Growing up I loved an assortment of cartoons. Every day during my youth I would plop myself down and spend my days watching cartoons. Thus growing my imagination and sense of morality and becoming the person I am today. Okay well, maybe not that last part. What I mean by this I used to watch a lot of cartoons, especially Scooby-Doo!

Scooby-Doo is a cartoon series originally created by Hanna-Barbera Studios in 1969. The show stars four teens: Fred, Daphne, Velma Shaggy, and their lovable great dane Scooby-Doo. They travel around in their Mystery Machine van solving supernatural capers. Most of the time the true monster ends up being people dressed up in the mask. Kinda ironic that the real monsters are not the ghosts and ghouls but really humans themselves. Contemporary social commentary aside, Scooby-Doo definitely has a special place in my heart. When I was just a wee little toddler I would spend my days watching Scooby-Doo movies on VHS. I watched them so much that by two I was able to work a VCR. I knew I had to rewind the tape, press play, and all that jazz. I lived and breathed that mangy mutt. One year for Halloween I was flipping Scooby-Doo himself.

Halloween 2002 Maybe...Marc Anthony

It's safe to save I loved Mystery Inc. I don't know why for the life of me. Maybe because there were so many movies so I had an endless supply of content. Unlike stuff like "The Incredibles" (2004) which had one movie for the longest time. Every time I saw those commercials that played at the end of the VHS tape promoting those Scooby-Doo collections I would try to memorize the box art so that the next time I saw it in a bargain bin I would beg my mom to buy it. One of my oldest childhood memories was my mom refusing to buy me a VHS tape of the 13 movie collection of Scooby-Doo. Back then I was so upset (and still kind of am) but now I can just google it and find the movies online. Or buy it but those are Endgame goals when I get my Man Cave.

My favorite characters were Shaggy and Scooby obviously. I think it was because they had the most character personality in the films. They also had the best-flavored fruit snacks. Keyword HAD, fruit snacks are not the same as they used to. Fred and Daphne were really boring for me as a kid. Nowadays Warner Bros. is trying to give them more personality. Velma was okay, nothing special about her to me. I was still mad when it was revealed that she was (SPOILERS) in that Mummy Scooby-Doo Movie.

"Scooby Doo, Where are you!" Theme Song (1969)www.youtube.com

Moving on, I just find it crazy that Scooby-Doo is 50 years old. I had so many VHS tapes of that dang dog and his adventures. I had the old Mystery Machine van and regularly tried to figure out what exactly was inside Scooby snacks (It might be peanut butter). I think without Scooby-Doo I wouldn't love cartoons as much as I do today. I mean Scooby had the best crossovers with Batman, the Harlem Globetrotters, and so many more. The villains were excellently designed teetered on the line of creepy and awesome for little me. Everyone knows who Scooby-Doo is just by signing that classic theme song! I hope that the kids today are still getting well made Scooby stories. Probably not if I'm going, to be honest, but they are releasing a new Scooby-Doo movie called "Scoob" in 2020. Be on the lookout for that movie review ;)