'Winter Winterdog' (2002)
Opening thoughts: Have been a big Scooby Doo fan since late single digits and that is never going to change, because of how much it, Disney, Tom and Jerry and Looney Tunes helped me through a tough secondary school period. The Scooby Doo franchise proved many times, with pretty much all the Scooby Doo shows having at least one winter episode (apart from 'The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show'), that it could do episodes in wintery settings and with a winter theme.
This compilation features four episodes, 'The New Scooby Doo Mysteries' "The Nutcracker Scoob", 'Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo's' "Alaskan King Coward", 'The Scooby Doo Show's' "A Scary Night with a Snow Beast Fright" and 'Scooby Doo Where are You's' "That's Snow Ghost". One is an episode that has always been very dear to my heart, one is near-classic Scooby Doo, one is good but not great and one while better than remembered still doesn't do much for me.
For me, the best of the four has always been "The Nutcracker Scoob", which for me has always been by far the best episode of that show. It is only let down by the loose end regarding the ghost's first appearance, have never been sure as to whether the perpetrator already had knowledge of the emerald in that appearance. If so there would have to have been another conversation about it prior to what is shown in the episode, which is not explained.
Other than that, it has a great Christmassy atmosphere, affectionate and clever references to Christmas and Dickens, a genuinely scary villain that is the best one of that show, a memorable Scrooge-like character in Winslow Nickelby, an exciting climax and plenty of funny moments. The best being the chimney sweeps scene, Shaggy's lines in the lead up to the ghost's first appearance and Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy as Santa's Elves. Scrappy is also tolerable.
Second best is "That's Snow Ghost". Which is notable for the wintery setting, the frightening Snow Ghost, some genuinely fun moments like the tense scene with the log (great to see Scooby being brave here) and the Shaggy and Scooby versus Snow Ghost snow car pursuit and the intriguing Snow Ghost backstory.
Have never liked Hal Smith's over the top voice acting for Greenway though and have always found the ending too rushed and the perpetrator one of the show's most blatantly obvious almost straightaway.
"Scooby's Night with a Snow Beast Fright" is mostly good and has grown on me. The ending is bland with an obvious motive and with it being a perpetrator one never really gets to know and the Snow Beast's constant size changes distracted a bit.
It is advantaged a lot by the setting, the intimidating Snow Beast and one of the show's most ominous openings that actually had some jeopardy. It also is a strong example of how much the animation improved in Season 3 (it was always fine in 'The Scooby Doo Show' but it was brighter, more detailed and more refined in the third season), while the locations were more exotic and varied and the music also had more variety.
"Alaskan King Coward" was an episode this reviewer hated as a child and skipped whenever watching. On recent rewatch of all the 'Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo' shorts, which actually was not too great on the whole while not as bad as feared, it fared quite a bit better. Still don't like it very well, very few laughs, very repetitive, very thinly plotted, over-stretched, irregular animation, too much Scrappy overkill and one of the biggest examples of Scrappy making things worse.
What makes it more tolerable and less hate-worthy now is the setting, a couple of amusing lines from Shaggy and the monster (a lot more menacing than remembered and more antagonistic than most of the shorts' bully-like characters). As well as the voice work.
Coming onto the individual elements, the animation is generally quite good. Especially in "Scooby's Night with a Snow Beast Fright" (unevenly sized monster aside) and "The Nutcracker Scoob". The music also fares very well mostly, with it only not fitting in "Alaskan King Coward". "The Nutcracker Scoob's" climax is especially well scored. There are plenty of funny and spooky moments, all four villains are memorable and mostly the mysteries are good (the bland "Scooby's Night with a Snow Beast Fright" climax faring weakest. The voice acting is very good overall, Casey Kasem and Don Messick are immortal as Shaggy and Scooby.
Closing thoughts: Overall, worth watching.
7/10.
