The New Scooby-Doo Movies Episode 2: The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair

The second incarnation of Scooby-Doo, following the success of Scooby-Doo Where Are You?, featured the same cast of mystery-solving characters (Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby), only this time with the added gimmick of teaming up with a special guest star each episode – either a real life celebrity or as we see in this episode, fictional.

Episodes also increased in length to an hour (45 minutes plus commercials), which to this day is still pretty rare for a cartoon.

Episode Summary

Guest stars: Batman and Robin

The Mystery Machine hits a rock on the way to a mystery club convention and suffers mechanical failure. While fixing it, Fred and the gang see an airplane swoop down and make a landing nearby. They watch as two men drive out of the plane in a truck and drop off a crate in an old house.

The nosy teens snoop around the house and find the crate strapped to the floor; curiously, they also find that all the furniture is nailed to the floor. Another car parks outside, and its occupants enter the house…it’s none other than Batman and Robin! They, too, saw the airplane land and followed it, thinking it might contain contraband.

What’s in the Crate?

A hooded old lady named Mrs. Baker climbs down the steps of the house and greets her intrusive guests. Batman inquires about the crate and its contents, but she has no idea what’s going on.

Batman finally opens the damn crate and finds an inflated punch clown. Scooby plays with it, and it rips open, revealing obvious counterfeit money inside – Lincoln’s wearing a turtleneck sweater in his portrait. Batman calls this a “tiny slip up” and I hope he’s being sarcastic.

To the Junkyard

The Scooby gang follow the truck tracks to a junkyard. A hooded figure slinks about and tries to dump Scooby and Shaggy into a trash compactor, but Batman saves them just in time. Is this hooded figure Mrs. Baker?

The gang returns to the house, but find it’s gone. Batman wonders aloud if they’ve experienced group hypnosis: “Was there really a house?” he asks aloud, “Was there actually a Mrs. Baker?” Velma notes that the Batmobile, which was parked outside the house, has disappeared as well. Fortunately the Batmobile has a tracking device.

The heroes pile into the Mystery Machine and head to the Batcave to access the tracking computer. Fred and the gang have to be blindfolded to keep the location a secret; Shaggy asks to be fed, and Batman promises Batmilk and cookies. Yes, Batmilk.

Joker and Penguin

An entire computer devoted to tracking the Batmobile reveals the location of Batman’s beloved car: the Gotham City amusement park. There, the gang finds the Batmobile parked outside a haunted house. Joker and Penguin watch them through a window.

Batman and Robin head inside and fall victim to a trap and fall into a pit. The walls are smooth with no way to climb up.

Joker and Penguin, now dressed as skeletons, shift their attention to the meddling kids and creep them out until Scooby remembers he’s a dog and that bones are delicious. He chases the skeletons, who fall into the same pit as Batman and Robin. “The Crown Prince of Crime is now the Crown Prince of Climb,” Batman quips as Joker fruitlessly tries to climb out the pit.

The Mysterious House

We cut to the authorities arresting Joker and Penguin. They explain the counterfeit bills were given to them by “an anonymous benefactor” …okay, Mrs. Baker is top of my list of suspects right now.

The group returns to the site of Mrs. Baker’s house and find that it’s returned. While everyone else goes inside, Scooby and Shaggy stay outside and stumble on a hidden lever in a tree branch. Once pulled, the house flips upside-down, explaining how it disappeared and the reason for the nailed down furniture.

Beneath the house is an underground lair. The hooded person shows up, and everyone chases him (OR HER) through a room full of crates and toys. Scooby inadvertently uses a see-saw to catapult the hooded person into the air; he/she falls through a basketball hoop and into Batman and Robin’s arms.

Later, the group gathers outside ready to unmask the hooded person. Fred wonders where Mrs. Baker went, and Daphne and Velma talk about what a sweet old lady she was.

Well, surprise, surprise, the hooded person IS Mrs. Baker. Batman rewards Scooby with a pile of Batsnacks. The episode ends with everyone laughing…hey, wait. Where did Mrs. Baker go? She’s missing in a wide shot of the group. She probably escaped.

Thoughts

The 45 minute runtime of The New Scooby-Doo Movies was an interesting move, but ultimately a detriment as the episodes are filled with a lot of filler. The celebrity guest star schtick is fun, though, and I’m a sucker for crossovers.

The Batman and Robin incarnations used in this episode are the same ones from Superfriends (voiced by Olan Soule and Casey Kasem respectively). Does that mean Scooby-Doo exists in the Superfriends universe? The same universe where Green Lantern once moved the entire Earth out of the path of a yellow comet, allowing aliens from Venus to invade?

Casey Kasem does double duty in this episode, voicing both Shaggy and Robin. He does a good job keeping them distinct.

The “mystery” in this episode was pretty lame, and Mrs. Baker went through a lot of trouble, with the rotating house and whatnot just for a counterfeiting operation. And yet, despite all this, she prints counterfeit bills with a glaring error. You suck, Mrs. Baker. I wish we got a motive for her actions, or learned anything at all about her, other than the fact that she’s an old lady with a penchant for hoods and counterfeiting.

I’d like to see a remake of this crossover, but with the Christian Bale Batman instead.

Counters

Scooby Snacks: +3