Tag: Scooby-Doo

Zoiks! It’s a Scooby-Doo and KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery Review

Scooby-Doo!_and_Kiss-_Rock_and_Roll_Mystery
Available on Amazon USA

By Ed Sum
(The Vintage Tempest)

Gene Simmons is definitely one shrewd businessman. He knows how to market KISS and keep the band’s brand alive for more than 40 years. In that time, he’s made attempts into getting into acting (more so for himself) and for the group, comic books and various paraphernalia. Eventually that will lead into crossovers with popular characters for a particular era. Very few will remember their appearance in Marvel Comics‘ Howard the Duck. They made their own series with Image Comics and in some ways, they’ve returned to this realm of crossovers in their own animated special Scooby-Doo! & KISS: Rock and Roll Mystery.

This direct to DVD product is more about the band of musicians than the mystery solving gang. The in-jokes with supporting characters and objects that reference their songs are everywhere. The product placements to even fictional items are downright ridiculous. It’s hardly hilarious, but at least this one-off film does to KISS what the original 2012-13 Mystery Incorporated did to create an encompassing mythology that explains who this group is. They’re from a realm called Kissteria and they guard a mysterious Black Diamond that they carry with them on their tours. Although it doesn’t grant them powers, it is a key to a prison that must never be unlocked. The Scooby gang get involved in a mystery of a frantic Crimson Witch who looks like she should belong in a Power Rangers product. She’s looking for the gemstone so an evil Destroyer can be awakened. When Shaggy and Scooby meet her, the usual antics take place, and eventually the team will find answers to why she must have it.

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Criticisms Towards LEGO’s Incorporating Scooby Doo

By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

lego mm

LEGO’s mighty empire is going to get scarier with the inclusion of Scooby Doo into its line of licensed franchise properties. This deal will certainly reignite interest to some degree, but for fans who loved the darker take in Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated, the chances of that kind of continuation will be sorely missed.

With the next cartoon, Be Cool Scooby-Doo, scheduled for broadcast later this year, the back to basics approach will have a selective appeal by older fans. Younger viewers will most likely eat it up, but the worry is with Warner Bros. Animation producing a 22-minute animated LEGO special featuring the characters. If it’s going to follow in the same direction as the painful to watch LEGO Yoda Chronicles than the excellently written Ninjago or Legends of Chima, the characterizations of the beloved Scooby gang are going to suffer. The series might take on a familiar design tone like in Scooby-Doo! Adventures: The Mystery Map, where puppets were used.

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Yoiks! Scooby Doo is returning to the Big Screen!

Scooby-gang-1969By Ed Sum (The Vintage Tempest)

And this iteration will not be live-action. The surprise here is that the previous big screen treatments did very well to get Warner Bros to green-light a different treatment of the world’s most popular sleuthing canine. There are no details yet as to what the story will be about, but the news from Variety says that Charles Roven and Richard Suckle will be producing this film.

These two producers helped bring the live action versions to life, and they will be back to make more cinema magic. Warner Bros. hired writer Matt Lieberman to pen this continuing theatrical treatment.

Now the big question will be in who will be returning to voice the seminial characters of Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo? Frank Welker will no doubt be back, and hopefully Grey DeLisle, Mindy Cohn and Matthew Lillard will be considered. They have been the mainstays for recent direct-to-video releases but they are the best remembered crew who did Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated.

Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated Series Analysis and DVD Review

The plots were simple and the latest series, Scooby-Doo, Mystery Incorporated, takes the concept further. Nearly all the cases the Scooby gang investigates are linked in some way.

Scooby Doo Mystery IncorporatedThe concept of having a talking Great Dane as a mascot to a gang of paranormal mystery solving enthusiasts was introduced in September of 1969, and the cartoon Scooby-Doo Where Are You! became a resounding success. The television show underwent many incarnations throughout the years and many kids watched a version of the show before going to school or as part of the Saturday morning routine. The plots were simple and the latest series, Scooby-Doo, Mystery Inc, takes the concept further. Nearly all the cases the Scooby gang investigates are linked in some way. And now it can be enjoyed with the series fully available on DVD. The last set was released in June.

Part of season one dealt with the Scooby gang discovering that they are part of an exclusive club. Apparently there was another group before them who created Mystery Incorporated, and both fellowships shared similar goals. To have this series slowly reveal details about this older group is intriguing and when the current gang discovers a legend about cursed treasure akin to what existed in the movie Pirates of the Caribbean, the stage has been set. The gang slowly finds pieces of an astrolabe known as the Planispheric Disk, and they have to put it together before the coming of Nibiru, aka Planet X.

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