Scooby-Doo Revitalized the Franchise by Embracing Its Roots
Scooby-Doo has more than earned its status as one of the greatest kids franchises. In the 1990s, the franchise was revitalized for a new generation.
Since 1969, Scooby-Doo has been one of the most enduring, successful and treasured Saturday morning cartoons in TV and film history. With dozens of movies and thirteen cartoon series, it's one of the best examples of a classic franchise being handed down between generations of fans. While it has undergone many incarnations and styles, the 1990s saw the greatest revitalization of the franchise since it started.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? premiered in September 1969 with its pilot episode, "What A Knight For A Night." Hanna-Barbera gave younger audiences something fresh in the Saturday morning cartoon genre: a horror show. Of course, this wasn't in any way graphic or violent, but it was on par with the kinds of horror films that were popular in the decades prior, such as the movies of Vincent Price. The franchise has since paid direct homage to the actor, and horror is simply in its DNA. However, as the franchise moved beyond the 1960s, it had to find new ways to stay relevant with younger viewers and underwent a series of changes. The franchise entered a slump period going into the 1990s, with several unpopular changes and reformatting efforts alienating many fans. However, as the decade came to an end, the franchise experienced an unexpected revitalization that gave birth to some of its greatest stories.
Scooby-Doo's Many Reinventions
After the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? series was a hit with fans, not only did Hanna-Barbera reformat the series, but it basically made it the template for all new series, too. Shows like Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Captain Caveman and Hong Kong Phooey all took their cues from the adventures of Scooby and Mystery Incorporated. The series itself returned with a new concept in The New Scooby-Doo Movies, a show that had Scooby and friends team up with celebrities. Everyone from Sonny and Cher and Batman and Robin to Dick Van Dyke and the Three Stooges showed up to aid the gang in their mysteries. From there on out, almost every subsequent show was, in some way, a reformat except The Scooby-Doo Show, which was a return to the original series. Recently, the divisive Velma series marked the latest reimagining of the franchise.
But the most extreme changes to the Scooby-Doo franchise came with the appearance of Scooby's nephew, Scrappy, and the era of "babyfication" in A Pup Named Scooby-Doo. While the debut of Scrappy did actually reel in new viewers among kids of the '80s, the character became a joke, and he soon wore thin with fans. While some do have fond memories of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, it just wasn't as successful as it should have been, and Scooby fell off the Saturday morning cartoon schedule. The 1990s risked closing out with Scooby at his most obscure and furthest from his original depiction until the creation of the so-called "Mook movies," named after the animation studio that made them. These movies gave the characters more depth than previous entries, exploring more of their civilian lives away from one another and placing them in darker mysteries.
After the Mook movies ended, Warner Bros. and Cartoon Network embraced a modern spin on the classic series in What's New, Scooby-Doo? This series made good use of the classic formula while also using themes of modern technology to make the mysteries even more perplexing for the gang, including a giant-sized Godzilla episode. This series had its own movies, too, which certainly borrowed from the themes of the Mook movies, most notably in Pirates Ahoy! and Legend of the Vampire. More recent series, such as Mystery Incorporated and Velma, have also explored a darker world for the gang, though to very mixed reception. That said, it's hard to deny the popular '90s movies solidified the return of the original gang in their regular state.
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island Changed Everything
The release of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island wasn't just an embrace of the original formula. The movie began with a classic mystery, later revealing that the gang had gone their separate ways. Daphne and Fred had joined the TV business, Velma ran a book store, and Shaggy and Scooby worked airport security. Interestingly, this parting of ways after a case also served as the opening hook for Raja Gosnell and James Gunn's movie. This shouldn't come as a surprise, considering On Zombie Island was released the same year Warner Bros. announced they'd be making a live-action Scooby-Doo movie, and the animated film was incredibly popular. It's hard not to see the many parallels between the '98 movie and the 2002 one, right down to the gang being trapped on an island and a mystical sacrifice.
On Zombie Island followed the gang as they reunited, promptly getting back into the mystery-solving business, going on a road trip to New Orleans for Daphne's birthday. When they reached Louisiana, they were invited by a local to spend some time in a house on Moonscar Island, situated in the bayou and supposedly haunted. Soon after, the gang began experiencing paranormal events, which culminated with the emergence of zombies from the swamp. As the gang attempted to flee, they were confronted with an even more horrifying reality: their hosts were murderous cat creatures, and the zombies were their victims. This made for the darkest twist in the entire franchise, still unmatched to this day. It also laid the foundations for its three sequels: The Witch's Ghost, Alien Invaders and The Cyber Chase. Each of these movies followed the same in-depth look at the characters with real monsters.
The Mook movies also excelled in another key aspect: They caught the attention of older fans. After almost a full decade of Scrappy and the infantilized Scooby gang, many older generations of fans had lost interest in the franchise as it became somewhat patronizing. Though these projects did still get views, they didn't have the same retention, especially as the animation market diversified. These four movies didn't just help pave the way for new Scooby-Doo projects -- they gave the franchise a new lease on life thanks to the return of its cross-generational appeal. A solid combination of more modern stories with nostalgia created excellent family movies. The franchise was no longer an infantilized joke and earned its old status as the franchise parents were happy to watch with their kids.
Scooby-Doo Works Best by Being Dark
One of the notable aspects of post-Mook Scooby-Doo is how the best-animated movies all incorporated stronger horror themes into their stories. To date, the best-animated film after the Mook movies ended was Camp Scare, a story that may as well have been a kid-friendly slasher. This film follows the gang as they become camp counselors, taking a few kids under their wing for summer. However, they are soon set upon by a horrifying, ax-wielding woodsman, not to mention other monsters. The movie stands as one of the best testament to the influence the Mook movies had on the franchise and is the darkest entry after On Zombie Island.
Scooby-Doo's basic idea is kid-friendly horror mysteries, and that's when it works best. Attempts to lean more toward Wacky Races-style cartoon comedy can be a nice change of pace once in a while, but it doesn't fit the franchise on the whole. Scooby and the gang are at their best when they're confronted with monsters, ghosts, and demons, and it's the suspenseful nature of their mysteries that sets them apart from other cartoon characters. Embracing the darker tone of the original series and its creepy creatures saved the franchise for a new generation. The movies remain a masterclass in showing how to mature a kid franchise without making it inaccessible to any one group of fans. Even a retrospective of the original series and seeing which villains endured as the most popular, like the Creeper, show this is optimal for the franchise.
On Zombie Island Is Still the Best Movie
But even with all this new content in recent years, On Zombie Island and its three sequels have remained popular in the Scooby-Doo fandom, thanks to their treatment of the franchise and characters. These movies didn't treat their viewers as childishly as some of the other Scooby projects from the era and explored the characters' personalities. For the first time, fans were shown the lives of the gang outside solving mysteries, and that served as a great way of showing how the gang belongs and is at its best together. This deeper look at the gang and their villains continues to pay off almost every time it's used, and people still hold the Mook movies up as the standard-bearers of the franchise.
There have been some brilliant animated projects that followed in the footsteps of On Zombie Island, and they all owe something to the Mook movies. The ability of these films to embrace the original formula while also adding new depth is exactly what fans want from it, and most deviations from this have been unpopular. Scooby-Doo has remained in active production since, and fans can reliably expect a new animated movie on an almost yearly basis. These films go between styles, but the best-received and most enduring ones show that what keeps people around is the dark and suspenseful nature of the originals. Embracing that in the 1990s took the franchise to its peak and saved it from fading into obscurity.