SCOOBY DOO - WHERE ARE YOU?: Blu-ray (Hanna-Barbera, 1969-70 and 78) Warner Home Video

It is a fairly safe assumption that any child of television-viewing age, growing up in the mid to late 1970’s probably had a favorite cartoon they watched with the fervor others ascribe to their daytime soaps. For a lot of us then, that choice was Scooby-Doo: Where Are You? (1969-70); Hanna-Barbera’s half-hour hit about a troop of ghost-chasing teenagers - Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Shaggy Rogers – and their easily spooked semi-anthropomorphic Great Dane, cracking cases that had, until their arrival, even baffled the local authorities. Oh, those ‘meddling kids!’ Given the instant appeal and runaway success of the series, it positively boggles all executive logic that the original franchise lasted barely two years on network television; to be rebooted with a ‘new’ adventures series for an additional season, and then, be endlessly knocked off by its creators as everything from Goober and the Ghost Chasers (1973-75), The Funky Phantom (1971), and Josie and the Pussy Cats (1970-71). In the intervening decades, the longevity of Scooby-Doo: Where Are You? has proven its worth in everything from comic books, to endlessly marketable merchandise, several more rebirths as an animated series, and then, ‘event-based’ direct-to-home-video animated movies, and finally, its live-action make-over in 2002 (with a few lackluster sequels to follow). Regardless of its permutations over the years, it’s the original 69/70 series that has remained front and center for a certain generation’s warm and fuzzy ‘feel good’ radar.

Truly, Joseph Hanna and William Barbera were geniuses in their medium; rising together like cream during Hollywood’s golden era, to produce the memorable Tom and Jerry shorts at MGM. In the process, their work would be nominated for 12 Oscars, with 7 winning Best Short Subject between 1943 and 1953.  Alas, owing to Hollywood’s power structure at the time, these accolades went to the producer, Fred Quimby – not Hanna and Barbera, whose work frequently found its way into some of the studio’s big-budgeted musicals like Anchors Aweigh (1945) and Dangerous When Wet (1953). After Quimby’s retirement in 1955, Hanna and Barbera graduated to being in charge of Metro’s animation department. Alas, by then, the golden age was already winding down – more so for studio shorts. While contemplating their future, the duo turned their efforts to TV commercials and a pitch for a half-hour cartoon serial about a dog and cat involved in happy-go-lucky misadventures. While MGM balked at the idea, live-action director, George Sidney helped engage Columbia Picture’s TV subsidiary, Screen Gems to strike a deal for 18% ownership in the fledgling company. Under the banner of H-B Enterprises, Hanna and Barbera were the first major animation studio to produce cartoons exclusively for television. Rather aggressively, their fortunes blossomed, thanks to a streamlining technique that greatly economized the animation process, and, the wildly successful debut of The Flintstones on ABC.

Based on The Honeymooners and running a trend-setting 6-years in primetime (a record held until The Simpsons), The Flintstones proved animation could be sold to adults as well as children, and, in time slot usually afforded life-action sit-coms and/or dramas. With an assembly line formula firmly in place – so predictable, in fact, that Hanna and Barbera were dubbed ‘the General Motors of animation’ – the pair’s creations proliferated Saturday morning network cartoon programming with a market saturation nearing 80% at its climax; the dawn of this staggeringly profitable era, kick-started by Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!  Today, the blending of crime-solving and comedy seems a foregone conclusion. But in 1969, the year CBS took a gamble on Scooby-Doo, the concept was not only considered unique, but risky. Would audiences sit through a weekly mini-mystery in cartoon form? The answer was an unequivocal and emphatic ‘yes!’ Given the popularity of the program, CBS’s decision to discontinue distributing it after barely two seasons is thoroughly bizarre. And the franchise was to quickly find a new home at ABC for its unofficial ‘third’ season, debuting in 1978. While all three seasons ran in syndication well into the 1980’s, usually as part of Hanna-Barbera’s Laugh-o-lympics 2-hour Saturday morning cartoon marathon, the team was also busy finding new – if not better – ways to take advantage of the original show’s popularity; introducing ‘star personalities’ into a ‘new-new’ reboot entitled ‘The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries’. Alas, these concentrated more on the inclusion of celebrity talent than crime-solving and quickly fell out of favor with the public.  

