For over 50 years, people have loved following the adventures of Mystery Incorporated and their beloved dog: Scooby Doo. This particular group of meddling kids have solved mysteries in various media over the long tenure of the franchise: five live action films, various comic book series/crossovers with DC Comics, 38 animated films and 14 animated television series. 

With hundreds of hours of material, it can be hard to fully appreciate and understand why all of it matters to the entire franchise. As wonderfully depicted in 2002’s live-action Scooby Doo, what makes Mystery Inc. so great is their collective strengths and weaknesses as a whole. 

Please note: Scooby Doo is owned by Warner Brothers. I do not claim ownership of this content, this is just an extensive analysis for fun that I made for my friends.

With such a variety of material to choose from, I have divided and created three separate universes that exist within Scooby Doo lore: the live-action universe [LA], the animated universe [A] and the Scoob! Universe [S] (Disclaimer: These have not been confirmed in the slightest, this is more or less my attempt to connect everything together.) There is no better place to start than with the beginning, so let’s discuss the individual and collective importance that the animated movies and television series contribute to the Scooby Doo Franchise in chronological order.

Let’s go gang. Kris-tery Inc is on the case!

I’ve established a rough timeline for the A universe. The universe theoretically began with A Pup Named Scooby Doo. I consider this the original start because it defines two major things: Coolsville as their collective hometown and establishes that the characters all know each other because they’re friends. 

Years later in What’s New Scooby Doo’s “A Terrifying Round with a Menacing Clown,” there is a flashback to when Velma got her fear of clowns. The most important thing about this flashback is the fact that the art was intentionally used in homage to A Pup Named Scooby Doo. While the art reference does pay homage to a previous series, it also connects these two series. 

Beyond the connection in my timeline, A Pup Named Scooby Doo contributes a lot to the franchise. One of the biggest contributions is the fact that it is meant for younger viewers. The show breaks the fourth wall every once in a while, especially when they are reviewing the clues. This is important for younger viewers, as seen by this technique used more prominently in other shows like Blues Clues and Dora the Explorer. 

It gives children a reason to really focus on the clues as best they can and see if they can figure it out with Mystery Inc. Also the episodes are relatively short and get a fun music break for when the monster is inevitably going to chase them. While yes, there is the potential long term benefit of developing a lifetime fan, this particular series helps create a space that parents can share their love of Scooby Doo in a lighthearted manner.

Now, I have failed to find any content that showcases the crew during their awkward preteen years. Logically, it probably happened. Unless it was like a Pokemon evolution and they just suddenly grew up to be approximately 18 years old and driving around solving mysteries. 

This brings us to the next part of the timeline – the classic meddling kids era. Scooby Doo, Where Are You! and The New Scooby Doo Movies fall into one era for the fact that they are pretty similar. 

Where Are You established the basic formula for most episodes: the gang is on the road in the Mystery Machine, somehow stumble into a mystery, get spooked by their collective interaction with the supernatural creature, chase sequence with superb music, an attempt at a trap, the unintentional capture and the unmasking. 

Movies expanded the universe of the franchise, by the involvement of guest stars in the form of relevant celebrities, such as Sonny and Cher, or notable characters, like Batman and Robin. 

Overtime, the formula and characters might have slightly changed but the one thing that remained a constant was the fun music for the chase sequences.

The collective combination of these two series really helped establish the baseline characteristics of each member of Mystery Inc. (I say baseline because with the modernization of the franchise beyond the original incarnations in the late 60s/ early 70s, the characters gain more depth and substance beyond what roles they initially portrayed.) 

Fred was a smart, alpha male type. He was the de facto leader who would take the lead with his constant divide and conquer mentality to find clues as well as his occasionally successful traps for the monster. Daphne was the pretty damsel in distress. She was notoriously danger-prone and getting captured for some reason.  Velma was the nerd. She was just as smart as Fred, approaching mysteries with a logical and analytical approach.  Shaggy and Scooby were comic relief cowards. Shaggy only had hunger and absolute fear of all supernatural things as his motivations while Scooby shared that massive appetite, he would occasionally have small bouts of heroism and save the gang by taking on the monsters.

The original series cannot be understated for their value to the franchise. They are original source material that everything else would be built upon. Just like in life, the future of Mystery Inc. would be full of growth and changes to the franchise.

Some changes to the formula were tested with The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, aka the pre-solo era. Fred and Velma are unaccounted for during this particular series, pushing Daphne into more of a leader role for the smaller group. This helped build towards a future Daphne Blake who wasn’t just a damsel, but instead strong and smart in ways that were different than Fred and Velma’s intelligence. (NOTE: This is based on my understanding of the series and does not include any reference to the 2019 Scooby Doo and the Curse of the 13th Ghost since I haven’t watched it yet.)

