Tuesday, May 31, 2011

Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated Episode 18 Review

Well, it's Tuesday Night yet again, and time for another new episode of Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated. Tonight's episode is called "The Dragon's Secret" and *whispering* I've already seen it once tonight because I now have DirecTV :)

Yep, I already know what happened in tonight's episode of SDMI, but I preferred to wait until the show airs on the west coast as usual to do my blog and review of the show. It sounds like I might be leaving the house to run some errands, so tonight's blog may be delayed, but I will certainly try and do the blog as I originally planned to, and that's at the time it airs on the west coast.

So far in Canada, episode 24 has aired, which leaves two episodes left of Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. this season. Unfortuntely because of Cartoon Network's long, long break between new episodes, the final episode will not air until July 26th, while in two weeks the final episode is set to air in Canada.

Let's see where to begin(as I was not able to see the west coast airing, this will be a little different then usual blogs).

First, we had a junk shop owner that looked a little like Donny Osmond(seriously he did).

We had the gang welcoming a new exchange student named Mi-Lee(we'll hear more about her later).

Apparently Mi-Lee has a bit of a, shall we say crush on Shaggy; which Velma is none too pleased about of course.

Of course considering how Velma had treated Shaggy when they were together, who could blame Shaggy for turning his attention to Mi-Lee. I can certainly understand why he would do something like that.

Speaking of Velma and Shaggy, we had a bit of a dinner party hosted by the Blakes at their home to start this episode. And of course, they are non too pleased with one Fred Jones, who had previously booby trapped Daphne's(and the rest of the gang's homes as well).

And what's a dinner party in a TV show without a guest that wasn't on the guest list? Pretty boring of course; in this case, we have a mysterious figure known as the White Wizard, who apparently wants something called the Dragon's Heart(which we'll get to later).

Throughout the course of the episode the Dragon's Heart is going to be a very important part of the show, not to mention there is a second wizard involved with trying to get the Dragon's Heart, a red one in this case.

Apparently this dragon's heart, whatever it is, is the reason why the two wizards decided to have an epic, unbelivable battle in the streets of Crystal Cove.

Besides the two wizards, there is a diplomat named Mr. Wang, who has come to Crystal Cove from China to talk to the city's mayor; and guess who that is?

As we've seen before, Crystal Cove has a Chinatown, and a coffee house and tea house. And yes, because its 2011, the coffee house is also an Internet Cafe, not that there's any problem with that.

Speaking of which, since when do coffeehouses serve Bacon Lattes and Szechuan Pork Ice Cream Sandwiches? That's about as bad as Werewolf Snacks, Fried Moonbeams and Vampire Snacks(bonus points if you can recognize those refrences).

After the Blakes dinner party, apparently after the whole traps thing, Daphne had a bit of a moment where she channeled her parents. But Daphne managed to forget that, for a while.

Now to the unmasking of the villain: the White Wizard was.... Mr. Wang, the Diplomat. He of course wanted 4 rings which when attatched to a statue called the Jade Dragon which is a ruby.

But the red wizard, who was Mr. Chen, the owner of the coffee house managed along with the gang to stop him before he could finish his plans.

But there was a huge suprise for the gang, and for Shaggy to come. That surprise being that the person who actually was after the Dragon's Heart was.... Mi-Lee!

Yep, the exchange student who had a crush on Shaggy. Apparently all that stuff about her liking Shaggy was not relaly truthful and she just used him and the gang to find the ruby for her(gee, why does that sound familar?).

But after an exciting final scene, or couple of ones involving Shaggy confronting Mi-Lee who revealed all of what she was trying to do, the gang was able to capture her, and recover the Ruby.

Too bad though, I think Mi-Lee was a nice person, and definitely produced some jealousy in Velma. Especially Shaggy and Mi-Lee sharing ice cream, while Velma tells Scooby: "I Feel you Dog".

Overall, it was a pretty good episode, and while Velma still has some issues with Shaggy, its apparent that she doesn't want him to get hurt. And it also appears that Velma and Scooby Doo are getting to be friends again; as for my rating, I would say 7.5 out of 10.

Good Fred/Daphne development, a new albeit temporary love interest for Shaggy, and some jealousy from Velma. Plus another appearance from Hot Dog Water(Linda Cardinelli) and another appearance from Daphne's parent; no movement on the Mr. E. storyline like last week though.

But there's still plenty of time left in the season, and plenty of clues left in the mystery of Crystal Cove. Be back next week when i'll have another live blog, and another new episode of SDMI; a quick preview of next week though: looks like Vincent Van Ghoul will make another appearance :) See you next time

8 comments:

Sagg said...

