Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood
BOX-ART
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Scooby & Shaggy pose in font of "Scoobywood" and his walk of fame star with the films logo at the top. The background is an image of a Hollywood hills type of picture, complete with high end houses and palm trees. The back has a render of Scooby in his dressing room with a blur background. A description accompanies this with tech. specs below. With this being an early Warner DVD it's in a snapper case with artwork on the inside as well.
MENUS:
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All the menus are static images, some with renders of Shaggy and/or Scooby, some with just background art. The main menu screen has some Hollywood showbiz-type music.
VIDEO
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The video quality looks similar to that of the TV series at the time. A nice layer of grain, with some minor debris. It seems to have been mastered from a high quality source. It's sharp, and there's no major compression issues either.
AUDIO
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The film is presented with three mono tracks, English and two dubs. The film uses the cast of the most recent TV series.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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While not direct to home video; this was the first movie made for TV, or as most people know it DTV. (Direct to television) It's okay, it has loads of references to the pop culture of the time, and is more of a time capsule of where the franchise was at at the time. I, honestly, just didn't like this one a whole lot, it's not one of the best, but is still classic Scooby-Doo!
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (2.98 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English, French, Spanish 1.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour
Scooby-Doo On Zombie Island
BOX-ART
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In the foreground we have the whole gang, rather spooked it seems, trekking through the forest with flashlights. It's a dark, foggy night, with renders of the moon, the castle from the opening, and zombies above. The logo is at the bottom with a Warner Bros logo at the very top.
The back continues the dark spooky forest with renders of the cast behind a box with the films description inside. Below are two more boxes with a list of extras, a render of Scooby-doo and a zombie head. Tech specs. are below. The film is also in a snap case, with later re-releases being in standard DVD packaging.
MENUS:
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A static menu, with the same render as the cover, has options off to the side: play, scenes, extras, languages. Generic music loops over this main menu. Various renders of the cast and/or spooky backgrounds decorate the sub menus, including the menu driven biography section in the extras.
VIDEO
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While a bit dim, the colors are nice and vibrant, with no huge compression artifacts. A nice layer of grain as well as a few pops are seen throughout. The transfer seems to be derived from a high quality digital film scan, and looks much better than most 90's made for TV films which were mastered to tape. Warner's transfer here is pretty good for late 90's/early 2000's.
AUDIO
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The film is presented in Dolby 2.0 Surround, and is the first one to use a stereo configuration. The the previous film, Scooby-Doo! Arabian Nights, is the final Scooby-Doo production to be mixed in mono. This film introduces us to a whole new cast, safe for Fred, that will remain somewhat inconsistent for the next few films.
Three stereo dubs are also available, but without the Dolby matrixing. Vocal songs are in English regardless of which dub you select.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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*Unlike the previous films, which were made specifically for TV and not released to consumers on home media until years later, this is the first film to be released simultaneously on VHS and TV. (And DVD three years later)
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (3.85 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 Dolby Surround (192 KB/s)
French, Spanish, Portuguese 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English Closed Captions
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 17 Minutes
Scooby-Doo & The Witch's Ghost
BOX-ART
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Shaggy & Scooby are being chased through Salem with the Witch chasing them. Velma & the mystery machine are in the background, with WB logo and the title at the top. The back has stills from the film accompanying a description of the film with specs at the bottom.
Above the tech specs is a green box with a list of extras and an image of the main menu to the left. A lot of early WB DVD's use this layout with the menu image being shown next to the special features. The background is a picture of the night sky with the town being show below.
MENUS:
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A static menu, a similar one as the cover, has the following options: play, scenes, extras, languages. Generic music loops over this main menu. Various renders of the cast and/or spooky backgrounds decorate the sub menus, including the menu driven biography section in the extras.
VIDEO
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Like the last film, this one also is mastered from a digital source and looks very good. Again, this colors seem a little dull, but still look good. No big compression issues noted during the film.
AUDIO
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This is the first film to be presented on DVD with a 5.1 surround sound mix. With the previous films, and the following one, being Dolby 2.0 Surround it sounds to me like maybe this film was also mixed as a Dolby Surround track, but then they mapped the stems to a 5.1 configuration. Some of the channels sound quite echo-y rather than truly discrete.
Three additional dubs are available in Dolby 2.0 at 192 KB/s.
