Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?
Bat-Mite: “Over the years, Batman has worked side-by-side the world’s greatest detectives. Sherlock Holmes, The Elongated Man, and of course the most famous sleuth of modern times. That brilliant, brave, crime-solving canine: Scooby-Doo.”
Batman: the Brave and the Bold, “Bat-Mite Presents: Batman’s Strangest Cases” (Season 2, Episode 25)
Scooby-Doo is one of pop culture’s most prolific detectives. This cowardly canine and his friends have spent over 50 years traveling the world to solve mysteries and unmask monsters. Along the way, he’s worked with scores of heroes, celebrities, musicians, and athletes. So who were the top 10 Scooby-Doo Crossovers? Let’s find out.
Scene Select
#10 The Harlem Globetrotters
Shaggy: “The statues!”
The New Scooby Doo Movies “The Mystery of Haunted Island” (Season 2, Episode 1)
Curly: “What about them?”
Shaggy: “They grabbed us!”
Gip: “Yeah, they grabbed us too. Cool, aren’t they?”
One or two celebrity guest stars can be useful, but sometimes Scooby needs an entire team to back him up. Who better than The Harlem Globetrotters, a comedic basketball team who perform flashy tricks and zany antics mid-match.
Hanna-Barbera commissioned a cartoon of the team in 1971, starring animated versions of “Meadowlark” Lemon, “Curly” Neal, “Geese” Ausbie, “Gip” Gipson, Bobby Joe Mason, and Pablo Robertson. The Harlem Globetrotters also made history as the first cartoon with a predominantly African-American cast.
The Globetrotters met Scooby-Doo and his friends in The New Scooby-Doo Movies. They appeared in three episodes, each time helping catch a criminal posing as a monster. Scooby would also take part in one of their games at the end of each crossover, I guess because Air Bud was busy.
#9 The Addams Family
[Wednesday Addams has disappeared]
The New Scooby Doo Movies “Wednesday is Missing” (Season 1, Episode 3)
Fred: “Hold on, Shaggy. We can’t run out like this.”
Daphne: “Don’t you want to see Wednesday again?”
Shaggy: “You bet! And I want to live to see Thursday, Friday, and Saturday too!”
Most Scooby-Doo crossovers are bombastic, but this one was neat, sweet, and just a tad petite.
Older readers may remember The Addams Family as a sitcom starring the titular supernatural family. They were creepy, kooky, mysterious, and spooky, but ultimately harmless. Hanna-Barbera made a cartoon adaptation of The Addams Family and had them crossover with Scooby-Doo for a backdoor pilot.
The Mystery Machine broke down outside of the Addams Family mansion. When Scooby and the gang first meet them, Fred even comments that he had previously seen them on TV. Gomez and Morticia depart for a second honeymoon and leave Mystery Inc. in charge of their children, despite the older Addams’ still being there. Parents of the year, right there. Then youngest child Wednesday disappears, and Scooby and the gang must track her down.
#8 Johnny Bravo
Velma: [searching the floor] “My glasses! I can’t see without my glasses!”
Johnny Bravo “Bravo Dooby Doo” (Season 1, Episode 3)
Johnny: [also searching] “My glasses! I can’t be seen without my glasses!”
Velma: [puts on his sunglasses] “Jinkies! Everything’s dark! I’ve gone blind!”
Johnny: [swaps their glasses] “I’m only gonna say this once. Don’t. Touch. The Glasses.”
What? You didn’t think every Scooby-Doo crossover took place in his shows, did you?
Johnny Bravo was a cartoon sitcom about a dimwitted would-be ladies man who constantly hit on attractive women before getting the crap kicked out of him for harassment. Johnny met Scooby and the gang when his car broke down and they offered him a ride to his aunt’s house.
Johnny’s aunt was missing when they arrived, and a ghost gardener was running rampant. The gang investigated while Johnny kept trying to score with Daphne. They also made several jokes about running gags from Scooby-Doo like the musical chase scenes and Velma losing her glasses.
#7 Kiss
Demon: “Activate the Dynasty Star Portal!”
Scooby Doo and Kiss: Rock and Roll Mystery
Velma: “You mean the Ferris wheel?”
Catman: “It’s actually a portal to the Cosmic Realm of Kissteria.”
Velma: “Of course it is.”
Demon: “Does she have to come?”
Starchild: “Does your eye see the future?”
Demon: [conjures a guitar] “Then let’s rip this open!”
We’ve got a weird one here. I know this Scooby-Doo crossover will sound like a fever dream, but it was real.
