What's New, Scooby-Doo?
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. It is also the first Scooby Doo series to be produced by Warner Bros. Animation, and the first since both the foreclosure of Hanna-Barbera 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. The series marked the return of Velma and Fred as main characters in the regular Scooby-Doo franchise since 1984's The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries. 1988's A Pup Named Scooby-Doo was a prequel to the original 1969 series Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
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. Welker also returns as Fred in the series. Casey Kasem returned to voice Shaggy on the show after five years of not voicing him. This was the final Scooby-Doo series where Kasem voices Shaggy before the actor's death in 2014, though he still voiced other roles in the two following series, Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! and Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. This is the first Scooby-Doo series where Scooby is not voiced by his original voice actor Don Messick who died in 1997.
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, and in 2025, the show was made available for streaming on Tubi.
Characters
Main
- Scooby Doo: A Great Dane who's friends with Shaggy. Two things that they have in common are that they love food or are always afraid of ghosts. Voiced by Frank Welker.
- Shaggy Rogers: A beatnik slacker who's friends with Scooby. He and Scooby are usually scared and hungry; a running gag in the show. He is also known to have a high metabolism, and also is rich. At his voice actor's request, Shaggy was made into a vegetarian for this series. Voiced by Casey Kasem.
- Fred Jones: The leader of the Mystery, Inc. gang who is the master of making traps to catch the villains. However, sometimes the traps fail to work; Shaggy and Scooby mess them up then use the parts to catch the villain in their own fashion. Voiced by Frank Welker.
- Daphne Blake: The fashionable, resourceful woman of the gang who defends herself with her great fighting skills, although she can still fill the role of damsel in distress, often being captured by the villains. She is also quite ditzy and accident prone. Voiced by Grey DeLisle.
- Velma Dinkley: The smartest of the gang, and wears glasses because she is myopic. She has to fight back the advances of semi-recurring Gibby Norton, who does devious things, thinking it will win her over. Voiced by Mindy Cohn.
Recurring
Characters in the series who appear more than once:- Elliot Blender: A competitive spoiled child who often loses to Velma in contests. Voiced by Kimberly Brooks.
- Melbourne O'Reilly: An Australian adventurer/explorer who is one of Fred's heroes. Voiced by Steve Blum.
- J.J. Hakimoto: A famous, over enthusiastic, Asian director. Voiced by Brian Tochi.
- Gibby Norton: A nerd who has a crush on Velma, who hates the sight of him. He often turns out to be the villain to impress Velma, never succeeding. Gibby is modelled after his voice actor, Eddie Deezen.
- Burr Batson: A cocky southern professional racer who drives a monster truck. Voiced by James Arnold Taylor.
- Professor Laslow Ostwald: An inventor whom the gang meets. Voiced by Dave Foley, later by James Arnold Taylor. He first appears in "High-Tech House of Horrors" where his "House of the Future's" AI "Shari" goes haywire, attacking the tourists. Though the gang suspects him, it is later revealed that "Shari" itself is responsible. The gang defeated "Shari" by ignoring her causing her to overload. Professor Ostwald also appears in "E-Scream" at a "Video Game Convention" where his new invention the cuddly "Osomons" turn evil. It is later discovered that the whole mystery was actually a VR simulation Velma was trying out.
- The Hex Girls: Thorn, Dusk and Luna, are the members of the famous eco-goth rock band, The Hex Girls, with whom Scooby and the gang are acquainted with, ever since their first meeting in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost. Thorn is voiced by Jennifer Hale, Dusk by Jane Wiedlin and Luna by Kimberly Brooks.
- Mr. B: The owner of the Secret Six puppies. His full name is never revealed. He is voiced by Jeff Bennett. He also appears to be based on actor John Turturro given his accent and appearance.
- Crissie: A Golden Retriever who is the Secret Six's mother. She appears in "Homeward Hound" and "Farmed and Dangerous.” Unlike the Secret Six she does not appear in “Gold Paw”.
- The Secret Six puppies: Maize, Flax, Jingle, Knox, 14-Karat and Bling-Bling. They are six very well-trained, prize-winning Golden Retriever puppies who have a knack for getting into trouble, and they like Scooby as a father figure. Maize and Knox are voiced by Jennifer Hale, Jingle is voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey, Flax is voiced by Dee Bradley Baker, Bling-Bling is voiced by Grey DeLisle, and 14-Karat is voiced by Frank Welker.
- Nancy Chang: The reporter in episodes "There's No Creature Like Snow Creature" and "Riva Ras Regas". Voiced by Lauren Tom.
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. 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. 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, 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.
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, 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, 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, followed by A Scooby-Doo Halloween and A Scooby-Doo Valentine.
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.