FoTw: SDMI - Battle of the Secret Fright Hound
Yeah, you read that right, and no, there is no episode actually called that. You see, the next few episodes couldn't produce enough material to make separate posts for them - especially when compared to the college episode - but I felt like giving you all a gift with an extra-long review covering the designs and stories of the next three episodes. Battle of the Humungonauts, Howl of the Fright Hound, and The Secret Serum. Let's call this the Break-up trilogy.
In these episodes Shelgma finally breaks up and created the first fracture in the group, leading to the hilariously f*cked up and nonsensical plot point of Shaggy picking his dog over a human girl woman.
This sounds like a progressive plot point for a Family Guy episode.
Let's get into this.
Backstory (Part 1): A giant ape-man interrupts the sheriff and mayor's (Fred's Dad) date at a tiki bar by destroying the locale, a scathing critique of Polynesian Appropriation in western media. This draws the gang's attention, which is necessary as Velma has reached her breaking point when it comes to Shaggy's inability to commit. She makes an ultimatum, alongside with Scooby, that Shaggy needs to pick one of them already. Fun fact, this is the first episode where the gang officially calls themselves Mystery Incorporated in the story.
Fred attempts to mend the cracking group dynamic by getting everyone uniforms, much to the group's embarrassment. As the group investigates, it's soon revealed that there are two Humongonauts - one red and another green.
As the Humongonauts continue to wreck different buildings in Crystal Cove, the gang first suspect an escaped Ace Attorney character named Rusty Gnales as the man in the mask. The gang hits there first snag however when the next Humongonaut attack targets Rusty.
With help from Mr. E, Velma puts together how to draw both Humongonauts to the same location. Once the two encounter each other, they duke it out before finally landing into a trap.
First Reveal: The culprits are first seen on-screen when they are unmasked, but both characters were revealed previously through their advertisements! A really cool way to give the answer away without making it too obvious. The Humogonauts turn out to be Max and Jax Minner, twin brothers who were both circus strongmen before entering the Insurance business. They were rivals since one of them transferred to a rival circus, the Humongonaut costumes actually being leftovers from one of their previous acts.
As rivals, they targeted buildings insured by the other to ruin their sibling's business - and Velma got them together by insuring an abandoned dock under both companies.
Design(s): The Humongonauts are two giant humanoid creatures believed by the sheriff to be aliens. Obviously based on the hokey costumes of B-Movie Monsters, the Humongonauts share the same design but with different colors. Despite their large size, they are rather squat proportion-wise, with elephant-like furless legs and gorilla arms. Their faces are orc-like, with wavy boyband member hair and goblin ears.
Interestingly, their biceps and abdomens are hairless like their face, but they also have small scale-like details. Speaking of their faces, there are markings going around their temples and over their eyes that almost resembles a domino mask - though they don't meet in the middle over the bridge of their human noses.
Overall, I find them charming and serviceable, but not that interesting in the long run. I love how they look like heels for a local hometown wrestling tournament who are clearly just there to get beat on by the town's golden boy.
Final Score for The Humongonauts:
2/5, not too interesting but fun bad guys of the week.
Backstory (Part 2): While the last episode had Shaggy avoiding the conversation entirely, this one tackles it head on before leading us to the infamous break-up scene. Before we get there, we must first deal with the Terminator homage sharing the love triangle's screentime.
A rabid and powerful dog has begun a series of random attacks, the first of which being the tour bus Velma's mom drives. Its collar gets left behind while escaping, one remarkably similar to Scooby's. With this evidence the Sheriff decides to detain Scooby-Doo in a mental hospital/prison made specifically for intelligent, and very dangerous animals.
One such case being Professor Pericles, the talking German parrot/mascot for the old Mystery Incorporated. Pericles disposes of the guard for a minute to give some esoteric warnings to the gang, right before Mystery Inc checks up on Scoob to reassure him that they are indeed planning on solving the mystery.
