'Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo' "Robot Ranch"/"Scooby-Dooby Guru"/"Surprised Spies" (1981)
Opening thoughts: On the whole, 'Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo' is one of the weakest of the Scooby Doo shows. It did though have a very watchable first season, with the best episodes actually being very good and only one episode being below average. After the first season, the show very quickly went downhill and never really got better despite some watchable shorts here and there. Shaggy and Scooby were always the most interesting characters and didn't mind that they were main protagonists, did mind though that the other protagonist is one of the main reasons as to why Season 2 onward did not work.
The show is back to disappointment and mediocrity with this triple bill "Robot Ranch"/"Scooby Dooby Guru"/"Surprised Spies", after a few average and more ones thanks to a small handful of the show's best shorts being in them. One short is decent, one is okay and one is very poor with little redeeming (that is being said with a heavy heart). There are good things in all three, but there are also a lot of faults present throughout with one short in particular having it worse than the others.
Good things: While there is a lot wrong, there are good things. The theme music is catchy and the music fits better than most episodes. There are some nice colours, especially in "Surprised Spies", and the voice work is spirited.
"Surprised Spies" is by far the best of the shorts. The spy plot was intriguing and fun, the espionage never being too complicated and also not childish. The humour is more than most shorts of the show, and it is amusing humour at that and not as tired or as retread feeling than usual. It is not perfect, with some flat rushed looking animation (an issue in all three shorts) and the ending for my taste was too much of an abrupt cop out.
Bad things: "Robot Ranch" is just okay. Did like the supporting characters, the cool setting and the Western referencing, but the plot is thin and what there is is predictable and repetitive. If you've seen one Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy short you know pretty much how it's all going to map out. Scrappy is over-exposed and annoying and the gags are too few and unimaginative.
Didn't like "Scooby Dooby Guru" at all other than the music and voice work. It goes much too far on the weirdness and doing so in a random (like the discovery of the city) and very muddled way. Predictability and repetition also go overboard and the short feels over-stretched and dull. Didn't like the supporting characters, who are made to believe in a stereotyped way and the stereotyping is too generalised and not tasteful, nor were the trio likeable. Scrappy is always an over-zealous arrogant character (something that is overdone throughout the triple bill which makes him really annoying), but wasn't expecting Shaggy and Scooby to be such jerks and be the reason for the contrived conflict. There is nothing amusing here and the gags are stale and rehashed.
Closing thoughts: Overall, mediocre triple bill saved by one decent short.
4/10.
