Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries (1999)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio Music Video-Greatest Mysteries DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	1999
Running Time	84:56
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	None Given
Studio Distributor	Hanna-Barbera Warner Home Video	Starring	Nicole Jaffe Casey Kasem Don Messick Heather North Frank Welker
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	None Given

    Scooby-Doo’s Greatest Mysteries is another instalment in the Warner Home Video set of  classic Hanna-Barbera cartoons featuring the famous talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo. This time the disc features four classic episodes that have (according to the promotional blurb anyway) been selected by the fans themselves as the greatest mystery episodes ever. Some of the episodes here are already available on other compilation discs so fans that have those discs may be a little disgruntled with the lack of new content, but for the casual viewer (such as myself), this is a great way to catch up with some classic Scooby-Doo.

    Scooby-Doo surely needs no introduction since it has become one of the most beloved animated children's programmes of all time. The adventures of Freddy, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and of course the lovable talking Great Dane, Scooby-Doo in the form of the Mystery Inc. team are the stuff of legendary Saturday morning television. While each of the episodes followed a very similar plot, with an almost uncanny repetition in the villains, character dialogue and gags, they are still as enjoyable as ever and the kids will love every minute.

    There are four episodes on this disc:

    Episode 1 - A Clue For Scooby Doo (21:24)

    The ghost of the long-dead Captain Cutler has been terrorising the local harbour and causing several motor yachts to mysteriously vanish. When Scooby and the gang encounter the captain they sense a fraud at work and set about discovering just where the yachts have been hidden.

    Episode 2 - Hassle in The Castle (21:12)

    The gang are on a boat trip, but they get lost in the fog and run aground on a strange island. The only thing on the island is a mysterious haunted-looking castle that surely needs investigation. When they are warned off the island by what looks like a ghost, the gang know they are onto something.

    Episode 3 - Jeepers, It's The Creeper! (21:04)

    On their way to a party, the Mystery Inc. gang encounter a bank guard who has been bashed after his bank was robbed by a phantom known as the Creeper. The guard slips them a piece of strange paper and when this mysterious Creeper creature starts to come after them the gang know they are onto something big.

    Episode 4 - The Backstage Rage (21:14)

    Some counterfeit money has been popping up in town and the Mystery Inc. gang think they may have stumbled onto its origins when they meet a strange puppeteer at the local theatre. Can the gang crack the case and expose the culprit? Of course they can!

Video

    The video transfer quality here is really quite decent considering just how old some of the source material is.

    All of the episodes are presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and are not 16x9 enhanced.

    The transfer is really quite sharp and detailed throughout with only some minor blemishes in the way of noise and artefacts.

    Colours are really quite good with a vivid and bright appearance. There was no other evidence of any problems with colour bleeding or cross-colouration.

    Compression artefacts are completely absent. Artefacts in the form of scratches, flecks and several black marks are present pretty much throughout all four episodes, but they in no way disrupt the viewing experience.

    There are several subtitles available and the English variety are quite accurate and well placed on the screen.

    Even though the physical appearance of the disc suggests it is a double sided flipper, this is not the case. It is a single sided and single layered disc only, so there is no flipping and no layer change with which to contend.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The audio transfer is actually half-decent considering it is anchored firmly in the centre channel only. There isn't a whole lot to say about the audio. It works out of one speaker and you will be able to understand everything being said. Can we really ask for anything else?

    There are four audio tracks, all of which are Dolby Digital 1.0 (192kbps) mono. They are English, Spanish, French and Italian.

    The dialogue is excellent, being clear and easily understood throughout. Of course with animation, audio sync is not really something to get overly concerned with.

    There is no surround or subwoofer use.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Main Menu Audio

Music Video

    A rather funny little music video for the song Coolsville showing a bit of the history of the Mystery Inc. gang and how they came to be friends. Runs for 2.10.

DVD-ROM Extras

    Pop the disc into your ROM drive and there are a couple of Scooby-Doo games to play plus web links to a couple of Warner Bros web sites.

    The Region 1 disc is identical to the Region 4.

    Scooby-Doo is amongst the most beloved of Saturday morning style cartoons ever to grace our small screens, and while the plots are incredibly repetitive and formulaic, to watch these episodes again brought back many fond memories. This collection of four episodes does rehash a couple of episodes that are available in other collections and will probably disgruntle some fans, but the casual viewer will find plenty to like here.

    The video quality is really quite decent considering the source material is now over 30 years old.

    The plain mono soundtrack is clear and clean. It may lack punch and range, but it still performs the task admirably.

    The extras are pretty light.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall