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There’s no escaping from Scooby-Doo. Since its debut
in 1969, it has spawned countless pieces of merchandise,
spin-off series, and has cemented its place in the American
pop culture. Amongst the most popular of the spin-off series
was A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, which debuted in the late eighties
and ran for four short seasons. ***
Starting in the eighties, a trend began that has continued
to this day in animation – when you’ve done everything you
can with animated characters, you make them younger and
rehash the original series. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo is one
of many animated series that formed from this trend. Here
Scooby is a puppy and the four main human characters who
do their mystery solving are younger as well. In this sense,
it’s a prequel of sorts to the series that feature them
as older characters. ***
Like most of the Scooby series, there is a lot of voice
talent included. This was the final series in which Don
Messick, the original voice of Scooby since 1969, voiced
the character. And as with most of the series, radio personality
Casey Kasem voices the idiotic Shaggy. ***
In many ways the characters featured here are parodies
of the characters they would grow into. For instance, Fred,
the leader and brains of the operations, is more-or-less
without a clue here. The show stays true to the spirit of
the older series, and20unlike a lot of the other “baby-fied”
series like this, this one is actually pretty good. I’m
not the biggest Scooby fan around, but no fan of the character
will be disappointed with what is available here. ---
Image and Sound:
Ugh. This is a terrific show, but it’s clear the people
at Warner Bros. left resident idiots Scooby and Shaggy in
charge of putting the show on DVD instead of computer genius
Velma. In other words, this is not a good transfer. It shows
signs of age and warped colors throughout. Watchable, yes,
but i t looks like a second-rate VHS copy. Audio hasn’t
held up much better, which really disappoints during the
musical numbers. ---
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