Customer Reviews

A Pup Named Scooby-Doo: Complete 1st Season

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(7)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

My 4 year old daughter loves this DVD! The stories are short and simple, the "monsters" are silly, and with 13 episodes, this gets us through a long car trip! I'd highly recommend this!!

This version of Scooby and the gang is a series i watched on Saturday morning TV and i liked it. Shaggy would often serve as the narrator at the start of each episode, usually ending his monologue inserting the name of the series. For example: "...things aren't usually what they seem to me and a pup named Scooby-Doo..." and then that episode's story would begin. On hand for the show were Don Messick and Casey Kasem as the voices of Scooby and Shaggy respectively. I always got a kick out the running gag's on the show where Daphne would almost always call out for her butler in a time of crisis and sure enough, her butler would appear out of nowhere. Velma had few lines on the series...usually saying only her catchphrase of "jinkies". Her eye glasses were exaggerated. Fred was written more of a know it all who didn't really know it all...usually blaming high school bully Red Herring as the criminal in each mystery. The facial expressions were more along the lines of Tex Avery and Bob Clampette where one would see bulging eyes and tongues gyrating around and outrageous screams. The series ran on ABC-TV from 1988-1991 and re-ran on ABC mornings until around 1992/1993. It didn't have a long re-run life on the network. This DVD has a better packaging...when i opened the DVD i was happy to see the two DVD's on a what i call a flip-flapper. You don't have to pull a DVD out to get to another one, which is often the case in many DVD sets where DVD's over-lap one another. These DVD's are on these flappers much like in the THUNDERCATS collections. If you have those collections you'll know what i'm talking about. Anyway, each episode is crammed with visual gags and comedy...and it is also the last Scooby series to air on one of the big three networks. After this version left the airwaves in 1992/1993 there wouldn't be another new Scooby program in first-run production until 2002's WHAT's NEW, SCOOBY-DOO and that series was on the WB network, not one of the big three: ABC, CBS, NBC.

I loved this series of Scooby-Doo when I was a kid and so now that my daughter has an obsession with Scooby-Doo I was happy to pick up the "Pup" series, season 1 for her. I'm a little disappointed however. There are some significant areas of the DVD transfer that left the animation sketchy. It should be much much clearer than it is. This isn't an issue with my TV or DVD player. Some parts of the show just seem to look like they've been ripped from an AVI. If it wasn't for the low quality DVD transfer I'd have given this a 5 star rating; as it stands now though, it's a 4 star.

I'm a big Scooby-Doo fan and, out of all the series based on the character, this has to be my least favorite. It's not that I didn't like it as it was entertaining, it's just the 'babyfication' of the show kinda made it less appealing to me. Most of the time, I'd figure out the mystery long before it ever got started. I imagine it was the producers' intentions to gear this more towards the younger set to get them into Scooby Doo and, in that respect, they achieved what they set out to do. I just didn't care too much for it.

However, do I recommend this DVD set to everyone? Quite simply, yes. For what it is, it is a good show. I agree, there are some areas of the DVD transfer that left the animation sketchy. It should be clearer than it is. But, overall, it's definitely worth recommending.

The best way to describe this show to you is simply this...A Pup Named Scooby-Doo is a re-imagining of the series inspired by the classic cartoons of Tex Avery and Bob Clampett, and even Looney Tunes. For the most part, it works. It was a success when it aired from 1988 to 1991 on ABC Saturday Mornings. I just wish it could've been more appealing to me, you know?

I know I should talk about how much I love 'A Pup Named Scooby-Doo', and what makes it so funny and great, but I'm not really much of a reviewer, and the only reason I'm actually doing this is to give possible buyers an idea on what they'd be getting if they consider this. So here it is, the list of episodes as they originally aired on ABC's Saturday Morning timeslot (between September and December of 1988):

DISC ONE:
1. A Bicycle Built for Boo!
The gang trails the trail of a monstrous bike thief.

