'Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo' "A Fright at the Opera"/"The Invasion of the Scooby Snatchers"/"Scooby and the Bandit" (1981)
Opening thoughts: On the whole, 'Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo' is one of the weakest of the Scooby Doo shows. It did though have a very watchable first season, with the best episodes actually being very good and only one episode being below average. After the first season, the show very quickly went downhill and never really got better despite some watchable shorts here and there. Shaggy and Scooby were always the most interesting characters and didn't mind that they were main protagonists, did mind though that the other protagonist is one of the main reasons as to why Season 2 onward did not work.
This is an above average triple bill and one of the better faring ones for 'Scooby Doo and Scrappy Doo'. It boasts one of the show's best shorts, which despite having its faults is the short that stopped the triple bill from being average at best. One short was also decent, though uneven but good enough to make the triple bill worth watching. What stops this from being better than it was was that it also had one of the show's worst shorts, that was really lacking in most areas with little redeeming.
"A Fright at the Opera" is the best of the three shorts and is one of the show's best. It isn't perfect, the recycled "it's for you" joke is a little repetitive and leaving the truth about the phantom inconclusive made the short feel very incomplete. The animation mostly is pretty flat, which was true in all three shorts. Did love the fun, atmospheric setting however and the chemistry between the gang. Shaggy and Scooby are good fun and at least the short doesn't suffer from Scrappy overkill as tends to be the case. It is one of the funniest shorts of the show, like the last scene with the villains and the phantom is one of the show's best designed characters and is creepy.
Worth seeing too is "The Invasion of the Scooby Snatchers". Which was very cute and amusing, with the very funny clones stealing the show and the music and voice acting are fine. As are Shaggy, Scooby and their chemistry. Some serious suspension of disbelief is needed however, with it being so obvious that the clones weren't the real people with the lighter colour and antennas yet nobody could see that. The short did also feel too short and rushed.
"Scooby and the Bandit" didn't work at all, saved only by the music and voice acting (both well done in all three shorts). On top of being too short and rushed feeling too, betrayed especially in the animation and how everything is wrapped up in such a hurry, it felt incredibly tired and repetitive. There is nothing funny or original, can't tell you how truly annoying the "shut up Wilbur" thing got, which made it come over as really bland. Scrappy is overused and annoying and Scooby and Shaggy don't have enough to do, the villains have no distinction to them (pretty much standard bullies) and are obnoxious.
Closing thoughts: Overall, one quite good short, one decent but uneven one and one very bad one, which makes this triple bill one of the better faring ones of the show (where most of them don't fare that well).
6/10.
