Dynomutt Dog Wonder (1976–1977)
8/10
Scooby-Doo Meets Batman In A Short-Lived, Yet Well-Remembered Series
29 July 2022
In the town of Big City, Radley Crown (voiced by the late Gary Owens) is a millionaire socialite and art dealer, however, he lives a secret double life, as when the Falcon Flash is heard, Radley suits up to become Big City's superhero, the Blue Falcon. However, the real star of the show is Dynomutt (voiced by Frank Welker), Radley's pet dog who is also mechanical and able to use gadgets, serves as his sidekick, Dog Wonder. However, unlike Robin, Dynomutt / Dog Wonder is prone to malfunction, as it seems he was not built correctly (as the show never gave us an origin to Dynomutt, and how he and Blue Falcon became a duo, and before you ask, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated is an alternate universe), which leads to some hilarious moments when the duo tries to save Big City from criminals that serve as the villain of the day.

Basically, this series is Scooby-Doo mixed with Batman. The episodes originally aired as part of the Scooby-Doo/Dynomutt Hour, where it was packaged alongside The Scooby-Doo Show, as well as Scooby's All-Star Laff-A-Lympics, before the episode, which were two-parters in the vein of the 1960's Batman series, were combined into full episodes when the episodes were used for a show. Basically, Dynomutt is the comic relief of the show while Blue Falcon serves as the straight man of the duo (usually getting angry when Dynomutt captures him in one of his gadgets alongside the villains). The villain roster serves as a villain-of-the-day variant of Scooby-Doo's monster of the day, with faces like Lowbrow, a caveman-like criminal, The Queen Hornet, a bee-themed supervillain, and The Red Vulture, who can be seen as the evil counterpart of the Blue Falcon. Basically, all but one episode is focused on one villain (the one episode, The Injustice League of America, is the only episode allowing villains from past episode to return and team up), and three episodes actually have our heroes teaming up with Scooby and the gang. The show only lasted twenty episodes, but the legacy of Blue Falcon and Dog Wonder has lived on, as the duo would make guest appearances in other cartoons, and even have a major role in Scoob (although the Blue Falcon mantle in that film would be passed to Radley's son), and it was even partially inspired the creation of classic 1980' cartoon Inspector Gadget.
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