scooby doo

The Scooby-Doo Theory

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Lately there’s been a trend of people trying to come up with the “super” shared universe. People keep trying to connect as many franchises and stories as they can.

As the meme says: Hold my root beer.

If you’re looking to start your own shared universe theory, you can’t go wrong by starting with Scooby-Doo. The mystery solving canine has crossed over with just about everyone; he even showed up in an episode of Supernatural. And with the new Scooby-Doo and Guess Who series there are going to be a lot more crossovers.

Granted most of these crossovers involve Warner Brother properties, such as Batman, but that is why he is the starting point…or nexus. For instance, not only does Batman bring in the whole DC Universe, but Batman did team up with the Ninja Turtles, which starts another branch. Also, the Justice League has crossed over with characters like the Power Rangers (the Turtles have also crossover over the Power Rangers). Finally, DC has crossed paths with Marvel, so you can add all the crossovers Marvel has done–which includes the time Phineas and Ferb helped the Avengers. This is just for Batman; you can see how this tree quickly branches out.

Scooby-Doo has also teamed up with real people, so you can add times that celebrities have shown up in other shows as themselves, like The Simpsons.

I’m sure there are plenty of other connections, but that’s where you come in. Try your luck and see how far you can connect Scooby-Doo to other properties–leave your discoveries in the comments section.

Until the next wormhole…thanks for reading.

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Holy Disney Takeover, Batman!

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I’d just finished watching the IGN video going over some of the new franchises owned by Disney now that they have bought part of Fox. Among listing things like Predator, Aliens, Die Hard, and Avatar (not the Airbender), they said Disney owns the rights to the 1960s Batman with Adam West. I thought, “Now if they could only somehow add Mickey into the show then we could connect the Disney Universe with the DC Universe as a shared universe which would also connect the Marvel Universe because DC has crossed-over with Marvel many times.” But, I then thought of a more feasible approach: Aliens.

Batman and even Superman have fought the alien xenomorphs, so it is possible to link the universes that way. All Disney would need to do is have a xenomorph invasion of some of their new properties. And who wouldn’t want to see John McClane battle a xenomorph or have one chest-burst out of Mickey Mouse. Disney wouldn’t even have to do that big of an invasion. They now own The Simpsons and they’ve had crossovers with X-Files, South Park, Family Guy, and even Rick and Morty–according to a video done by the Nerdist.

The Nerdist video goes on to talk about how many cartoons are all connected, even connecting BoJack Horseman to the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, which the TMNT also connects to Batman via the Batman/TMNT comics. The TMNT also connects to DC through the Injustice 2 game (which also connects it to Hellboy and Mortal Kombat). TMNT also connects to the Power Rangers; the Power Rangers also connects to DC via a JLA/Power Rangers comic. There have also been many Looney Tunes and DC stories as well. Looney Tunes can be connected to the show Tiny Toon Adventures which had appearances by many real-life actors and other Warner Brother properties.

Mortal Kombat also has a connection to Jason Voorhees from Mortal Kombat X, which also connects him to Jason Vs. Freddy, and thus to Freddy Kruger.

Speaking of a real-life connection, videos by The Game Theorists connected many video games to real-life through Mike Tyson and some through Tony Hawk. This got me thinking about further “real world” connections. I thought, “How could you show a connection between a show–or game–and the real world?” One way is the real-life celebrities. So this would connect Scooby-Doo to the real world because he’s met many real-life people, such as the WWE, but he also has connections to Archie and Batman (man, Batman gets around).

Another way to connect the real world is using the same technique that scientists use to find dark matter: look for what isn’t there. This one is a bit of stretch because it basically asks for some faith. I started thinking about the show Captain N, where a teen from the real world is transported into the Nintendo game world. I started thinking, “How would you know for sure this never happened?”

Look at Toy Story, it is supposed to take place in the real world. How do we know that toys don’t come to life when we aren’t around? So, in theory we could add any show or game that takes place in a real world where the general public is unaware of the events of the plot. For example, the Harry Potter series, the general public doesn’t know that magic exists. Who’s to say that there isn’t a Hogwarts? It’s kind of like the discussion about alien life; there’s no proof that they exist but there is no proof they don’t. So as long as Harry Potter doesn’t get on the six o’clock news and say, “I’m a wizard,” it could share a universe with us. For clarity, Cloverfield wouldn’t count because everyone knew about the monster attack; and as far as I know, a monster did not attack New York in our world.

