Monday, October 18, 2021

Scooby-Doo! and Scrappy-Doo!: Scooby-Doo! and Genie-Poo (1982)

 

A really fun, Scooby-Doo! and Scrappy-Doo! cartoon.

Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy are spending a nice day at the beach, when they find a bottle. After rubbing the bottle two genies come out. One of them is the human genie Jasmine and the other is a dog genie, Genie-Poo. They don't prove to be two of the nicest genies and they wish to find a way to return to ancient Ariba before they have to go back inside the bottle. Genie-Poo has a crush on Scooby and wants to spend eternity with him, even if that means forcing Scooby to live in the bottle with her. Shaggy and Scappy must save Scooby before it is too late. 

This is a fast paced and funny chase cartoon. While this may not be a laugh out loud cartoon, all the gags work quite well and the result is a cartoon that leaves a smile on my face throughout. The two genies are great villains and play off our heroes very well, as well as providing some good gags themselves. Genie-poo's instance on taking Scooby with her into the bottle provides a great challenge for our heroes. Meanwhile Jasmine's complete and utter indifference to our heroes  makes her a very engaging villain. The idea of our heroes still having three wishes but having to catch up with the constantly moving and kidnaping villains is a very clever idea. 

While many of my fellow Scooby-Doo! fans dislike these Scrappy-Doo! cartoons for them abandoning the mystery element, that is a major part of why I like them. I love the mystery formula as much as anyone else but sometimes it is nice to see these characters doing something different. These cartoons with their short runtimes and reliance on old school slapstick humor also remind me of the great old theatrical cartoon shorts in the best way possible. 

Notice how Jasmine physically resembles Jeanie from Hanna-Barbera's animated version of I Dream of Jeanie. However her personality is completely different.  

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