What's New, Scooby-Doo?
What's New, Scooby-Doo? is an American comedy television series produced by Warner Bros. Animation for Kids' WB; it is the ninth incarnation of the "Scooby-Doo" franchise that began with Hanna-Barbera's "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 studios 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, and where Casey Kasem made his comeback as Shaggy after seven years of not voicing the character. This would also be the final "Scooby-Doo" series where Casey Kasem voices the character  before his retirement in 2013 and his death in 2014, though he would still have voice work in the two following incarnations, "Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue!" and "Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated". 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 and Boomerang in the United States. It also aired on Teletoon in Canada, and CBBC in the UK, then CITV. The series first aired on Boomerang from January 9 , 2006, until October 31, 2010. It returned to Boomerang's line-up on August 11, 2014, and left the schedule again on June 26, 2016. It returned again on February 6, 2017, replacing "The Smurfs", and left the schedule again on April 2, 2017. In 2019, the show was made available to stream on Netflix in the US. Characters. Recurring. Characters in the series who appear more than once. Production. 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"). 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 very 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 ". 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 the 9th of July 2021, What's New Scooby Doo aired 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. In the UK, the volumes were released in  a two disc set on May 30, 2011. A box set was released on October 29, 2007 in the UK containing all ten volumes in a complete disc set. Blu-ray. TBA