Let's Watch This: An Episode of "What's New, Scooby-Doo?"

Well, it's time for me to talk about America's favorite Great Dane again. I've looked at two previous Scooby-Doo series on this blog: one was A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, which turned Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma into youngsters. The other was Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated, which was an "edgy" Scooby-Doo show that prided itself on how it actually took itself seriously. In between these two shows, however, there was a little show called What's New, Scooby-Doo?.

Unlike other Scooby-doo productions, this show didn't have a "gimmick" (A Pup Named Scooby-Doo's making the characters kids, Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated's being all "dark" and "edgy", Be Cool, Scooby-Doo's totally redesigning the characters). It was just Scooby and the gang being themselves, basically just Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? in modern times. The show aired on Kids' WB from 2002 until 2006, with reruns airing on Cartoon Network. Every so often the show is rerun on Boomerang, which is how I re-discovered the show in 2015.

I guess the fact that the show doesn't have a "gimmick" is why you don't see this show talked about as much as other Scooby-Doo shows. However, it's one of my personal favorites, so today I'd like to do a review of one episode. Specifically, we'll be watching the episode "Big Appetite in Little Tokyo"...

Our episode begins on a rainy night in Tokyo, Japan. A guy by the name of Akina Onadera (I might've spelled his name wrong) is hard at work, only to be interrupted by a mysterious old man known as the Ancient One.

He actually prefers to be called the "Youth-Challenged One".

The Ancient One (voiced by Mako) is ticked off at Onadera because the new wharf that he's planning to build for his factory is "a threat to our simple way of life". "Things in this village have not changed for hundreds of years!" he says. "You can not hold back progress, Ancient One!" Onadera snaps, only for the Ancient One to threaten him by saying that a giant monster will destroy his factory.

Finally! The Scooby-Doo/Godzilla crossover that we've all been waiting for!

Then we cut to Velma Dinkley (Mindy Cohn) winning a science fair for her invention, Dogbot - a robotic dog. Sorry, Velma, but there's already a robot dog in the Hanna-Barbera library. Specifically, this guy -

I mean, sheesh, there are at least two episodes of Dynomutt's show where Scooby-Doo and his friends guest-starred. You'd think Velma would remember that.

Regardless, Dogbot is apparently cool enough to help Velma win first prize, which makes a boy named Elliot (Kimberly Brooks) who was also competing in the science fair very, very angry. He thinks that Velma's invention sucks, mainly because he's allergic to dogs and thinks that they are stupid. "Unlike some dogs, Dogbot is incapable of fear," Velma explains. Jeez, way to flip Scooby the bird, Velma. And not only does Dogbot not require food or sleep, he can provide it.

Professor Pomfreit (William Schallert), Velma's science teacher, tells her that as the first prize winner, Velma has won a trip for her and four of her closest friends to Tokyo so Mr. Onadera can check out Dogbot for himself.

"Velma, as the first prize winner of the science fair..."
"Uh, I'm over here, Mr. Pomfreit."
"You are? Huh. I think I might need new glasses..."

Soon Velma, Fred (Frank Welker as always), Scooby (also Frank Welker), Daphne (Grey Griffin) and Shaggy (Casey Kasem) are riding around Tokyo in a taxi, with Professor Pomfreit pointing out all the different landmarks - Mount Fuji, the Oshakusha Temple (I probably spelled that wrong, too), the old Takamota Movie Studio... Shaggy is exhausted, as he has jet lag. I'm only pointing this out because it's a plot point.

They all arrive at Mr. Onadera's factory, where he tells Velma that she's a role model for future robotics engineers. "Thank you, Mr. Onadera," Velma says, "But Dogbot is nothing compared to YOUR robotic marvels..."

Yes, clearly Dogbot is inferior to Mr. Onadera's... robotic pillows?

Then the Ancient One shows up again. "You chose to ignore my warnings, Mr. Onadera!" he shouts. "Now suffer the ancient curse!" The curse, specifically, is for Mr. Onadera to turn into a giant monster whenever he falls asleep and destroy his own factory. He blows some magic sand or whatever Mr. Onadera's way, but Velma tells Dogbot to whip up an extra-large teriyaki pizza that promptly shields Mr. Onadera and catches the sand in its crust. The Ancient One leaves, and Mr. Onadera gives some exposition. "Thanks to Velma, the only thing he cursed was that pizza!" Daphne points out.

Fred is so high as a kite right now...

There's just one problem - Shaggy has been fast asleep this whole time, and he's woken up by the pizza's magically flying around his face. I don't know why the pizza can fly. Must be a side effect of the magic curse-inducing dust.

"Like, I love magical flying pizza!"

