I originally watched this title as a kid back in the late 70s and early 80s; it was in the line-up of cartoons I watched regularly for reasons beyond my comprehension now.
When I discovered in the late 90s that
Scooby Doo, Where Are You? was on Cartoon Network on a regular basis at a time I could watch (10:30 at night each night Mon. through Fri.), I started watching it, and found out that I still liked it. But as an adult in my late 20s, I appreciated it for different reasons. I enjoyed how realistic it was - it was drawn in a realistic style (which can't be said of most American cartoons I don't like, for example the Simpsons and Family Guy), and it always seemed like it really could happen in real-life
. I enjoyed its maturity, as opposed to the stupidity I saw in most American cartoons at the time. I enjoyed figuring out the mystery in each episode along with the characters (I have never been a great mystery solver), as well as how the characters solved the mystery at the end of each episode and explained why the person behind the monster of the week did what he/she did (in other words, his/her motive) as well as explained how this person did most of the complicated (for a real-life person) tricks in that episode. And to top it all off, it had humor I really liked.
So I looked into other times Cartoon Network aired Scooby Doo that I could watch. Among the versions of it shown on weekends, I found I most liked the
Scooby Doo Movies (actually one-hour long episodes, as opposed to the one-half hour that earlier episodes were). It had virtually all of the same positives that I listed above, plus it had a different guest star (or group of guest stars) in each episode (sometimes a fictional one, like Batman and Robin, and sometimes a real-life one, like Don Knotts).
After watching those for a while (and briefly watching a few versions of it that I didn't like), I did some research into the Scooby Doo title (by going to a library near me). That's how I learned who all the VAs were, and other behind-the-scenes stuff about the title.
Basically, I liked all versions up through the
Scooby Doo Movies, which were made in the early 70s. Those were the versions that had virtually all of the positives I listed above, plus Nicole Jaffe voicing Velma Dinkley. It seems like every time Velma has been a character in a version made after these 'movies', she has sounded totally different, unlike how Nicole Jaffe made her sound - and thus impossible for me to get used to that new voice for Velma. I just simply like Nicole Jaffe's version the best.
The versions of Scooby Doo that I really didn't like were the versions with only Scooby Doo, Shaggy, and (I think) Daphne; and (of course) any version with Scrappy Doo. Don't get me started on Scrappy Doo - I'll end up writing a response that belongs more in the Rants topic than here
. I believe these versions just didn't have the maturity of the versions I like. Plus, their 'humor' wasn't intelligent in my mind - they delved into stupidity a lot, IMHO. In addition, it seemed like the characters in these versions always 'solved' the mystery of the week by accident, without even any
hint of planning. That's not the title I love.
I think I'll just leave it at that for now. Feel free to discuss or review any cartoon version of the Scooby Doo title here.