My son and I disagree on which Scooby-Doo episodes are the best — I side with the classics from the late 1960s and early ’70s and he prefers the latest Mystery, Inc. episodes. I’m not big on Scrappy-Doo, and thankfully Decker hasn’t taken to the little annoying pup, either. I find humor in the old episodes as I watch the same bookcase go by five or six times as the Scooby Gang walks down the impossibly long hallway in the haunted house… and Decker finds humor in the many ways that the newest animation techniques show Scooby shake and shiver. It really is a good time to be a Scooby-Doo fan, and my son’s 5th birthday party this last weekend had a Scooby theme — it makes me smile that he loves the Scooby Gang as much as I do.
As the Scooby-Doo franchise has developed over the years, the Scooby Gang has been around the world and then some. China, Hawaii, Transylvania, South America… they’ve been everywhere! I’ve really lost track of every destination that’s sported a mystery for the gang to solve. But I can name at least a dozen exotic locations thanks to the latest release, Scooby Doo! 13 Spooky Tales Around the World from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment.
This DVD is a collection of older episodes — mainly the classics from the early ’70s involving trips to the Bermuda Triangle and Venice (remember the Ghostly Gondolier?) and episodes from the mid to late ’70s that take them to the jungles of Brazil and a temple in Greece haunted by a Minotaur. What’s great about the episodes selected here is that Decker has seen so few of them and has enjoyed each and every one of them as I’ve watched them with him and relived a bit of my childhood.
If you’re interested in which 13 episodes are included, I’ll give you the rundown here:
Disc 1:
The Fiesta Host is an Aztec Ghost, The Harum Scarum Sanitarium, The Spirits of 76, A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle, To Switch a Witch, A Menace in Venice
Disc 2:
Shiver and Shake, That Demon’s a Snake, Lock the Door, It’s a Minotaur, The Ozark Witch Switch, The Jaguaro, Moonlight Madness, Ghosts of the Ancient Astronauts Part I, Ghosts of the Ancient Astronauts Part II
If you have an Ultraviolet Digital Copy account, you can add all of these episodes as they are included with the DVD versions. I’ve downloaded them to the iPad 2 so he can watch them on the small screen in the car — but be aware that downloading the full 13 episodes can take quite a few gigabytes of storage space!
Scooby-Doo may be 40+ years old, but he sure has aged well. I find it satisfying that even the old classic episodes are still enjoyable to my 5-year-old (and my 2-year-old is starting to pay attention). The mysteries are still fun, the monsters are still not too scary for young children, and those meddling kids are still setting traps and unmasking the culprits. If you’re a Scooby-Doo fan like me, this is a great little compilation of classic episodes that you’ll want to add to your library.
Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales Around the World will be released on May 15, 2012.
Note: I received a review copy of the DVD from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment Group.