Shaggy's voice actor is recast in the film, but everyone else remains the same. This change will remain until two films later before yet another change.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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N/A
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (3.52 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (384 KB/s)
French, Spanish, Portuguese 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 10 Minutes
Scooby-Doo & The Alien Invaders
BOX-ART
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Renders of the cast, mainly Scooby, being chased by the alien & it's ship are featured on the cover. The background is the vast desert at night, bathed in blue with a hint of orange, presumably dusk or dawn. The background on the back is also a nighttime desert image, with a render of Scooby and the alien. An image of the main menu with the special features listed to the left in a yellow outline. There's also a blurb about Jennifer Love Hewitt preforming the theme. An image of some of the cast in the jeep seen in the film is also pictured. At the top is a description of the film, with technical specification at the bottom as per usual.
MENUS:
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All the menus are static images, most with renders of the of the gang, some with just background art.
VIDEO
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This film continues the trend of top notch transfers, but with slightly dull colors.
AUDIO
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Unlike the previous film, which had 5.1 surround, we're back to Dolby Surround stereo with this one. There are no dubs included on this one either, which is a first.
This is the final film to feature the voice for Daphne that was introduced in 1998.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This is the final Scooby-Doo movie to be cel animated. It's the end of an era, and I really miss the old animation style but, the franchise adapts and moves on into the digital millennium!
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (4.24 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 2.0 Dolby Surround (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: None
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 11 Minutes
Scooby-Doo & The Cyber Chase
BOX-ART
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In front of a green-ish blue cyber looking background, we have render of Shaggy & Scooby being chased out of the computer monitor by the main villain of the film. Fred, Velma & Daphne are also featured in the background. The back of the box features the same green/blue style with a description of the film at the top and technical aspects at the bottom. In the middle are an extras list, and various renders of Shaggy & Scooby dressed in attire reflecting the different areas they visit throughout the film.
MENUS:
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All the menus are static images, with various digital looking renders and backgrounds. The usual options are play, scenes, extras & languages.
VIDEO
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The animation is quite sharp, clean, and colorful! This was the first movie to be animated digitally, and as such, has a very distinct & different look than the previous ones yet still has a familiar style. Some light compression artifacts can been seen at times, but nothing that spoils the presentation.
AUDIO
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A 5.1 English Dolby mix at 384 Kb/s is present, again, no dubs are on this disc.
This film introduces yet another new voice for Daphne, one that will eventually (two films later) become her new permanent voice. This is the final film to feature Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby's current voices, as they are recast again in the following film.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This is the final film to be solely a Hanna-Barbera production. While WB purchased Hanna-Barbera in the early ninety's, they were a subsidiary until 2001 when William Hanna passed. After this the studio was shut down and WB Animation studios took over.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISC: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer (3.97 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (384 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Scooby-Doo & The Legend of The Vampire
BOX-ART
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With outback as the backdrop, we have renders of the entire gang being chased off by the vampire. On the back we see the cast struggling to maneuver their canoe, with a description of the film above, and an extras list at the side. The usual technical detail are below.
MENUS:
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I believe this is the first DVD menu, in the U.S anyways, to be in widescreen despite the film itself being in 4:3. Every movie after this continues this trend of menus being widescreen even in the film is not. There are various renders of the film on each menu. While there is no animation, some audio from the film is played.
VIDEO
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Very sharp, clean, and colorful animation! This is the first film to be animated by Warner Brothers. Unlike the previous movies, Warner has actually future proofed themselves and produced the film in widescreen HD. It was, however, protected for 4:3 since most TV's were still using that aspect ratio at the time. The next several films are animated this way with both aspect ratios in mind, until 16:9 becomes the norm with the 2010 release of Scooby-Doo Camp Scare.
This DVD uses the 4:3 safe version from back in 2003. Being from, most likely, the same master as the Blu-Ray, it's very sharp; at times almost too sharp! Sometimes aliasing is visible from being scaled down from such a detailed source. This isn't noticeable unless you're up close.
Compression is decent, no noticeable blocking or banding, the only noticeable difference from the Blu-ray (aside from the aliasing I said about) is that the colors seem a bit bright, almost as if they've been artificially brightened. This could be because CRT TVs tend to make everything viewed on them a look bit darker than when viewed on LCD TV's. My guess is that they upped the brightness a bit to account for this.
