The Bride of Darkseid (Part I) is the first episode of Super Friends: The Legendary Super Powers Show. This version of Super Friends introduced both new heroes and new villains, notably Darkseid. With these new villains, the stakes were raised as our heroes faced greater danger than previous Super Friends series. More importantly, this series has Adam West himself as the voice of Batman.
In this episode, the Super Friends meet the new superhero Firestorm, who is really college student Ronnie Raymond and college professor Martin Stein fused into one being. The team lets Firestorm join the Super Friends. However, Darkseid shows up from his home of Apokolips to Earth with plans of making Wonder Woman his bride.
This is a pretty good start to the series. Firestorm is great addition to the team. His powers provide some fun and creative action sequences. His personality is well formed from even this first episode. Even his crush on Wonder Woman allows for some fun interactions. While we don't spend enough time with Darkseid for him to feel like anything but a typical 1980's cartoon bad guy, his voice and design make him already a great villain. He also proves to be a great threat to our heroes. The artwork in this episode is also great. The background art is as wonderful as it always is in these Hanna-Barbera cartoons. As well as this the art style change when Ronnie and Professor Stein combine into Firestorm is very effective.
This is the final segment of the final episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends (or two in the case of Batman and Robin) teaming up with a special DC Comics guest.
In this cartoon Superman and Green Lantern team up to save the day when a wild elephant is loose in India.
This is a fun cartoon. Superman and Green Lantern have to save the day without harming the elephants making saving the day feel like a real challenge. The elephants have a great design, and the background art of India is very eye pleasing. The climatic action scene is done quite well. There is some of that very corny superhero dialogue that I love. While there may not be anything new here there is still enough to enjoy.
This is the third segment of the fifteenth (and final) episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends (or two in the case of Batman and Robin) teaming up with a special DC Comics guest.
In this cartoon, the villainous Gentleman Ghost (a real comic book supervillain who is called Gentlemen Jim in this episode) once again rises from the grave. He wants to get revenge on Superman and Wonder Woman who stopped his evil deeds the last time he rose from the grave. All the Super Friends team up together to stop him.
This is a wonderful episode. There is a real atmospheric feel here that gives the whole segment a great Halloween-y feel. This is especially seen very well in the great gothic background art. This artwork is reminiscent of the best Scooby-Doo episodes. Gentleman Ghost is a wonderful villain here. He is actually kind of creepy for a Super Friends villain. The way he turns people into ghosts makes him especially creepy. He also feels like a real threat to our heroes here, creating a great sense of suspense throughout. The climax is especially exciting and effectively creepy. Though the villain's plan is aimed against Superman and Wonder Woman, this episode makes great use of each Super Friend.
This is simply a very exciting and atmospheric episode.
This is the second segment of the fifteenth (and final) episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends (or two in the case of Batman and Robin) teaming up with a special DC Comics guest.
In this cartoon two teenage girls get in trouble when they stowaway on a yacht. The Wonder Twins must save them.
This is one of the better Wonder Twins cartoons. While the dialogue can still feel overly didactic, the action is pretty fun here. This is thanks to some strong artwork, including some great effects animation. The climax is actually kind of exciting. The two teenage girls though are as bland as can be and speak only in forced dialogue that drives the message home further.
This is the first segment of the fifteenth (and final) episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends (or two in the case of Batman and Robin) teaming up with a special DC Comics guest.
In this cartoon, Batman, Robin and Aquaman team up to stop a villain named The Shark who steals valuables from various ships with his immobilizer ray. He does this to keep ships from going out to sea and because of this he views himself as a protector of the sea.
This is an excellent episode. The use of fog out at sea creates a great sense of atmosphere and helps it stand out. Beyond this the background art (especially aboard the ship) is typically excellent. The Shark is a fun villain with a very memorable design and a great voice. His immobilizer ray is a good gimmick and makes him a believable threat to our heroes. The action is quite fun as well. The story is simple, but it is just the kind of simplistic superhero fun that I love.
This is the final segment of the fourteenth episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends (or two in the case of Batman and Robin) teaming up with a special DC Comics guest.
In this cartoon, Wonder Woman and the Atom team up to save passengers stranded on a cable car in the Rocky Mountains.
This is a wonderful cartoon. Taking place at the Rocky Mountains, there is a great sense of atmosphere throughout. The background art of the rugged and snowy terrain is fantastic, with great detail that makes it feel real to us. The effects animation with the lighting also adds to this sense of atmosphere. All this also works together to create a real sense of danger. You really feel the danger all the passengers are in and the episode gets a good amount of suspense out of this basic premise. The superhero action is pretty basic as well. However, it is also quite effective and exciting.
This episode may be very basic, but it is also Super Friends doing a great job at what it does best.
Hello, my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Today's cartoon selection begins with one of my favorite Christmas cartoons of all time, Mickey's Good Deed (1932). This film was from 1932, at this time, Mickey was at the absolute height of his popularity. He was famous in a way that no cartoon character before had ever been. Critics often compared his popularity to that of Charlie Chaplin's little tramp, and like that character Mickey had fans of all types. He was equally popular with intellectuals and small children. In fact, this same year Walt Disney would receive a special Academy Award for creating Mickey. Renowned Soviet director Sergei Eisenstein (best known for his silent film The Battleship Potemkin (1925)) was a huge fan and even wrote essays on Walt Disney, that discussed the brilliance of Mickey Mouse cartoons (He would remain a huge Disney fan and even later call Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937) the single greatest film ever made). Almost every other American cartoon studio was copying what Disney had done with Mickey Mouse. Characters like Foxy (at Warner Brothers) and Cubby Bear (at Van Beuren) were extremely thinly disguised copies of Mickey himself. In fact, in 1931, the Van Beuren studio was sued by Walt for using two mice characters that looked exactly like Mickey and Minnie. There was no doubt, Mickey was movie royalty. Mickey did for animated comedies, exactly what Charlie Chaplin's little tramp had done for live action comedies. Like the comedy films made before Chaplin, the animated comedies before Mickey were often very funny, but you very rarely felt any other emotional response to what was happening on screen. Mickey changed all that and nowhere was it clearer than in Mickey's Good Deed. You may notice that this doesn't sound like your typical cartoon short of the era, and my point is it isn't. This film while not sacrificing the slapstick comedy, also adds a lot of drama to the story itself. However, the Disney studio understood exactly what Chaplin had found out earlier. If the comedy and the drama are both driven by the story and characters, they can both easily co-exist. This idea is done to absolute perfection in this cartoon. This is a beautiful and moving film, while it never forsakes the comedy. The following is a review from The Film Daily, "Right up there with the best of these animated cartoons. Subject has a special holiday flavor in that it shows how Mickey and his dog manage to bring cheer into a big family of needy animal folks. Clever and lively as usual." The following is an exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald, "Mickey's Good Deed: Mickey Mouse - Christmas cartoon. Kids like Mickey. That's why they come. One Mickey Mouse cartoon on your Saturday's program brings the kiddies out to the matinee. Running time, eight minutes. - Edmund M. Burke. Fort Plain Theatre, Fort Plain, N.Y. General Patronage."
Next comes Frosty the Snowman (1954). This very short cartoon from the UPA studio (best known for the Mr. Magoo cartoons) was a holiday staple at Chicago's WGN-TV station including airing annually on WGN's The Bozo Show.
Up next is a truly charming and lovely Christmas film from the Halas and Batchelor animation studio, The Candlemaker (1956). This animation studio was started by husband and wife John Halas and Joy Batchelor and is best known for their classic feature film, Animal Farm (1954).
Bug Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979) is a delightful TV special that featured the Looney Tunes characters (though strangely not Daffy Duck) in three new Christmas themed shorts. In between these shorts there were a few interstitial scenes. You can watch those below.
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Up next comes a classic Silly Symphony, The Night Before Christmas (1933). Though the Silly Symphonies were mostly one-off shorts, the occasional sequel could happen (with the Three Little Pigs sequels being the most well-known). The Night Before Christmas is a follow up to the often better remembered Santa's Workshop (1932). Yet as much as I love Santa's Workshop, I love this sequel even more. It could be argued that this movie picks up where the previous one left off, as the last one ends with Santa leaving the North Pole for his trip and this cartoon has him visiting houses. This is a reissue and there is a bit of a difference towards the end. In the original 1933 version, Little Junior is disappointed to get a chamber pot for Christmas. Here he is happy to get a puppy. In this version we do get a bit of Junior getting a blackface appearance from the chimney soot that would be cut out when the film was shown a Disney TV Christmas special in 1983. For all four years of the original Mickey Mouse Club, this would be the Mousekartoon on the last new episode to be aired before Christmas. The following is a brief article from The Film Daily (dated December 28, 1933), "In conjunction with the showing of Walt Disney's Silly Symphony, 'The Night Before Christmas,' The Radio City Music Hall is exhibiting six original Walt Disney drawings used in the production of this picture. The short, a united Artists release, will be held over a second week." A review of the cartoon in The Film Daily called The Night Before Christmas "... one of Walt Disney's best cartoons." Not everyone was so impressed as evidenced by the following exhibitor's review from The Motion Picture Herald, "NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS, THE: Silly Symphony—These Silly Symphonies arc okay, but not worth difference in rental United Artists asks for them. -P. G. Held, New Strand Theatre, Griswold, Iowa. General patronage."
Now for another holiday staple of WGN-TV, Hardrock, Coco and Joe: The Three Little Dwarfs (1951).
My favorite Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoon is True Boo (1952). This film puts a lot of delightful Christmas spirit in with its traditional Casper story. The gags where Casper uses everyday objects to make toys, heavily borrows from the Max Fleischer Color Classic, Christmas Comes but Once a Year (1936).
While it is easy to say that the DePatie-Freling cartoons of the mid and late 1970's were not on par with the studio's cartoons of the 1960's and early 70's without any sense of doubt, A Pink Christmas (1978) is a huge exception. This TV special is about as good a cartoon as the studio ever made. This dialogue-less special is somewhat based on O. Henry's The Cop and the Anthem. The Pink Panther has often been compared to Charlie Chaplin, mostly because he is a pantomime character. This though is probably the most Chaplin-esque film the cartoon cat ever stared in. It beautifully combines comedy and pathos, and the idea of a poor tramp like character looking for food of course has roots in Chaplin as well. In fact, this film borrows a gag from Chaplin's The Gold Rush (1925) (involving shoveling snow). It succussed very well. It is both very funny and very moving.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
Walt Disney's Silly Symphonies: A Companion to the Classic Cartoon Series by Russell Merritt and J.B. Kaufman
Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse: The Ultimate History by J.B. Kaufman and David Gerstein.
Hello, my friends and happy Saturday morning. Once again it is time for some classic cartoons.
Disney cartoons have long been associated with sentimentality and cuteness. Yet this wasn't always the case. The early black and white Mickey Mouse films were mostly pretty much the opposite. They focused purely on the gags and jokes and with keeping the comic momentum going. A perfect example of this is Mickey's Orphans (1931). This movie has all the makings for a sentimental cartoon. It takes place at Christmas time and the involves Mickey adopting a bunch of orphans. Yet all of this is played strictly for laughs and some of the kids can be a little sadistic. A review in the Motion Picture Herald stated, "The youngsters will get a real kick out of this short, and the oldsters will extract a bit of enjoyment." A review in The Film Daily gave the same sentiment stating, "It will delight all children and get many a laugh from their elders." An issue of The Film Daily (Dated February 7, 1932) stated "In addition to El Brendel in person this week's show at the Roxy is a special treat for the kids. The presentation includes four scenes based on 'Mickey's Orphans,' the Mickey Mouse cartoon that was held over for three weeks at this house. The characters of Mickey and Minnie are portrayed by the Arnaut Brothers, popular pantomimists. Patricia Bowman, Fred Waring's orchestra in a novelty entitled 'Dancing Melodies,' and the Roxyettes also are part of the proceedings. In the Mickey scenes, the Roxyettes and ballet group are made up to represent kittens, musical notes and animated furnishings in Minnie's boudoir." This cartoon was reissued to theatres in 1934.
Now for another cartoon mouse, here is Mighty Mouse in The Sultan's Birthday (1944). This film was directed by Bill Tytla, a former Disney animator and possibly my favorite Disney animator. Terry Toons producer Paul Terry thought Tytla was a great animator but a less than stellar director. Terry would state about Tytla, "He was one of the best animators that had ever lived. And he could render anything that you gave him to render very well. But he didn't seem to have that starting quality. He was lost unless somebody laid it out pretty well and then he would embellish it." Terry when talking about Tytla singled out a bit of animation from this particular film. "I remember a dancing girl in that picture. Really made that picture. A beautiful piece of animation."
Next comes Bugs Bunny and the Tasmanian Devil in The Fright Before Christmas (1979). This short was originally created for the TV special Bugs Bunny's Looney Christmas Tales (1979). This was the final of three segments in that special and was directed Friz Freleng. This makes this the first time Taz was directed by someone other than Robert McKimson. The result like the whole special is a delightful Christmas treat and one of the best uses of Taz after the golden age of Looney Tunes. Also appearing here is Bugs' nephew Clyde. Clyde had only appeared in two theatrical shorts, His Hare Raising Tale (1951) and Yankee Doodle Bugs (1954). Both of those were directed by Friz Freleng.
