Rating summary

Movie		2.5
Video		4.0
Audio		2.5
Extras		0.5
Overall		2.5

The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie Review

Scooby-Doo Where Are You, where are you?

Reviewed by Randy Miller III June 19, 2019

Debuting less than two years after the original broadcast run of Hanna-Barbera’s hit show Scooby- Doo, Where Are You!, The New Scooby- Doo Movies (1972-73) was the studio's short-lived attempt at expanding that lighthearted mystery series to an hour-long format. Aside from its time distinction, the full 24-episode series was also unique for its regular use of celebrity guest stars, some of which conveniently starred in their own animated shows (The Harlem Globetrotters, Josie and the Pussycats, Jeannie, etc.) after the smash success of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! in 1969. Others included famous pop culture personalities both living (Don Knotts, Sonny & Cher, Dick Van Dyke) and long dead (Laurel & Hardy), with the former often supplying their own voices. Others, like Batman & Robin and The Addams Family, were just famous fictional faces. Seems like a decent enough formula on paper, but did it work?

Yes...and not really. Rarely remembered as a high point in franchise history, The New Scooby-Doo Movies takes several wrong turns...just like its five main characters (Fred, Velma, Daphne, Shaggy, and Scooby), who start off almost every episode by just kind of bumping into the guest starts out of pure luck. These plots are threadbare and, though not without a few bright spots and other exceptions, the respective guest stars rarely impact the story in a positive manner. If you’re a fan of Tim Conway, Don Adams, Phyllis Diller, Davy Jones, or Sandy Duncan, you’ll probably enjoy revisiting their respective episodes just to see them in action. Some team-ups, like Josie and the Pussycats and Batman & Robin (voiced by Olan Soule and Casey Kasem, not Adam West and Burt Ward), make sense because of their campy crime-solving connection. Other partnerships feel decidedly more random; worse still, the actual mysteries are rarely strong enough to carry the remaining weight that most of those guest stars can’t shoulder.

Which brings me to my next complaint: The New Scooby-Doo Movies’ featherweight tone, which makes it feel more like a Saturday morning sitcom than the substantially more well-balanced Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. (The persistent laugh track doesn’t help matters either, but thankfully that fad eventually died off.) These problem are exacerbated by each episode’s +/- 42-minute runtime, which does no favors for the pacing: lightweight comedic fare like this needs to strike hard and get out while the gettin’s good, and The New Scooby-Doo Movies are rarely able to keep those laughs coming for more than a few minutes at a time. As a whole, the series is still fun in small doses, and it’s worth noting that several episodes get a lot more right than wrong (which even extends to the animation, which varies in overall quality as the episodes progress). Long story short: The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Colletion is clearly aimed at established fans who either grew up watching the series, or are at least old enough to recognize most of the guest stars by name alone. Everyone else – even those just looking to kill time before Warner Bros.’ hopefully forthcoming Blu-ray release of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! -- will walk away disappointed.

Speaking of which, WB’s Blu-ray release of this series marks the first iteration of classic Scooby- Doo in high definition, and the results are slightly less hit-or-miss. First, the positives: unlike their 2005 DVD collection The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies (which was missing eight of the total 24 episodes due to rights issues), this “almost complete” collection only skips one: “Wednesday is Missing”, the Addams Family adventure still stuck in legal limbo. These remaining 23 episodes have all been restored nicely in 1080p, too -- a lot more on that later. But the negatives are also worth mentioning: these include WB's use of lossy Dolby Digital audio, one obvious sync issue, and its sky-high retail price (at least considering the number of discs). Still, it offers a decent upgrade in most departments...so if you already own and enjoy The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies (or wanted to), this one’s probably worth picking up.

For obsessive fans: Like WB's DVD set, The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection uses edited opening and closing credits to remove its guest stars (the original version can be seen here). A few episodes also appear to be the slightly shorter syndicated versions and, as such, run a minute or two shorter than their full-length counterparts. I'm not bothered by this, given my feelings about the episode lengths, but it's worth pointing out.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Perhaps the biggest potential handicap of The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection is the fact that all 23 episodes are crammed on two meager discs: it doesn't take much math to figure out that adds up to more than eight hours of HD content on each one, which sounds like a recipe for disaster. Surprisingly, it's not: this Blu-ray collection manages to maintain a rather respectable 1080p picture from start to finish, deftly avoiding the major compression issues that plagued a lot of overloaded DVD collections back in the day. Several factors are the reason this is possible. For starters, The New Scooby-Doo Movies are hardly loaded with detail, mostly favoring sketchy linework and flat colors; close-up shots rarely display more than a few unique hues and maybe one or two subtle background gradients. Of course, wide shots are a different story: many of these locales and establishing shots boast a higher level of detail, with the variable bit rate responding accordingly. It's not uncommon for a low-level shot to dip into a single digit figures -- barely above DVD standards, in some cases -- only to leap up into more comfortable territory a few seconds later. (The same was true of Warner Bros.' recent release of The Venture Bros. Season 7, perhaps to an even greater degree.) Other factors at work include the show's tube-TV friendly 1.33:1 aspect ratio, which has thankfully been maintained here, as well as the extra room afforded by going with Dolby Digital audio rather than lossless -- another space- saving measure that really doesn't affect its overall quality in a substantial way.