Their first suspect, a boy named Jason, is considered since he's a whiz at robotics and has a crush on Velma. However, he proves to have an alibi and kicks the gang out of his house after they accuse him.
The scary dog then targets the gang, and later on Scooby himself, afterwards. The final showdown begins at the Animal Asylum for the Criminally Insane, where the guards go all out on trying to stop the "Fright Hound". A fire then starts, melting away its fur to reveal that it was a robot all along.
The robot dog then chases Scoob and the gang when they escape the asylum, following them into an abandoned factory where a Forklift-certified Scooby tackles his shadow head on. With the help of the dangerous machinery surrounding them, they proceed to brutally wreck the robo-dog until it stops moving.
The gang then spot the true culprit controlling the machine, before snatching them up with a crane. With the mystery solved, Shaggy reveals that he ultimately chooses Scooby-Doo after realizing how important he is to him.
Velma takes this badly.
Also, the bird breaks out of Arkham Asylum.
Second Reveal: The true culprit is actually Mrs. Wyatt, Jason's Mom. It's actually never even made clear why she did it like this, since attacking Velma's mom did no favors for her son's relationship with the gang. She used her experience with Military-Grade Robotics to create the Fright Hound to help protect her son in a weird, slightly incompetent way.
Design(s): The Fright Hound begins as a large dog the same breed as Scooby, with similar features as well. It's eyes and muzzle, however, are more realistic when compared to Scoob. Its eyes glow red, and long fangs jut out of its mouth past its heavy jowls.
It looks even cooler when its false skin melts off, revealing a terminator-like endoskeleton in the shape of a ferocious dog. Oddly enough, it also looks a bit like a giant robot rat. I really love this design, especially its second form, and it can look legitimately frightening in some shots.
Final Score for The Fright Hound:
5/5, it's motives leave a lot to be desired, but you can't say it isn't an awesome freaking design. So cool.
Backstory (Part 4): Our final episode for this review begins at an auction ran by Daphne's Mom, Nan Blake. It's interrupted by a Vampire who proceeds to swoop in and steal a painting that nobody else wanted.
The episode follows the fallout of Shelgma's breakup, Velma still peeved off over getting second place to a dog. This causes the boys and girls to split up momentarily before the Vampire's crime spree draws them back together to the same clues. Daphne and Velma begin to track Nan Blake's movements, as Daphne's mom has begun sneaking out late at night.
With a little forceful help from Mr. E and his assistant, the gang soon realize that the Vampire is actually stealing ingredients for an Eternal Youth Potion found in an old magazine.
Using this knowledge, they eventually capture her before she can acquire the last item on the list - Daphne being convinced that it's her mom as a real vampire.
Right before she can drive a stake into the Vampire's chest, killing her mom regardless of her undead-ness, the Orlokian removes her mask to avoid dying a painfully brutal death at the hands of a Prep.
Third Reveal: See that vampire-looking lady next to Daphne's Mom? Yeah, that's Sheila Altoonian and she's the Vampire. Resentful of Nan's natural beauty, she attempted to create the potion to avoid aging despite its dubious origins.
Yeah, everyone in the fandom agrees this is top 3 weakest motives in the series.
Design(s): I actually really like this design! It's almost like a Comic Book Villain whose a Vampire, like Morbius, and it fits the show much better than glitter boy. She's a pale bald woman, with features reminiscent of Count Orlok - the best one to do it since Big Drac.
She has an interesting costume, consisting of a heavily modified cape and full bodysuit that cuts off at the elbows and knees. Her cleavage is on full display, and her collar, like all good vampires, is popped open way wide. She wears a black choker and her eyes glow purple.
Her cape and suit are actually structured, in-canon, to use the same physics a Flying Squirrel uses to become airborne. Thus, she could fly and swoop around large, enclosed areas like a real vampire could.
Final Score for the Vampire
3.5/5. Not too original or complex, but I love its sleek design and campy appearance - I feel like a Drag Queen could probably elevate this look further though. Otherwise, a Flying Squirrel Countess is hard to dislike even with a bad motive.
