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Scrappy-Doo

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Scrappy (Dappy) Doo
Scooby-Doo character
First appearance"The Scarab Lives!" (Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo)
Voiced byLennie Weinrib (1979–1980)
Don Messick (1980–1985 & 1987–1988)
Scott Innes (2000–2011)
In-universe information
SpeciesDog
GenderMale
BreedGreat Dane

Scrappy (Dappy) Doo is a fictional Great Dane puppy created by Hanna-Barbera Productions in 1979, with the famous catchphrases, "Let me at 'em!" and "Puppy Power!". He is the nephew of Hanna-Barbera cartoon star Scooby-Doo. Scrappy has appeared in a number of the various incarnations of the Scooby-Doo cartoon series.[1][2] Lennie Weinrib provided his voice for one season in 1979 and from 1980 on, it was performed by Don Messick (who voiced Scooby). In the first live action theatrical movie, video games, and commercials, he was voiced by Scott Innes. Scrappy initially became a breakout character for the series, but later was credited for the show's decline.

Character biography

Scrappy has a contradicted origin. Originally as shown in the introduction of the series episodes, Scrappy only met his Uncle Scooby after becoming a young pup. But in the December 1980 episode of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo ("Scrappy's Birthday") depicts Scrappy-Doo's birth with both Scooby and Shaggy in attendance. Born at St. Bernard's Hospital to Scooby-Doo's sister Ruby-Doo on December 20, 1979, Scrappy idolizes his uncle Scooby and would often assist Scooby and his friends in solving mysteries (Scrappy saves Scooby several times from monsters when they were looking for the rest of the gang shown). With a highly energetic and brave personality, despite his small size, Scrappy was the exact opposite of his uncle; Scrappy would usually insist on trying to directly fight the various monsters Scooby and his associates encountered and generally have to be dragged away by Scooby. Related to this, one of Scrappy's catchphrases was, "Lemme at 'em! Lemme at 'em! I'll splat 'em! I'll rock 'em and sock 'em!" Another of Scrappy-Doo's catchphrases is, "Ta dadada ta daaa! (imitating a bugle playing "Charge!") Puppy power!", he is also quite strong, capable of smashing down solid rock walls. The character was created by Joseph Barbera and developed by writer Mark Evanier, who has acknowledged that Scrappy's personality was largely based on that of the Looney Tunes character Henery Hawk.[3]

In Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers, Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School and Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, Scrappy is more toned down, as he is less feisty and a little more cowardly, but still much braver than Scooby and Shaggy. In all three movies he sometimes serves as the brains of the trio, figuring out the clues and where to go next. Also, the idea of Scrappy actually may not have been all that new to the series, as he "...bore a resemblance to Spears’ and Ruby’s initial idea for a feisty little dog", which was one of the early ideas for the Scooby-Doo character himself, along with the "big cowardly dog" ultimately chosen.[4]

Voices

Others considered for the voice:

Mel Blanc was the first choice to voice Scrappy, given his connection to Henery Hawk, but wanted too much money to voice the part.[3] The second consideration was actor Frank Welker, who coined the catchphrase "Puppy Power" during his audition.[3] He would later change this to "Monkey Muscle" for the similar Donkey Kong Jr. character he would voice for TV's Saturday Supercade. The next choice was Messick, who was seen as giving the best audition, but still deemed "the wrong voice".[3] Afterwards, other well-known cartoon voice artists were considered or suggested: Paul Winchell, Howard Morris, Dick Beals, and Marilyn Schreffler.[3] Ultimately, Lennie Weinrib was chosen, and after the first season, Messick became the final voice for the rest of the series' run after Weinrib asked for a higher salary.[3]

History and criticism

Scrappy-Doo was added to the cast of Scooby-Doo to save the show's ratings, which by 1979 had begun to sink to the point of cancellation threats from ABC.[3] After his addition to the show proved to be a ratings success, Hanna-Barbera restructured the show around Scrappy in 1980. The original format of four teenagers and their dog(s) solving supernatural mysteries for a half-hour was eschewed for simpler, more comedic adventures which involved real supernatural villains (the villains in previous Scooby episodes were almost always regular humans in disguise).

Scrappy remained an integral part of the Scooby-Doo franchise, on both TV and in Scooby-related licensed products and merchandising, through the end of the 1980s. He was also briefly the star of his own seven-minute shorts — the Scrappy and Yabba Doo segments of The Scooby & Scrappy-Doo/Puppy Hour. Teamed with his uncle Yabba-Doo and Deputy Dusty, he helped maintain law and order in a small town in the American west. In later years, the presence of Scrappy-Doo has been criticized as having had a negative effect on the various Scooby-Doo series of the 1980s.[5] Scrappy-Doo has become the symbol of an irritatingly overexuberant or cute character added to a series in an attempt to maintain ratings, a phenomenon also known as Cousin Oliver Syndrome.[6] In fact, because of the character's well-known unpopularity, characters added to a fictional work who were meant to be taken well, but actually are received poorly are known as "Scrappies." [7] Due to the general perception of the character by audiences, Scrappy-Doo has not appeared in any Scooby-related spinoffs since the made-for-television movie Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf in 1988, with three exceptions:

  • The first live-action Scooby-Doo theatrical film — where Scrappy played a decidedly negative and darker role as the main antagonist, wanting revenge on Mystery Inc., for abandoning him years ago (he was kicked out for continuously urinating on Daphne, being obnoxious, and the final straw was when he tried to vote himself the leader of Mystery Inc.). When Velma is talking to a guy at the bar who likes her, she tells him that Scrappy was not a puppy, but had a glandular disorder. Although he nearly succeeds in performing the 'Darkopolypse Ritual', which would give a group of demons the power to rule Earth for the next ten thousand years, his plan is foiled and he and his minions are arrested because he underestimated the Mystery Inc. team, inviting them all to the theme park where he was conducting the ritual after they broke up years before simply to make them witness his triumph when he only needed Scooby present, intending to use Scooby's 'pure' soul to complete his ritual. At the conclusion of the film, Velma says that Scrappy's full name is Scrappy Cornelius Doo. Here, Scooby sends his own nephew to jail.
  • Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King (2008) has a scene, clearly meant to be an ironic reference to the eventual unpopularity of the character, where a monstrous Mystery Machine crashes through a carnival stand containing dolls of Scrappy (referencing Scrappy's evil actions in the live action film), and running over them. Like all the previous and current direct-to-video movies, Scrappy never made an appearance.
  • Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (2010), in the episode "The Siren's Song", Fred and Daphne come across a statue of Scrappy in the Crystal Cove Haunted Museum among the statues of their defeated foes. Daphne remarks it's been a while since she's seen him. Fred pulls her away and reminds her that they all promised never to speak of him again, a reference to his unpopularity and the fact that he hadn't appeared in any Scooby-Doo cartoons or films in the latest decades as a consequence of it. Scrappy also appeared with a statue of Flim Flam.

Scooby-Doo series and films featuring Scrappy-Doo

Series

Telefilms

Feature films

Appearances in other media

Scrappy-Doo appeared in a few Cartoon Network commercial bumpers, reflecting on the negative criticism of the character. One such has him hanging outside Cartoon Network's office, ranting about how the other CN cartoons are getting better treatment than him, despite his creation being 20 years older than theirs. Ending with Scrappy remarking to the tagline (the best place for cartoons) with "Not for me! Not for me, man!"

During one of Cartoon Network's commercials promoting its 20th anniversary Bugs Bunny was taking a group photo of various cartoon characters, with Scrappy-Doo being among them. Before the picture was taken, Jake from Adventure Time elongated his body to push Scrappy out of the picture to which Scrappy says "Hey!!" in frustration and has the last line in the commercial. This was obviously a reference to the fall of Scrappy-Doo's popularity and is evidence that Cartoon Network humorously continues to exploit this.

Scrappy-Doo is a recurring gag in Harvey Birdman Attorney at Law. He first appears at the end of "Shaggy Busted" to utter his catchphrase, only to be cut-off halfway when Avenger grabs Scrappy in his talons. From then on, Scrappy's corpse appears in various episodes, usually being carried around by Avenger. He also appears in the Drawn Together episode "Lost in Parking Space, Part Two", wherein he and several other cartoon characters are brutally tortured. He appears in the "Laff-a-Munich" skit in the Robot Chicken episode "Ban on the Fun". In the skit, Scrappy is kicked into a lake by Blue Falcon.

And in October of the years 2008, 2009, 2010 and 2011, he was made the King of Boomerroyalty in which each weekend despite being infamous, the channel "Boomerang" showed 2-hour installments of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo and The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show all month.

On the soundtrack album, Family Guy: Live in Vegas, Jason Alexander reports that Scrappy is the product of a drunken encounter between Scooby-Doo and Daphne.

In the series finale of Batman: The Brave and the Bold "Mitefall!", Bat-Mite attempts to get the show cancelled and introduces a thinly-veiled analogy to Scrappy in Punchichi, the nephew of Ace the Bat-Hound.

On Family Guy Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, Chris Griffin was required by his mother Lois Griffin to mention the fourth member of Sex and the City, he couldn't come up with the correct answer, he instead took a wild and very inaccurate guess by saying it was Scrappy Doo. In the episode, Meg Stinks!, Brian Griffin is forced to sleep outside (due to getting sprayed by a skunk) and states his nephew Scrappy Brian didn't even make it through the night. It then cuts to a scene depicting a puppy resembling Brian, who inquires about a noise in the bushes, Brian would rather ignore it, but Scrappy Brian shouts Scrappy Doo's catchphrase, "Let me at em", and charges, and is eaten by a velociraptor. Brian notes he told his sister "This wasn't a good weekend".

Scrappy appears in A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration as a respected part of the large family of classic Hanna-Barbera characters. He's the only Scooby member besides Shaggy and Scooby but doesn't have any lines.

See also

References

  1. ^ Pfanner, Eric (2006-02-19). "Underdog takes shot at giants in kids television". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-08-14.
  2. ^ "TV Playbook: Let's Add a Kid!". IGN. Retrieved 2010-08-15.
  3. ^ a b c d e f g Evanier, Mark. "Scrappy Days: The Birth of Scrappy-Doo and What I Had to Do with It". Newsfromme.com. Retrieved 2013-09-02.
  4. ^ John Latchem, "Scooby-Doo Still Going Strong on DVD"; Home Media Magazine, Oct. 20, 2007
  5. ^ /http://www.theshiznit.co.uk/feature/top-10-most-annoying-movie-kids.php Top 10 Most Annoying Movie Kids
  6. ^ http://www.tvbabble.com/cousin-oliver/
  7. ^ http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TheScrappy/
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