Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries

Looking back, it's sometimes tough to figure out what really made Scooby-Doo so popular, and the four episodes included here--chosen by a Warner Bros. Online poll--don't really go that far in explaining the phenomenon. Hassle in the Castle, the first episode, has virtually no plot (the gang is out boating in the fog when they run aground on a haunted island); in A Clue for Scooby Doo, the fivesome sinks a husband-and-wife pirating scam; The Backstage Rage is a step up, and involves the gang's foiling a puppeteer's counterfeit operation. The last episode, Jeepers, It's the Creeper, asks more questions than it answers--it opens with the gang headed out to their school dance, and no other students ever show up.

It's hard to believe that any collection of fan favorites wouldn't include any of Scooby and the crew's classic team-ups (with Batman and Robin, Laurel and Hardy, etc.). With all the other Scooby compilations available, this one has dubious claim to the title Greatest Mysteries. --Randy Silver

Description
Munch a Scooby snack! Scooby fans have spoken! 4 of Scooby-Doo's most popular mysteries -- selected by the fans themselves -- are now available for the first time ever on this all-new video. Watch as Scooby-doo gets into a mixed-up mystery when he unexpectedly meets the seaweed-covered ghost of Captain Cutler in A CLUE FOR SCOOBY DOO! Next, see the seafaring sleuths collide with a mystery ship and try to uncover clues from a vanished crew in HASSLE IN THE CASTLE! Then, follow Scooby-Doo and the mystery gang as they outwit a bank robber in JEEPERS, IT'S THE CREEPER! and finally, see them take to the stage to crack some crazy capers in THE BACKSTAGE RAGE. Now, you get 109 minutes of non-stop action all on this one collectible Scooby video! Plus, The Powerpuff Girls bonus 'toon and groovy Scooby-Doo extra footage!

Mr. Gosnell must be part Dane himself to convey with such unerring poignancy the deeply lachrymose yet pulchritudinous serial existence of Scooby, an existence bound in the tiny nutshell of the Mystery Machine and the stagnation of comic foils such as Shaggy, Fred, Velma, and Daphne, with the sometime, though never often enough, appearance of that intrepid eyas Scrappy-Doo. A small measure of the director's faithfulness to the spirit of Scooby, that melancholy Dane, may be glimpsed in his most famous of soliloquies, "Rroo rree orr rrot rroo rree, rrat rriz rrruh rrreschun." Unfortunately, however, the printed word cannot convey the power of his words, nor can they overcome the limitations of his doggy vocal chords. But his ideas speak truths even through the translations of his faithful boyhood friend, Horatio. I cannot hope to add to Scooby's insights, so I close with his own words:

"To be or not to be, that is the question:
Whether 'tis nobler in the mind to beg
For the heroin-like goodness of Scooby-snacks,
Or earn them despite a sea of troubles,
And by staying eat them? To crunch: to munch;
Oh more! And then I say good-bye to all
The heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks
That flesh is heir to, 'tis a doggie treat
Devoutly to be wish'd. To crunch, to munch;
To munch, perhaps to float: ay there's the high;
For in that sleepy death what creepiness comes
When we have gone into our happy place
Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of this delight;
For who would bear the ghouls and ghosts,
The really scary monster, the haunted house,
The pangs of hunger, breakfast and lunch delayed,
The insolence of Fred and the spurns
That patient merit of the unworthy takes,
When he himself his Scooby-snacks could take,
With a bare bodkin? Who would Velma bear,
Who loses her stupid glasses all the time,
But that the opiate that is the Scooby-snack,
The chemical delight whose recipe
Is known to only Shaggy, puzzles the will
And makes us rather bear those ills we have
Than fly to others we know not of?
Thus Scooby-snacks make addicts of us all;
And thus the native of hue of healthful life,
Is sicklied o'er with delirium tremors,
And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their current turn awry,
And lose the name of action."


* SCOOBY POO *   February 20, 2003
Mr. N. Carnegie (Kirkcaldy, Scotland, UK.)
28 out of 42 found this review helpful

I didn't watch this by choice and I don't usually like to write such short negative reviews as this but Scooby Doo really is up there with the worst that Hollywood has to offer. It's also hard to understand who this movie was aimed at. True, my six and four year old nephews seemed to enjoy it but then when you are that age a prolonged farting competition between Shaggy and Scooby is probably very funny. However it also has some gay innuendo at the expense of Freddie Prinze's character Fred and its cast seems very obviously aimed at the teen market (surely teenagers don't have that poor a taste)? Of said cast the only performance I can recommend is that of Mathew Lillard as Shaggy who has the voice of the famous cartoon character down to a T. As for Scooby himself I was relatively unimpressed with the CGI canine and I am not at all surprised that Mike Myers decided not to pursue this project. This is a movie with no redeeming qualities and with a sequel planned I'd have to recommend that instead of Scooby Doo, you Scooby don't.


Here We GO AGAIN!!! RELEASE DIFFERENT ONES   February 19, 2003
27 out of 29 found this review helpful

Well Warner is releasing duplicate episodes again. why don't they put all the scooby-doos out. They have 5 DVDs of cartoons out and Hassle in the Castle is on 3 of them. 3 out of the 4 episodes on this DVD are already on DVD. I don't think anyone should pay 15 dollars for only episode that isn't released yet!!!I am getting the other ones that are coming out though. So in short I don't reccommend this to anyone. Not only that, they are wasting a whole DVD for only 4 eps. 3 of which are already out. They should release different ones like Terror in the Big Top, Dr.Jeckyl and Mr. Hyde and other ones from the series. They should release Scooby Movies with Speed Buggy and Josie and the Pussycats. In short I'll just say I am sick of duplicate Scooby episodes.


Scooby-Doo!   June 17, 2002
Ahmed (Canada)
24 out of 27 found this review helpful

The cast (especially Lillard) is exactly like the characters you would see in the cartoon series. It was an enjoyable flick but you would only enjoy it if you grew up with Scooby-Doo cartoons or the Scooby-Doo comics or enjoy watching the cartoons even if you didn't grow up with them! Some people think it lacks originality. I don't think so! I think it was a clever little flick! But still unless you're a fanatic or at least know the characters, you probably wouldn't enjoy it!

The film's like a DeJa Vu all over again! The movie was a lot like the cartoon episodes. Scooby-Doo is probably everything it's fans were expecting it to be. It's almost exactly like the cartoon. The movie has the same charm and the same pranks as well as the same gags that you would see in the cartoons. The movie was quite funny and was well worth the wait. The crew did a good job with the costumes! The movie is like a goofy movie version of the cartoon and is so brightly-colored that it would remind you of "Legally Blonde" and any "Disney Cartoon"! The film is probably enjoyable because of the usual jokes and Lillhard's performance as Shaggy. They couldn't have chosen a better Shaggy! It's the great family film that you would probably be waiting for after seeing great features like "Monsters Inc." and "Ice Age"! Every second that you are watching the movie, you can tell that the director is a big fan of Scooby-Doo since he went through so many measures to make the movie look exactly like the cartoon! Overall it's a great movie certainly worth the wait and deserves high recommendations but once again you should only go if you at least know the characters in Scooby-Doo!




Finally, more classic episodes on DVD   May 6, 2001
21 out of 24 found this review helpful

As with "Scooby Doo's Original Mysteries" this DVD will feature more episodes of the classic first season (1969) of "Scooby Doo Where Are You?" The first season of the show was by far the best and these episodes are great. My favorite of this group is "That's Snow Ghost" but the others are great too. I'm glad to see these episodes being released on DVD and hope they continue to release more of these DVDs. These episodes were made before they started adding characters like Scooby Dumb and Scrappy Doo, which I personally feel led to the demise of the show. I'm glad to see that Scooby Doo has made a comeback over the last few years.