EXTRAS
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Some music videos, trailers, an audio commentary with Fred, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo himself. There are also some DVD website archives. Lastly there is the monster maker, which is a mini game that unlocks a few small "bloopers." While the commentary is later included on Blu-Ray edition, all the other extras are DVD exclusive. (There are trailers on the Blu-ray, but completely different ones.)
AUDIO
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The English audio is a full bit-rate 5.1 Dolby mix, with an additional 2.0 French Dolby Surround at 192 KB/s.
The film features the original 1969 cast in their respective roles, with the exception of Scooby-Doo whose original voice actor passed away several years prior. Scooby's new, permanent, voice role is filled by Fred's voice actor. This casting remains for the following film before shifting once again.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I feel like this film did a decent job replicating the feel of the original Scooby-Doo Where Are You series, with the dark spooky atmosphere. They got the original actors, and even used new versions of the original background music. The mystery itself was OK, even if the real life legend it was based on was incorrect. My only real complaint is that the artwork looks rather...cheap. I mean, the original was like that too, but it was hand painted artwork. These digital ones kind of look like clip art stitched together in Photoshop or something. (I'm not bashing it, It's just not my taste.)
I think as WB's first foray, it was good. I find some of their later stuff is kind of...meh, but I enjoyed this one and have nostalgic memories of it.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
VIDEO: MPEG-2 (5.4 Mb/s)
NUMBER OF DISC: 1
DISC SIZE: Single Layer (3.79 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 KB/s)
French 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
RUN-TIME: 72 Minutes
Scooby-Doo & The Monster of Mexico
BOX-ART
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The background is the Aztec pyramids, as featured in the film. In the front is renders of the monster scaring Shaggy & Scooby, with the rest of the gang in the back near the pyramid. The back has renders of Shaggy & Scooby at a taco stand, with a list of extras on a rug to the side. Your usual description at the top and tech. specs. below.
This is the last film to be available in a snap case format. Starting with the following film, The Loch Ness Monster, all movies are released in standard DVD packaging.
MENUS:
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Latin music from the film plays over static backgrounds with renders of Shaggy, Scooby, and the monster.
VIDEO
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The video quality here looks basically identical the the previous one, colorful and sharp, with some aliasing. While not a transfer issue, the film uses a blurred shading style along with this strange inkblot-y style that I, personally, hate. The first few episodes of What's New, Scooby-Doo also have this inky line art style which, I think, is because Warner was new to animating Scooby-Doo and hadn't quite got their bearings.
EXTRAS
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A behind the scenes featurette with cast interviews, a slideshow with with character commentary, some faux bloopers, and lastly trailers.
AUDIO
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Strangely enough, despite the film being set in Mexico, no Spanish dub is included. Both English & French mixes are 5.1 Dolby Digital at full bit rate.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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While I really liked the previous film, I didn't like this one as much. I feel like they tried to force the whole Mexican local a bit too much. Also, the Chupacabra was a cyrtid first reported in Puerto Rico, so I'm not sure why they changed it to Mexico. I guess the Yowie thing in the last film was wrong too, with the legend being that the Yowie is a bigfoot type creature, not a vampire, but at least the locale wasn't wrong, or shoved down your throat the whole time like in this film.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISC: 1
DISC SIZE: Single Layer (3.91 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English & French 5.1 (448 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish
RUN-TIME: 72 Minutes
Scooby-Doo in Where's My Mummy?
BOX-ART
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The cover features a render of Shaggy & Scooby in ancient Egyptian style clothing. They are holding a glowing ankh in front of the sphinx, with render of the Mummies below. Some pyramids are in the background, with the films title on a slab of hieroglyphics.
The back has a center in the center, of Shaggy & Scooby being cornered by a mummy in a stadium similar to the one in the film. A description of the film is above the render, with a list of extras to the left.
MENUS:
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This is the first DVD menu to actually have some animation and not be completely static. Spooky tomb backgrounds have various animation that play over them, such as scarabs crawling around, or Shaggy/Scooby reacting scared, etc. The menu menu has the typical options of, play, scenes, extras, languages.
VIDEO
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The film looks mostly identical to the previous ones, but with less aliasing, and a slightly smoothed over look. Colors and clarity are fine, and I didn't seen any major compression artifacts.
AUDIO
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The main track is English 5.1 at 384 KB/s, with two stereo dubs at 192 KB/s.
EXTRAS
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A music video, trailers, an interactive mini game, as well as a a national geographic featurette make up the majority of the extras. The two most interesting extras are an interview with the voice talent and a deleted scene. (Seeing as how the film is rather short it's kind of bizarre that this small scene was cut anyways.)