Now for The New Three Stooges cartoon, Tin Horn Dude (1965). The Three Stooges voice themselves in this made for TV cartoon.
Now it is time for a commercial break.
Now it is silent movie time with the Walt Disney directed Oswald the Lucky Rabbit in Empty Socks (1927). This cartoon was lost for years, when in 2014 archivist Kjetil Kvale Sørenssen found a print in the National Library of Norway, incorrectly labeled as a Felix the cat cartoon. The film runs shorter than the average Oswald cartoon making it seem likely there are still a couple minutes missing. The cartoon features a legendary trio of animators working on it, Ub Iwerks, Hugh Harman and Rollin “Ham” Hamilton. Hugh and Ham would leave Walt the following Spring. Both would later become instrumental figures in the earliest Looney Tunes shorts. Ub Iwerks would go on to be one the most important figures in early Disney history, even being Mickey Mouse's co-creator (with Walt Disney of course). Unlike many Christmas cartoons of this era, this film was actually released in December. It had its general release on Monday, December 12, 1927.
Next is Betty Boop in Is My Palm Read (1933). This short features Betty at her sexy, naughty and surreal pre-code best.
Now we celebrate Christmas with Pooch the Pup in Merry Dog (1933). This short has everything I love about Walter Lantz cartoons of this era. The jokes are incredibly silly and more often than not just plain strange. In fact, this film is pretty much one bizarre joke after another, and I simply love it. The following is an exhibitors review from the Motion Picture Herald, "MERRY DOG, THE: Pooch the "Pup—Excellent cartoon for anybody's program. "Night Before Christmas" theme with snowstorm and blizzard effects which almost made us forget that it was the hottest day of the summer. (106 and no shade.) Running time. 8 minutes. —Wm. Sayre, Delmar Theatre, Morrill, Neb., Rural and small town patronage."
Today's cartoon selection ends with A Garfield Christmas Special (1987). This is a very underrated TV Christmas special that I believe deserves much more attention and love than it gets.
Thanks for joining me. Come back next week for more animated treasures. Until then may all your tunes be looney and your melodies merry.
Resources Used
Oswald the Lucky Rabbit: The Search for the Lost Disney Cartoons by David Bossert
Of Mice and Magic: A History of the American Animated Cartoon by Leonard Maltin
In this episode, the Mystery Inc. Gang is invited to a Halloween party at Dracula's castle. However, they soon learn the reason they were invited. Having heard that the gang are famous ghost hunters, Dracula and all his monster friends want the gang to rid the castle of the ghost of monster hunter Van Helsing.
This is a truly wonderful episode. I love how it combines having real monsters with a typical Scooby mystery. It really helps that the mystery itself is very well done with some surprisingly good twists along the way. The ghost is a great villain with a delightfully creepy and memorable design. I especially the glow around him. The monsters themselves are a lot of fun, and I love their designs as well. The humor is also quite good here and the final twist here is really funny.
This episode was written by the very popular cartoon and comic book writer Paul Dini, whose excellent work has appeared on such shows as Tiny Toon Adventures, Batman: The Animated Series, Animaniacs, Superman: The Animated Series, Batman Beyond, Static Shock, Duck Dodgers, Justice League Unlimited and New Looney Tunes. However, he is probably best known for being the creator of Harley Quinn. His other work with Scooby Doo would include the direct to video movie Scooby-Doo!: Abracadabra-Doo (2010).
One of the more memorable Scooby and Scrappy shorts.
In this short, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy are planning on watching the Wizard of Oz (1939) in the Mystery Machine. However, when Scooby accidentally knocks himself out, he dreams he is in Oz. In his dream he is the cowardly lion, Shaggy is the Scarecrow and Scrappy is the Tin Man.
Though not exactly funny, this short is loaded with charm. For some reason these characters feel perfectly at home in an OZ like setting. There is a lot of imagination put into this setting, much more imagination than in the typical Scooby and Scrappy short. Even if it is a bad pun, there is something quite charming about the Yellow Brick Toad. The artwork here is lovely and has a great storybook type feel to it. Most of all though there is just a certain calm relaxing Saturday morning charm to this cartoon that I really enjoy.
No one will claim this to be a masterpiece but it quite charming.
In this episode, Daphne, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy take a trip to Transylvania. They read that the Frankenstein monster is on the loose and Daphne decides they should investigate. They go to Frankenstein Castle to investigate and find the castle is now occupied by the Draculas. Scooby and Shaggy become a babysitter for the Dracula's however the normal human looking baby turns out to be a werewolf.
