Clue Club

While I am a huge fan of Scooby-Doo, in the early days of the said series, its mysteries were easy to know who-done-it since there were almost no other suspects to pick. Instead, in Clue Club, you find several suspects and even the cases were more ambitious in the sense of the trick by the criminal to make the robbery.

I got up early this morning and saw "Clue Club" as part of Cartoon Network's "Boomerang" program. I remember this show from when I was a kid. I liked it then. I can't see what I ever saw in it.

The program is sloppily edited, it looks like bits were cut out of it, which may contribute to the overall badness. The lead teen, Larry is a personalityless dork, not that any of the other kids have a personality to speak off. The dogs are kinda funny, but not as funny as Scooby, and where did they get a deerstalker hat in dog size anyway?

The episode I saw revolved around a character named "Uncle Salty" being framed for a diamond theft. The sheriff literally runs him in based on the fact that he was...walking around at the time. I won't go into the mystery here, it's the standard crap, I solved it halfway through. There was also something about a sea monster, though, again, with all the cuts, it didn't even impact the plot much.

Don't waste your time. Go with the best, the original, Scooby.

Clue Club is another show in the long line of Scooby-Doo clones made by Hanna-Barbera in an attempt to capitalize on the success they had with the great dane by making shows using the formula of teenage sleuths and an animal sidekick solving mysteries involving criminals disguised as monsters or ghosts.

The show revolves around the Clue Club, Larry, Pepper, D. D., and Dottie, as they solve mysteries. As this is a Scooby-Doo clone, the four teens (Dottie is left to hold the fort due to her being 13 years old) are joined by two dogs by the name of Woofer and Wimper, who while they are talking dogs, they do not talk directly to the other Clue Club members, instead communicating in barks and other dog noises.

Now this is a neat Scooby clone. As the characters can be compared to Mysyery Inc. (Larry is Fred since he is the leader, Dottie, despite being in base on communications, is Velma, Pepper is basically Daphne, and D. D. is Shaggy while Woofer and Wimper are both Scooby), it is still a good cartoon, as the voice acting is neat, the storytelling is on par with Scooby, and Woofer and Wimper are actually good comic relief.

Could it be that Hanna Barbara Got the idea for these 2 dogs from the Walt Disney Cartoon movie the Aristocats ? Because I am watching the show for the first time in my life right now on boomerang . I have seen most of Hanna Barbaras shows on t.v most of them I seen as a kid in the 80's after school. Like Scooby Doo,Flintstones, Speed Buggy, Etc. It could very well be possible that Hanna Barbara got into a kind of creative mood and decided to combine the 2 dogs from aristocats and put them into a Scooby Doo setting. Just watch the 2 dogs from this cartoon and then watch the 2 dogs from Aristocats and let me know if you too can see the resemblance.Personally if I was Disney I would of been a bit upset.

As a kid growing up in the mid-1970's,I can remember watching this show since it came on Saturday Mornings,and Sunday Mornings during its run (It came to a halt on Sunday Mornings when CBS executives yanked it off the air and replaced it with educational and informative programming) for most of the decade. The show featured a group of teenagers who solve crimes with the help of two bloodhounds(Woofer and Whimper),but here is the catchy part,it had a nice premise to it,but it was a total rip-off of Scooby Doo since in this one had a Velma like character that had a computer center in the family garage. There were a lot like that in the 1970's that copy cat the Scooby formula,and this was one of them. See some of the episodes and you'll know what I mean.