Another way to connect the real world to other worlds is when the characters travel to parallel worlds and they call our world “Earth Prime,” “Keystone Earth,” or “Land Without Magic.” So this could add things like Stephen King’s Dark Tower series.

We could also potentially connect every LEGO game and movie because of The LEGO Movie. The movie connects the LEGO world to the real world when Emmett goes through the portal. The LEGO Dimensions game then connects The LEGO Movie to the other LEGO worlds. Since The LEGO Movie even mentions other toy sets and LEGO Dimensions also mentions other dimensions, we can add connections to all the LEGO toys, like Minecraft (at least the LEGO version). Also, Into the Spider-Verse and TMNT have also said, “every version of Spider-Man and the Turtles are part of a multiverse” LEGO TMNT and LEGO Spider-Man connect to the Marvel Universe and TMNT Universe. LEGO Michelangelo is in The LEGO Movie.

But all of that is just faith and theory…on to the facts and back to my main point. Another Game Theorists’ video connects the Kingdom Heart games to Doom which also connects to Fortnite and many other games, including ones discussed in their videos about a Ubisoft Universe and the Mike Tyson connection. So, the Disney Universe has many connections to video game universes as well as real-life.

The videos also connect Spider-Man to Star Wars and the Star Wars universe is all one universe. This would bring in any (non-fan made) Star Wars book, comic, and show. Spider-Man then connects us back to the DC Universe.

My main point is that if Disney connected their new properties (and it wouldn’t take much since many of the Fox shows they acquired were already connected through shows like The Simpsons) via xenomorphs, they would have connections through many show universes–thanks to Batman and Scooby-Doo–as well as many game universes. Almost every fictional universe could connect back to Disney. There would be one massive shared universe, including our own, with “one mouse to rule them all.” Disney would be the center of the fictional universe AND the real universe! BWA-HAHAHAHA!!!

Well, except for Five Nights At Freddy’s, like the Game Theorists, I couldn’t connect it either. Unless you want to count the Rise of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles episode “War and Pizza.” Donatello upgrades the pizzeria’s mascot, an animatronic bear (cough, cough), and it comes to life and attacks everyone. But…I doubt it because he used science and not the souls of murdered kids. Wait a minute…Donatello wears a purple bandana. Oh my gosh! Donatello is the Purple Guy!!! Hee, hee…LOL.

It’s not like the Turtles have a connection to anything else in the game, for example the infamous Bite of ’87. Wait, didn’t the original animated series came out in 1987?

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Cowards? | Scooby Doo and the Gourmet Ghost

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May contain spoilers.

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I was watching Scooby Doo and the Gourmet Ghost when about 50-60 minutes in Shaggy said something interesting. He was talking to Scooby and said (I’m paraphrasing) that once again, pretending to be cowards landed them the easy assignments. What?! I rewound the video and listened again. I even put on subtitles. Shaggy indeed said “pretending to be cowards.” My mind was blown.

What’s next? You guys don’t really like Scooby Snacks? But me thinking about them not liking Scooby Snacks led me down a dark rabbit hole.

Suddenly, the whole series made more sense. Shaggy and Scooby pretend to be cowards and they get Scooby Snacks; what a hustle. Also, the ghost always coming after Scooby and Shaggy made sense; it’s karma for all their ploys. I also began to wonder if Fred (maybe one of the others) suspects or knows, and this is why Fred always has Scooby and Shaggy be the bait for the ghost traps.

Earlier in the movie, the gang have to cook their own meals. Shaggy and Scooby say they have to leave so that they can help another chef with their class (which in true comical fashion is the truth). Fred, I think, says to them (again paraphrasing), “You two will say anything to get out of work.” Again, makes me think one of them at least suspects that Scooby and Shaggy aren’t cowards.

Although, I don’t know if Scooby is pretending. I don’t remember him agreeing with Shaggy–I was too stunned by Shaggy’s line and the ghost floating by the window. Maybe Scooby isn’t pretending.

At first, I thought Shaggy was just referring to that instance and all the other times they were really scared, but why did he say, “once again.” Logic says they (or at least Shaggy) has done it before. This could mean he’s done it before but only in this movie. He doesn’t say, “like always.”

Now that’s out of the way, let me take off my tinfoil hat.

I really enjoyed the movie. It was a classic Scooby adventure full of humor and fun. But, it made me feel sorry for the gang if they ever do a family tree. They always seem to have some uncle or cousin that invites them somewhere. Just how big are Fred, Daphne, Shaggy, and Velma’s families?

Ugh, I’m doing it again.

Anyway, the movie was great. I highly recommended it to any Scooby-Doo fan.

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