Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood (1979)

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General		Extras
Category	Animation	Main Menu Audio Game-The Scooby-Doo Network Game Featurette-Mystery, Inc. Yearbook Featurette-Get The Picture: Scooby - Doo
Rating
Year Of Production	1979
Running Time	47:24
RSDL / Flipper	No/No	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Ray Patterson
Studio Distributor	Warner Home Video	Starring	Don Messick Casey Kasem Frank Welker Heather North Patricia Stevens Rip Torn Stan Jones Michael Bell Marilyn Schreffler Joan Gerber Ginny McSwain Pat Fraley
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	?	Music	Hoyt S. Curtin Paul DeKorte

    Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood is a made-for-television special episode featuring the antics of the hungry and cowardly great dane Scooby-Doo and his pal Shaggy. It was made in 1979, nearly 10 years after the original Scooby-Doo, Where are You? series was first aired.

    Unfortunately a great many of the aspects that made the original series so popular are missing in this 47 minute special episode. Rather than follow the conventional plot of a mystery that the kids of Mystery Inc. must solve, with the outcome usually being a clever hoax and a couple of outwitted adults, the whodunit angle on the story has been completely ditched in an effort to make the story more of a gag and joke fest. This episode could even be described as a musical, since there are a couple of songs, one even sung by Scooby himself.

    Scooby has been convinced by his agent (that's Shaggy) to ditch his regular Saturday morning cartoon slot and strike out on his own in Hollywood, proving he is a dramatic actor. In a series of promotional style show reels, Shaggy and Scooby try to convince the head of the television network that Scooby would do well in a dramatic series pilot. Shaggy has come up with a whole raft of silly shows, all parodies of real shows that were on air at the time. As a result we see Scooby acting in episodes of shows such as Scooby's Angels, Lavonne and Scooby, and Scooby Days. It's all fairly tedious, a little contrived, and generally not all that funny. Fred, Daphne and Velma pop up for a brief minute or two as they reminisce about the antics of Scooby and eventually plead for him to return to the Saturday morning timeslot.

    The complete lack of mystery and clue searching by the gang and the unmasking of the monster or villain at the end is certainly the biggest problem in this highly disappointing episode of the classic cartoon.

Video

    The video transfer on offer here is probably best described as average tending to very good. The source material is nearing 25 years old so some dirt and grime is expected, but overall it is clear and colourful and a vast improvement on the episodes from the original Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?

    It is presented in the original made-for-TV aspect ratio of 1.33:1 and is not 16x9 enhanced.

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

    Colours are quite vivid and vibrant with bold reds, oranges, yellows and blues the highlights. There was no other evidence of any problems with colour bleeding or cross-colouration.

    Compression artefacts are completely absent. Film artefacts are evident across much of the image. These are really quite small and consist of the usual black and white dots and scratches. While being obvious and consistent they do not overly distract.

    There are only two sets of English subtitles available. Both are accurate and well placed on the screen.

    This is a single sided and single layered disc only so there is 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 soundtrack on offer here is a fairly stock-standard 1970s television style mono effort, but is still well recorded.

    There is only one soundtrack. It is an English Dolby Digital 1.0 mono soundtrack encoded at 192 Kb/s.

    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

Game

    A basic game that shows some six different screens based on scenes in the movie. Using your remote control you have to select the item which doesn't belong in that particular scene.

Featurette - Mystery, Inc. Yearbook

    An all-too-brief 6:38 interview with creators Bill Hanna and Joe Barbera as they discuss the genesis of the idea for Scooby-Doo and the development of some of the characters. Interesting, but over far too quickly to gain a real insight.

Featurette - Get The Picture: Scooby-Doo

    A fairly pointless 1:47 example of someone (all you see is their hand clutching a pencil) drawing Scooby-Doo.

    The Region 4 disc misses out on;

• French Dolby Digital 1.0 mono soundtrack
• Spanish Dolby Digital 1.0 mono soundtrack
• Two music videos - Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase and America Loves Scooby-Doo
• Bonus trailers
  

    The Region 1 disc misses out on;

• Nothing

    While the extras content is a clear win to the Region 1, all up I'll call this one a draw unless you absolutely must have either the Spanish or French soundtracks.

    Scooby-Doo Goes Hollywood is a poor made-for-television special featuring the famous talking great dane and his pal Shaggy. The fleeting appearance by the rest of the Mystery Inc. gang, and the complete lack of any actual mystery are the biggest failings here.

    The video transfer is above average, though not quite top-shelf material.

    The mono audio does the job with little fanfare.

    The extras are pretty light.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall