Despite being a massive Scooby Doo fan for goodness knows how long, expectations were somehow not high for 'Be Cool Scooby Doo' prior to giving it a chance. The advertising in my mind was terrible and the animation style, one of the franchise's least appealing, was very off putting. Still gave it a chance as a fan of the franchise and of animation in general and there are films and shows that have bad advertising but turn out to be good. The Scooby Doo franchise has proven numerous times since and especially before 'Be Cool Scooby Doo' that it lends itself well to wintery settings.
Strong examples being 'What's New Scooby Doo's' "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman", 'The New Scooby Doo Movies' "Ghost of Bigfoot" and 'The New Scooby Doo Mysteries' "The Nutcracker Scoob". 'Scooby Doo Where are You's' "That's Snow Ghost" is a very memorable episode as well. While liking "Be Cold Scooby Doo" and it certainly didn't leave me cold, part of me did feel that it could have been better than it turned out. Did feel that the previous winter set 'Be Cool Scooby Doo' episode "A Scary Christmas" to be the better episode, which had more variety and was less sloppy when it came to the continuity.
Lets get the not so good things out of the way. Am still not a fan of the animation, which never did much for me in all honesty. It still looks flat and rushed looking to me with too much unintentionally creepy character designs.
It is repetitive at times, especially a couple of the slightly too coincidental encounters with the villain and at times the quirkiness. What bothered me greatly was the truly sloppy continuity errors, which was indicative of writers that had forgotten about some of the previous incarnations. Don't know for example what people were thinking saying that Shaggy had never seen snow prior to the episode, even non die hard Scooby Doo fans or anybody who has read any episode summaries will deduct that that is not true.
Despite all of this, a lot is good about "Be Cold Scooby Doo". Loved the gang's interaction, Shaggy and Scooby's friendship has so much heart and entertainment value, and the individual personalities. Shaggy and Scooby are close to their original personalities and love the quirky personality that Daphne had in the show. The wintery setting is very cool, full of atmosphere and made great use of. The winter outfits are great. The villain is one of the better and creepier ones of the show up to this point and if there is one improvement over "A Scary Christmas", it is that the reveal is a lot less obvious and kept me guessing.
Although the mystery is quite straightforward, it is also full of energy of the vibrant kind and has the right amount of eerie atmosphere. The humour is on point, there is not too much of it and it is never cheesy or forced. The music fits well tonally and the voice acting is spot on.
Overall, liked the episode but didn't love it. 7/10.
Strong examples being 'What's New Scooby Doo's' "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman", 'The New Scooby Doo Movies' "Ghost of Bigfoot" and 'The New Scooby Doo Mysteries' "The Nutcracker Scoob". 'Scooby Doo Where are You's' "That's Snow Ghost" is a very memorable episode as well. While liking "Be Cold Scooby Doo" and it certainly didn't leave me cold, part of me did feel that it could have been better than it turned out. Did feel that the previous winter set 'Be Cool Scooby Doo' episode "A Scary Christmas" to be the better episode, which had more variety and was less sloppy when it came to the continuity.
Lets get the not so good things out of the way. Am still not a fan of the animation, which never did much for me in all honesty. It still looks flat and rushed looking to me with too much unintentionally creepy character designs.
It is repetitive at times, especially a couple of the slightly too coincidental encounters with the villain and at times the quirkiness. What bothered me greatly was the truly sloppy continuity errors, which was indicative of writers that had forgotten about some of the previous incarnations. Don't know for example what people were thinking saying that Shaggy had never seen snow prior to the episode, even non die hard Scooby Doo fans or anybody who has read any episode summaries will deduct that that is not true.
Despite all of this, a lot is good about "Be Cold Scooby Doo". Loved the gang's interaction, Shaggy and Scooby's friendship has so much heart and entertainment value, and the individual personalities. Shaggy and Scooby are close to their original personalities and love the quirky personality that Daphne had in the show. The wintery setting is very cool, full of atmosphere and made great use of. The winter outfits are great. The villain is one of the better and creepier ones of the show up to this point and if there is one improvement over "A Scary Christmas", it is that the reveal is a lot less obvious and kept me guessing.
Although the mystery is quite straightforward, it is also full of energy of the vibrant kind and has the right amount of eerie atmosphere. The humour is on point, there is not too much of it and it is never cheesy or forced. The music fits well tonally and the voice acting is spot on.
Overall, liked the episode but didn't love it. 7/10.
