Question of the Week #8
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Question of the Week returns! This week’s question is “What are you most looking forward to in 2012?”. This year, we have the return of Mystery Inc, the next DTV movie Big Top Scooby-Doo, and any other big announcements. So here’s hoping for a good year of Scooby Doo,
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After waiting a year?
Yeah, I'm highly anticipating the return of SD:MI. I Can't wait for the next chapter in this amazing journey. May can't get here fast enough!
I am curious to see what they'll do with SDMI, but I have my doubts about the quality of the storyline.
I am more looking forward to Big Top because we have actually seen a preview for that, unlike season 2 of SDMI, and that movie looks like it has the potential to be entertaining since it revolves mostly around Shaggy and Scooby doing multiple stunts and being the main attraction of sorts. Still, this is only a movie compared to 26 TV episodes, but quality over quantity. Still, I would rather the villain be an evil clown and not a werewolf. What does a werewolf have to do with a circus? Clowns have everything to do with a circus, and it would be interesting to see people (including members of the gang) get turned into evil clowns each with their own style and design.
@The13thGhost: Very true on the preview part; although for me, I want to make sure that Shaggy and Scooby don't get too much of the spotlight, because the previous movies have done a good job of balancing the characters as far as the plot goes.
I don't have a problem with Shaggy and Scooby being the "stars" of the circus in the movie, but I don't want it to be another Goblin King, meaning too much attention is paid on them and it turns the fans off.
Granted I know the two of them are the most popular characters, but for any new movie or TV show, I want a nice balance and it to not turn into something that might suck.
I do agree on the werewolf thing as well; the werewolf stuff has been done to death, and there haven't been too many clowns as villains.
Actually, your idea of people getting turned into clowns would be perfect.
Plus I think I have something that would make for a good plot(I actually thought of doing this for a fan fic, but i'll share it here): take the evil clowns idea, and have people getting turned into evil clowns, but do it like this, have maybe Fred and Daphne turned into evil clowns and then have Velma(playing on her clown phobia from that one WNSD episode) along with Shaggy and Scooby trying to rescue anybody.
To tell the truth(and this might be obscure, so stick with me), the idea I mentioned was something I came up for a fan fic version of the old movie Killer Klows From Outer Space.
I even thought of some of the dialogue and scenes; like Velma seeing all the people in pods or coccoons or whatever in some kind of trance or suspended animation and having a bit of a breakdown, while Shaggy and Scooby try to help her out of it while saving everybody.
Or have Velma disgusted at what's going on or having her face her fears head on like The Terminator or something while helping Shaggy and Scooby rescue everybody 🙂
Seriously though, wouldn't you love to see that? 🙂
@Adam Absolutely, without a doubt, I don't want to see Shaggy and Scooby get too much of the screen time either. In fact when I wrote "main attraction" I really meant that they would be within the storyline itself, as in the main act for the circus, not the movie. Sorry if that wasn't clear.
That is something I disliked about GK as well. That and the cross-dressing. ... Digression: I really think it would have been funnier to see Shaggy and Scooby physically transform into Daphne and Velma, with Scooby not drinking his entire potion thus causing him to keep his tail. Scooby's tail, ON VELMA! Then it would have been funny to see Grey Delisle voice the transformed Shaggy and talk like Shaggy using the word "like" and such. Also it would be funny to see the form of Daphne walking like Shaggy does with that lazy like arm swing and how he picks up his legs and then flops them in front as he walks. Ya know, the Shaggy walk? LOL! But then again that might not be appropriate for younger viewers to see a male character turn into a female character. But then again AGAIN, neither is cross-dressing.
Anyway, I hope that they are the focus of the circus and then the movie switches to Fred, Velma, and Daphne finding clues and having interactions, maybe some mishaps of their own, and then thinking through the mystery. Oh and getting captured of course, then saved by Shaggy and Scooby. So it should all work back into one storyline.
