Sunday, August 1, 2021

Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? - S01E01 - Revenge of the Swamp Monster! - Toonstalgia

Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? - Revenge of the Swamp Monster!

Season 1, Episode 1

Premiered June 27, 2019

Quickly

The gang hunts a golfer abducting Swamp Monster.

Thoughts, Details and Recap

Growing up, I didn't differentiate the New Scooby-Doo movies from the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! or Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo. It was just some episodes had celebrities that I didn't recognize. This series starts off on the same foot with Chris Paul. I don't know anything about sports but I can quickly grasp that Chris Paul is a basketball player. 

The gang is unmasking the Bee Man of Alcatraz when Shaggy gets a call. The person on the other side of the call sends a helicopter to pick up the gang Mystery Machine and all to bring them to a golf course in Florida. Velma remembers news reports about a Swamp Monster making golfers disappear. Chris Paul reveals himself to be an old friend of Shaggy's. He asks Shaggy to caddy for him at a charity golf tournament. The golf tournament supports an art school and Chris Paul wants to teach kids to bowl...outside. The gang almost falls into a sink hole.

The golf tournament continues with the remaining golfers. Chris Paul get a confidence boost from some wise words from Shaggy. The Swamp monster scares off the announcer. Scooby takes over. The Swamp monster attacks the tournament. The gang and Chris Paul get to work investigating. 

The gang follow a clue into the water trap. They wear scuba gear referencing the gear from A Clue from Scooby-Doo from the original series. They are chased out of the water by the Swamp monster. They come out near the Art School. Chris Paul, Shaggy and Scooby distract and disorient the monster with an art class. After the monster retreats, they find a prismatic compass, a geologist and land surveyor tool.

They return to the tournament the next day. Shaggy meets a caddy who warns him away. Shaggy is ready to flee. Chris Paul calls him out by reminding him that he saved Shaggy's life. Shaggy tells the story of how Chris Paul shared his pizza with him. As the Swamp Monster picks away at the golfers, Shaggy, Scooby and Chris Paul play their way through the course. The Swamp Monster pursues them all the way to the 18th hole.

The monster is captured by the critters that Scooby had been fighting throughout the episode using the gang's trap. It's the caddy that tried to warn Shaggy away. This episode gives an explanation to the "monster's" excessive strength by saying he's built muscles as a caddy. They don't touch on the fact that he abducted multiple people and held them captive for at least a day or two and what was his plan? They do say that the golfers were rescued which confirms that he did abduct them.

Overall the art is pretty clean. It's keeping with the traditional look of the gang. It's an okay start to a new series. The design of the Swamp Monster isn't as good as the bee in the beginning. It's kind of a bulky and shapeless.

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