Scooby and the gang go to a Kiss concert at a theme park based on the band. A witch trying to steal a black diamond Kiss owns attacks the concert. Mystery Inc. agrees to help, thinking it’s just a normal mystery, but then things get weird.
It turns out that the members of Kiss are descendants of superheroes from another universe. They have superpowers and change into their stage personas by ripping off the transformation sequence from Sailor Moon. The witch has real magic and is attempting to unleash a monster called The Destroyer, who looks like M.O.D.O.K. mixed with Darkseid. To top it off, Scooby and the gang battle The Destroyer with a guitar-shaped airship while Kiss provides musical accompaniment.
What were they smoking, and where can I get some?
#6 The WWE
[John Cena has just saved the gang]
Scooby-Doo Wrestlemania Mystery
Shaggy: “That was amazing!”
Scooby: “Cena-mazing!”
Velma: “How did you know where to find us?”
Cena: “Daphne texted me.”
After the superpowered Kiss team-up, this Scooby Doo crossover seems far more sane.
Scooby and the gang go to “WWE City” to watch the championship match of Wrestlemania. Unfortunately, several wrestlers have been attacked by the Ghost Bear, putting the event at risk. Scooby and Shaggy are also framed for stealing the championship belt. They use a legal loophole and agree to wrestle WWE superstar Kane to prove their innocence. I’m pretty sure that counts as animal abuse on the WWE’s part.
When not training with Diva AJ Lee to prepare for the match, Scooby and Shaggy work with John Cena to track down the Ghost Bear. At one point, Cena saves the gang by jumping onto a giant rolling boulder and pushing it backwards off a mountain. Wait… Cena gained superpowers by hanging out with Scooby and so did Kiss and Shaggy. Do we need to add Scooby-Doo to our list of the Top 5 Superhero Power Sources?
The WWE appeared in a sequel, where Scooby and the Gang teamed up with The Undertaker to catch a demon called Inferno. Strangely, this movie had the wrestlers participating in a car race instead of, y’know, wrestling.
#5 Celebrities
Dick Van Dyke: “I’m not a coward. Why, I don’t even know the meaning of the word!”
The New Scooby-Doo Movies “The Haunted Carnival” (Season 2, Episode 8)
Shaggy: “Sit down, I’ll tell you.”
Scooby and the gang often need help solving mysteries. Luckily, they seem to be stalked by a parade of reasonably-priced celebrity guest stars.
The celebrity cavalcade was started by The New Scooby-Doo Movies, where the gang was constantly coming across famous people who needed help solving a mystery. They could swap quips with Jonathan Winters, hunt a yeti with Laurel and Hardy, and still have time to help “Mama” Cass Eliot investigate a haunted candy factory.
The concept was recently brought back for Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?, now featuring more contemporary celebs. They might investigate a prison with Morgan Freeman, team-up with Axl Rose to stop mud monsters, or join Bill Nye on a mission to the International Space Station to save Neil DeGrasse Tyson. They even got Sandy Duncan to star in a remake of her episode from The New Scooby Doo Movies.
#4 Scooby’s Laff-A-Lympics
Announcer: “And here’s Scooby Doo, in a remarkable show of speed and agility. He’s a real hot dogger.”
Laff-a-Lympics “Switzerland and Japan” (Season 1, Episode 1)
Scooby: [looks at the screen] “Rot Rogs!?”
Not all Scooby-Doo crossovers involve solving mysteries. Sometimes he participates in The Olympics as well.
The Laff-A-Lympics was a crossover between Hanna-Barbera’s biggest properties that spoofed both the Olympics and Battle of the Network Stars. Scooby was the captain of the Scooby Doobies, the more modern cartoons. His team was primarily detectives and superheroes, such as Blue Falcon, Hong Kong Phooey, and Captain Caveman.
Scooby’s main competitors were the Yogi Yahooeys, led by Yogi Bear and representing older characters. The Yahooeys also included Huckleberry Hound, Quick Draw McGraw, and Grape Ape. The final team was the Really Rottens, a group of original villains led by Muttley from The Wacky Races.
#3 Multiversus
Bugs Bunny: “Ehhh, what’s up, Doc?” [Leans on Arya Stark’s shoulder and reaches into his pocket]
Multiversus (Trailer)
Batman: “Look out!” [hurls a Batarang at Bugs that Arya blocks]
Bugs: “Hey!”[throws a pie]
Shaggy: [catches the pie and adds it to his sandwich] Whoa! [Arya cuts it in half] Zoinks! Like, what’d I do to you?! [activates Ultra Instinct] AAAARGH!“
Cartoons, anime, video games and memes are the source of our next Scooby-Doo crossover, and it is a strange one. Allow us to set the stage.
