What's New Scooby-Doo?: The Complete Third Season DVD Review

Scooby-Doo is a classic cartoon. What’s New Scooby-Doo?: The Complete Third Season is a complete insult to the original idea and magic that flourished in the 1970s. It’s absurd, catered, and thoroughly unentertaining.

It ran from 2002-2006 on the Kids’ WB and it perfectly fits the mold. If you looked at this series and had to pick an original channel and airtime era, it would be entirely too easy to come up with the correct answer. With its overly poppy theme song and attempts at introducing a quasi-pop-punk soundtrack, you will understand why Bill Hannah and Joe Barbera are rolling in their graves. Even with original voice stars Casey Kasem (Shaggy) and Frank Welker (Fred) accompanied with the new talents of Grey DeLisle (Daphne) and Facts of Life’s Mindy Cohn (Velma), this awkward oddly updated version of Scooby-Doo falls completely flat.

The animation is unimaginative in comparison to the original and lacks any kind of resonating style that will be remembered in later generations. The monsters aren’t original or remotely scary and the episodes are way too formulaic. At least the old episodes mixed it up in a way that was fresh. The level of comedy has decreased so much so that it is hardly noticeable. At least with the old series if you don’t think the jokes are funny you can chuckle at the laugh track.

The adventures try to raise the bar by traveling to exotic locales such as: Paris and Australia. Unfortunately, new cool places can’t help the shoddy writing and poor concepts.

The Special Features are also an ultimate disappointment. The Bonus 14th Episode (A Scooby-Doo Christmas) is both uninteresting and contrived. The “reveal” is so disenchanting that it’s no wonder it was never aired. However, the Do You Know Your Scooby? Test Your Knowledge feature is somewhat entertaining because it throws out semi-interesting trivia. Still, the presentation is hokey but I’m sure some children will enjoy it.

Scooby-Doo is one of the most beloved cartoon characters of all time and unfortunately because of studio and marketing quests for further profit from existing ideas, we must watch such classics be defiled.