Scooby-Doo! and Guess Who? - S01E03 - Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors! - Toonstalgia

Scooby-Doo! and Guess Who? - Peebles' Pet Shop of Terrible Terrors! 

Season 1, Episode 3

Premiered July 11, 2019

Quickly

The gang and Wanda Sykes investigate a monster at a pet shop.

Thoughts, Details and Recap

Wanda Sykes and Mr. Peebles, a pet shop owner, are attacked by a monstrous lanternfish.

Scooby is starving for Scooby Snacks. The shape of the Scooby Snacks in this series are irregularly shaped ovals or circles. The gang stops in Peebles' Pet shop to fulfill Scooby's desire. They rescue Wanda Sykes from beneath a collapsed shelf. Wanda and Scooby greet each other warmly. They recount their meeting at a dog show. How did Scooby get to the dog show? He can't drive.

They immediately get to work investigating. They find a giant egg that appears to have hatched.

Arnie, the bookkeeper shows up and throws the gang out of the shop just as Velma discovers discrepancies in the books. They reenter through a window. It's unlocked by someone inside. There's a lot of chasing in this episode. The fun kind of chasing with detours and jokes.

I like the monster design better than the Swamp Monster. It has a little more visual interest.

Wanda is abducted by the fish monster. They find the book keeper stuck to the wall with green goo. Scooby is motivated to hunt the monster to save his friend. Scooby and Shaggy find Wanda stuck to the wall.

Fred's trap fails. The board over the quicksand kitty litter fish tank breaks and traps Scooby, Shaggy and Wanda. They're saved by Magilla Gorilla. Magilla traps the lanternfish monster.

They unmask the monster to find Mr. Peebles. He blames Magilla. Arnie isn't actually a bad guy. He takes over the pet shop. Wanda adopts Magilla and a cat.

Magilla's special appearance is one done right. I haven't seen the Magilla Gorilla Show recently so I didn't remember Mr. Peebles. I did not anticipate Magilla and when he appeared it made me laugh.

Scooby-Doo! and Guess Who? - S01E02 - A Mystery Solving Gang Divided! - Toonstalgia

Scooby-Doo! and Guess Who? - A Mystery Solving Gang Divided

Season 1, Episode 2

Premiered July 2, 2019

Quickly

The Funky Phantom Crew irritates me and Mystery Inc.

Thoughts, Details and Recap

The gang visits Gettysburg to investigate photos of zombie ghosts. Velma's tablet is invaded by the Funky Phantom then our Scooby-Doo episode is invaded by the Funky Phantom Crew. The obnoxious is powerful with the Funky Phantom crew. Velma denies the existence of ghosts despite talking to a ghost. The Funky Phantom Crew snottily tells off the gang. The characterization is over the top unpleasant. They are all driven away by the reemergence of the zombie soldier ghosts.

This is annoying. The writing on the Funky Phantom crew is unnecessarily annoying. I'll try to ignore it. I'll try to ignore Velma rejecting the existence of ghosts despite talking to the ghost. At this point, I'm just hoping they split everyone up to save the animation so I get a break from the Funky Phantom crew being rude to the gang. It's really annoying to see the childish bickering. If I wanted to watch children bicker, I could watch the people bickering around me. Although, I do adore Abraham Lincoln looking on in annoyance. He gives Scooby a snack. Scooby spits out the ghost snack.

They finally split up. Yay! The Funky Phantom Crew isn't exactly annoying. It's just the bickering. After a little separate investigating, they determine someone is looking for a lost payroll of gold. Abe Lincoln insists they find the gold and return it to the ghosts so they can rest in piece.

The teams work together to trap the ghosts. The trap goes wrong and they have to chase the ghost. This scene stands out to me as having a particularly modern aesthetic. They have a chase scene like a car chase from an action film. In the older series, a chase like this would have been used for a series of jokes. But it's played straight here. The only jokes come from the Funky Phantom and cat.

They unmask the ghost and find he's one of the antique store owners. The other antique store owner was trying to protect the gold from his brother. Lincoln is unmasked as Funky Phantom. He used the disguise to get the gangs to work together. So the special guest isn't in the episode.

After the mystery is all wrapped up, the Speed Buggy crew shows up.

There's a passing reference by Shaggy to a burger car.

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.