Mission Scooby-Doo

I am surprised by some of the negative reviews on here. This is the best incarnation yet of the original show. The Scooby Doo Mystery ones with the special guests were pretty horrible, the Scooby/Scrappy show was a disaster, and the most recent "What's New Scooby Doo's" were decent but a little too trendy and trying to be hip to the 2000s. Therein lies the beauty of this show. It is a new show, with new stories, new relationship drama, and new villains and mysteries. However, it keeps the old look & feel too. The show is darker now than it's been since the original series (when almost every episode happened in the creepy night time) and you feel that darkness when you watch it. It's spookier than the hackneyed villains of "What's New" and certainly far less goofy than the ones with the special guests. I cringe when I see those awful episodes with The Globetrotter and Phyllis Diller. Sure, the relationship stuff is more "adult" than the past but for those of you pointing out that the costumes are 70s again ... that's cool! So is Fred playing an 8-track on a record player ... that was funny, and meant to be! You've got to get the joke. Look, no one likes change all that much. I'm a marketing exec and I know this more than anything but change, when presented with elements that make us still feel comfortable, is great. Kudos to the writers for this fresh take on a great show that still makes me feel at home. (Oh, and I love the "Mr. E" stuff. It's a nice creepy sub-plot that now has me tivo'ing the show for myself, not just my kid!)

I say this as a big fan of Scooby Doo. I watched Scooby Doo! Mystery Incorporated not expecting much, and I was shocked at how surprisingly good it. To me while not as good as the classic Scooby Doo! Where Are You?, Mystery Incorporated is one of the better Scooby Doo incarnations, and much better than Shaggy Doo: Get a Clue!(the worst of anything to do with Scooby Doo)

If there is one thing that I wasn't crazy about, I did find at first that Velma's personality here took a while to get used to. However, I loved the animation, the colours and backgrounds are very colourful and stylistic while having a glossy sheen to them. In general Mystery Inc look similar in design to the other incarnations, except for Fred and to a lesser extent Velma, and they are convincing. Plus I found the villains funky in look.

The music is great as well, the main theme is memorable and the background music sometimes has a cinematic feel to it. The writing is funny and moody and in one episode poignant too(when Fred finds out about his father), while the stories are set up quite nicely with the darkest atmosphere of any Scooby show since the original, something refreshingly new in idea to mixing some elements of what made the original work so well and trying something different and one of the least predictable and hackneyed of any show to do with the iconic character.

The characters are great. Velma as I have said takes some getting used to, but I loved the development to Fred, I liked how they made Daphne stronger and more resourceful here and Shaggy and Scooby still make me smile and laugh. In terms of villains, most are great, but some are disappointing, especially the Creepers/Gators who were very predictable and obvious. The voice acting is fine too, the new voice actor for Shaggy does a very worthy job in particular and Frank Welker is still going strong.

Overall, I wasn't expecting to like Mystery Incorporated, but I actually love it. It made the most of a good idea and got/is getting stronger. 9/10 Bethany Cox

The villains are frightening. The characters are fleshed-out. the plot is dynamic. The art style is unique, and its universe has depth. Put simply, this is Scooby-Doo living up to its fullest potential.

I know my Scooby. I grew up with all the incarnations of the show, and while it's generally held a place in my mind as being fun, I probably would never have considered myself a true fan. I didn't doodle Scooby on my class notes.

But some genius came along and changed the rules. This show is true expansion, not a retelling of the original story. Not a remake. It's not trying to be hip, or modern. It's trying to be iconic; it's trying to be bold. They flashback to scenes straight out of the original series, and build their universe brick by brick, staying true to the core elements of Scooby (including the ridiculous slapstick), while introducing intrigue, fear, tension, development - and humor, like you've never seen in Scooby before.

I think the moment I realized that I might be watching something incredible came along when Velma was giving a tour of her family's Spook Museum, and casually resting in the background was the opening monster from the Scooby-Doo live action film. It never came up; it was just *there*.

That was a tell-tale sign of a groups of creators that loved their material - both good and bad. It takes guts to recognize the embarrassments of a franchise, and then continue onward, using elements of that embarrassment to produce something wonderful. Passion is oozing from the seams in this show.

This show was so well done, it's was one of my favorites. Although I'm a too old for kids shows, I find myself absolutely enraptured in the universe the show created. I need more!!!

I don't know how I ever missed this gem of a show. Seeing in how it was made in 2010 I'm super disappointed there won't be new episodes.

That being said, I've been a fan of scooby doo since I was a kid, and out of all the shows I've seen, this has one of the best stories ever. If your a scooby doo fan, you've got to watch it!