Scooby-Doo (character)

Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo character
First appearance	"What a Night for a Knight" Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Last appearance	"Come Undone" Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated
Created by	Iwao Takamoto
Voiced by	Don Messick (1969–1994) Hadley Kay (1997) Scott Innes (1998–2002 and 2004-2005) Neil Fanning (2002, 2004) Frank Welker (2002–2013)
Information
Species	Dog
Gender	Male
Breed	Great Dane

Scoobert "Scooby" Doo is the eponymous character and protagonist of the Scooby-Doo animated television series created by the popular American animation company Hanna-Barbera. Scooby-Doo is the male dog and lifelong companion of Shaggy Rogers and in much iteration, including the original series, is regarded as a unique Great Dane dog who is able to speak in broken English, unlike most other dogs in his reality, and usually puts the letter R in front of words spoken. Other incarnations, such as A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, present talking dogs like Scooby as quite common.

The head of children's programming at CBS, Fred Silverman, came up with the character's name from the syllables "doo-be-doo-be-doo" in Frank Sinatra's hit song "Strangers in the Night".

Personality

Different iterations of the character have been developed and expanded in the various series featuring the characters, many of them contradicting, such as the original series and recent live-action movies where Shaggy and Scooby-Doo first meet as older teenagers for the first time, contradicting the "Pup Named Scooby-Doo" animated series where they know each other from almost infancy.

In all versions of the character, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy share several personality traits, mostly being cowardly and perpetually hungry. But their friends (Velma, Daphne and Fred) encourage them to go after the costumed villains, usually with "Scooby Snacks", a biscuit-like dog treat or cookie snack (usually shaped like a bone or, in later versions of the cartoons, Scooby's dog tag), though Scooby's inherent loyalty and courage does often force him to take a more heroic stance. Scooby is also extremely ticklish and this is seen in many of the television shows and movies.

Scooby has a speech impediment and tends to pronounce most words as if they begin with an "R", though most characters are able to understand him perfectly. In most iterations, he keeps his sentences relatively short, usually using charades for anything longer than three or four words. His catchphrase, usually howled at the end of every episode, is "Scooby-Dooby-Doo!" or "Rooby-Rooby-Roo". Scooby was voiced by Don Messick until the voice actor's death in 1997. Messick is also known for providing the voice of the dogs Astro on The Jetsons and Muttley (who snickered). The characteristic voices of Scooby and Astro are so similar that Astro's signature phrase, "Ruh-roh!", is popularly and improperly attributed to Scooby (as in "Ruh-roh, Raggy!").

Appearance and anatomy

Scooby is brown from head to toe with several distinctive black spots on his upper body and doesn't seem to have a melanistic mask. He is generally a quadruped, but displays bipedal 'human' characteristics occasionally. Scooby also has opposible thumbs and can use his front paws like hands. He has a black nose and wears an off-yellow, diamond shaped-tagged blue collar with an "SD" (his initials) and has four toes on each foot. Unlike other dogs, Scooby only has one pad on the sole of each of his feet (so that it was easier to draw in the Scooby-Doo Annuals).

Scooby has a fully prehensile tail he can use to swing from or press buttons. Both his head and tail are malleable and useful as a communication aid or creating a distraction.

Creator Iwao Takamoto later explained that before he designed the character, he first spoke to a Great Dane breeder, who described to him the desirable characteristics of a pedigree dog. Takamoto then drew Scooby as the opposite of this. He said "I decided to go the opposite [way] and gave him a hump back, bowed legs, small chin and such. Even his color is wrong."

According to the official magazine that accompanied the 2002 movie, Scooby is seven years old (forty-nine in stereotypical dog years).

Voice actors

Don Messick originated the character's voice patterns, and provided Scooby-Doo's voice in every Scooby-Doo production from 1969 until his death in 1997. Voice actor Hadley Kay voiced him once, in a 1997 episode of Johnny Bravo. Scott Innes (also the then-voice of Shaggy) voiced Scooby-Doo in four late 1990s/early 2000s direct-to-video films, and Frank Welker (also the voice of Fred) took over beginning with What's New, Scooby-Doo? in 2002 and other spin-offs including the live-action prequels Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster. Neil Fanning provided the voice of the computer-generated Scooby-Doo in the first two Warner Bros. live-action feature films. Luke Youngblood is the stand in for the computer-generated Scooby-Doo in the live-action Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster while Frank Welker voices him. Dave Coulier and Seth Green have both voiced him in Robot Chicken.

• Don Messick (1969–1994)
• Hadley Kay (1997)
• Scott Innes (1998–2002 and 2004-2005)
• Neil Fanning (2002 and 2004 live-action films)
• Frank Welker (2002–2013 plus Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins and Scooby-Doo! Curse of the Lake Monster)
• Dave Coulier (2006; Robot Chicken)
• Seth Green (2007; Robot Chicken)

• In Brazil, the actor Orlando Drummond has been the voice of Scooby Doo for 35 years, getting into Guinness World Records as the longest serving voice actor for one character. As of 2012, Drummond still is the only voice for Scooby Doo in the country.
• In Denmark, Scooby-Doo is voiced by Lars Thiesgaard.
• In Japan, Scooby-Doo has been voiced by Kazuo Kumakura and Naomi Kusumi.
• In Hungary, Scooby-Doo was voiced by Gabor Vass and Attila Hanko, in the first two seasons of Scooby-Doo Show, and is now voiced by Gabor Melis.
• In Sri Lanka, Scooby-Doo is voiced by Gaminda Priyaviraj.
• In Sweden, Scooby-Doo is voiced by Stefan Frelander.