In 2011, a Direct-to-DVD movie called Scooby Doo: Legend of the Phantosaur was released. Shaggy was hypnotized into becoming brave and took down a bar full of bikers without getting a scratch. A fun scene, but nothing special. Years later, an edited version of the fight was posted on YouTube with slow motion, blur effects, and a J-pop song added to make it look like Shaggy had gained the Ultra Instinct technique from Dragon Ball Super.
The edited clip was incredibly popular and spawned a meme about Ultra Instinct Shaggy, supposedly one of the strongest characters in fiction. Fans made a semi-serious petition to get UI Shaggy added to Warner Bros’ Mortal Kombat series, which was shot down by creator Ed Boon.
In 2021, Warner Bros included a wink to the meme in the direct-to-DVD movie Mortal Kombat: Battle of the Realms. A short scene plays over the WB logo of the undead ninja Scorpion practicing several attacks. Shaggy appears, glowing with magical energy and using Scorpion’s catchphrase as he drags him off screen. Shaggy glares at the screen as it fades to white.
A year or two later, Warner Bros released a game called Multiversus where several WB characters fight. Shaggy was given a facsimile of Ultra Instinct, which the games explains by saying he ate magic gems that he thought were candy. Shaggy and Velma are able to fight dozens of characters, including Shaq, The Tazmanian Devil, The Iron Giant, and many more.
#2 Scoobynatural
[ a pair of crooks have been eviscerated by a ghost]
Supernatural “Scoobynatural” (Season 13, Episode 16)
Dean: “Dude, this is not the way things went down in the episode. I remember everything that happened in Scooby-Doo, and no one ever got stabbed in the back and ended up in a pool of their own blood.”
Sam: “Yeah. Yeah, okay. So, if that guy can die for real in this cartoon, that means we can, too.”
Dean: “It doesn’t matter if we die. Scooby-Doo could die! And that’s not happening, not on my watch. I’d take a bullet for that dog.”
Scooby-Doo crossovers are usually light-hearted. The monsters are all fake and no one ever gets hurt. When the gang crosses over into a much darker series, things get Supernatural.
Supernatural was a long-running series about brothers Sam and Dean Winchester hunting monsters. You might remember them from our list of the Top 6 Monster Hunters. In the crossover Scoobynatural, they are sucked into an episode of Scooby Doo by a cursed TV. Sam is unamused and tries to escape while Dean is over the moon hanging out with his childhood heroes.
The episode goes off the rails when the villains are murdered by a real ghost. Sam and Dean realize that Scooby and the gang can be killed by the ghost and try to prove that it is real. Luckily, their angelic ally Castiel shows up with an arsenal of weapons to help stop the ghost. But will the trio be enough to save Mystery Inc. and escape the TV world?
#1 DC Comics
Poison Ivy: “You weren’t planning to eat that salad, were you?”
Scooby-Doo & Batman: The Brave and The Bold
Harley Quinn: “Ivy gets real upset when people ain’t nice to plants.”
Shaggy: [grabs the salad] “This? Uh, garnish! Purely decorative. we’ll put it back for the next evil mastermind to enjoy. [Harley Quinn pulls out an oversized mallet] “Zoinks! Like man, where’d that come from?!”
Harley: “Beats me. Beats you too!”
The number one Scooby-Doo crossover is his most frequent collaborator, DC Comics.
Batman and Robin appeared in The New Scooby Doo Movies twice, probably because Casey Kasem also voiced Robin in Super Friends. The Dynamic Duo were Scooby’s most popular guests. The Scooby Gang also appeared in a segment of Batman: The Brave and The Bold, leading to a team-up movie between the two series.
DC published a series called Scooby-Doo Team-Up, where Scooby and the gang worked with superheroes. They might fight alongside the Teen Titans, Supergirl, or Black Lightning, among others. The gang also got several one-off power ups during the stories. Shaggy stole Sinestro’s Yellow Ring of Fear, Velma wielded the powers of Jinkies against Shazam, and Scooby even channeled The Spectre, God’s Angel of Vengeance. That’s a weird sentence, even with context.
The DC Universe is slowly bleeding into the Scooby Doo franchise. Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo featured Batman villain The Scarecrow with no Dark Knight in sight. The gang took him down with help from Elvira and Bill Nye, only to team-up with The Scarecrow to fight an army of mutated Jack-o’-Lanterns. That’s still not as strange as the Kiss crossover, but not far off either.
What is your favorite Scooby Doo crossover? Is there one better than these? Tell us in the comments.
Jared Bounacos has written for Movie Rewind since 2016.
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