To mark the 50th Anniversary of the original series, Warner Home Video has debuted a handsome, ‘limited edition’ box set - 4 discs, containing all 3 seasons (1969,70,78) plus a host of extras, sure to please fans. Only 9 of Season 3’s original sixteen episode run actually aired as Scooby-Doo: Where Are You?, the remaining 7, repackaged as Scooby’s All-Stars. Virtually all of Season 3’s episodes were later re-branded yet again as The Scooby-Doo Show and are represented in this format herein. Looking back at the franchise from today’s vantage of sophisticated computer animation is a bit like comparing the fluidity and finite precision of cell work achieved in Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) to the crude color-forms cutouts of South Park (1997-present) – apples to pomegranates. Setting aside these discrepancies, there is no getting around the fact that, from a purely technical and artistic vantage, Scooby-Doo was just one of Hanna-Barbera’s quick n’ dirty, ultra-streamlined product, shot under the most stringent of budgets and timelines, endlessly to reuse the show’s travelling mattes and generically conceived cell animation, not just from episode to episode, but within episodes ad nauseum. So, if the animation is second rate (and, be honest - it is), what likely remains endearing about the show is its’ voice characterizations, given long life and wonderful inflection by a small group of talented thespians: Frank Welker as the always level-headed Fred Jones, radio’s beloved Top 40 count-down DJ, Casey Kasem, as Shaggy “Zoiks!” Rogers, Don Messick as the ever-scared-of-his-own-shadow, Scooby-Doo, Nicole Jaffe as the bookish and probing Velma Dinkley, and, Indira Stefanianna, and, Heather North as Daphne Blake.  Stefanianna, who left the franchise after only its first season to follow her husband to New York, made an indelible impression, later – imperceptibly mimicked to perfection by North for all subsequent seasons, spin-offs and cartoon movie franchises.  Aside: I defy anyone to take notice of the change in Daphne’s voice from seasons one through three herein.  

Warner Home Video has done their homework here, preserving the imperfections, flubs and downright errors in continuity inherent in the original cell work. There is still dirt and dust trapped within these cells and you know what? It definitely adds to the appeal and charm of this vintage TV series. Where this new to Blu excels is, of course, in its color saturation – bold, rich and vibrant beyond anything it has ever looked like before – and, in extolling finite detail and grain structure. We applaud WHV for not applying some heavy-handed DNR to scrub away all the noise, dirt and such that was always a part of the organic make-up of this series.  The image has received some tender stabilization, correcting modest gate weave and color density discrepancies.  The image is also much clearer and sharper with well-defined edges around characters that never suffer from edge enhancement and show no outward signs of compression artifacts, despite an average of eleven episodes being crammed per disc with a decidedly low encode. Honestly, would it have broken WHV’s asset management bankroll to utilize a higher bit rate and spread these episodes over six discs instead of four? The 2.0 DTS is adequate, but may infuriate some purists as the option to view these episodes without the ‘laugh track’ – as they originally aired, is not present. The laugh track was added when all three seasons went into syndication after 1978.

Bonus materials are overcrowded onto the fourth disc. Newly created for this Blu-ray release is My Life with Scooby: Frank Welker’s Animated Journey, an 18-minute interview with ‘Fred’, and, A Scooby-Doo for Everyone, 8-minutes that attempt to contextualize the show’s popularity. We also have 50 Years of Scooby Snacks, 9-minutes devoted to Hanna-Barbera’s merchandising history, its ever-evolving roster of guest stars and pending projects, plus a trailer for the live stage show - Scooby-Doo and the Lost City of Gold. Ported over from Warner’s retired DVD release: Scooby-Doo The Whole World Loves You!, (18 minutes), The Eerie Mystery of the Scooby-Doo History (11 minutes) The Scooby-Doo Gang: In Their Own Words (5 minutes), Hanna-Barbera: From H to B (21 minutes), Scooby-Doo’s Ultimate Fans (12 minutes), Get the Picture, a 3 minutes of ‘how to’ draw the characters, Funky Fashions, 5-minutes about the character’s costumes, America Loves Scooby-Doo music video, Scooby-Doo Street Smarts, and trailers. Missing in action, the jukebox music sampler and the clickable trivia track. Finally, Warner’s has added a 32-page Scooby-Doo! Encyclopedia booklet by Benjamin Bird, a Pocket Pop! Vinyl Scooby-Doo key chain, plus a Digital Copy code.  Bottom line: while I must admit the show seems hokey and dated today, it nevertheless reconnected me to my warm childhood memories for vintage Hanna-Barbera product. I was born in 1971 and therefore missed out on Scooby-Doo proper when it initially aired. I caught the vapors of its ever-lasting appeal in 1978 when all three seasons were running concurrently on ABC, both as Saturday morning fodder, and week-day mid-afternoon filler, sandwiched between the afternoon soap operas and evening news, endlessly rerun for all the kiddies just coming home from grade school. For those who loved – and continue to love Scooby-Doo (and, I must admit, I am still among these ardent fans), Warner’s new Blu is definitely the way to go. “…if we can count on you, Scooby-Doo, I know we’ll catch that villain!” Enjoy!

FILM RATING (out of 5 – 5 being the best)

Season One – 4.5

Season Two – 4

Season Three – 3.5

VIDEO/AUDIO

4

EXTRAS

5+