Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? S1Ep1 “Revenge of the Swamp Monster!” Review
Just in time for Scooby-Doo’s 50th anniversary, Boomerang has premiered the latest incarnation of the franchise, Scooby-Doo And Guess Who? Guess Who is a reboot of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, with a retro look and a new celebrity guest star in each episode. But does it manage to capture the feel of Classic Scoob? Continue reading to find out!
Just in time for Scooby-Doo’s 50th anniversary, Boomerang has premiered the latest incarnation of the franchise, Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? Guess Who is a reboot of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, with a retro look and a new celebrity guest star in each episode. But does it manage to capture the feel of Classic Scoob? Continue reading to find out!
The plot involves NBA Superstar Chris Paul inviting his friend Shaggy to be his caddy at a golf tournament/fundraiser. Paul is competing to win a scholarship to save the local school, but a swamp monster is terrorizing the course and kidnapping the other contestants. It all leads to a very standard Scooby-Doo mystery. In fact, if I had one complaint it’s that the mystery was very by-the-numbers. The villian was super obvious. The ending seemed rushed too. Like the police find the kidnapped guests within five seconds of of the gang unmasking the monster. Though that is one thing Guess Who has going for it over The New Scooby-Doo Movies. I’ve always felt that the 44-minure runtime of NSDM always hurt those episodes. They always felt stretched thin, just to give time to the guest star of the week. Guess Who won’t have that issue, since it’s the standard 22-minute runtime.
Chris Paul was…fine. I’m not a sports guy, so I don’t really have anything to say about him, other than he did an okay job.
With Guess Who being a modern day NSDM, there are a lot of homages to Classic Scooby. The animation is reminiscent of the original series. Many of he lassi gags make return. The hallway gag, Scooby chasing the local wildlife, Scooby & Shaggy!along with Chris Paul) distracting the villian are all here. The gang are seen in their scuba diving gear from SDWAY. The episode really does a good job of capturing old-school Scooby. I do think the theme song, while it riffing on the SDWAY theme, is way too short.
Overall, a good start for the series. Yeah, the plot may be cookie-cutter, but there’s enough fan service here to the original series to keep fans happy. 4/5.
(6)Dislikes
(1)
I agree with everything you said here. It was a very good start to the series, but I felt like some corners were cut here. The ending felt very rushed, and I cringed when the police found all the missing people instantly. The villain was also very obvious and the gang didn't really even interact with any of the suspects at all. The SDWAY theme song, while very nostalgic, felt like a bit of a rip-off to me. I would have preferred a new theme song.
But overall, I enjoyed the episode. I hope the next episodes are more fine-tuned and don't have those issues.