Shaggy promptly scarfs down the pizza, much to everyone else's horror. "Shaggy ate the cursed pizza!" Fred exclaims, and hearing the word "cursed" of course makes Shaggy nervous. Mr. Onadera reassures Shaggy that the Ancient One isn't magic, just some crazy old man, and therefore the probability of Shaggy becoming Godzilla whenever he falls asleep is, in his own words, "slim". This does not make Shaggy feel better...

That night, Mr. Onadera lets the gang sleep in his guest house. Shaggy took the liberty of chaining his foot to the floor so that even if he DOES change into a monster, he won't be able to go anywhere. But just to be extra-safe, he's not going to fall asleep either.

"So, like, then I told Fred 'Dude, like, Daphne totally has the hots for me!', and
then Fred, like, he was all, like, 'No way! She has the hots for ME!' and then
I was all, like..."

Alas, the jet-lag does its thing and soon Shaggy is out like a light. We then cut to the streets of Tokyo being destroyed by a giant monster who bears a striking resemblance to Shaggy.

If only one of the villagers had some Scooby Snacks on them... then they could just say, "Giant monster, would you stop destroying Tokyo for a Scooby Snack?" and everything would be good.

It's really hard to make a giant monster who looks like Shaggy frightening.
Especially when their belly button is exposed.

The next morning, Shaggy and Scooby are woken up by Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Dogbot offering them breakfast in bed. Of course Scooby's all over that, but Shaggy says that he's not hungry - which even he is surprised by. Then a policewoman, Lieutenant Tanaka (Gwendoline Yeo), shows up and tells them that Shaggy destroyed their village in the form of a giant monster. Jeez, lady, at least give Shaggy a chance to change out of his pajamas before you start chewing him out. Shaggy protests that he chained himself to the floor, but as it turns out, the chain was bitten-through by razor-sharp teeth. "Zoinks! Like, I AM a monster!" Shaggy exclaims.

Later on, Shaggy and Scooby help themselves to some noodles as Fred, Daphne, and Velma try to figure out this mystery that they've got on their hands. "There's got to be a logical explanation for this..." Velma insists. Noticing a giant footprint nearby, Daphne asks, "What's the logical explanation for THAT?!"

Little-known fact about Shaggy - his foot size is a five-hundred. It makes shoe-shopping
for him very difficult.

Upon seeing the footprint, Shaggy yells, "ZOINKS!", which gets the attention of many of the village's residents. "HA! That IS the sound of the monster!" one man snaps. "The Ancient One put his curse on YOU! YOU destroyed our village!" Yeah, apparently the Ancient One and his putting a curse on somebody because he was all bent out of shape over their building a wharf is juts common knowledge in this town. On top of that, Lieutenant Tanaka shows up and announces that Shaggy is under arrest. Fortunately, the gang manages to escape by hitching a ride on the back of a bullet train. "Wow!" Fred says, "This is what I call rapid transit!" Daphne replies, "This is the bullet train, Freddy! And judging from my hair, I'd say we're going two hundred and ten miles an hour!" Because in this show, Daphne can't go one episode without making at least one comment about her hair and/or her clothes. Eventually, they all manage to climb inside the dining car, but alas, Lieutenant Tanaka shows up and grabs Shaggy. Fortunately, Daphne accidentally pulls the emergency brake, allowing them to get away.

Oh yeah, and there's also a Running Gag where Dogbot helps the gang somehow and they sing his praises, which makes Scooby feel bummed. He's dealt with this sort of thing before, and it turned out that the robot dog was evil, so I don't really blame him for being mad.

Fred reassures Shaggy that now that they're in Downtown Tokyo surrounded by hundreds of other people, there's no way that Lieutenant Tanaka will find him. "Four American tourists, a Great Dane, and a robot. Sure, Fred. We'll blend right in," Velma replies. And then, wouldn't you know it, Velma runs into Elliot. Remember him? Apparently, his folks took him to Japan as a consolation prize for not winning the Science Fair. To be a jerk, he decides to alert the police of Shaggy's presence, sending the gang on the run again. They try to disguise themselves as monks, but Elliot gives them away again.

"That's the worst Obi-Wan Kenobi costume that I've ever seen!"

Well, it's time for the once an episode "Chase sequence set to music" sequence. After the gang gets away, Velma says that they should get off the street before the police find them again. Shaggy points out a hotel that they can stay in for the night.

Once they're all checked in, Shaggy says that he'd prefer to sleep in a giant iron cage that the hotel just so happens to have in its lobby. The man at the front desk dubs this "highly unorthodox", but all it takes for him to let Shaggy sleep in there is for Daphne to seduce him. So Shaggy goes to sleep in the cage, and the others find out that their "rooms" are actually more like tiny compartments. "It's a Tokyo Tube Hotel, Freddy," Velma explains, "Where the economical meets the cramped."

I sure hope none of them are claustrophobic.

