Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?

I so far love this show! I will admit that the first episode wasn't the best, but it definitely gets a lot better. The group dynamic, chase scenes, comedy, and different guest stars really help bring the show together. I'm so glad to see the original animation styles after witnessing Be Cool Scooby-Doo. It fall a bit weak in that each episode doesn't quite have the "finding clues" and "looking for suspects" kind of feeling as shown in the previous Scooby-Doo series. It also does feel a bit rushed, hence why took off a star. But, as a long time Scooby-Doo fan, I think this show is super solid! Definitely would recommend watching, long time Scooby-Doo fan or not!

The last Scooby Doo TV show, "Be Cool, Scooby Doo", was poorly received and really lowered the reputation of the SD series, even though I personally think it isn't that bad and most of its flaws stemmed from behind the scenes drama. This show, "Scooby Doo and Guess Who", is a vast improvement over that series and is a great throwback to the classic show.

The show's animation is really crisp and has a vibrant color palette, but it also manages to capture the look and feel of a typical Hanna-Barbera show from the 60s. It even uses classic tactics such as the "wheel o' feet", and uses stock sound effects from the Hanna-Barbera library. It also references other Hanna-Barbera shows such as Magilla Gorilla, Speed Buggy, and the Funky Phantom. Unlike, BCSD, which tried to be comedy-focused, SDAGW focuses more on the story and characters, as well as the guest stars, and restores the characters back to their original personalities.

Speaking of the guest stars, the show usually does a really good job of inserting the stars into the story, and they work well off of the Scooby gang. They all seem like they're having the time of their life. However, sometimes they're underutilized. Like in the Abraham Lincoln episode, where he only appears for a few minutes, and most of the attention is on the Funky Phantom characters. My personal favorite stars that appeared were Wanda Sykes, Wonder Woman, Batman and Weird Al. I definitely recommend their episodes.

If you miss the classic Scooby Doo, this show is for you. Especially if you like The New Scooby Doo movies which this show is similar to.

Revenge of the Swamp Monster, whilst containing obvious flaws, delivers a promising start to the series. With a focus on more visual humour, rather than offbeat and unusual from Be Cool Scooby (However do expect a zany punchline to be delivered here and there), and an old fashioned sense of score and narrative. Fingers crossed the rest of the season delivers on such a similar aura of nostalgic fun!

Basically a belated continuation of/homage to The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972), but thankfully abandoning that series 43 minute format, and returning to the standard 22 minute. As in TNSDM, each episode features a guest star or stars (some real-life, some fictional characters).

Season 1: Revenge of the Swamp Monster (Chris Paul) ~ 7/10; A Mystery Solving Gang Divided (The Funky Phantom) ~ 7/10; Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors! (Wanda Sykes) ~ 6/10; Elementary, My Dear Shaggy! (Sherlock Holmes) ~ 8/10; Ollie Ollie In-Come Free! (Ricky Gervais) ~ 5/10; The Scooby of a Thousand Faces! (Wonder Woman) ~ 8/10; The Cursed Cabinet of Professor Madds Markson! (Penn and Teller) ~ 7/10; When Urkel-Bots Go Bad! (Steve Urkel) ~ 6/10; The Fastest Fast Food Fiend! (Jim Gaffigan) ~ 5/10; Attack of the Weird Al-osaurus! (Weird Al Yankovic) ~ 7/10; Now You Sia, Now You Don't! (Sia) ~ 7/10; Quit Clowning! (Kenan Thompson) ~ 10/10; What a Night for a Dark Knight! (Batman) ~ 10/10; The Nightmare Ghost of Psychic U! (Whoopi Goldberg) ~ 10/10; The New York Underground! (Halsey) ~ 8/10; The Sword, the Fox and the Scooby-Doo! (Mark Hamill) ~ 8/10; One Minute Mysteries! (The Flash) ~ 8/10; Hollywood Knights! (George Takei) ~ 7/10; Fear of the Fire Beast! (Steve Buscemi) ~ 8/10; Too Many Dummies! (Jeff Dunham and Darci Lynne Farmer) ~ 9/10; Dance Matron of Mayhem! (Maddie Ziegler) ~ 10/10; The Wedding Witch of Wainsly Hall (Jeff Foxworthy) ~ 8/10; A Run Cycle Through Time! (Malcolm McDowell) ~ 7/10; I Put a Hex on You! (The Hex Girls) ~ 9/10; The High School Wolfman's Musical Lament! (Christian Slater) ~ 9/10; Space Station Scooby! (Bill Nye and Neil deGrasse Tyson) ~ 8/10

This first season starts off so-so, but it does get stronger as it goes along, with some real 'gold standard' episodes as good as anything Scooby has done before (certainly better that The New Scooby-Doo Movies!).

