#I'm taking Scooby Doo back from HBO

[ohdeedraws]

Bit late to the trend but since the Velma show butchered the scooby gang so badly, I've seen people sharing their ideas for a scooby doo rewrite and I wanted to share an idea for a reboot I've been working on for a while now.

The story would take place in Coolsville, a small town famous for the high number of disappearances every year and the rumors of monsters, a witches curse and other paranormal activities. It's also famous for its renowned Personal Dectecives, Mystery Inc.

The gang would be older in this, probably in their 40s. They have grown up in Coolsville and become local celebrities. Aside from Mystery Solving, they have their own lives and families.

Daphne became the writer of an immensly popular series of mystery books detailing the gangs adventures throughout the years (I'd imagine these to be episodes of the past shows, eg. 'What a Night for a Knight' from Where Are You, 'Camp comeoniwannascareya' etc., because yes, they're canon in this reboot). She married a famous fashion designer (but during the events of the story they're going through a divorce because she has finally come to terms that she is a lesbian). She has three kids.

Fred coaches the local highschool football team when he's not inventing new traps or catching monsters. He married a woman who works as the main news presenter on the local channel and he loves her dearly, more than his traps. Together they have two children.

Velma's main focus is Mystery Inc. But on the side she runs the local book shop, the main supplier of Daphne's books. She was married to an English Professor who works at the University a few hours outside of town, but they realised they weren't right for eachother and got divorced. They had one child together.

Shaggy runs a cooking/food review blog where reviews food from all over the world and shares his own recipes and tutorials, all with his trusted dog Scooby by his side of course. He's a single parent of one, and no one talks about his wife because, quite honestly, no one knows who she is.

The Gang are still close, like family, even after all this time. But the show wouldn't focus on them, it would focus on their eldest kids.

Let's meet them!

Grey Matthews-Blake is the richest kid in Coolsville. He's often seen wearing his father's newest line of clothes and his signature designer green sunglasses (that he even wears inside). He's known to be quite dramatic, sarcastic, and generally uninterested in anything to do with his mother and her job.

Wren Dinkley is often told that it's hard to believe they're the Velma Dinkley's child. Whether it's when their preforming their heart out on the stage during whatever production the local theatre group are putting on, or failing science, Wren doesn't let it get them down. They're headstrong, passionate, and totally comfortable with themselves...'totally'.

Cassia Jones is the nicest girl in town. She's captain of Coolsville Field Hocky Team, Head of the debate team and Student Body President. She's bubbly, hard working and determined to live up to the Jones legacy and make her father proud.

Billie Rogers doesn't care what her dad and dog tell her, she knows the supernatural rumors in town are real. And she's going to be the first person to prove it. She's talkative, outgoing, and very knowledgeable in the paranormal - much to her dad's dismay.

Despite their parents relationships, the kids aren't that close. The town's folk expect them to be just like their parents and that couldnt be farther from the truth. But they do have one thing in common with the Original Gang, their mystery solving talent. Unfortunately, for some unknown reason (*wink* plot *wink*) their parents are strongly against them following in their footsteps.

But things come to head one day when Mystery Inc disappear, and the local police turn up useless in the investigation.

Now its up to the kids, Billie, Wren, Grey and Cassia to band together to take up the jobs left in Mystery Inc's absence and find their parents. But in doing so they'll discover that their quaint small town is not all that it's seems and have to unearth a witches spellbook, an old grudge and an ancient evil that many have tried to escape but no one has defeated.

Ft. Side Characters such as The Suspects aka Jinx and Mozz McKnight (daughter and son of Thorn from the Hex Girls!), RJ Herring (Son of Red Herring), and other callbacks from all of scooby doo lore!

This is just the bare bones explanation, I'll go deeper into each character in their own posts and introductions. But this is my own little passion project. I've been obsessed with scooby doo since forever and I've always wanted to make my own iteration :)

[xsage1113]

So while everyone is looking at the "what if" mature Scooby-Doo shows, I wanted to take a look back at previous version to find something interesting in the past. I found two fun things I wanted to share. The first is the number of crossover series they have had with IRL people. Not just the movies like the WWE or Kiss crossovers, I'm talking about tv shows. Keep in mind I haven't completetly seen these series. But I have done some research on them. This was originally gonna be a deep dive into scooby doo history, and now it turned into Scooby Doo stuff I thought was cool after reading the Wikipedia First up, The New Scooby Doo Movies

Don't let the title trick you, this is the follow-up tv show from the original Scooby-Doo Where Are You. This show was a hour long broadcast every episode, and each featured a guest character, with some repeats in its 2 season run with a total of 24 episodes (16 and 8 if you're curious) and the listings are wild. Some makes sense, The Addams Family (which is the only episode not to get a home release due to disputes with the Addams Family) dealing with a missing Wednesday Addams and an evil vulture. Other make some less sense, like when they worked with the Three Stooges. But some are outright bizarre, like the THREE 40 MINUTE EPISODES WITH THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS. None of which involved basketball, but two that involved being on ships. Not to mention the Batman and Robin episodes.

