Scooby Doo's Velma Is Getting Her Own Show Starring Mindy Kaling

Hah, that actually made me laugh, as I actually remember that show. Boy, that was a trip back.

 

That reminds me of something I read few months ago about how the people working on long running soap strips like Mary Worth are actually reduced to writing them for hate clicks from bloggers.

 

I don't know. I mean, it's a 50-year-old I.P., everyone knows the brand, Scooby himself isn't actually in it, Shaggy is called Norville, it's being explicitly marketed as being a reinterpretation for adults. It airs Thursday nights on HBO/HBO Max, and if I'm not mistaken anyone with HBO Max can create a child profile that screens out adult content -- it isn't like this is rerunning at 3 o'clock in the afternoon on Cartoon Network. I don't think this will damage the Scooby Doo brand nearly as much as, say, Batman v. Superman damaged the Superman brand.

 

Which is exactly why this kind of thing is questionable. It ends up feeling like the producer is leveraging the IP for their own gains. If it weren't for the IP, this likely wouldn't receive nearly the same amount of attention, or likely wouldn't even get made.

 

I mean, yeah? I don't think that's in question and I don't think that was ever something the producers tried to hide.

 

I guess I'm just trying to figure out what kind of value it's bringing to the table since it's so intrinsically different. It'd be like if they made a Muppet movie where they go to Vegas, get drunk, gamble and slap an adult label on it.

 

Yeah, I mean, you either find value (or amusement) in the juxtaposition of adult themes with childhood icons or you don't. I do sometimes, although more often I do when such a version is explicitly markered as an alternate, for-adults-only humorous take on the I.P. (as with Velma or, say, Harley Quinn) rather than as an earnest canonical installment of the I.P. (as with Andor, which I thought was brilliant but shouldn't have been part of the Star Wars canon).

 

Hmmmm, this creepy, gory animated short is a critique and homage to the Scooby Doo (NSFW):



Would it be interesting if we had a full series based around this premise?

 

Why not?

 

In my view, Andor is a brilliant, high-quality series that nonetheless breaks all of the conventions of Star Wars as a story and which appropriates a children's adventure story for adult political purposes. I am extremely wary of the appropriation of children's stories for adult audiences if they're not explicitly designed to be alternate versions from the canonical versions (in the manner that both Velma and Harley Quinn are), because I think children aren't given enough stories that are just allowed to be theirs.

 

Frank Welker ftw.

 

It isn't the first time adult political themes have appeared in SW.

 

No, but Star Wars has always very firmly been designed to be entertaining to children first and foremost. Andor is the first time it was clearly not designed with any intent of keeping children entertained in mind.