'Scooby Doo and Guess Who' sounded very interesting and really liked the idea of the gang solving crimes with various guest stars (a mix of real life celebrities in the film, music and sporting industries and popular characters). So a more modern version of 'The New Scooby Doo Movies', loved that show as a kid and quite a lot of episodes and guest stars hold up but some episodes and guest stars don't quite do it now. This show turned out to be mostly very well done and at its best great.
Have always liked George Takei, who has a wonderful immediately recognisable voice and has a cool persona (plus he has a wonderful way of owning bigoted people), so there were quite high expectations for "Hollywood Knights". Plus the concept was nice. "Hollywood Knights" was a quite fun episode on the whole and fans of Takei won't be disappointed. It is though uneven as well, and it did have potential to be a nearly great episode if the pacing was better and if one joke wasn't as overworked as it was.
Beginning with the good things, the animation to me here is good, with rich background detail with the interiors and vibrant and eerie colours. The music fits well tonally and the theme tune is still catchy though too on the short side. The dialogue is amusing and light hearted and a lot of the humour is fine. Did like the doors gag and Scooby with the organ.
Takei is a very cool guest star and works really well with the gang. Who are mostly on strong form, especially Shaggy and Scooby who can do no wrong in my eyes. The gang interaction sees a lot of resourcefulness and one can see that they care for each other. The setting is a lot of fun, particularly shining in the first half. The villain is suitably creepy and one of the most unique ones of the show with the way it is used. The crazy lady was a lot of fun and has the freakout factor. The voice acting is fine, though Kate Miccucci as was too often the case on 'Scooby Doo and Guess Who' is too abrasive. Takei and Matthew Lillard come off best.
Did feel however that "Hollywood Knights" was very unevenly paced. It takes a little too much time to get started and then rushes all the way through to the end with not enough breathing space. The mystery is merely alright, liked the atmosphere but it is predictable (another case of for example the reveal being obvious too early) and not very memorable.
Have seen elsewhere too that there were fans that found the gang being constantly distracted by Takei's voice really overdone and stupid, and this reviewer does agree completely here. It was mildly amusing the first couple of times but quickly got very irritating and made everybody look like simpering idiots, it is a major problem when it featured as many times as it did.
Concluding, quite fun but very uneven. 6/10.
