'Scooby Doo Where are You' was the first Scooby Doo incarnation, and to me it's still the best. "Decoy for a Dognapper" is definitely the weakest of the first five episodes and is for me a lesser episode, but it has enough to make entertaining and worth watching.
The animation as ever is lively, atmospheric, lushly coloured and nicely drawn. The setting lacks the creepiness of the likes of "A Clue for Scooby Doo", "Hassle in the Castle", "Mine Your Own Business", "What the Hex is Going On", "Haunted House Hang Up", "The Backstage Rage" and "A Night of Fright is No Delight" but it is intriguing enough and doesn't hurt the atmosphere at all.
Music adds to the impact the atmosphere creates, though as said in my previous 'Scooby Doo Where are You' reviews there is nothing here that quite comes to the level of effectiveness of the incredibly eerie Ghost of Captain Cutler theme in "A Clue for Scooby Doo". And it is very difficult to resist the classic theme song that is one of the most iconic in animation.
"Decoy for a Dognapper" atmosphere-wise is a little bland, the scariest moments being Geronimo (who is actually much more memorable than the villains) and the witch doctor's incantation (the one time in the episode where he makes an impact with a booming voice and the glowing). It just lacks the creepiness, darkness and spookiness of most other episodes and all the previous four episodes did a much better job with evoking those qualities.
However, the deft humour makes up for that. There is an ideal balance of mystery and comedy, and while the comedy is as ever sort of goofy and silly it's in an endearing sort of way, genuinely funny and never annoying or juvenile. There is some hilarious writing here, much of it coming from Shaggy and Scooby. Love the tougher Scooby as well.
Mystery-wise it's interesting. There are some nice clues that carry the story nicely without being convoluted or simplistic and a case that's easy to follow and comprehend. It's formulaic, but not in a way that's overly predictable, which is true of Scooby Doo at its best or when it's still solid. The gang have well established personalities and are not out of characters, and the relationship between Shaggy and Scooby is still charming and amusing. The voice acting is very good, Don Messick and Casey Kasem cannot be beat or equalled as Scooby and Shaggy.
Where "Decoy for a Dognapper" is most let down is the villains, which are bland generally and are not very memorable, the witch doctor being one of the weakest villains of the series. The perpetrator and the motive are also incredibly obvious from the get go, even more so than the Ape Man, 49er also had an obvious identity as did the Green Phantoms and the Snow Ghost but at least they made an impact in some way.
All in all, entertaining but does lack atmosphere and a good villain. 8/10 Bethany Cox
