While 'The New Scooby Doo Movies' was a patchy and inconsistent show, it was also interesting and entertaining, with some great episodes, a handful of decent to good ones, some average to mediocre and a few bad.
"The Haunted Candy Factory" just about rises above average, not great and not among the best episodes but not among the bad or worst ones, if towards the weaker end. "The Haunted Carnival", with Dick Van Dyke, and "The Spirited Spooked Sports Show", with Tim Conway are the best episodes of Season 2 (which generally is far inferior to the mostly solid Season 1, which only had two disappointing episodes whereas Season 2 was a mixed bag) but it is an improvement over "Mystery in Persia", with Jeannie, "The Haunted Showboat", with Josie and the Pussycats, and "The Weird Winds on Winona", with Speed Buggy.
Immediately noticeable in terms of flaws is the animation quality. While the animation was never great, or even good, in 'The New Scooby Doo Movies' Season 2's animation was even more of a step-down than Season 1. While there are worse-animated episodes in the show, everything that made Season 2's animation as poor as it was (highlighted in previous reviews for the previous episodes) is present in "The Haunted Candy Factory", though at least the setting was a good atmospheric one and actually looked haunted.
'Mama' Cass Elliott is a great guest star, with really enjoyable rapport especially with Shaggy and Scooby and some funny lines. There could however have been less of the self-wisecracks about her weight, in real life she found it a very sensitive issue to talk about and some of it wasn't exactly tasteful. While not one of the worst cases ("Mystery in Persia" fares the worst in this regard), "The Haunted Candy Fsctory" does struggle to sustain momentum and the story within the length at times, so parts do drag and feel stretched. Fred, Velma and Daphne do feel side-lined and are not exactly interesting.
On the other hand, the music is haunting and energetic with the as ever infectiously catchy theme tune. A good deal of the writing has an endearing goofiness and often amusing and more, Shaggy and Elliott particularly so. The setting genuinely looks and feels haunted and provides real atmosphere, and there is a spookiness and intrigue to the story which does feel more of a mystery than most of the Season 2 episodes rather than being too over-reliant on the guest stars. The villains are pretty cool, even if the real identities are not hard to figure out.
Voice acting is fine, especially from Elliott, Don Messick and Casey Kasem.
In conclusion, above average episode and somewhere around the middle ranking the Season 2 episodes of 'The New Scooby Doo Movies'. 6/10 Bethany Cox
"The Haunted Candy Factory" just about rises above average, not great and not among the best episodes but not among the bad or worst ones, if towards the weaker end. "The Haunted Carnival", with Dick Van Dyke, and "The Spirited Spooked Sports Show", with Tim Conway are the best episodes of Season 2 (which generally is far inferior to the mostly solid Season 1, which only had two disappointing episodes whereas Season 2 was a mixed bag) but it is an improvement over "Mystery in Persia", with Jeannie, "The Haunted Showboat", with Josie and the Pussycats, and "The Weird Winds on Winona", with Speed Buggy.
Immediately noticeable in terms of flaws is the animation quality. While the animation was never great, or even good, in 'The New Scooby Doo Movies' Season 2's animation was even more of a step-down than Season 1. While there are worse-animated episodes in the show, everything that made Season 2's animation as poor as it was (highlighted in previous reviews for the previous episodes) is present in "The Haunted Candy Factory", though at least the setting was a good atmospheric one and actually looked haunted.
'Mama' Cass Elliott is a great guest star, with really enjoyable rapport especially with Shaggy and Scooby and some funny lines. There could however have been less of the self-wisecracks about her weight, in real life she found it a very sensitive issue to talk about and some of it wasn't exactly tasteful. While not one of the worst cases ("Mystery in Persia" fares the worst in this regard), "The Haunted Candy Fsctory" does struggle to sustain momentum and the story within the length at times, so parts do drag and feel stretched. Fred, Velma and Daphne do feel side-lined and are not exactly interesting.
On the other hand, the music is haunting and energetic with the as ever infectiously catchy theme tune. A good deal of the writing has an endearing goofiness and often amusing and more, Shaggy and Elliott particularly so. The setting genuinely looks and feels haunted and provides real atmosphere, and there is a spookiness and intrigue to the story which does feel more of a mystery than most of the Season 2 episodes rather than being too over-reliant on the guest stars. The villains are pretty cool, even if the real identities are not hard to figure out.
Voice acting is fine, especially from Elliott, Don Messick and Casey Kasem.
In conclusion, above average episode and somewhere around the middle ranking the Season 2 episodes of 'The New Scooby Doo Movies'. 6/10 Bethany Cox