The more I think about the clown idea, the more I find myself not looking forward to the movie, because an evil clown would be an awesome idea. Your ideas are great. I would like to see Velma act scared again for a change. Most of the time she rejects the notion that supernatural things exist. So this would be a good way of developing her character. She would believe in the supernatural out of irrational fear, and then she would have to overcome it.
An alien/clown thing might work, but what about taking it from the angle of it being an evil curse? In that case you'd need a way to convince others to act like evil clowns, and I think a great way to do this would be to bring back Harry the Hypnotist from the SDWAY episode "Bedlam in the Big Top" with a motive of revenge. You could work this out logically by having the gang called out to the circus to solve a mystery only to find out that no one at the circus called them. So they decide to watch the show anyway since they're there, and then the Evil Clown appears. This gets the gang involved. Then have the gang find a bunch of "clues" that don't make sense, and turn out to be red herrings (joke hint). Then at the end have the other members of the gang think the Evil Clown is whatever suspect they choose, but then Velma says they're all wrong and name Harry as she pulls off the mask.
It would be the only thing that would make sense to her. They were all brought there by someone other than a person working at the circus, and the only way to make law abiding people act like evil clowns would be to hypnotize them. And with no clear or consistent motive indicated by any of the planted evidence, it leaves the only option to be a direct attack on the meddling kids themselves.
Another good nostalgia element to use would be to have Shaggy dress up like a clown to try and blend in with all the evil clowns, and this disguise will be his "Uncle Slappy" costume from the SDWAY episode "Nowhere to Hyde". This might be too obscure, but old school fans would get it and I think we would appreciate it.
I think I might like a Professor Fantazmo reference in there somewhere as well.
*Sigh* I would love to see all this, but the Warner Bros. story probably won't be anything like this.
@The 13th Ghost: Yeah, it probably wouldn't be anything like that, and no problem, you did a good job describing things.
Although, I would love it if any of those things did happen. We did have some of those obscure references in SDMI though, and some of them in a movie would be pretty cool too.
A Professor Fantasmo reference would be awesome too, just to see how the characters would react and if they in fact remembered that he was one of the 13 Ghosts or whatever.
Sometimes I wonder maybe if the fans know more about a product then the actual writers(be it a movie, TV show, book series, whatever).
Actually, I had an idea once that the writers should just let the fans write certain TV shows, or movies or whatever. Probably because they would do a waaay better job then the people who get paid to write a show or a movie.
I get the impression that the WB movies are on a different "timeline" or "reality" from 13GSD, and even SDMI for that matter. Same with WNSD and S&SDGAC. I haven't even bothered to look, but I'm willing to bet that each version has different writers.
I don't have to wonder about that. I know the people they hire know far less than the fans do. That's why we're fans and they're writers. They probably come up with stories for all kinds of different shows, and their skills aren't tailored to any specific genre let alone a specific series. It's clear to me that WB just gets whatever writers they think are hot stuff in town and then asks them to make whatever they think will sell big. WB cares about the bottom line and that's it. Hanna and Barbera were involved in the storyline process, and they had to approve it for it to go through.
Though I would be worried about some fans and what they would write, I would still have to agree with your idea, as I doubt it would be worse than some of the things the "writers" come up with. I guess it would have to be a panel of fans and they would all have to agree on it in order for it to go forward. AND might I add, that panel should consist of you, me, and some others from this board.
@Adam Do you mean like a open script policy? Star Trek TNG did something similar back in the day where people could submit episode scripts to the studio.
I don't know if something like that would still be possible, but it would be interesting at least. I do think SDMI has done a decent job at connecting itself to SDWAY. Obviously, there's some continuity errors(Crystal Cove, The Luna Ghost, etc). But those don't bother me too much, which is why I like to look at it as a semi-reboot(kinda like The Incredible Hulk movie from 2008).
@The13thGhost: Agreed. Although I don't know if I would be able to participate in any panels, but what you brought up is very interesting, i'll say that.
Plus, I definitely think some of the stuff the fans have come up with could beat the pants off what the actual writers have come up with in recent years(especially Get A Clue, Goblin King and a few other movies and shows).
@Spiderscooby: I don't know about an Open Script policy or anything like that, i'm just saying be open to what the fans have to say, after all they do watch the shows and buy the videos and merchandise and those are the people that pay the actors and actresses and big shots salaries.
I'll give you another example of this: in pro sports(MLB/NHL/NFL/NBA) the fans pay the salaries of the players and coaches by buying tickets, food and merchandise at the games, and then the actual teams complain when the fans want the teams to make moves and to be competitive every year.
Like one of the teams I root for(i'm a big sports fan): the Seattle Mariners in Major League Baseball. The Mariners have made dumb move after dumb move and have committed more to making the fans happy instead of putting a winning team on the field every year and going to the playoffs for the first time since 2001.
News Flash to Mariners management: putting a winning team on the field DOES make the fans happy. Sorry about the tangent, it was something I thought of that is similar to what we're talking about here.
Back to SDMI and Scooby though: I don't mind the continuity errors that much and I like all the call backs to past series and episodes in SDMI, don't get me wrong there.
But what I have a problem with more then anything, since 2002 or so when WNSD started is the constant bringing back and rehashing of old ideas. The two vampire music movies, the recent movies using ideas that have been done waaay too much, and especially things like Get A Clue, which while it might have been good to some people, completely turned off a lot of fans of both the modern and classic shows.
It's been discussed many times on here and other Scooby message boards and forums, but it seems like the rehashing of old ideas is another thing that makes some fans feel that the writers are out of ideas.
Which is not true at all. There are plenty of great ideas that could be used for Scooby Doo, but it seems like the writers aren't using everything at their disposal to come up with them.
I've mentioned this before to others, and it's a good idea to bring up here too. Why don't the writers go back into some old Scooby comic books and things like that for their ideas?
It's not too far fetched, partly because the first episode of Scooby and Scrappy Doo: The Scarab Lives(which was reworked a bit from the original source material) was taken from an old Gold Key Scooby comic book.
Which begs the question: if getting an idea for a Scooby episode from a Scooby comic book was good in 1979, why wouldn't it be good now? Just something to think about...
Hey, I only lurk here often and have never posted, but with this conversation of "rehashing old ideas" I felt I had to ask this:
Isn't it time for a legit movie where the gang solves a murder mystery? Now THAT would be different and a new direction of ideas!
@gemstone: Agreed.
I don't know what age group you're in(i'm in my late 20s to be exact).
The reason I say that is because you may or may not remember the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew books(and TV shows). I myself seen some of the TV episodes of both of those series and read some of the books courtesy of my local library in the past.
I bring up the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew because those characters have always been teenagers or young adults and have been involved in mysteries that I think would be perfect for Scooby and the gang to solve.
Some of those would definitely be different for the gang and it would definitely bring a new direction of ideas, to say the least.
@Adam Basically it would be little different from this. We would all submit storylines and then we would comment on if we all approve or don't, and if we don't we would post our changes until there is consensus.
I don't mind the continuity errors either, because I see this as the same as Get a Clue. It's like a stand-alone series that is just for fun. It doesn't have to make sense in context of the Scooby-Doo timeline. It's like an alternate universe. So I will enjoy it for what it is, or I won't, depending on how well season 2 is written.
As for new storylines, this is one of the reasons why I liked the Scrappy era episodes. The writers were forced to come up with some new stuff, and to change the series up a bit. I especially liked the ones where it was just Shaggy, Daphne, Scooby, and Scrappy. These sometimes featured real monsters and real magic just as the previous seasons did where it was just Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy. And of course 13GSD had this as the main theme. I wouldn't mind seeing some episodes (maybe not a whole series) where the mystery actually does deal with magic and ghosts. I think doing that would lend more believability to the normal mysteries where it turns out to be people in masks. It would justify Shaggy and Scooby being scared, and it would explain why Fred and Velma don't go into each mystery expecting it to be people in masks. It would be because they sometimes DO run into supernatural occurrences. I think this is how they should wrap up SDMI. Why is Crystal Cover a hub of paranormal activity? Is it because people take advantage of the town's reputation by "haunting" it for their own goals, or are people driven to evil desires by the town which is really cursed, and is THAT why people choose to "haunt" the town? Are they being called out to by the curse? Way more interesting than "pirate treasure".
@gemstone I agree, but it's tricky. You have to do it in a way that younger audiences can still watch it. The murder theme can't be overt. They would have to investigate "disappearances", and then find the "people" who "went missing". I can't see them solving a murder case in the style of CSI though. That is a police matter. They would have to stick to mysteries, not manhunts. Also, when you think about it, many of the villains that were in Scooby-Doo were actually guilty of attempted murder in a lot of cases. The Wax Phantom comes to mind. He put Shaggy and Scooby on a conveyer that would have dropped them into scalding wax had Daphne not saved them. The Mr. Hyde from the Sandy Duncan episode also tried to kill her and the others, yet he was let off the hook from some strange reason. So yeah, issues of murder could be worked in I think.
@Adam: I'm almost 20, and I remember Nancy Drew, but not the Hardy Boys. I'll have to look them up.
@13th Ghost: You bring up some good points. I don't know if you remember Perry Mason or not, but that show was full of murder mysteries. Why and how, then, do people still call that a "family show?"
Dying to see the movie!
By the way, why doesn't WB release a soundtrack for the Phantosaur movie and one for Music of the Vampire???
The first episode of Season 2 leaked! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xYuw45SPwhQ
I was just about to say that
I really liked it. I'm glad that finally we can stop imagining what the episode will be like and just watch it!
Has anyone watched Episode 27 yet?
yeah, when it first came last friday it was rare but it's all over the internet now
@The13thGhost: All good points, and I forgot about the examples you gave. So technically, the gang has dealt with murderers in the past, and they have been involved in situations like Magnum P.I. or Murder, She Wrote or the live action TV detectives, situations where they were in real danger basically.
@gemstone: Ah, OK. I was just wondering because I wanted to respond what you said originally, but I didn't know what age you were, so I wasn't sure if you knew about the Hardy Boys and Nancy Drew or not.
NIGHT OF THE CRYBABY CLOWN!!!
Who's behind Crybaby Clown's mask? Here are spme possibilities:
1. Mr.E
2. Angel Dynamite
3. Bayler Hotner
4. Ed Machine
5. DAPHNE!
6. DEFINATLY NOT PERICLES!
can't be daphne...doesn't fit her character
Agreed, definitely not Daphne. Probably someone to meet next episode.
I am confused as to where the episode came from. I found it online, but I have heard literally ZERO news regarding the upcoming new season.
@PegasusCoconut: Well you never know with the turns this series takes...it would be fun to assume that Crybaby Clown is really Daphne in a fat suit lol. But I do think that it's actually Mr. E.
Hey guys, was The Night the Clown Cried released on the Cartoon Network website? I can't find it..Or was it leaked?
If you have OnDemand or maybe Dish, try looking under the menu option for recorded shows (usually channel 1 on your listing). Look under Kids>Cartoon Network>Scooby-Doo and the episode should still be in there. Maybe the broadcasters mistook that new episode for episode 1 of the first season and played it earlier than they should have. Or maybe CN is trying to see how many people seek the episode out to watch it. The broadcasters know every time someone selects it.
Now I'm thinking it was the first reason I stated above, that the provider showed episode 1 of the second season by accident. I just looked today for any new episodes and the first episode was removed.
This my first time trying this, so I'm wondering what will happen.