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Note: This is the first film (from the What's New, Scooby-Doo era) to not having a Blu-Ray version, despite being produced in high definition and available online digitally. I'm note sure if WB was falling behind, or if sales weren't doing so good. It remains, as of 3/27/24, only available physically on DVD & VHS. Speaking of VHS, this is the final Scooby film to be released on VHS after it was officially considered obsolete the following year.
TECH. SPECS.
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ASPECT RATO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
VIDEO: MPEG-2 (5.5 Mb/s)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (4.84 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 /NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 KB/s)
French, Spanish 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish
RUN-TIME: 74 Minutes
Chill Out Scooby-Doo
BOX-ART
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The cover is a render has a render with Shaggy & Scooby on a frozen ledge, with the monsters reflection in their snow goggles. Fred, Daphne, and Velma are in the background, with a temple in the distance of the snowy Himalayan mountains.
The background primarily has a render of Scooby on a snowboard. A yeti footprint to the side has extras listed on top.
MENUS:
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The main menu is the same render as the cover. Each sub menu has snowy renders & backgrounds related to the film. Play, scenes, extras, and languages are the options for menus.
VIDEO
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The video here seems to revert to a style more similar to the earlier WB Scooby films, with sharper image, but with more aliasing as a result. Colors, clarity, contrast, compression, all seemed fine.
AUDIO
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All audio tracks are 5.1 Dolby Digital at 384 KB/s.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This film was also skipped on Blu-Ray, making the digital version the only widescreen presentation. While digital versions are HD 16:9, they include only stereo audio, making the DVD the only surround sound presentation. It's a weird trade off, if you ask me, and I believe all of the DTV films are presented this way digitally; without the original audio mixing!
I liked parts of the film, but overall I wasn't super into it.
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (4.44 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English, Portuguese, Spanish 5.1 (384 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, Portuguese, Spanish
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 30 Minutes
Scooby-Doo & The Samurai Sword
BOX-ART
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The films title is at the top, on Shaggy's foot, as he does a kick. He & Scooby are in the foreground with the rest of the gang is behind them to the left. The samurai is on the right, with the background being the land of the rising sun.
The back has various images from the film, with extras listed on top pf a render of a katana in the center. Renders of Shaggy & Scooby dressed as Gisha is to the side. A description is at the top, with a red stripped background.
MENUS:
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This film uses a rather generic looking lightning background, on all menus, with renders from the film. This if the first film to have no chapter menu, yet still have chapter stops. You only get options for play, languages, and extras. While some of the films after this one have chapter menus, a lot of them don't.
VIDEO
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This film has a style similar to Where's My Mummy, with it being sharper, but without the aliasing some of the others have. It looks the best of all the What's New, Scooby-Doo era films, and it was the last film to be animated with that animation style.
AUDIO
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Despite the cover stating there is a Portuguese dub, there is only an English 5.1 track at 448 KB/s. This is the last film to use a 448 KB/s bit rate, as it seems WB settled on using 384 KB/s for all future mixes.
Like the The Monster of Mexico it would have been neat to have a Japanese dub, since that's the locale heavily pushed in the film, but I don't even know If one exist. Whereas most Scooby-Doo films did/do have Spanish ones, so it was strange they didn't include one with that film.
I'd also like to note that this is the final film to feature Shaggy's original voice actor before he retired.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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I appreciate that they tried something different with this film, but I just wasn't a huge fan of this one. I feel this one is too much like the Monster of Mexico where they focus too much on the locale. The anime influence is also very notable here, and some of the artwork looked the best it had in a while too!
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.33:1 (Original Full-Screen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Single-Layer
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (448 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Scooby Doo Camp Scare
BOX-ART
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The cover has a render of the gang around a campfire, while a monster sneaks up behind them. The film logo is at the top.
The back has a scene of Shaggy, Scooby & Fred getting scared in a canoe by a fish monster. A description of the film is overlaid on top of the forest, with a list of extras on a sign floating in the lake. Various tech specs and logo are at the bottom overlaid on the water.
MENUS:
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There are three menus, all of which focus on the camp. The main menu, which has options of, play, languages, and extras. This menu is a render of the group telling stories around a camp fire. The following two menus have render of the camp cabins, and lake. All option are overlaid on top of some boards.
