Scooby-Doo! And Guess Who? - S01E25 - The High Wolfman's Musical Lament! - Toonstalgia

Scooby-Doo! And Guess Who? - The High Wolfman's Musical Lament!

Season 1, Episode 25

Premiered July 2, 2020

Quickly

It's a musical episode.

Thoughts, Details and Recap

It's the musical episode! Unless they decide to do another musical episode. I'm getting serious Daria musical episode vibes from this.

It's fun to see the mix of monsters originated in this series and references to older monsters and episodes with clips. It helps that the look of the characters in this series matches the look of the characters in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?

The gang is driving along Broadway when they're attacked by a werewolf. The Mystery Machine goes off the road into the water. There's so much logically confusing about this scene but I'm going to pretend it all makes sense because it's a musical episode and nothing will make sense.

Christian Slater pulls the Mystery Machine out of the water. "Greetings and Salutations" (I am obsessed with 80s films). He asks for the gang's help in dealing with the werewolf at a do over prom for his performing arts high school.

Simone returns as a former classmate of Christian's. She previously appeared in "Quit Clowning" and as a competitor in the ventriloquist competition in "Too Many Dummies!" I like her. She's weird. Happy to see her.

The werewolf attacks and Christian falls in a hole. There's a nonsensical chase scene. Not too bad. The score during this scene is stand out.

They pull Christian out of the hole and his leg gets put in a cast. They sing a song about the suspects, the drama teacher, the dance teacher and a classmate who is struggling financially and in his career. Also Simone's there. But they literally call them red herrings in the song. A red herring is a misleading clue in a mystery.

There werewolf attacks. Christian shows up in his wheel chair and attacks the werewolf. He winds up in a body cast. During the next song, they name drop Scrappy-Doo. I would love it if Scrappy was a guest star in a future episode but only if it wasn't an excuse to dump all over him.

They set up a trap with Scooby, Shaggy and Christian as the bait. I love that they commit to rolling around Christian in a full body cast on a chair dolly. They trap the werewolf.

Anyway, it's Christian Slater. He explains that he was the werewolf that ruined the original prom because he was afraid of embarrassing himself with Irish dancing. He did it once again to cover up and avoid facing a girl he liked in high school. None of this makes sense. Especially the fact that he asked for their help. He drops a "meddling kids" but really he would have gotten away with it if he hadn't asked them to come to the prom. More importantly, he tied up Simone and stuck her in the body cast. That's twisted and criminal and no one cares.

The best part of the entire musical episode is the dancing at the end. They reference the dance animations from "Jeepers It's the Creeper" from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! with Scooby and Shaggy, and Fred and Daphne. I love that.

Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? - S01E24 - I Put a Hex on You! - Toonstalgia

Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? - I Put a Hex on You!

Season 1, Episode 24

Premiered July 2, 2020

Quickly

The gang breaks a curse on the Hex Girls.

Thoughts, Details and Recap

I loved the Hex Girls in Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost when I was a kid. I don't they've ever recaptured the magic of that first appearance. They still haven't and this one drops the "Wiccan" and "Ecogoth" angles in favor of a strange rocker angle.

The Hex Girls receive a gift of a guitar from an anonymous fan. Tuning the guitar causes a roadie to freak out and run off into the night.

Daphne was asked by the Hex Girls to do their makeup for their concert. There's no mention of the gang's previous encounters with the Hex Girls. While in the green room, the roadie shows up again. The Hex Girls are not distressed by his behavior. They reclaim the guitar. During the concert Thorn and Luna begin destroying the stage. After Shaggy tranquilizes many people, Ester Moonkiller shows up to declare the Hex Girls over and cursed. The crowd loves it. The Hex Girls love it.

Things immediately start going weird. Their manager has signed a ripoff act. Thorn and Luna begin acting sensibly. Dusk is worried she'll be struck by the curse of Ester Moonkiller even though she never touched the guitar.

They neglect to investigate the guitar and follow up on a bottle of calamine lotion. At the house, they find a photo of the previous incarnation of the Hex Girls that had four members including the president of their fan club. So we have our suspects presented naturally through the episode. Dusk because she keeps running off, the President of the fan club who's mad about no longer being in the band and their manager who wants to replace them. The stakes are set, they need to identify the ghost and get Luna and Thorn back to normal to perform.

The hallway chase scene is one of the weirder locations. It's in a sewer and it gets flooded. Really, it's just a detour from the story. They make it out into the Hex Girl's concert venue.

The gang force Luna and Thorn to get into their Hex Girl gear. Velma makes a gun that reverses the guitar's effect on the Hex Girls. They catch Ester Moonkiller and it's the President of their fan club. The show succeeded in setting up the suspects but it didn't really drop the clues. There was only ever really the one suspect because the Manager gets paid when the Hex Girls are successful and what's Dusk's motive. Even with the President of the fan club, it's not well developed. The idea that she quit the band because she got hives when she tried to perform is just written in so it's actually not their fault. There's no resolution to their relationship.

They are not as good in this episode as the film but it is nice to see them again.

The ending feels really abrupt because Thorn says they promised their fans a concert then it ends. It feels like Boomerang messed it up but it doesn't seem like they did.

Scooby-Doo! And Guess Who? - S01E23 - A Run Cycle Through Time! - Toonstalgia

Scooby-Doo! And Guess Who? - A Run Cycle Through Time!

Season 1, Episode 23

Premiered July 2, 2020

Quickly

Malcolm McDowell takes the gang on a trip through time.

Thoughts, Details and Recap

The gang is driving through the desert near Santa Barbara. A wormhole opens and a monster comes out. This is the first episode where I noticed the outline that appears to belong to recurring clown Simone in the opening credits. 

Malcolm McDowell comes out to meet the gang. Apparently, they were traveling to meet him to answer an invitation. He invites them into his work shed. He claims to have invented a time machine.

They are attacked by a monster. Shaggy and Scooby are spared from being chased for a while as they are busy eating. They note the food all tastes the same. Everyone flees on the time machine into the future. Shaggy and Scooby apparently destroy the world in their travels.

While fleeing from the monster, Malcolm is knocked off the carousel. They arrive further in the future. The future is a land of devastation and floating robots. They meet Scooby-Doo's future self. He's part robot and attacks them. Cyborg Shaggy and Malcolm show up and save them. Cyborg Shaggy and Robo-Scooby fight.

Shaggy and Scooby make a vow to always be best friends. This transforms the future into a paradise.

The Chronobeast attacks again. They flee on the time machine. They miss a perfect opportunity to reference A Pup Named Scooby-Doo when a younger Scooby and Shaggy appear. They kind of look like their counter parts but not enough for it to be a reference. The warping background makes the chase hard to look at.

They land again in the distant future. The carousel is destroyed. Velma has a plan to capture the beast. It works. Velma reveals they never time traveled. They were in a high tech soundstage. Malcolm explains he was trying to convince them time travel was real so they would endorse their park. The gang agrees to endorse the park because they were had fun. 

The RoboScooby and Cyborg Shaggy are revealed to be sentient animatronic robots. They steal the Mystery Machine.

This was a really interesting and fun episode. It's not really a mystery even if there's an unmasking. It's a great adventure piece that reminds me of "Epic" or "Escape in Time" from the 60s series, The Avengers. I like that it's something different.