Relatives

Over the course of Scooby-Doo's various spin-offs, various relatives of Scooby were introduced:

• Scrappy-Doo: Scooby's young nephew (and son of Scooby's sister Ruby-Doo), Scrappy is the bravest of Scooby's relatives. Scrappy became a recurring character in the Scooby-Doo series beginning in 1979, and was noted for being quite headstrong and always wanting to face off in a fight the various villains (unlike his uncle). He has one or two catch phrases, the one he uses the most is "Puppy Power!" Scooby and Shaggy were present at Scrappy's birth.
• Yabba-Doo: According to Scrappy and Yabba-Doo Yabba is Scooby's brother, a white dog owned by Deputy Dusty in the American southwest. Unlike Scooby, Yabba is brave. Unlike Scooby's and Scrappy's, his typical custom catchphrase at the end is "Yippity-Yabbity-Doooo!!!" (and not "Yabba-Dabba-Doo!", presumably due to another Hanna-Barbera character's usage of that phrase).
• Scooby-Dum: Scooby's cousin (according to Shaggy in "Headless Horseman of Halloween), a blue-grey dog. A Mortimer Snerd-esque dog who longed to be a detective. Was rather dimwitted (he'd keep looking for clues even after the mystery was solved). His catch-phrase was also different then Scooby's and Scrappy's. Instead of "Scooby-Dooby-Dum" his typical custom catch-phrase is "Dum dum Dum DUM!", an intoning the opening four notes of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, which he would do after someone said the word "Clue."
• Scooby-Dee: Scooby's distant cousin, a white dog. Spoke with a Southern accent, and was an actress.
• Dooby-Doo: Scooby's cousin, a singer. He is one of Scooby's few relatives to have hair on his head. Only appeared in "The 'Dooby Dooby Doo' Ado".
• Momsy and Dada Doo: Scooby's parents. His mother is the only one who calls him Scoobert.
• Whoopsy-Doo: Scooby's cousin, a clown. Owned by Shaggy (Norville)'s uncle, Gaggy Rogers.
• Ruby-Doo: Scooby's sister, and mother of Scrappy-Doo.
• Skippy-Doo: Scooby's brother. Highly intelligent; he wears glasses.
• Howdy-Doo: Scooby's brother. Enjoyed reading Supermarket tabloid newspapers. He appears to become a redhead.
• Horton-Doo: Scooby's uncle. Was interested in monsters and science.
• Dixie-Doo: Scooby's cousin and the pet of Betty Lou, Shaggy's Southern cousin.
• Grandpa Scooby: Scooby's grandfather.
• Great-Grandpa Scooby: Scooby's great-grandfather.
• Yankee-Doodle-Doo: Scooby's ancestor. He was owned by McBaggy Rogers. He also appears to be a pilgrim. Little is known about him.

Love Interests

• Amber: In Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, Shaggy and Scooby are abducted by the "aliens" and abandoned in the desert. There they meet a wild life photographer, Crystal and her dog Amber. Scooby was heartbroken when it is revealed that Amber and Crystal are actually aliens from another planet and must go home, though he and Shaggy quickly forget about them when they found out there was one more Scooby Snack box left. Amber and Crystal did seem to have actual feelings for Shaggy and Scooby but don't pursue them due to 'long distance relationships never working out'. Amber's disguised form is that of a Golden Retriever wearing a red bandana while her true form is a large, blue reptilian creature with a beak-like mouth. Like Scooby, she is capable of speech but only shows so at the end of the movie and unlike Scooby, she speaks like a normal human.
• Chiquita: In Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico, Scooby meets up with Chiquita, Alejo's son's pet Chihuahua, when the gang arrives at Alejo's family hotel.
• Sandy Duncan: In The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode: Sandy Duncan's Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, Scooby fell for Sandy Duncan at a studio.
• Sled dog: In The Scooby Doo Show episode, A Scary Night With a Snow Beast Fright, Scooby falls in love with a sled dog. At the end, she kisses him.
• Chrissie: Mr. B's prize dog, and mother of the Secret Six (Maize, Flax, Jingle, Knox, 14-Carat, and Bling-Bling) appeared in the What's New, Scooby-Doo episode "Homeward Hound".
• Roxanne: An old girlfriend that Scooby meets again in What's New episode, A Scooby-Doo Valentine. In the end, she leaves Scooby for singer J.C. Chasez's pet bulldog Reecho.
• Nova: In the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated episode "The Hodag of Horror", Scooby falls in love with Fred's parents' female dog Nova, a cocker spaniel.

Reception

Casey Kasem, the previous voice actor for Shaggy Rogers, said that Scooby is "the star of the show--the Shaquille O'Neal of the show." Kasem explained "People love animals more than they love people. Am I right or wrong? They give more love to their pets than they give to people. Scooby is vulnerable and lovable and not brave, and very much like the kids who watch. But like kids, he likes to think that he's brave."