VIDEO
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This is the first animated scooby film to be show exclusively in 16:9, with all previous WB titles being 4:3 protected & presented as such. It looks fine, a tad soft though. Colors and compression are decent, and I see no aliasing.
This is the first film to include bonus episodes, with this DVD having the first episode of the newest series at the time. Mystery Incorporated started airing about two months or so before this film and wouldn't even start being released on DVD for about a year, so having the episode so early was a nice bonus! The quality is good but the episode is presented in 4:3 and I'm not sure it was mean to be, as the series was shown on TV and on later DVDs in 16:9.
AUDIO
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All four tracks are 5.1 Dolby digital at 384 KB/s. The bonus episode is 2.0 at 192 KB/s
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This is the first film in a while I really enjoyed, it reminded me a lot of the original series. I could really see this being an episode from the late sixties, where the gang just stumbles upon this mystery while camping, and I like that. There's no real gimmick in this one like some of the other films. No locale cramming, no guest stars or cameos, no crazy gimmicks, just a simple mystery!
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Original Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (4.39 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese 5.1 (384 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 15 Minutes
Legend of the Phantosaur
BOX-ART
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The cover is quite simple, with a render of Shaggy & Scooby in the desert. There's a dinosaur tail & bones. The logo is at the top.
The back has another desert render, with Shaggy, Scooby, and a hatching dinosaur egg. Some green section have a description and list of extras.
MENUS:
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Again, three menus, with the main one having play, languages, and extras. All menus are static and feature similar renders, all involving dinosaurs.
VIDEO
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Video here is similar to the previous one, but with a little edge enhancement applied.
AUDIO
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The back incorrectly lists the audio as being English, Spanish, French 5.1 with no mention of Portuguese and Thai. The correct specs are as follows: English, French, and Portuguese tracks are presented in 5.1 at 384 KB/s, while the Spanish & Thai tracks are 2.0 at 192 KB/s.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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This film kind of reminded me of The Alien Invaders, which I liked, I guess its just because they spent most of their time in the desert.
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Original Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese 5.1 (384 KB/s)
Thai 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 12 Minutes
Frankencreepy
BOX-ART
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Predominantly featured on the cover are three renders of the cast; Shaggy, Scooby, and Von Dinkenstein. The background is split into two renders, with the logo separating them in the center. The top is of the castle, with the bottom being the doctors lab.
The back has renders of all the main five, standing in another render of the lab. Extras, and some tech. specs, are on the slab in the center with a description of the film towards the top.
MENUS:
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A static render, which is the same as on the cover, has options for play, languages, and extras. The sub menus have a generic green background. This is around the time when WB's DVD menus started getting very cheap & clip art-y looking.
VIDEO
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Like the last several films, it generally looks ok, but with some edge enhancement bogging it down a bit. The bonus episodes, from Scooby-Doo Where Are You, are presented the same as on the box set. With the image being pretty good.
AUDIO
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Again, the specs on the back are wrong, the audio is as follows: English 5.1 at 384 KB/s with French & Spanish being 2.0 at 192 KB/s.
Bonus episodes are Dolby 2.0 dual mono at 192 KB/s.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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N/A
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Original Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (5.35 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English 5.1 (384 KB/s)
French, Spanish 2.0 (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English SDH, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Thai
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 14 Minutes
Return To Zombie Island
BOX-ART
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The cover is a render of Shaggy & Scooby, along with some zombies, on a palm tree in front of a moonlit night background.
The back has a sectioned off look, with images from the film in some squares and a description/extras in others. The background is also dark blue like the front & spine.
MENUS:
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After a trailer, for Detective Pikachu, you're a taken to the main menu. A static render, the same as what's on the cover, is presented with options below for play, extras, and languages. There are chapters marks, just no menu to access them, so you have to use your remote. Mummy Scares Best is the only bonus content with chapter marks.
VIDEO
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No issues popped up while viewing, colors, contrast, compression, all seemed fine. The image seemed ever so slightly soft, with that minor aliasing you get from HD to DVD transfers nowadays.
What's interesting to note about the bonus episode from, What's New, Scooby Doo? is that they seem to be using the widescreen version that is available online! This is the first time I've seen them using the widescreen version, as opposed to the 4:3 they have been using on DVD for ages.