2. The Sludge Monster From the Earth's Core
Scooby's doghouse is haunted by a one-eyed monster responsible for a recent bank robbery.

3. Wanted Cheddar Alive
Until the mystery of a cheesy monster is solved, there will be no more Scooby Snacks, which spells trouble for Scooby.

4. The Schnook Who Took My Comic Book
When Shaggy's precious comic book is stolen by a comic book villain, Commander Cool and Mellow Mutt are on the case.

5. For Letter or Worse
The ghost of a notorious gangster appears, and gets a television station shut down.

6. The Babysitter From Beyond
The kids inadvertently get caught between a prison escapee, a horrendous babysitter, and a three-headed zombie.

7. Now Museum, Now You Don't
Shaggy and Scooby are blamed for the robbery of a priceless museum artifact.

8. Snow Place Like Home
An Ice Demon forces a couple's ski lodge to go bankrupt.

DISC TWO:
9. Scooby Dude
A trip to the beach finds the gang trying to stop a headless skateboarder.

10. Ghost Who's Coming to Dinner?
On Halloween, the gang must help a ghost solve the mystery of pirate, or risk having him disappear forever.

11. The Story Stick
A living Totem Pole haunts an Indian Reservation.

12. Robopup
Daphne's home is robbed by a ghostly chef; Scooby clashes with a robotic dog.

13. Lights...Camera...Monster!
In the first-season finale, a movie monster (which, apparently, is all-too real) attacks the Coolsville Mall.

The special features are nothing special: an interactive map that takes you to places featured in episodes, animatics and an alternate opening.

This was a great show I used to love watching back in the 90's. I am however a little upset with the video quality of this set. The backgrounds are fine but all the characters and moving animations in the front blur and then sharpen every second over and over and that blurriness and fuzziness to sharpness for a second and back gets really annoying. It makes it look like they ripped off AVI's and put them on here with crappy quality. Other than that major annoyance, its great to be able to see the show again.

I give it a 3 because of the bad video transfer.

The new format followed the trend of the "babyfication" of older cartoon characters, reducing the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! cast to junior-high age. This new show also used the same basic formula as the original 1969 show: the gang (referred to in this show as the "Scooby-Doo Detective Agency") solved supernatural-based mysteries, where the villains (the ghosts and monsters) were always revealed as bad guys in masks and costumes. The biggest difference was the tone of the show: With A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, producer Tom Ruegger built upon the slightly irreverent humor he had established along with producer Mitch Schauer with Scooby's previous incarnation, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. This resulted in a wackier, more extremely comic version of Scooby-Doo that satirized the conventions of the show's previous incarnations. It was not uncommon for the characters to do wild Bob Clampett-esque takes when they ran into ghosts and monsters, Fred was constantly blaming a character appropriately called "Red Herring" for each and every crime on the show (true to his name, Red was always innocent, except for the one episode in which Fred didn't blame him) and shots of the characters (and even the ghosts and monsters) dancing were inserted into the obligatory rock-music-scored chase sequences. The ghosts and monsters themselves were also more comedic, such as a creature made out of molten cheese, and the ghost of a dogcatcher. Also in the series it features Scooby and Shaggy as their favourite superhero duo. Shaggy would be the fearless Commander Cool (a combination of Batman and Superman) and Scooby would be his faithful canine sidekick Mellow Mutt (a combinaton of Krypto, Robin (comics) and Ace the Bat-Hound.)

Movie rcvd in excellent condition. It was a birthday present for my sister and she loved it.

I thought that the set was nice but, it would have been really nice to see some background on the kid actors that voiced Freddy, Velma, and Daphanie. The Transfor was great except for the final toon on the second disc... The sound seemed slow and the anamation seemed slow as well... Minor, but noticable... Bring on the final years WB... Please??? With sugar on the top?

Wow, this is the worse I have ever seen in video quality, it jumps and flicks and flops, it is unwatchable on a large television. I'm really unhappy that I paid $12 for something that makes me dizzy to watch with my son.