There is a lot that is very strange about this cartoon. Despite the obvious supernatural elements to this episode, Daphne remains completely unconvinced that the supernatural can be real and she never once doubts this. If this was played for laughs, that would be one thing, but her disbelief is just treated as a matter-of-fact thing making it seem just odd. The uses of the monsters are also quite odd. The Frankenstein monster is treated as almost a robot and Dracula's wife looks like the bride in The Bride of Frankenstein (1935). Towards the end this episode takes an even stranger twist, and the final gag is more bizarre than funny. However, it is this strangeness that truly makes this episode stand out and gives it a real bit of charm. The episode also benefits from a strong sense of atmosphere and some great background art.
The main flaw of this episode though is its runtime. At this time a half-hour of Scooby-Doo was made up of two 15-minute segments. However so much happens here that it would have benefitted from a half hour runtime. The episode simply hops from one plot point to the next. This doesn't allow enough time for the episode to take advantage of the comedic possibilities of the story. Scooby and Shaggy babysitting a werewolf in particular has lots of comedic possibilities, yet they are never fully utilized.
The credited writer for this episode was Robert Goldblatt, this is the only writing credit I can find for him. Perhaps this accounts for the oddness of the cartoon.
This is a very weird and odd Scooby short but that honestly gives it a real charm.
Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne and Scrappy are taking a trip to Scottland to find out why Barkerville sheep have been disappearing. Many of the shepherds believe that they are disappearing because of the monstrous Hound of the Barkervilles. Unfortunately, Scooby is mistaken for the Hound of the Barkervilles and the gang must work together to clear Scooby's name.
This is one of the better episodes of this show. It is very atmospheric with some great spooky background art that recalls the original Scooby-Doo Where Are You. The Hound of the Barkervilles also has a wonderfully memorable and creepy design that really enhances the episode even if he only appears on screen briefly. However, what really makes this episode work so well is having Scooby-Doo be suspected of being the monster. This is a great twist on the typical Scooby formula that helps this episode stand out.
However, I will admit this episode is low on laughs and the mystery is too easy to solve.
Despite any flaws though, this is simply a delightful episode.
This is the third segment of the fourteenth episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends (or two in the case of Batman and Robin) teaming up with a special DC Comics guest.
In this episode, our heroes must save the day when the evil Professor Korloff brings an ancient mummy to life for his own nefarious reasons.
As a fan of superheroes and the old Universal monster movies, this episode is a pure delight. The whole episode has a delight spooky Halloween-eque feel to it that I find tons of fun. The mummy's design is simple but very effective and his muffled vocal noises give him a delightful spooky feel. On top of this the mummy proves to be a very fun Super Friends villain, feeling like a real threat to our heroes. To name the professor leading the mummy Professor Korloff is a very fun nod to the classic Universal monster movies and to Boris Karloff who was the star of the horror classic, The Mummy (1932). The action scenes are a lot of fun here as well.
If I had one complaint it is that this episode takes place mostly in the daytime. A spooky themed episode like this would have been even more fun and effective with a nighttime setting.
This is the second segment of the fourteenth episode of The All-New Super Friends Hour, unlike most other Super Friends formats, this one had hour long episodes that were made up of various shorter cartoons. The first segment would be an adventure staring two members (or three in some cases as Batman and Robin would often team with another Super Friend) of the Super Friends. The second would be a morality play staring the Wonder Twins. The third would be a typical half hour Super Friends adventure. The fourth and last segment would feature one of the main Super Friends (or two in the case of Batman and Robin) teaming up with a special DC Comics guest.
In this cartoon, the Wonder Twins must help when a prank goes very wrong and a teenage girl ends up trapped in an avalanche.
This is another rather lame Wonder Twins cartoon. Once again, the message takes precedence over any actual entertainment. Once again, this message is presented in a very didactic way with dialogue that is much too on the nose. The supporting characters again seem to only exist to drive home this obvious moral.
I will say that the background art is lovely in this cartoon though.
In this episode, the gang goes to Greece, where they visit a museum. At this museum they see a minotaur come to life. Before they can say "Jinkies," superhero Wonder Woman comes to slay the minotaur. When the minotaur gets away. The Mystery Inc. Gang and Wonder Woman team up to stop the creature.