Frank Welker (Fred/Scooby), Grey DeLise (Daphne), Matthew Lillard (Shaggy), and Kate Micucci (Velma) all nail it. There are some great, spooky locations, and some top drawer writing.

Overall, 8/10.

Season 2: The Phantom, The Talking Dog And The Hot Hot Hot Sauce (Kacey Musgraves) ~ 7/10; The Last Inmate! (Morgan Freeman) ~ 9/10; The Horrible Haunted Hospital of Dr. Phineas Phrag! (Kristen Schaal) ~ 7/10; The Hot Dog Dog! (Joey Chestnut) ~ 8/10; A Moveable Mystery! (Gigi Hadid) ~ 7/10; The Feast of Dr. Frankenfooder! (Alton Brown) ~ 6/10; A Fashion Nightmare! (Tim Gunn) ~ 8/10; Scooby on Ice! (Tara Lipinsky) ~ 9/10; Caveman on the Half Pipe! (Chloe Kim) ~ 7/10; The Crown Jewel of Boxing! (Laila Ali) ~ 6/10; The Internet on Haunted House Hill! (Liza Koshy) ~ 7/10; The 7th Inning Scare! (Macklemore) ~ 7/10; The Dreaded Remake of Jekyll & Hyde! ( Sandy Duncan) ~ 8/10; Total Jeopardy (Alex Trebek) ~ 6/10; Dark Diner of Route 66! (Axl Rose) ~ 8/10; Lost Soles of Jungle River! (Jason Sudeikis) ~ 8/10; The Tao of Scoob (Lucy Liu) ~ 8/10; Returning of the Key Ring! (Sean Astin) ~ 6/10; Cher, Scooby and the Sargasso Sea (Cher) ~ 7/10; The Lost Mines of Kilimanjaro! (Jessica Biel) ~ 6/10; The Legend of the Gold Microphone (Reverend Run) ~ 8/10; Scooby-Doo and the Sky Town Cool School (Billy Dee Williams) ~ 6/10; Falling Star Man (Terry Bradshaw) ~ 6/10; A Haunt of a Thousand Voices! (Frank Welker, Grey DeLisle, Matthew Lillard, Kate Micucci) ~ 9/10; Scooby-Doo, Dog Wonder! (Blue Falcon and Dynomutt) ~ 6/10; The Movieland Monsters! (Carol Burnett) ~ 6/10

Unlike the first season, season 2 has no 10/10 episodes - but also unlike the first season it has no 5/10 episodes either! As a Brit there were more guests that I was unfamiliar with this time around, but they all enter into the spirit and there's a lot of fun. Again, Frank Welker (Fred/Scooby), Grey DeLisle (Daphne), Matthew Lillard (Shaggy), and Kate Micucci (Velma) are faultless.

Overall, 7/10

Season 1 is the better of the two, but both are worth buying. Overall rating for the two seasons combined... 7.5/10.

Scooby-Doo's 50th anniversary has been a rough one. With the DTV film Curse Of The 13th Ghost getting mixed reviews (with some criticizing it for not being true to the show it was supposed to give closure) and the new DTV, Return To Zombie Island, getting the same results (with some criticizing it for repeating the same mistakes 13th Ghost made), it seems that it may not be a good anniversary for the great dane that has solved mysteries since 1969. However, Scooby-Doo And Guess Who? is the one gem of this rocky anniversary.

With this, Warner Bros. actually brought back the original designs, ditching the horrendous cartoony designs used for Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! (which only lasted for two seasons). What makes this show great is that it revisits the concept done in The New Scooby-Doo Moves: each episode, the Mystery Inc. gang is joined by a special guest to solve the mystery of the episode, which consisted of real-life celebrities from the time like Don Knotts and the Harlem Globetrotter to fictional characters like Batman & Robin and Josie & The Pussycats. However, this show uses more recent stars, like Weird Al Yankovic, Kenan Thompson, and Penn & Teller, to fictional characters like Wonder Woman, Sherlock Holmes and even Steve Urkel.

While the episodes are thirty minutes long, it feels like the Scooby-Doo cartoons back then. The fictional characters are kept in-character (especially Steve Urkel, who is still a nerd and annoying). However, some episodes can be hit-or-miss (like the Wanda Sykes episode, which some people hated because of how Magilla Gorilla was done). But it is a good show that fixes a lot of mistakes done in Be Cool and manages to capture the feel of The New Scooby-Doo movies, even with thirty-minute episodes.