Sorry, Nickle, but I'm amazed you figured Velma was jealous of Mi-Lee. I never saw that. I figured Velma would warn Mi-Lee of Shaggy having dog issues, and of her possibly being second fiddle (like Velma was), and that would not indicate jealousy. Otherwise, if anything, Velma would not say anything to Mi-Lee about Scooby. It didn't matter, since Mi-Lee never understood the "dog issues" thing (nor really cared).

Scoobyfan1 said...

@Sagg, well, like i said, I wasn't able to watch the episode the second time because I was running errands with my folks, but I did watch it the first time.

I don't think Velma would go right out and say she was jealous, but I think it was subconciously above anything else.

Velma spent parts of the episode talking to Mi-Lee about Shaggy having "Dog Issues" and everything else you mentioned, but as you said Mi-Lee didn't seem to care.

However, Velma in her own way was trying to warn Mi-Lee(the Dog Issues thing, saying he's too good for her at the end, etc.). I think she subconciously didn't want Mi-Lee to end up like she did, having Scooby spend more time with Shaggy then with a girl.

Although I found it very suspicious that while Scooby didn't seem to like Mi-Lee and Shaggy hanging out(see the two of them sharing ice cream and Shaggy wanting to sit next to her as opposed to Scooby Doo), he then ended up ENCOURAGING him to ask Mi-Lee out on a date(sorry about the all caps).

Scooby definitely deserves a demerit in my book for that. He had issues with Velma, but not with Mi-Lee? It begs the important question: does Scooby want Shaggy to have a girlfriend or not?

I think he does, but Scooby clearly wants to control Shaggy and wants him to date whoever Scooby wants him to date. This is not what Shaggy wants at all(which you can clearly tell) and I think he needs to set Scooby straight once and for all.

Which will hopefully be in the episodes to come.

Sagg said...

We both agree on Scooby wanting Mi-Lee to actually go out with Shaggy, and you definitely have a point about Velma not wanting Mi-Lee to end up like her, which, if Velma were actually jealous, she'd let Mi-Lee find out for herself. Oh, and we both concur about Scooby needing to be set straight. No problem about the caps, btw. :)

Scoobyfan1 said...

@Sagg, cool and thanks. Also, glad you didn't think the all caps were annoying.

hobbyfan said...

I finally got around to watching this on demand.

What surprised me more was the venom in Shaggy's voice when he confronted Mi-Lee. Who knew?

Let's not forget the presence of guest star George Takei as Wang/White Wizard. 20-30 years ago, you'd have had Keye Luke in the same role. In fact, Mr. Luke did guest in a season 2 ep of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? as a point of reference.

Nice to take a break from the main plot for a change, but let's not stray too far from there.

Scoobyfan1 said...

@hobbyfan, absolutely. And I could definitely tell George Takei was the voice of Mr. Wang; I mean if you've either watched old Star Trek episodes or one of the movies, or seen him do the Sharp commercials, you would instantly recognize his voice.

He's like Casey Kasem, someone in Hollywood(movies, TV, etc.) that no matter what you're watching or where you hear the voice, you can instantly identify it.

When you mention the venom in Shaggy's voice, I think it was his Ben Ravencroft moment. Velma at one time had someone who she admired and possibly had a crush on betray her and use her just to find a spell book.

Now Shaggy had someone whom he had a crush on and possibly loved betray him. In this case, Mi-Lee just followed him and the gang around just to find out where the Dragon's Heart was, etc.

It was the exact same thing as what happened with Velma in Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost. I think the exact way Velma felt in that movie, was how Shaggy felt when Mi-Lee revealed her whole plan and what she was up to.

Which leads back to Velma and Shaggy and why I think they'll eventually get back together. Both of them have a lot in common, especially the fact that both of them have had people break their hearts in the past.

Which means sooner rather then later, both of them are going to realize that each of them ended up comforting the other when someone who they liked betrayed them, or left for good(see Velma trying to cheer Shaggy up in Alien Invaders for example, or Shaggy trying to cheer her up whenever something happens with a guy she's dated who turned out to be a creep).

Bottom line is the two of them are going to realize that anybody either of them has dated, or will date will probably leave. In addition, Velma and Shaggy have been friends forever, and I think the two of them are going to finally try and get back together because of what I mentioned.

As for Scooby, he knows both Velma and Shaggy have been dissapointed in love over the years, and eventually he is going to see that the two of them each need each other for comfort in case something like this happens again.

Granted Scooby is a good friend to both of them, but even he knows that he can't stop the two of them as far as friendship and love forever.

Sagg said...

Nickle, I truly hope to see Shaggy and Velma get together again. I'm kind of tired hearing about Fred and Daphne all of the time, and how they're "destined" to be together while Velma (especially) and Shaggy end up being bridesmaids (or grooms). :)

Scoobyfan1 said...

@Sagg: agreed on all points.