What's New, Scooby-Doo? is an American animated television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation for Kids' WB. It is the ninth incarnation of the Scooby-Doo franchise that began with Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and the first Scooby-Doo series in a decade, since A Pup Named Scooby-Doo ended in 1991 and the first since both the foreclosure of Hanna-Barbera, the first Scooby Doo series to be produced by Warner Bros. Animation and William Hanna's death in 2001 The show follows the format of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, in which Scooby-Doo, and his companions Fred, Daphne, Velma, and Shaggy, travel to varying locations solving mysteries; this format is modernized for What's New, Scooby-Doo?, in which the characters utilize technology that did not exist at the time Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! first aired. It is the first television series in the franchise in which Frank Welker, Grey DeLisle and Mindy Cohn respectively portrayed the voices of Scooby-Doo, Daphne, and Velma. This is the first Scooby-Doo series where Scooby is not voiced by his original voice actor Don Messick who died in 1997. Welker also returns as Fred in the series. Casey Kasem returned to voice Shaggy on the show after five years of not voicing him. However, this would also be the final Scooby-Doo series where Kasem voices Shaggy before the actor's death in 2014, though he would still have voice work in the two following series, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. This series also marked the return of Velma and Fred as main characters in the regular Scooby-Doo franchise since 1984's The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries, and definitely discarded Scrappy-Doo from the main staff. 1988's A Pup Named Scooby-Doo (which also featured Velma and Fred) was a prequel to the original 1969 series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. The series premiered on September 14, 2002, and ran for three seasons before ending on July 21, 2006. The title song was performed by Canadian band Simple Plan. Reruns of the series have aired on both Cartoon Network from 2003–2016 and Boomerang from 2006–2020 and since 2023 in the United States. It also aired on Teletoon in Canada, and CBBC in the UK, then CITV. In 2019, the show was made available to stream on Netflix in the US. In 2021, the rights were turned over to HBO Max.

Episodes

Characters

Main

Recurring

Characters in the series who appear more than once:

Production

In January 2002, it was announced Kids' WB had given a 13 episode order to a new Scooby-Doo series under the working title of ''All New Scooby-Doo! The Animated Series''. The series was jointly picked up by both Kids' WB and Cartoon Network as the two networks had begun jointly selling advertising slots with the series arranged to run on Kids' WB first and then Cartoon Network. For this incarnation of the franchise, Frank Welker, the voice of Fred, took over as the voice of Scooby (replacing both Don Messick, the original voice of Scooby who died in 1997, and Scott Innes, the second voice of the character in the made-for-video films released between 1998 and 2001). Casey Kasem returned as Shaggy, making his comeback as the character in 2002 after the production team decided to make Shaggy a vegetarian. This would also be the final series Kasem voiced the character, continuing to voice Shaggy in the direct-to-video Scooby-Doo films until retiring from the role in 2009; Grey DeLisle returned as the role of Daphne (having previously voiced the character in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase and Night of the Living Doo). Actress Mindy Cohn took over for B. J. Ward as the role of Velma. The series itself is a modernized version of the original Where Are You! series. It takes place in the 21st century and is more "realistic" than the previous, more cartoony incarnations, and features music from contemporary genres and all-new, original sound effects to replace the classic Hanna-Barbera sound effects. Even a distinctive thunderclap sound that was used frequently on older Scooby-Doo TV series was rarely used on the series. A laugh track was only used for the Halloween special. The classic formula was also frequently parodied throughout (in a manner similar to A Pup Named Scooby-Doo), including the line "And I would've gotten away with it too, if it weren't for you meddling kids." As such, it returns to the formulaic version of humans in monster disguises, rather than the real monsters and ghosts of the prior four direct-to-video films (or the 1980s versions that preceded them). The show was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, the successor to Warner Bros. Cartoons which was the studio famous for bringing the Looney Tunes/Merrie Melodies to life, which had by this time absorbed Hanna-Barbera Productions in 2001, after being bought by Time Warner from Turner Broadcasting System since their merger on October 10, 1996. As is the standard for other classic Hanna-Barbera properties (Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, Wacky Races, etc.), the studio is still credited as the copyright owner, and Joseph Barbera, co-founder and co-chairman of the Hanna-Barbera studios, served as an executive producer alongside Sander Schwartz. William Hanna, longtime partner of Barbera, had died the year before. Wang Film Productions, DongWoo Animation Co. Ltd, and Lotto Animation contributed some of the animation for this series. It is the first Scooby-Doo series to be produced in 16:9 widescreen, although it was cropped in 4:3 when broadcast. The band Simple Plan is strongly connected to What's New, Scooby-Doo?. They perform the theme song (written by Rich Dickerson), and appeared as themselves in the episode "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman". Two of their songs appeared in chase scenes: "I'd Do Anything" in the episode "It's Mean, It's Green, It's the Mystery Machine" and "You Don't Mean Anything" in "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman", which also had the song "The Worst Day Ever" serve as the song the band plays during a scene where they practice, and a scene where they are in concert. Also, they contributed to the theatrical movie Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed. Each season included one holiday-themed special along with the other 13 regular episodes. The first season's special was A Scooby-Doo Christmas (2002), followed by A Scooby-Doo Halloween (2003) and A Scooby-Doo Valentine (2005). What's New aired for three seasons on The WB Television Network's "Kids' WB" programming block as a half-hour program, before being put on an indefinite hiatus in 2005, although the last episode, "E-Scream", was aired on Cartoon Network. Reruns have been shown on both Cartoon Network and its sister channel Boomerang. It also debuted on Boomerang and Cartoon Network in the United Kingdom and Ireland. In the United Kingdom, it aired on CBBC from September 2003 until November 2015, and aired on CITV in 2016. Since July 9, 2021, What's New, Scooby-Doo? has aired as reruns on Cartoon Network UK.

Reception

Common Sense Media gave the series a three out of five stars, writing, "Parents need to know that while there aren't many life lessons to be learned from an episode of this show, kids will enjoy the antics of the Scooby gang as they stumble upon and solve mysteries. Only very young children might find the show's puzzles and monsters frightening."

Home media

Warner Home Video has released the entire series on DVD in Region 1. The series was initially released in ten volumes of four or five episodes between 2003 and 2006, as well as in the United Kingdom from 2004 to 2006 and later re-released, in the United States, in season sets in 2007–2008. US Volumes: