They did actually reboot Fraggle Rock recently on Apple TV+. It’s not edgy in the least, at least not according to the clip I saw.
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Mystery Incorporated did a good job in that regard.
If anything can come from all this, if a few people who slept on that series find their way to checking it out… My work is done.
That was a great read, not sure if I’d want a series for it, but as a grab the basic details and go wild it was a good take. That they made Scrappy interesting alone was compelling.
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It wasn’t bad, but it didn’t really add anything to the original except the environmental theme was a bit more on the nose.
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My kid went through a phase of watching the original Scooby-Doo so I actually have seen them relatively recently and I was somewhat surprised (though I shouldn’t have been) that except for Scooby, the characters are almost completely interchangeable, with the exception that they each have one, typically non-story related bit.
That is, Shaggy eats (and is a human counterpart to Scooby), Velma loses her glasses, and Daphne is clumsy. Freddie has no characteristics at all, except for explaining the traps. (I think it was always too much animation to show them setting them up.)
But any given line of dialog otherwise works interchangeably: Any of the four humans could say it. They really had no personality, no hierarchy, and that makes a whole lot of sense if you’re trying to crank out 12 episodes in four weeks for 50 bucks each.
I recommended it elsewhere, and I’ll recommend it again. If you see only ONE “Scooby Doo”…
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While this certainly must happen, I think there are a lot of times where the process is someone comes up with an edgy whatever idea for a show, and when shopping it around the execs are like “This is great but we can’t market it without a familiar name. However, we happen to have the rights to this old TV show, so if you can rework it to fit we have a deal.”
Again, I’m not saying your version isn’t happening, it’s just that the Hollywood I’ve grown to know and loathe was definitely not into letting the writers do what they wanted without extensive meddling.
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This series broke my heart. I take a somewhat selfish approach to life. If it has nothing to do with me or people I love, I just don’t care. Really what harm comes from someone being this race, that religion, this orientation, and such? However these are parts of our childhood. As more of my body malfunctions, the more I miss the days when I thought I could do anything. So I pop a VHS tape in and hear the bats squeaking, followed by a drum beat, and finally 
Scooby Dooby Doo where are you we got some work to do now:musical_note: is heard and I can be 8 again.
I’ve seen every episode except for this new version. Velma and Daphne have always had crushes on men. Fred has always had an unspoken thing for Daphne. Shaggy has always been a geeky, awkward hippie. Scooby-Doo has always been adorable. Also they have been Caucasian and American. I’m cool with integration, but not by rewriting who these people are. Have them be who they are, and embrace new people. Fred could volunteer at a youth outreach program. Velma could mentor someone on the autism spectrum. She could show the kid what they can do, and that they can have friends. Daphne could be in a program that encourages body positivity. Not everyone looks like Daphne, but that doesn’t mean they have to hide. How many of us would have been a little bit happier if someone told us and treated us like we were one of the cool kids? Shaggy and Scooby receive very little credit for facing their fears in every episode. That’s a lot of built up trauma. They would be great at helping kids after traumatic events. I wouldn’t turn down a hug from Scooby-Doo.
These are just some very basic ideas on how to include people without changing them. Otherwise you’re being contradictory. I also believe this would do the most good. It not only includes people, but also gives out ideas on how to include people. I’ve come across a lot of people who start doing things because their heroes did it. Let’s have our heroes go out and do them.
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I really don’t remember that in classic Scooby Doo. In fact, the only ‘romantic’ thing like that I can remember is Scooby falling in love with Sandy Duncan.
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Well, they are still 100% American. The trouble is that they are also 100% nothing like the characters we’ve seen before, in personality or whatever.
I tried the third episode, hoping for something at least relatable for Scooby-Doo fans, then “hate watched” the fourth to try to get even a little entertainment out of the experience. But it just became apparent that the show “lacks any literary, artistic, political, or scientific value” whatsoever. It fully deserves its achievement of being ranked the 3rd worst TV show on all of IMDB. The show is a fraud against the franchise, in my opinion.
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I don’t know, I’ve seen some real crap. I mean I’m sure it’s terrible, but it’s probably at least animated competently.
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Kind of this.
One of the problems (IMO) with modern entertainment is that they can’t seem to simply make something for the sheer joy of it anymore. Instead it seems to prioritize that there has to be some sort of agenda, opinion, message, or angle. Why can’t some thing just be unsullied by that sort of thing? The original Scooby Doo did not have ‘messages’ or try to convey anything. It was simple, pure, escapist FUN.
A show about a bunch of teenagers driving around in their van and solving mysteries with the help of a talking dog. Crazy musical numbers with ghosts chasing them around. Shaggy and Scooby liked to eat a lot, wore disguises, and were chickens. Velma was smart but she lost her glasses and had to feel around. Fred made silly Rube Goldberg traps that sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t. Daphne was clueless and stumbled into things by accident. It didn’t try to BE anything more than that. And it didn’t need to.
Not everything has to push a message, latch onto a cause, or cram commentary into a show. There are plenty (OH so many) of other programs that preach messages. Can’t we have some shows that are just clean, untainted, escapist entertainment?
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I disagree. The original Scooby Doo did convey to me that the supernatural is not real. The ghosts and monsters, when caught, were always people trying to get away with doing bad things. That is a message that I have carried with me for the rest of my life, as I am not a believer in the supernatural.
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Usually it was fraud or property dispute kinda stuff.
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Yes, that is my favorite thing about the original Scooby Doo. It taught kids that there is no such thing as ghosts. Sadly, in later iterations, they made the ghosts real.
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It was usually ghosts, pirates and sometimes ghost-pirates.
And Lurker it really was funny how many times it was some sort of property dispute.
You’d think they were using real-estate lawyers to write those episodes.
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Every time someone I know is looking for a new place to live and bemoans the costs, I am quick to suggest a fake haunting to bring the price down.
ETA: Holy crap what a great app idea I just had. You are viewing a page with a realtor and then you say “hey what’s the deal with all the murders that happened here?” And on your phone you can show what appears to be search results for the address and it’s all about tons of spooky crimes.
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Mmmmmeeeeeeh… I’d say that was less of a ‘message’ and more of a background understanding. There was never a point in time when the cartoon threw on the brakes, stopped everything, and had someone turn to the camera and say…
“Ha ha ha … we sure had a lot of fun on today’s show… But remember kids … ghosts, monsters and the supernatural aren’t real. And THAT’S the message you should take away from today’s adventure!”
It just so happened that all the ghosts and stuff were Old Man Jenkins, or Farmer Joe or a Museum Curator or Captain Cutler, or whatever. There was never the heavy hand of lazy “messaging” about it.
Today’s messages, agendas, and other such things are heavy-handed, blatant, and about as subtle as a roundhouse to the face.
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What everyone has been asking Hollywood for years now after the constant reboots of older shows and movies about rollercoaster rides
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Yes, sadly no studios these days want to sign on original ideas with new characters. It seems like there is a requirement that any show that comes along has to be based on some established IP. It’s not ALWAYS true. Sometimes you get things that are original, but they tend to be a lot fewer and further between nowadays.
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I am open to the existence of ghosts. What Scooby-Doo taught me is that whenever there is evil being done, there are living breathing human beings behind it. We are evil’s inventors and sole practitioners.
I’m sure that’s the message Hanna and Barbera were trying to convey, too.
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