Let's be honest, though: the bar isn't set incredibly high here because The New Scooby-Doo Movies were never all that visually stunning to begin with. Cheap animation and an inconsistent level of quality between episodes don't make this a demo-worthy Blu-ray, but it's safe to say that these shows have never looked better on home video. The colors pop nicely without feeling oversaturated, most of the inherent dirt and debris has been carefully scrubbed while maintaining the series' scruffy, filmic appearance, and black levels hold up nicely as well. A few source problems remain, including some unavoidable flecks and specks, careless paint marks, and even a few stray scribbles and letters around the frame edges -- likely notes made by artists that were unseen for decades due to tube TV overscan. Other stray shots are definitely on the soft side; I'm not sure if these were upscaled due to source material issues or that's what they've always looked like. Mild banding is occasionally apparent, but this is so common on animated Blu-rays that it's almost not worth mentioning. Overall, though, I'm very pleased with the appearance of all 23 shows; a lot could have gone wrong here, but most of it doesn't. Would The New Scooby-Doo Movies look even better if spread across three or four discs? Possibly. Yet I was unable to spot any serious compression issues, so the jury's still out on that one.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

Another point of A/V contention is Warner Bros.' use of Dolby Digital mixes (original 2.0 mono, not 5.1 as identified on the packaging) rather than full DTS-HD Master Audio, a problem that plagued Warner Blu-rays in the format's early years and even a few more recent releases. I'll be honest in that the limitations of lossy audio aren't felt nearly as strong here: The New Scooby-Doo Movies really aren't sonic powerhouses, mostly settling for the low bar set by your average Saturday morning cartoon from the era. Dialogue is cleanly recorded, the (perpetually recycled) score sounds good enough, and a modest amount of depth is achieved during some of the show's spookier moments. Hiss, pop, and crackle are basically non-existent, even though it can't help but sound a little thin on the high end. Overall, it gets the job done well enough and, once again, lossless audio wouldn't have made a great deal of difference here to all but those who would play The New Scooby-Doo Movies at an exceptionally loud volume on high-end equipment.

There's one major exception, though, and it leans much more towards "accidental defect" than "source material issue". "The Haunted Showboat" (episode #17, featuring Josie and the Pussycats) has a rather noticeable sync issue in that the video is about a quarter-second ahead of the audio during the entire episode. It's incredibly distracting and, while this doesn't seem to pop up on any other episodes, this was clearly an avoidable problem that potentially warrants a recall. Should Warner Bros. announce any sort of disc exchange, I will post an update immediately.

Optional English (SDH) and French subtitles have been included during all 23 episodes and the bonus features. These are formatted nicely and, unlike the audio defect mentioned above, do not suffer from any obvious sync issues.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

Warner Bros.' Blu-ray release of The New Scooby-Doo Movies is packaged in a dual-hubbed keepcase with a two-sided episode insert (screenshot #1) and a matching slipcover. The menus are fine enough but paired with a blaring rock song that doesn't fit the show's tone at all. Only three short extras are included, all of which were first created for WB's 2005 DVD collection The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies. The optimist in me says that something's always better than nothing, but that's not always the case here. They're on Disc 2 if you're interested, though.

• The Hanna-Barbera Kennel Club Roasts Scooby-Doo (5:10) - A hastily thrown- together Cartoon Network clip show that features Huckleberry Hound, Scrappy-Doo, Shaggy, Dino, and other H-B celebrities as they poke fun at ol' Scoob. It's not funny in the least and feels like every second of its five-minute running time (which includes a two-minute intro), so you're better off skipping this one if you haven't seen it before.

• Uptown with Scooby-Doo and The Harlem Globetrotters (8:41) - This like-minded featuette is a small step forward and features then-current Globetrotters Michael "Wild Thing" Wilson and Otis "Mr. OK" Key as they show off a few impressive moves on the court. It's cut together pretty well with highlight clips from various Scooby-Doo episodes including, of course, all three featuring the (much older) Globetrotters.

• Girls Rock! (9:03) - Fans gush about Scooby-Doo and its two female co-stars, we get a few more clips from the show, and that's pretty much it. It's about as deep and thought provoking as an issue of Tiger Beat.

The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As the first real taste of classic era Scooby-Doo on Blu-ray, Warner Bros.' presentation of The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost Complete) Collection is both a semi-successful experiment and a missed opportunity. This short- lived TV series certainly doesn't represent a high point for the franchise's earlier years: its double-length format makes almost every episode feel bloated and overdone, while the lightweight, comedic tone often pushes suspense deep into the background. Still, there are a few bright spots and, if nothing else, most episodes will certainly appeal to die-hard fans of the featured celebrities (or at least the ones who voiced their animated counterparts). Either way, anyone who enjoyed WB's The Best of the New Scooby-Doo Movies collection back in 2005 will appreciate the upgrade: not only do we get a much-improved 1080p transfer, but eight out of nine missing episodes are now accounted for. One glaring audio defect and dull bonus features aside, it's a decent effort but one I'd recommend to established fans only.