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They released a photo for the wb velma HBO max show. Gory dead girl with another naked girl next to her while velma solves the crime! Needless to say many scooby fans are upset. Looks like they are aiming for the Harley show crowd.
What do you guys think of this photo?
[url]https://ew.com/tv/mindy-kaling-teases-her-south-asian-velma-cartoon/[/url]
I generally like Mindy Kaling humor personally. So if the show is good I will watch it. Now obviously there will be built in controversy in both the "adult", and ethnicity of Velma apparently from the usual suspects. But, she addresses that with her simple 'I don't care' statement.
If the show sucks and isn't well received that will have been a known risk.
Ahh yes, gore and nudity was the one thing missing from Scooby Doo.
I'll still give it a go but I am quite far from hopeful about it. We need more adult stuff that isn't obsessed with proving its adultness.
I can't say I was entirely against a more adult take on the brand but immediately marketing it with the murder of teenage girls and nudity...really isn't selling this to me.
Like even the Harley show was advertised more tastefully.
And, honestly, everything I've heard about this makes it sound less like Mindy Kaling doing an interesting take on the Scooby mythos and more just trying to deliver a cartoon about a South Asian lead like herself that just happens to have the Scooby-Doo names plastered on their for branding purposes. The diversity is the least of the issue with this.
I'm kind of reminded of the Family Guy bit.
Did Mindy Kaling turn Velma into a self insert? That's what this show is looking like to me
[QUOTE=Immortal Weapon;6055247]Did Mindy Kaling turn Velma into a self insert? That's what this show is looking like to me[/QUOTE]
I've been thinking the same thing.
The Scooby Doo fanbase have over 60 years of variety when it comes to their franchise. They can go clutch pearls elsewhere as far as I'm concerned. If the showis good, great. If it's bad, another will come along. It's fuckin' Scooby Doo, the only thing more likely for never ending content is Batman.
[QUOTE=jetengine;6055290]The Scooby Doo fanbase have over 60 years of variety when it comes to their franchise. They can go clutch pearls elsewhere as far as I'm concerned. If the showis good, great. If it's bad, another will come along. It's fuckin' Scooby Doo, the only thing more likely for never ending content is Batman.[/QUOTE]
I mean, variety is one thing but that doesn't mean there aren't valid concerns about Mindy Kaling's priorities or how this might be a bit of a tasteless way of advertising a Scooby product.
Just my two cents. Admittedly as a long-time fan I'm kind of biased.
As a huge Scooby Doo fan I say…
…doesn’t seem like my cuppa tea, but it can’t be as bad as Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! (2015).
I am kind of over the kids shows become mature and adult. I will give it a shot see what it is like. I dont have high hopes.
Speaking as an adult who likes [I]Scooby-Doo[/I], this is very much not for me at all. Since I don't have HBO Max, I can't watch it anyways, but I don't like gory stuff in general and it's always a dealbreaker for me when any of the core five characters are removed, so it being marketed as a good thing that Scooby himself and the Mystery Machine are not around is a huge red flag for me. (Call me boring, but all I want from [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] is the classic formula of the original show with creative tweaks and twists and/or more depth in the writing, not a complete overhaul into something different.)
[QUOTE=Frontier;6054794]I can't say I was entirely against a more adult take on the brand but immediately marketing it with the murder of teenage girls and nudity...really isn't selling this to me.
Like even the Harley show was advertised more tastefully.[/quote]
Yeah. There certainly is room for more serious takes on the franchise (e.g. the [I]Mystery Incorporated[/I] cartoon), but there's something about turning a beloved children's cartoon into something graphic like this that feels really tasteless. Obviously, when the show comes out, we'll see if there's a creatively sound reason to make an R-rated [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] show, but, for the moment, it really feels like, at least in the marketing, that it's all for shock value.
[QUOTE=Frontier;6054794]And, honestly, everything I've heard about this makes it sound less like Mindy Kaling doing an interesting take on the Scooby mythos and more just trying to deliver a cartoon about a South Asian lead like herself that just happens to have the Scooby-Doo names plastered on their for branding purposes. The diversity is the least of the issue with this.[/QUOTE]
It kinda does feel like it. Certainly, in all fairness to Kaling, it's not the first time they've tried to do a [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] cartoon that is drastically different from the status quo and/or scrapped some of the main characters (heck, it's not even the first time that Velma was one of the only main characters, much less not white). Whatever we may think of the concept, Kaling doesn't have anything to apologize for. That said, so far it really doesn't seem to have a lot to do with [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] beyond a character name and a mystery (and even then, [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] doesn't do slasher movies and there's no indication that anything supernatural is going to play a role). It would be interesting to know the behind-the-scenes production and if this was always intended to be a heavily-reimagined [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] project or if they borrowed the IP for an otherwise unrelated concept.
At the end of the day, classic [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] isn't going to go anywhere; the direct-to-video movies are still ongoing, the past several shows have been pretty close to formula overall. Heck, even that new Warner Brothers MMORPG has classic Velma (complete with Kate Micucci voicing her). While historically the [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] projects that diverted this far from status quo and got rid of core characters haven't done as well and lost the magic that makes [I]Scooby-Doo[/I] work and this one doesn't look promising at all, it's a ten episode miniseries and pretty easy to skip if it doesn't look like your thing.
Heck, there's that YouTube fan series that doing it own spin if you want something closer to the source material. There was also that [I]Daphne and Velma[/I] book series that put Velma in the spotlight without forgetting about the other characters.
[QUOTE=Riv86672;6055494]As a huge Scooby Doo fan I say…
…doesn’t seem like my cuppa tea, but it can’t be as bad as Be Cool, Scooby-Doo! (2015).[/QUOTE]
What was so bad about [I]Be Cool[/I]?
[QUOTE=WebLurker;6055592]What was so bad about [I]Be Cool[/I]?[/QUOTE]
It was so funny it made the rest of the franchise look bad?
I kid, but the main complaints I’ve heard is that the art isn’t the best and it’s too funny. Also it made Daphne interesting
Mainly it followed too close to Mystery Inc, which was also very good but very, very different from Be Cool with its focus on serious story telling and avoiding the more ridiculous parts of the franchise that Be Cool reveled in
The problem is all of the Scooby Doo shows far way short from the Greatness that is
A Pup named Scooby Doo.
So they keep throwing crap to the wall hoping it will stick but always falling short of true greatness :)
[QUOTE=babyblob;6055668]The problem is all of the Scooby Doo shows far way short from the Greatness that is
A Pup named Scooby Doo.
So they keep throwing crap to the wall hoping it will stick but always falling short of true greatness :)[/QUOTE]
I will never get that theme out of my head...I keep waiting for Red Herring to make a comeback.