The New Scooby Doo Mysteries bonus episodes, looks like 80's tape transfer's with all the artifacts that come with them! Dull colors, dot-crawl, haloing etc. It's obvious these episodes have not been remastered like some of the other older series have. I'll also note the image is, of course, 4:3. The episodes are split into two twelve minute parts, with the intro & credits playing with each one.
It may also be worth noting that everything is presented with progressive scan encoding, with the digitally mastered content being 23.97 and the tape 29.97.
AUDIO
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The English, along with three dubs are included, all are 384 KB/s 5.1 Dolby Digital.
The bonus episodes are all presented as 192 KB/s Dolby Surround 2.0, but the New Scooby Doo Mysteries seem to actually be dual mono.
There were a few interesting encoding errors on the disc: While the DVD menu does link to the correct subtitle tracks, I noticed the tracks are labeled incorrectly; meaning when you select English subtitles, for example, it actually uses the track labeled as French in VLC Player. Basically, you have to use the DVD menu rather than cycling through with you player if you don't want to use trial and error. Also, while there are English, French, Spanish, and Portuguese subtitles on the bonus episodes, only the Portuguese worked, and the others were blank. There is no menu for subtitles on the bonus episodes, so if you want the Portuguese ones you have to cycle through via your remote.
EXTRAS:
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Aside from the bonus episodes, some trailers are also included. One for Lego Batman: Family Matters, and one for Scooby-Doo & The 13th Ghost.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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Like most fans of the classic films & series, I wasn't super impressed with this one. It contradicts the original, and seems like they had no idea how to mesh the old with the new. It's a nice trip down memory lane with loads of references, but all I could think while watching was how I'd rather be watching the original instead of hearing about it!
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Original Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (6.28 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese 5.1 (384 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
Happy Halloween
BOX-ART
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On the cover is a render of Shaggy & Scooby in front of a spooky looking foggy jack-o-lantern. There's a few extras things, like a bucket of candy and the bat under part of the films logo at the top, its simple but works well.
The back is a render of a scene from the film, with Shaggy & Scooby in the foreground, while the rest of the gang and some enemies are in the background. The town is the background behind the renders. A description is at the top, with various logos at the bottom. The banner hanging in the town has a list of the extras.
MENUS:
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After some trailers, for Scoob! and Cats & Dogs 3, you're are taken to the main menu. A static render, the same as what's on the cover, is presented with options below for play, extras, and languages. An instrumental version of the song that plays during the films opening sequence is used here. There are chapters marks, just no menu to access them, so you have to use your remote. The bonus content has no chapter marks.
VIDEO
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No issues popped up while viewing, colors, contrast, compression, all seemed fine. The image seemed ever so slightly soft, with that minor aliasing you get from HD to DVD transfers nowadays. It really does look identical to the last film.
The What's New, Scooby Doo episode is, like last time, using the widescreen version!
The Pup Named Scooby-Doo bonus episode, also has that 80's tape look that The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries had and looks basically the same. Everything is presented with progressive scan encoding, with the digitally mastered content being 23.97 and the tape 29.97. The decision to deinterlace the video on this episode means some minor artifacts occur, but nothing was super distracting. It's strange that The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries didn't have these artifact though.
AUDIO
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English along with a French Dub are included as 5.1 mixes at 384 KB/s, while Spanish & Portuguese dubs are 2.0 Dolby Surround at 192 KB/s.
The bonus episodes are all presented as 192 KB/s 2.0, but A Pup Named Scooby-Doo seem to actually be dual mono. It's a bit disappointing that the What's New, Scooby-Doo episode doesn't have the surround matrix encoding like the last disc, but using the widescreen video is still a huge plus!
It seems the subtitle labeling error has been corrected this time. Although these are still only Portuguese subtitles on all bonus content, with no menu to access them so if you want them you have to cycle through via your remote.
EXTRAS:
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Aside from the bonus episodes, two trailers are included. Scoob, Cats & Dogs 3, Return to Zombie Island, Lego Shazam! Monsters & Magic.
FINAL THOUGHTS
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N/A
TECH SPECS.
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ASPECT RATIO: 1.78:1 (Original Widescreen)
NUMBER OF DISCS: 1
DISC SIZE: Dual-Layer (5.66 Gb)
REGION CODE: 1 / NTSC
AUDIO: English & French 5.1 (384 KB/s)
Spanish & Portuguese 2.0 Dolby Surround (192 KB/s)
SUBTITLES: English, French, Spanish, Portuguese
RUN-TIME: 1 Hour 20 Minutes
