'Scooby Doo and Guess Who' sounded very interesting and really liked the idea of the gang solving crimes with various guest stars (a mix of real life celebrities in the film, music and sporting industries and popular characters). So a more modern version of 'The New Scooby Doo Movies', loved that show as a kid and quite a lot of episodes and guest stars hold up but some episodes and guest stars don't quite do it now. This show turned out to be mostly very well done and at its best great.
"Revenge of the Swamp Monster" was a promising and decent first episode. It is a familiar theme, but it is a theme/setting that has been known to be done well in the franchise and is mostly still here. It does what a first episode should do quite well, setting things up and establishing the tone and characters. There are much better 'Scooby Doo and Guess Who' episodes that were more inspired and had stronger mysteries and guest stars, but "Revenge of the Swamp Monster" had more than enough to make me want to continue watching the show as a big lifelong Scooby Doo fan.
A lot is great here. The animation has a lot of atmosphere, rich colour and even richer attention to detail. The music is dynamic and groovy, also loved the modern spin on the iconic classic theme tune for 'Scooby Doo Where are You', although it is too short. A vast majority of the voice acting is very good, with Matthew Lillard nailing it as Shaggy. The villain is suitably creepy, though even creepier villains occurred in later episodes.
The setting is a familiar one and put to effective use. While not one of the best or most memorable guest stars (think Hex Girls, Batman, Morgan Freeman), and of all the guest stars on the show he was one of the lesser known to me beforehand, Chris Paul at least fits, is amiable and has some nice interaction with the gang. The gang are on great form, especially Shaggy and Scooby. Still love their charming and lovingly goofy chemistry, which shines in an inspired tricking the monster trick (it's not a Scooby Doo episode without at least one of those).
Writing is funny and smart on the whole, the classic Shaggy and Scooby goofiness endears. Much of the mystery is diverting and lively with a good deal of atmosphere, doing very well at going back to basics and staying true to the franchise's roots while having its own modern identity. The chase scene is creative visually.
However, the ending felt very rushed and too out of the blue, when Velma says "it all makes perfect sense" my reaction was "it does?" because it did feel like we had not been told enough yet, that the clues were too few and that they had not been fleshed out enough. Didn't buy how too easily the missing people were found too. The perpetrator here is very obvious, in an episode with too few suspects (that also aren't interacted with enough).
Despite being diverting enough, the mystery is also on the thin side later on. Kate Micucci is the exception with the voice acting, just find her too abrasive.
Overall, pretty decent. 7/10.
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