There is a lot to enjoy about this episode. The gang's chemistry with Wonder Woman is fantastic. Scooby's fanboy like crush on Wonder Woman is especially tons of fun, especially when Wonder Woman thinks Scooby is the most adorable dog in the world. Wonder Woman thinking the monster is real while the gang thinks it is a person in a mask adds a great dynamic and provides a fun twist on the usual Scooby formula. The humor is also pretty strong in the episode. Daphne and Velma get some good comedic lines here. Scooby and Shaggy meanwhile get some great bits of slapstick (especially during the training scenes).
My one complaint about this episode is that the design of the minotaur is kind of generic and unmemorable.
This episode's writer was Caroline Farah, who wrote many episodes of this show and a couple for Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Her non-Scooby work includes Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz (a really underrated cartoon show) and Monsuno. This episode was directed by Gavin Dell, who also directed episodes of Family Guy and Border Town. He has also worked as a storyboard artist on such shows as Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, The Looney Tunes Show, Elena of Avalor, Disenchantment and Futurama.
The gang goes to visit Daphne's Uncle Alfie (AKA Batman's Butler Alfred). When Uncle Alfie disappears, Batman suspects our heroes of kidnapping him. After discovering that they aren't behind the kidnapping, Batman simply tells the gang to stay out of his way while he solves this mystery.
There is a lot to enjoy about this episode. Though the Mystery Inc. gang has teamed with Batman before, they usually teamed up with a lighter version of the charter more in tune with the Super Friends and Adam West interpretations. To have them meet with this darker more brooding version allows this to feel distinctly different from those previous encounters. This allows for a wider variety of gags and a different chemistry that works very well. The humor in this episode is often really funny as it both parodies and pays tribute to Batman's history. Daphne being constantly distracted while investigating an abandoned department store with all sorts of rare fashion accessories, only adds to the great humor. I also love that this episode incorporates the lesser-known Batman villain Man-Bat her as he proves himself to fit in perfectly to this Scooby setting.
If I have on complaint, it is that the mystery is much too easy to solve.
In this short, Shaggy (along with Scooby and Scrappy) visits his ancestorial home of Moonlight Castle. There the creepy butler puts a medallion on him that turns him into a werewolf.
There is a lot to enjoy about this short. Moonlight Castle has a wonderfully creepy atmospheric feel to it. The background art and use of lighting and muted colors give this cartoon a great creepy feel to it, similar to that of the original Scooby-Doo Where Are You episodes. The storyline is quite clever and perfect for these characters, and the cartoon has a strong ending.
The only real problem with this cartoon is that it is never that funny. There is a charm to some of the jokes but it still never really made me laugh.
In this episode the Mystery Inc. Gang picks up Sonny and Cher, when the singing couple's car breaks down. The gang drives the couple to the Hideaway Hotel, where the couple plans to have their honeymoon. Here they discover that there is a giant monster shark haunting the area. The gang has yet another mystery on their hands.
There is a lot of fun to be had with this episode. The monster shark is a great villain with a wonderfully creepy design. The mystery of who is under the mask is a very good one and actually has a real surprise reveal. The action and chase scenes are a lot of fun as well. The background art is absolutely beautiful here and gives the whole episode a wonderful sense of atmosphere. The humor with Sonny and Cher is incredibly corny but in a charming way. I also admit that I even got a few laughs out of this corny humor.
In this cartoon Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy visit an amusement pier and get in trouble when Scooby accidentally hits the strongman with a baseball.
Like many of the Scooby shorts of this era, there is nothing that will really make this cartoon stand out from similar cartoons from the era, but it is still entertaining in its own right. The amusement pier is a perfect setting for a Scooby adventure and provides some fun set pieces. Two of these fun set pieces that stand out are the house of mirrors and the house of horrors (the later features some delightful old-school Scooby atmosphere and background art). The gags are amusing. However, they are the type of gags that will make you smile rather than actually laugh out loud. I do really like the ending gag though.
This is nothing fantastic, but it is a fun little cartoon.
In this cartoon, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy get jobs in the circus as vendors. When they eat the food, they are supposed to be selling (or an elephant eats it in Scrappy's case), they must run away and hide from their angry boss.
This is a superior Scooby short for this era. Even if they aren't solving any spooky mysteries, this plot fits the characters to a tee. Scooby and Shaggy are exactly the type of characters who would absent-mindedly eat all the food they are supposed to be selling before they even realize this. In fact, this almost feels like it could be a subplot in a classic Scooby episode. On top of this the humor is actually great here. There are some true laugh out loud moments here and the slapstick filled climax is delightful.
This is one of the best Scooby shorts of this era.