However, before any of them can get any sleep, they all hear a loud noise and rush out to the lobby to discover that Shaggy smashed his way out of the cage and is now rampaging through Tokyo as a giant monster.

"LIKE, SHAGGY CRUSH PUNY MEDDLING KIDS!"

Shagzilla tries to step on the gang, but Dogbot shields them and they run after him. "Shaggy sure runs a lot faster with twenty-foot legs!" Fred points out. Fortunately, the sun comes up, and soon they find Shaggy, human once again, fast asleep and hungry as per usual. He tells the others that they should turn him in, but of course they're not going to do that, because they're nice people as opposed to massive jerks who hate each other (coughcoughlikeintheawfulliveactionmoviescoughcough). Instead, Velma decides to call up Professor Pomfreit for help. He tells her they meet him at Oshakusha Temple. But uh-oh, Lieutenant Tanaka is listening in on their conversation!

Daphne uses black mascara and a stapler to disguise the gang as they bike to Oshakusha Temple, but alas, Lieutenant Tanaka recognizes them. Dogbot uses popcorn to discombobulate the police as the gang runs like heck. Well, at least Fred, Daphne and Velma do... Shaggy escapes via a rickshaw pulled by Dogbot. And he's starting to get sleepy. "Musn't sleep... turn into monster..." he moans as he drifts off to sleep...

When Shaggy wakes up, he discovers that he's become a giant monster, much to his horror. On the bright side, this time he's still sapient.

"And I JUST GOT these pants!"

He starts sobbing about how he's all alone, but then Velma, Fred, Daphne, Scooby, and Dogbot show up, and he assumes that they're all now giants. Turns out they're all just standing in a detailed model of Tokyo - they followed Dogbot to an abandoned movie studio. And Shaggy's not a monster, some guys just dressed him up like one while he was sleeping for some reason. And since Shaggy DIDN'T become a monster after falling asleep, this proves that he was not, in fact, the big ugly monster stomping around Tokyo every night since he arrived. Thus, they all head to Mr. Onadera's factory so they can figure out who ordered Dogbot to bring Shaggy to the studio in the first place.

"Jinkies! Why is Mr. Onadera running around the factory in his underwear?!"

At the factory, Velma notices that Elliot is also there, kissing up to Mr. Onadera. "Why that jinkin'..." she mutters, then Daphne suggests that maybe Elliot knows the truth about the monster. But before they can ask him, Shagzilla shows up again and they all make a run for it. Eventually, Scooby manages to take down the monster (with some help from Dogbot).

"Now let's see who's REALLY behind the attack of the fifty-foot Shaggy!" Velma announces before using some wasabi to, uh, melt the monster's face, revealing that the culprit is none other than Professor Pomfrit. She explains that she knew it was him because the monster didn't show up until HE did, and he decided to take advantage of the conflict between Mr. Onadera and the Ancient One to frame Shaggy. "When Shaggy ate the cursed pizza," she says, "Pomfrit rigged Dogbot to respond to HIS remote commands, and get the sleeping Shaggy away from the action, so we thought HE was the monster." Why did he do this? Well, apparently Pomfrit is jealous of Mr. Onadera's success. "Why is HE rich when I'M just an underpaid high-school teacher?!" he complains. However, on his way he at least apologizes to Velma for using her invention for his evil scheme.

When Mr. Onadera brings up the Ancient One, Lieutenant Tanaka claims that there's no such thing as "the Ancient One", which makes Shaggy assume that he's a spirit. Regardless, Mr. Onadera decides to build his new wharf somewhere else. Velma then gives Elliot to Dogbot - he finally has a dog that he won't be allergic to.

"That was really sweet of you, Velma," Daphne says, "But aren't you going to miss Dogbot?" "No. I may have given Dogbot a supersized brain," Velma replies, giving Scooby a hug, "But that just can't compete with Scooby-Doo's supersized heart." And so the episode ends with this adorable moment:

All together now: D'AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAW...

WHAT'S THE VERDICT?

I'll admit that What's New, Scooby-Doo? isn't quite as ambitious as Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated, but in my opinion it's a lot more fun. Scooby-Doo isn't supposed to be dark and edgy, just a fun romp with some meddling kids and a dog solving a mystery. It didn't go too "modern" or update things too much in order to make the show "with the times" or whatever. It didn't make any of the characters more annoying (Daphne's constant yammering about shopping and clothes can get pretty grating, but I'll gladly take that over Be Cool, Scooby-Doo's turning Daphne into a Pinkie Pie clone) or derail them into out-of-character jerks. And when the show is funny, it's genuinely funny. I definitely recommend checking the show out.

My next review is going to be of a film called Animals United. It's one of those "protect the environment and all of the animals that live in it" films. See you then.