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Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated is a reboot of the classic series, featuring Shaggy (Matthew Lillard), Scooby Doo, Fred, (both voiced by Frank Welker), Daphne (Grey DeLisle), and Velma (Mindy Cohn). Matthew Lillard takes over voicing Shaggy, but amusingly Casey Kasem (the original voice of Shaggy) is still around, voicing Shaggy’s dad.
Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated is a little darker in tone than the original Scooby Doo cartoons, but kids will enjoy all of the “monsters” that the gang encounters – and the gang will always and forever be accused of being “meddling kids.”
In this latest incarnation of the series the gang lives in a small town called Crystal Cove, the “Most Haunted-est Place on Earth.” The kids spend their time not just unraveling individual mysteries but some of the town’s dark secrets as well. “Mr. E.” (mystery, get it?) feeds them hints along the way to help solve a deep, dark secret from Crystal Cove’s past. The kids also are experiencing growing pains, wondering if their partnership has run its course, a theme that runs throughout the episodes.
In Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated – Season One, Volume 3, the four episodes are:
“Battle of the Humungonauts” – While two giant monsters attack Crystal Cove, Shaggy and Velma share a kiss, much to the alarm of Scooby. Is his old friend going to abandon him?
“Howl of the Fright Hound” – Crystal Cove is under fire once again, this time by a scary dog known as the Fright Hound. Scooby Doo is blamed for the attacks and locked up. The gang must clear his name, and Shaggy and Velma must decide how they feel about each other.
“The Secret Serum” – Crystal Cove is being menaced by a thief who may also be … a vampire. The members of Mystery Incorporated aren’t speaking to each other, so the girls and the boys split up to investigate separately. Daphne’s mother may hold a vital clue to the mystery – hopefully it is not that she is the vampire they are looking for.
“The Shrieking Madness” – Mystery Incorporated appears to have broken up, but the the gang can’t help but look into a strange creature terrorizing nearby Darrow College, called Char Gar Gothakon, whose terrifying screams cause destruction wherever it goes. Famous science fiction writer Harlan Ellison appears as himself.
The four episodes on the Volume 3 DVD were fun to watch, but didn’t seem to be enough Scooby fun. The series has a running storyline that runs through the episodes and it would have been nice to have a multi-disk set, rather than breaking the first season up into separate packages, only giving viewers a piece of the bigger mystery. It was also disappointing that there were no DVD extras besides choice of language.
The Scooby Doo characters are definitely versatile and work well in this spookier storyline. Hopefully a set of the entire first season will soon be in the offing.
