Scooby Doo! & Batman: The Brave And The Bold

I am a little bit surprised to report what I do next. As a Batman: The Brave And The Bold reunion project? It was awesome. As a Scooby Doo project? One of the worst things Scooby Doo has ever done. It's weird that even though I love Batman: The Brave And The Bold and am lukewarm over Scooby Doo, it's the fact that it's awful Scooby Doo which concerns far more than it being awesome Batman: The Brave And The Bold. I sort of had these concerns before I saw the project, but sort of got out of hand quickly here.

Velma yelling "There is no rational explanation for this!" is why it's bad Scooby Doo. Dealing with aliens and superpowers is bad enough. But suggesting Scooby Doo exists in the same Universe as Gentleman Ghost flies against everything Scooby Doo's rationalism and science-based morals stand for. I sincerely doubt Stephen Hawking would EVER give his stamp of approval for this. And Hawking was a nerd. For all I know, he was a Batman fan too. But the Scooby Doo franchise doesn't deserve props for completely ignoring the one thing that made it cool and unique.

A lot of people were disappointed with the rationalizations in the 13th Ghost movie. And the reason I was too is because the 13 Ghosts cartoons DID have supernatural elements, and two cartoony real ghost characters the movie conveniently ignored. It's less a rational resolution than a total retcon. But let me also state for the record that the 13 Ghosts cartoon sucked. It had a super interesting premise, but the execution was completely flawed. That goes for ALL Scooby Doo. But even bad early Scooby Doo had the science-based rationalization going for it. 13 Ghosts was just a total mess completely lacking the franchise's only real appeal.

As far as Batman: The Brave And The Bold is concerned, this film is 100% canon. I don't know where it fits past the series finale, but the truth is I think that finale was a LOT more open-ended than the lights dimming on the set would indicate. Batman says goodbye to the kids in the audience, but he promises that he'll always be fighting crime for them no matter what. I haven't read any interviews with James Tucker about the movie (I just finished it) so I have no way of knowing if it's supposed to take place before the finale or after it. But as far as I'm concerned, it can take place afterward. Batman is simply fulfilling a promise. Plus Bat-Mite is totally the guy who would bring the franchise out of mothballs to do a Scooby Doo team-up. Bat-Mite isn't mentioned here, once but that's a total Bat-Mite move.

I like that the series decided to go with Jeffrey Combs as the Question. I honestly DO think Nicholas Guest is the second best Question after Combs (not that there have been a ton of other interpretations) but Combs was literally the best character on Justice League Unlimited, and it was great to hear him in the role again, even in an alternate universe. And James Tucker is cool because he still gives Nicolas Guest a huge role to reprise the Martian Manhunter. A lesser producer simply would have snubbed him.

I found the Arkham sequence entirely problematic, including the foolish notion that the cafeteria would be filled with ghoulish-looking delicious food. That's not how asylums work. The food is notoriously crappy there. Oliver Twist-level gruel. The patients aren't vacationing at a spa. In fact, if I had written the movie, Arkham would have been a nonfactor. I not only would never have put those kids there, I wouldn't have mentioned it either. What's ironic is Arkham has a bigger role in this movie than it ever did on the show. Which is another reason it was inappropriate to go there.

What's interesting is that the team-up allows the characters to be inappropriate in other ways that I actually like. The tailgate scene is classic Shaggy and Scooby, and Batman is grumbling that it never should have worked, but it always does, which is why it's funny Batman complains about it. Because it never should. Especially in a rational, science-based series.

I know nothing about No-Man's Land, but I'm sure that made some people very happy.

The thing that I need to keep in mind is that even though this thing is mostly sold by the Scooby Doo brand, it's in reality more of a DC project. Velma notes the gang doesn't actually solve the mystery, and the costumed Scooby Gang moment is for show more than anything, where the rest of the heroes save the day. I can grouse it's crappy Scooby Doo. It's not really SUPPOSED to be Scooby Doo. He's practically the guest star of the week.

Head-canon time: Totally canon to Batman: The Brave And The Bold. Discussing Milo's "mousy end" says the movie takes that show's canon very seriously. As a Scooby project? A one-off alternate universe story that never happened anywhere else. I better not ever see this referenced elsewhere (unless there is a direct sequel).

These appear to be the first Brave And The Bold appearances for Poison Ivy, Clayface, and Harvey Bullock. I might have missed Ivy and Clayface in an Easter Egg somewhere else (Tucker was surprisingly thorough in getting to most everything) but I know for sure Bullock is definitely brand-new.

Another reason this is a bad Scooby Doo project. I knew it was Clayface far before he was unmasked (I suspected him literally after seeing the footprint early on, the actual first clue it was him), which makes it a bad Scooby Doo mystery. A viewer can have their theories about the crank real-estate developer, but if the viewer is 100% sure who it is before the mask comes off, it's a bad Scooby mystery. This is especially bad because the clues and visuals offered meant there was no other culprit it could be. Great Batman project. Shoddy Scoobying.

I am going to choose to grade it as a Batman: The Brave And The Bold project. If I judged it by Scooby Doo standards, it would get a single star. But as outraged as I am on behalf of Scooby Doo (and Stephen Hawking) the truth is the Brave And The Bold relaunch wouldn't have happened without this specific crossover. Warner Home Video would NOT have taken a chance on a movie focused solely on that iteration of those characters. And it's a pretty fun Brave And The Bold outing. And I'm glad we finally got it so I'll grade it as such. ****.