Tuesday, October 12, 2021

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo!: Robopup (1988)

 



A highly entertaining episode of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo!, if not one of the series' best.

As this episode begins the gang is visited Daphne's big mansion of a house. When they go to Daphne's room, she warns them that it may be a bit of a mess. Shaggy disagrees and thinks it looks really clean, but the reason for this is revealed when we learn that everything in her room has been stolen. The gang wonders how this could have been done with Mr. Gordon's (head of security in the house) security system has been shown to do an excellent job of keeping out intruders. Pretty soon the Scooby-Doo! detective agency is on the case. So is however Mr. Gordon's robot dog, Robopup. Scooby soon develops jealousy and animosity towards Robopup, especially when it appears that the robot is even better at solving mysteries than our canine hero himself. Things get worse when Scooby and Shaggy discover a ghost chef haunting the house. At first their friends don't believe them but then they see the ghost too. Can the gang solve this mystery. It won't be easy with a butler anxious to leave, an ex-con gardener, mudmen and the ultimate evil mastermind Red Herring all appear to be suspects. 

This episode does not stand out among the other episodes of the series but it has everything that made this series such a delight. The humor is quite good and on par for this series. There is some great slapstick and a lot of Tex Avery like cartoon-y jokes that are completely delightful. Though I am not a fan of the dumbing down of Fred in other movies and TV shows, A Pup Named Scooby-Doo! is one of the few times that worked for me. To have him be a kid with an overactive imagination and a belief in conspiracy theories is much funnier than any attempts to do similar humor with an adult Fred. Robopup himself is a delightful addition and adds some really good gags. I especially love him playing the chase music during the chase scene. The characters are all at their most likable and the mystery is a pretty good one. It may not be extremely hard to solve but it is not too easy either. In other words just perfect for a Scooby cartoon. 

On the downside the chef ghost is not one of the best monsters Scooby has faced as he is neither funny nor creepy enough to leave much of impression, 

 

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