The biggest difference in this era was that the group was dealing with actual supernatural forces and not just some dude in a mask seeking some vague real estate gain. While Shaggy and Scooby were not the biggest fans of the existence of the supernatural, Daphne seemed to take it in stride. The possibility that there are more supernatural experiences seemed to really have an effect on her in the long run. 

Some undescribed catalyst led to the crew going their separate ways for approximately a year, resulting in the (relatively) solo era. This would track for being around their mid 20s, when it seems that many young people collectively panic about their life choices and their careers and try something new. Also the fact that all the monsters they had encountered had mostly been just someone in a mask makes sense for why they got bored of these mysteries. 

Fred and Daphne have teamed up for Daphne’s show Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake; Velma is running her own bookshop called Dinkley’s Mystery Book Shoppe; Shaggy and Scooby seem to be bouncing from job to job.

How does the crew fair individually? While they seem to be persuing their own interests, they don’t seem as happy as they were. Velma seems to miss the idea of solving mysteries herself rather than just selling and reserving books for customers. Scooby and Shaggy seem to miss being with the crew after the inconsistency of failed jobs. Daphne and Fred seemed to be having the most success out of the entire crew. Their investigative show was filmed by Fred while featuring Daphne as a traveling reporter and even had a syndicated run. Despite the success and the potential in a new television series where she would hunt a real ghost instead of another hoax, she also missed the group. 

The fact that Daphne aims to find a real ghost shows the connection between The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo and Scooby Doo on Zombie Island. It could be a deeper desire to find the 13th ghost that they failed to find in the series or it could be the fact that she believed that one encounter with the supernatural must mean that there are more supernatural experiences out there in the world. 

And Jinkies y’all, did they find a supernatural experience in Zombie Island. Perhaps the group’s guard was down due to the happiness at their reunion combined with their (excluding Scooby and Shaggy) disappointment at a lack of a real monster, but nothing really could have prepared them for the scale of the mystery they would encounter at Moonscar Island. The monsters were very real and the mystery was more intense with zombies, cat creatures and a very real curse. 

This was a huge catalyst for the later future of Scooby Doo. The group did not show any signs of breaking up in the last few minutes of the movie. If anything, it seemed to revitalize Fred, Velma and Daphne’s curious nature and ignited it with a burning desire to see yet another supernatural monster themselves. While not necessarily on board with real monsters, Shaggy and Scooby probably preferred the unstable stability of their adventures with Mystery Inc. 

With a new perspective towards mysteries, the crew got back together for a whole new slew of adventures. But from this point forward, the portrayals of the characters were different than their original incarnations: Fred was still the leader, but occasionally misguided in his intentions/actions just like in A Pup Named Scooby Doo; Velma was not the apathetic nerd we originally saw, she had more passion and development through the years; Daphne continued to be an active investigator alongside Fred and Velma; Shaggy also gained some development, showing some interests beyond just looking for an amazing meal; Scooby was more involved in the cases, being a little bit more communicative and protective of the gang and their new friends.

Theoretically, all the animated movies released from 1999 to 2019 all occur randomly during the events of What’s New, Scooby Doo based on the usage of improved characteristics. I do believe that the events of the movies would happen every so often, but at least the events of Scooby Doo and the Cyber Chase happened early on because the final level in the game they get stuck in features monsters from the original series as well as their old outfits. 

One thing that can be learned from the Scooby Doo! and the Witch’s Ghost is the possibility that anytime the events of a movie occur, they are not actively looking for a mystery to solve. Sometimes misleading figures like Ben Ravencroft trick them into solving things for a nefarious purpose. Other times, it’s by absolute chance that they’re at the right place at the right time, just like in Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders. 

S0 – what does it all mean? What mystery have I solved?

The mystery of why the hell are they doing this. What on earth are a bunch of teenagers doing by going all around the world trying to solve mysteries for? As Velma remarked in Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed “Mystery is my mistress. I must heed her sweet call.” Translation? They just really love mysteries and being with their friends. 

No one asked them to solve mysteries at any point and I don’t think anyone’s really asking them to stop any time soon. (UNLESS we’re talking about the existence of Scrappy and that is a whole other can of worms for another day.)

The adventures in the movies really keep them going in why they want to keep solving mysteries. It’s just like playing the lottery, you keep playing because of the chance that you might hit the jackpot. So for all the petty crimes they solve, every once in a while they get reminded that the world is full of many more mysteries that are beyond explanation, like aliens, curses, witches, etc. I can also imagine that the intensity of some of these situations make their usual mysteries a nice relief. 

Besides, at the end of the day, who wouldn’t want to spend all their time with their closest friends going on adventures? That answer is definitely no mystery to me.