A similar series was made rather from 2019 to 2021 recently which I didn't know about before watching. Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?

Same concept as before, but in a modern days with new characters. I think the reason I didn't hear about this was cause it jumped from Cartoon Network, to Boomerang, to finally finishing its second season on HBO max. With twice as many episodes across its run it has some gems of insanity. More DC characters, like Flash, Wonder Woman, as well as Alex Trebek, Macklemore, their voice actors Joey Chestnut, Morgan Freeman Jeff Foxworthy, Neil deGrasse Tyson and Bill Nye just to name a few.

Now for the darkest story in any scooby doo property. It completely reimagined all of the characters as adults. Featured dark themes and was the first comic series to receive a teen rating. It was so crazy, that Warner Brothers got mad at DC comics for the reimagining. It ran for 36 issues and is everything you'd want in an insane, mature, reimagining of the scooby doo franchise that follows a different formula. It is...

Scooby Doo Apocalypse ran from 2016 to 2019. It featured a horrifying monster apocalypses which the team work together to survive and solve the mysteries of it. Daphne and Fred are both a Journalist and her Cameraman respectively. Velma is a scientist who was trying to expose the nanites that caused people to mutate into monsters, Shaggy was a dog handler for the same corporation, handling a different project training smart dogs, such as Scooby. It also is the most recent appearance of Scrappy Doo I believe, and it takes his character in an interesting new direction. Its intense, people die, and its something I highly recommend. I may expand on it in another post. It may not be for everyone but I think there is something worth seeing in it.

It was a dark storying line for a more mature audience, with different version of the characters we are familiar with, in a non-traditional format and formula. Something that some shows can learn from. Even though it was canceled, it received just enough time to get a proper ending to the story.

Feel free to reblog with other cool and interesting scooby doo shows movies, or series that might be lesser known but still are interesting and different from the traditional.

[theliterarywolf]

Ok so spin the wheel of "pick a TV show to reboot with a truckload of salt to dump on old fans" wheeere did we land? Scooby Doo

(run, buddy, RUN)

There's a new scooby doo show coming out for HBO that primarily focuses on Velma (with some cameos of some of the other members of the scooby gang) but Velma is "too bookish and shy" so she needs to be changed up

also it'll be adult animation with "R rated gore and adult innuendoes"

also also now Velma is south asain (and according to Twitter if you dislike that/question it you're racist, forget the fact that maybe it sounds like you didn't like Velma's personality anyway so why not make a new character?)

Now, if you're thinking "Scooby Doo characters minus Scooby Doo with what's probably a cynical flair to typical Scooby Doo media? That sounds like it might be funny for a short skit, but that's been done before. Hopefully they have fresh ideas "

well, it's a real series and honestly I guess it's unfair for me to so harshly judge it already, but I've seen this song and dance before. You can't rely only on dunking on previous versions and erasing all the core elements while still using show names/terms to prop up a reboot/re imaging/whatever you'd like to call this. If it has no merit on its own, I'm guessing it's going to fall flat (for me at least)

ANYWAYS maybe I'll finally check out Scooby Apocalypse. It looks ridiculous but at least it feels like a fun ridiculous.

Believe it or not, I wouldn't necessarily have an issue with Velma being raceswapped for that new show... If everyone in Mystery Incorporated was raceswapped.

Like, give me a diverse rendition of Mystery Inc. that pokes fun at all those borderline offensive Scooby-Doo knockoffs back in the 70s/80s. I would actually enjoy something like that with, say, the writing of Robot Chicken Seasons 1-5.

However, just plucking out Velma and having cameos from the other members isn't a Scooby-Doo series. That's just retreading the fuckup that was Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue and hoping that no one will notice said fuckup with how they raceswapped a classic character and filled the show with lesbian undertones.

Then again, this is just the second in so many upcoming projects that have been 'take one female character out of their ensemble cast for an edgy adult reboot'. We still have that edgy adult Wednesday Addams series coming up that was pitched last year.

Watch, next year we're going to get an edgy adult TMNT series that only focuses on April.

[nomadicism]

To be honest, I'm not that surprised that Voltes V is being adapted into la before Voltron. Voltes V is extremely popular in the Philippines, even now. While I think Voltron was big in North America during it's time, it's not nearly as popular as was back in the 80s, even with the Netflixs series. It's like how Saint Seiya is still super beloved in Latin America to this day, despite it being made in the 80s.

Hi Anon, thank you for the Ask!

I’m surprised-and-not-surprised that Voltes V will be adapted into live-action before Voltron, both for the reasons you mentioned, but more importantly, it’s because when IP holders of cartoons (doesn’t matter what cartoon it is) attempt to get a live-action film made, they nearly always fail to get it made. Live-action TV series adaptations don’t do well either, for mostly the same reasons.

Note: I’m not counting live action adaptations of anime, b/c that’s a completely different beast.

My self-indulgent axiom is: The moment that there is an announcement about a cartoon being made into a live-action film or series, is the moment that such a thing ever happening dies on the vine. There are quite a few of them languishing in movie rights limbo, so I never take it seriously. 

