I've been watching every old scooby doo episode from all of the main shows(scooby doo, where are you, the scooby doo show, what's new, scooby doo, scooby doo mystery incorporated, and be cool, scooby doo) and this episode was one of the worst I've seen so far. The voice acting was not very good. The warlock looked hideous, what was that costume? Did the warlock raid a party city before the episode?
The Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour (TV Series)
The Warlock of Wimbledon (1978)
User Reviews
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Wimbledon weirdness
TheLittleSongbird30 July 2021
Have always adored Scooby Doo and as has been said already in a few of my previous 'The Scooby Doo Show' reviews this is to me, and many others, one of the best incarnations (second best after 'Scooby Doo Where are You', and have always felt that). While not a sporty person, one of my most tolerated sports is tennis as it is easy on the eyes and not as aggressive as others. So "The Warlock of Wimbledon" could have been halfway decent, not to mention the franchise has done numerous sport-themed episodes and quite a number are done well.
"The Warlock of Wimbledon" sadly is not one of the sport-themed episodes of the Scooby Doo franchise that is done well. Of the three sport-themed episodes of 'The Scooby Doo Show', preceeded by "The Ghost that Sacked the Quarterback" and "The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race" (the latter being the best), "The Warlock of Wimbledon" is by far the worst to me. Also one of my least favourite 'The Scooby Doo Show' episodes. Not a terrible episode but a mediocre one that executes an intriguing premise very disappointingly.
It is not without good things. The animation is bright and colourful on the whole, with one exception, with some meticulous background art and the drawing is much smoother than when the show first started (and in general the drawing actually had already advanced compared to the previous two Scooby Doo shows). The music is not too far removed from the style of the original show 'Scooby Doo Where are You' while at the same time having more groove, more variety and its own identity. The theme song is one of the best of the franchise.
Some nice humour here and there and love Shaggy and Scooby's character interaction. The demon hound is genuinely frightening, there is actually atmosphere with his underused character and makes far more of an impression than Anthos. The voice acting for the gang is fine, especially Casey Kasem and Don Messick, iconic as Shaggy and Scooby.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the voice work for the supporting characters. Personally found both Jimmy and Nick lifelessly voiced and Vic Perrin's voice work is valiant but too samey, he does do villains very well but actually did start getting a little tired of most of them sounding practically the same. Worse are the accents, with the voice actors having English accents that do not sound English at all, more like half-Australian or something. Making "The Warlock of Wimbledon" one of the worst voiced episodes along with "A Highland Fling With a Monstrous Thing", "Jeepers It's the Jaguaro" and "Don't Go Near the Fortress of Fear". Found Jimmy to be a dull character and Anthos is easily for me one of the worst villains of the show. He is not menacing or fun in the slightest, he looks ridiculous and his plan is far-fetched. The person under the mask's identity is not surprising in the least, actually guessed at the start.
Moreover, the story is pretty poorly executed. It started off mildly intriguingly and with a reasonably sinister tone and very quickly became ridiculous. Mystery-wise, it is very thinly plotted and not much of one. What there is of one lacks any kind of spark or surprises and is very predictable and difficult to take seriously, underusing its setting too in the process (the tennis doesn't make a lot of impact). It attempts a dark psychological approach at times later on but doesn't do that very well at all, the show did show that it could do this slant well. Well actually brilliantly in the case of "Make a Beeline Away from That Feline". The clues are not a huge amount and they didn't make sense and were painfully obvious. The truth regarding seeing Anthos in the crowd was so obvious and not particularly clever that it is a mystery in itself in how the gang didn't see through it sooner than they did. The trick used to make that happen was highly implausible and insults the intelligence almost.
Overall, one of the show's misfires. 4/10.
"The Warlock of Wimbledon" sadly is not one of the sport-themed episodes of the Scooby Doo franchise that is done well. Of the three sport-themed episodes of 'The Scooby Doo Show', preceeded by "The Ghost that Sacked the Quarterback" and "The Spooky Case of the Grand Prix Race" (the latter being the best), "The Warlock of Wimbledon" is by far the worst to me. Also one of my least favourite 'The Scooby Doo Show' episodes. Not a terrible episode but a mediocre one that executes an intriguing premise very disappointingly.
It is not without good things. The animation is bright and colourful on the whole, with one exception, with some meticulous background art and the drawing is much smoother than when the show first started (and in general the drawing actually had already advanced compared to the previous two Scooby Doo shows). The music is not too far removed from the style of the original show 'Scooby Doo Where are You' while at the same time having more groove, more variety and its own identity. The theme song is one of the best of the franchise.
Some nice humour here and there and love Shaggy and Scooby's character interaction. The demon hound is genuinely frightening, there is actually atmosphere with his underused character and makes far more of an impression than Anthos. The voice acting for the gang is fine, especially Casey Kasem and Don Messick, iconic as Shaggy and Scooby.
Unfortunately, the same cannot be said for the voice work for the supporting characters. Personally found both Jimmy and Nick lifelessly voiced and Vic Perrin's voice work is valiant but too samey, he does do villains very well but actually did start getting a little tired of most of them sounding practically the same. Worse are the accents, with the voice actors having English accents that do not sound English at all, more like half-Australian or something. Making "The Warlock of Wimbledon" one of the worst voiced episodes along with "A Highland Fling With a Monstrous Thing", "Jeepers It's the Jaguaro" and "Don't Go Near the Fortress of Fear". Found Jimmy to be a dull character and Anthos is easily for me one of the worst villains of the show. He is not menacing or fun in the slightest, he looks ridiculous and his plan is far-fetched. The person under the mask's identity is not surprising in the least, actually guessed at the start.
Moreover, the story is pretty poorly executed. It started off mildly intriguingly and with a reasonably sinister tone and very quickly became ridiculous. Mystery-wise, it is very thinly plotted and not much of one. What there is of one lacks any kind of spark or surprises and is very predictable and difficult to take seriously, underusing its setting too in the process (the tennis doesn't make a lot of impact). It attempts a dark psychological approach at times later on but doesn't do that very well at all, the show did show that it could do this slant well. Well actually brilliantly in the case of "Make a Beeline Away from That Feline". The clues are not a huge amount and they didn't make sense and were painfully obvious. The truth regarding seeing Anthos in the crowd was so obvious and not particularly clever that it is a mystery in itself in how the gang didn't see through it sooner than they did. The trick used to make that happen was highly implausible and insults the intelligence almost.
Overall, one of the show's misfires. 4/10.
Tip top, cheerio! Great episode, but where do they get their voice actors?
smetin24 March 2017
This review will be short (and hopefully sweet). This episode was a great one. The villain was properly creepy and his hound added an extra element of spookiness. In fact, I remember watching this episode as a kid and that hound would often be in my nightmares. Proper eery stuff...
Anyway, like "A Highland Fling with a Monstrous Thing" (S03E06), I just don't understand where on earth they source their voice actors for foreign characters. The British accent was hilariously bad, almost comical. It made the episode funny to watch, but I equally annoying. With the money Hanna-Barbara had, surely they could have gotten actual British people to voice these people?
Anyway, like "A Highland Fling with a Monstrous Thing" (S03E06), I just don't understand where on earth they source their voice actors for foreign characters. The British accent was hilariously bad, almost comical. It made the episode funny to watch, but I equally annoying. With the money Hanna-Barbara had, surely they could have gotten actual British people to voice these people?
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