me laughing and shaking my head through the entire film.

Now of course Vincent Price is dead. So Maurice LaMarche does the voice. He sounds enough like Price to work. All the voices worked in this. The animation is pretty good. With a few scenes with Daphne's Misstery Machine being CGI and not looking that great.

For the cheap price and including the entire 13 Ghosts series I'm happy with this purchase.

Scooby Doo and The Curse of the 13th Ghost gets a B+.

Thursday, October 10, 2019

31 Days of Horror Day 10 Scooby Doo Curse of the Lake Monster

TITLE-Scooby Doo Curse of the Lake Monster
SOURCE-Boomerang streaming app

So far there has been 4 live action Scooby Doo films. Most people know about the first two. Since they played in theaters and had a fairly all star cast. Lesser known are the 3rd and 4th films. These were made for tv and premiered on Cartoon Network. And oddly the 3rd and 4th films are prequels.


I saw and didn't like the first 2 Scooby Doo films. There is various reasons why I didn't like them. A big part of it was Sara Michelle Geller was horrible as Daphne. And Freddy Prinze Jr was horrid as Freddy. Even though Linda Cardellini is great as Velma ,it isn't enough to make up for how bad 2 of the leads are.

It was September 2009 I am on the coast spending some time with my extended family. This was before broadband internet was available where I lived. So while at my aunt's I used her internet to download all the podcasts and stuff I wanted. Back in her computer room she had a tv that had just basic cable. I was trying to find something to watch and saw listed what I thought was one of the many animated Scooby movies. Turns out it was the 3rd live action film. Which told the story of how the Scooby Doo gang met.  This 3rd film was actually really good.

Skip ahead to early 2019 I had just signed up for the VRV streaming service. I got it cause it included Boomerang and Shudder,plus about 8 other channels. While going through the Boomerang app I started adding a bunch of the animated Scooby Doo films to my watchlist. This is when I discovered there is a 4th live action Scooby movie. And it has the same cast as the third film. Seeing this I added Scooby Doo Curse of the Lake Monster to my list of films I wanted to review in October.

School has just ended for the summer and Daphne has the Scooby Gang jobs at her uncle's country club. Their first night at the new job a frog monster appears and attacks people. So of course the Scooby gang wants to figure out who is the frog monster.

Also through out the movie Shaggy develops a major crush on Velma. Shaggy asks Velma out on a date. After lighting a match and Velma reacting badly Shaggy starts to realize something is up with Velma. Seems Velma got possessed by the spirit of a witch.

Of course the gang solves the mystery of who the frog monster is. Velma gets freed from the witch's control. And the film ends with Shaggy and Velma dating.

All the main cast is pretty good at their parts. Hayley Kiyoko is the stand out as Velma. Managing to capture the essence of Velma that we all know from the classic 60s and 70s episodes of the Scooby Doo cartoons.

Sadly it looks like this 4th film didn't do to well. Cause it came out in 2010 and there hasn't been another live action film since then. Which sucks. Cause the two made for TV films are way better than the tripe that came out in a theater.

Scooby Doo Curse of the Lake Monster gets a B-.