There are a lot of factors involved as to why they fail to get made, but the biggest reason has to do with special effects budget/capabilities vs perceptions about how much money the potential audience will bring in. Since cartoons in the US are for children—obviously, they don’t have to be, but sadly that’s the widespread cultural belief—then that limits what can be done for a film that is based on a cartoon. This isn’t the same as an original animated film that is not adapted from an existing cartoon.

Basically, PG, PG-13, and R movies bring in more money. TV series face the same issue, even though live-action series traditionally bring in more ad revenue. The special effects budgets that would be required to adapt most cartoons (given the fantastical content) practically demand a movie adaptation rather than an on-going series, or mini-series.

Rated G movies can bring in mountains of money (especially if you’re Disney), and even then, Disney’s live-action films (notably based on IP that Disney purchased and are not even uniquely Disney) bring in more than their most beloved animated films, and no Disney G-rated film has broken $1B. Their top grossing animated film to date is the 2019 Lion King, which, being realistic CG, effectively makes it a live-action film. 

Frozen and the recent CG Lion King (2019) are in Disney’s top 10 as of 2019, and they are both rated PG. CG Lion King is #7 and Frozen is #15 of all top grossing films. FWIW, CG Lion King is ‘realistic’ to the point where I don’t think it really counts for what I’m on about here. Its realistic look makes it indistinguishable from the rest of the top 10 highest grossing films to date.

No company wants to spend tens of millions (or more) to make a cartoon into live-action if they have to keep it rated G, and they have to keep it rated G due to audience perceptions and expectations. The Scooby Doo movie got to dodge that a bit for some reasons that are unique to its franchise and audience (also, they still had to cut content/tone it down to avoid the R rating). The live-action He-Man movie is a good example of everything that could possibly go wrong, and I suspect that its infamous failure still looms large in the minds of those who write checks to produce movies.

The Michael Bay Transformers movies did well b/c the technology was there to make them look good, they were PG-13, and Bay’s “explode all the things” film-aesthetic was hit the right notes in the zeitgeist of the time. Even if I don’t really like the Bayformers, I can still respect them for bringing something fresh to the franchise, and looking damn good for CG robots.

Compare their success against, the animated Transformers: The Movie. That one did not do well in theaters and the more mature themes caught fans and viewers by surprise and—as much as I love the movie—many parents and kids were upset by it at the time and I agree with the reasons why. I also saw it in theaters as a kid and was upset at the time, but eventually grew to love it. That movie is another example of just how tricky it is to bridge the cartoon-to-film gap, even when animated. The Bayformers movies bridged the gap right (again, even though I’m not a fan of them, I respect them for what they are). I can’t think of any cartoon-to-live-action film that made the adaptation gap as well as the Transformers did. Obvs, there is no live-action TV series for Transformers. It can’t be done.

TMNT did well for the first two films, but again, they were films and not a TV series.

What follows is speculation on my part:

In the case of IP like Voltron or Robotech, I suspect that the reason why they have been in movie rights limbo for so long is to prevent someone else from buying the rights and making a movie of the original source material. Even a shitty Golion or Macross live-action movie could harm WEP or Harmony Gold’s control or water down their vision for the IP. Voltron and Robotech are unique b/c technically, a Japanese studio could have gone to production on a live action Golion or Macross movie, but if the license to make them is tied up with American studio/production houses (and royalties being paid where applicable) will prevent that. This doesn’t mean that WEP or Harmony Gold couldn’t challenge said hypothetical Japanese studio over an adaptation, but it would be a legal battle that no one wants. The rights get tied up indefinitely simply to keep another studio from buying them and possibly making the film and doing a great job of it.

It’s such a Cold War mentality, but I can’t see any other rationale for it other than WEP and Harmony Gold being really awful at brand and IP management to the point where they actually believe that a studio would risk millions on a live-action adaptation. At this point, Robotech would be more likely to get adapted since HG has the fire lit under their ass by looming copyright changes and that Sony was interested enough to get involved. They’ve got like 2 years to make that happen so we’ll see.

How this relates to Voltes V:

Since Voltes V is an anime, a live-action adaptation won’t be bound by the same expectations for content rating, especially if it is not being made for an American audience that expects rated G or family-friendly PG. The love for Voltes V among Filipinos puts the IP into a special place, and it’s probably a lot like Transformers, where there are a lot of older fans who are waiting to see their beloved show get some attention, whether big screen or small. There is that legacy audience plus the popularity of robot anime and video games in the region gives a Voltes V a good chance at a live-action TV adaptation.

To me this means that, since this adaptation won’t be a movie, but instead will be a “seasonal” series, that it’s going to do well enough for the Philippines, and probably have a quality similar to more recent Ultraman series, or Power Rangers. They don’t have to go all-in like a big budget Hollywood film, or an HBO drama. I’m curious if this live-action is actually live-action + CG, or if it’s going to be all CG animation that’s mostly realistic looking but also stylized.

Whatever happens, I’ll be happy to see Voltes V get made b/c it’s a fun-and-interesting story that deserves more attention, and it’s really a shame that there was never a reboot or remake. If it does well, then maybe Toei might bring it back in animated form.