The Scooby-Doo franchise is nearly 55 years old, but is still going pretty strong. Its characters are still recognizable and relevant today, and it is one of those franchises that keeps churning out direct-to-video movies and other projects every once in a while. Even though the quality has been kind of inconsistent at times. Some of the recent movies have been less than stellar, and their most recent animated series aimed at adults Velma has been divisive to say the least (and that’s about all I have to say about it, considering I never got past the first episode – something that I would have never expected from a Scooby cartoon!), but most of the Scooby projects have been successful enough to warrant making more.
It feels like there’s not much the franchise hasn’t tried out by now, to keep things fresh and sometimes re-invent the classic formula of teenage mystery solvers and their pet/mascot dog running into monsters and ghosts wherever they go. These are either real life monsters or only people disguised as such, as part of rather complex schemes to try and do something illegal. A “Scooby-Doo Hoax” has kind of become a trope itself. Scooby has been a part of pop culture for a few decades now. Bringing in real monsters was bound to happen, sooner or later. Something that hasn’t exactly been done yet is a Scooby-Doo anime. As a genre, anime is still pretty popular these days and various shows have been inspired by some Japanese works. Some have even tried copying or offering homages and tributes to specific anime, either classic works or more recent “mainstream” titles. Enter… Go-Go Mystery Machine.
With only a promotional image and a short synopsis released so far, it’s probably too early to form a proper opinion on this upcoming show. The rest of this editorial will address some of my first impressions, and more ramblings about the Scooby franchise in general.
The synopsis for Go-Go Mystery Machine reads: “While visiting Japan on the ultimate foodie adventure, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo unwittingly unleash hundreds of mischievous mythical monsters that are now causing trouble all over the country. Scooby turns to his uncle, Daisuke-Doo, and magical friend Etsuko and gadget wiz Toshiro to help solve the mystery and catch the monsters”.
Let’s break this down a bit.
1. As the log-line implies, Scooby and Shaggy seem to be the only classic characters here. It’s entirely possible the rest of the original Scooby Gang might still appear, occasionally. But the focus will be on the hippie boy and his dog. This isn’t a first in Scooby history, as the gang wasn’t always together. In the 1980s, the shows experimented with splitting them apart, and focusing on Scooby and Shaggy (and Scooby’s nephew, Scrappy), and slowly brought back the others, starting with Daphne. A more recent and extreme example was Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! from 2006. There were also plans for a “Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Pups” series, where Scooby & Shaggy were teaming up with a group of puppies, as the title implies, but that was one of the Warner Bros. projects that ended up being cancelled for one reason or another, in the last couple of years.
In short, Scooby and Shaggy are usually together, no matter what. Even when the rest of the gang is around, the two are paired together, more often than not. The focus on Scooby is understandable given he is the star. Keeping Shaggy around not only reinforces their friendship over the years, but also provides more comedic relief scenes to balance out the mysterious or creepy atmosphere the shows have. It’s also fun to see what new ways the crew working on these shows find to make the duo entertaining, especially in their attempts to trick the monsters and running away from them.
2. Japan should provide a nice setting for the show. Taking into account its anime inspiration it’s a given, but exploring the country’s culture and paranormal phenomenon could be a nice change of pace. Similar to the above, this isn’t the first time the Scooby characters have traveled to Japan. They have solved a few mysteries there over the years, including “The Demon of the Dugout” (1979), “Big Appetite in Little Tokyo” (2003), “The Curse of Kaniaku” (2017), or “The Sword, The Fox, and the Scooby-Doo!” (2020, guest-starring Mark Hamill). There was also the 2009 animated movie Scooby-Doo! and the Samurai Sword, as well as earlier plans for a “Scooby-Doo and the Anime Invasion” movie, that was never produced (co-incidentally, the title of this editorial is a take on that unproduced feature).
Going by the preview image alone, I cannot identify any of those monsters as specific ones from Japanese folklore but I am not an expert. Regardless, I do like the art style and as the synopsis says, these are supposed to be real life monsters. Something else that will probably be addressed will be the Japanese cuisine, considering Scooby & Shaggy have traveled the world on their stomachs and have eaten just about every dish possible. This was actually a plot point during their trip to Japan on Be Cool, Scooby-Doo (The image at the top of the article comes from that show, if readers couldn’t place it). Japan should provide an interesting backdrop for the series. Considering today’s climate and that this is Scooby-Doo after all, it’s also unlikely the show will create any controversy or anything like that in their depiction of the country and its inhabitants. Now, it remains to be seen just how popular this interpretation will be on an international level, including Japan but chances are it will have a positive reception.
3. The plot point that Scooby & Shaggy would accidentally unleash monsters and now have to catch them, is basically what already happened on The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo (1985). There, they were assisted by Daphne, Scrappy and new, original characters such as Flim Flam and Vincent Van Ghoul (a mix of Vincent Van Goh and Vincent Price, who also provided his voice here). As with many other semi serialized cartoons from the ’80s, that story never really wrapped up by the end of the final episode. A DTV movie was produced several years later, in the form of Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost (2019) which was supposed to tie up some of the lose ends but in my opinion, failed to live up to its expectations and also didn’t exactly match up with the established continuity, either.
The similarities between this and Go-Go Mystery Machine continue, as this new cast of characters also includes one of Scooby’s relatives (well, his uncle and not his nephew), a magical friend and a gadget wiz. Vincent was a powerful sorcerer, at least in this initial series. Flim Flam wasn’t exactly a gadget wiz, just a street wise kid who was more of a con artist, but it does seem kind of similar. As an ensemble cast, it worked once and here’s hoping it will work again on this newly announced show. Go-Go Mystery Machine perhaps has a better chance of finishing up its story, given most serialized shows these days try to have their season finales wrap up as many plots as possible.
4. Scooby’s uncle, Daisuke-Doo. The franchise has brought in a bunch of relatives for Scooby over the years. The aforementioned nephew Scrappy might have appeared the most, in hindsight. It would seem not many people actually care about the character, but I never really had a problem with him and feel that he is a bit over-hated. A few more recent projects have made fun of him, including the first live-action movie from 2002. Other relatives included Scooby’s cousins (i.e., Scooby-Dum, Scooby-Dee, Yabba-Doo, and others), as well as his parents, Mumsy and Dada-Doo. For this new iteration, Daisuke-Doo is an original character and is also the first one of Scooby’s relatives I can think of, that is a different breed rather than a Great Dane.
It’s been a while since the franchise tried inventing a new relative for Scooby himself. More often than not, they only focused on the family trees of the others members of the gang. Uncles, parents, siblings and pretty much everything else in-between has been used over the years. It’s nice whenever a Doo family reunion occurs, especially when it’s a relative you didn’t know existed before.
5. Final, initial thoughts. As mentioned above, there’s not a lot of material out yet to form a proper opinion on this upcoming project. But I am interested in seeing how it plays out. There’s some potential there and I have watched and enjoyed just about every Scooby project over the years. And I do plan on checking this out as well, whenever it premieres. Here’s hoping it will be a fun and entertaining show. I liked most of the more serious takes on the franchise but I think Scooby is first and foremost a comedy, with some spooky elements and mysteries sprinkled throughout. Also, I feel it should appeal to viewers of all ages, and not try to alienate a specific demographic at the expense of another.
Go-Go Mystery Machine is currently in development at Warner Bros. Animation and Cartoon Network Studios.
