The hilarious but slightly reverent adult-animated prequel series "Velma" might not please "Scooby-Doo" purists, if such people exist.
There's no scary Great Dane in sight, as this HBO Max series is an origin story set in high school, and the most compelling adventures are emotional. But readers of "Scooby" fanfiction (who surely exist) will rejoice, as the series treats the three human members of super-detective Velma Dinkley's (voiced by Mindy Kaling) Scooby gang as potential love interests.
Creator: Charlie Grandy
Stars: Mindy Kaling, Glenn Howerton, Sam Richardson
However, the show's ideal audience might be those of us who watched Hanna-Barbera's original "Scooby" cartoon series as kids in the 1970s. Nostalgia goes a long way, especially when "Velma" keeps the overwhelmingly goofy tone from its predecessor. But the new series, produced by Kaling and developed by frequent collaborator Charlie Grandy, goes further, delivering on the progressive promise of '70s cartoon wonder threads and stoner vibe.
The main character of this new show is South Asian, and his Shaggy (Sam Richardson), who still goes by his birth name Norville, is black and a band geek like Velma, his romantic ideal. In this version, the popular teenager Daphne (Constance Wu) is Asian and has two mothers. Fred (Glenn Howerton), a rich white boy, sexist goofball, evolves, at least for a second, after Velma introduces him to feminist literature.
Comments about patriarchy and white privilege (Fred's family business, Jones' Gentlemen's Accessories, which wears ascots, uses the catchphrase "What are you, poor thing?") blend seamlessly with playful one-liners about cardigans. of therapists and healing crystals. A basic but hilarious visual gag has Velma complaining that Norville didn't give her a ride home from Daphne's, before revealing that Velma lives next door to Daphne.
Much of the show's humor derives from Kaling's signature mix of the title character, familiar from "The Mindy Project," Netflix's "Never Have I Ever," and HBO Max's "The Sex Lives of College Girls," if equally modest and self-sufficient. sure.
Often described as nerdy or chubby, Velma notes that she is generally more desired as a tug-of-war anchor. However, she also knows that she is the smartest person in the room and is not particularly surprised to become a figure of romantic fascination to both Fred and Daphne. (The show takes a slower approach to Norville's romantic feelings, which Velma pointedly ignores.)
The dialogue can be spicy for a show about teens, but the animation and the 40-year-old characters voicing the roles help mitigate the creepiness factor. Also, we have seen two seasons of “Euphoria”. But most of the live action on this show is pretty chaste, including a lovely scene depicting a first kiss.
When a serial killer targets the most popular girls in school, Velma tries to spring into action to solve crimes. But terrifying hallucinations come over her every time she mentions "mystery," a psychological offshoot of Velma's mother, who wrote bad mystery books and disappeared two years earlier.
Neglected by her workaholic father and her influential would-be girlfriend (Russell Peters and Melissa Fumero, both sublimely shallow), Velma relies on Norville for her emotional support. You understand why she wants him close to her, as Richardson gives Norville that nice-guy warmth.
Velma's most strained relationship is with her former best friend Daphne, the adopted daughter of two police officers (the perfect Wanda Sykes and Jane Lynch) with her own abandonment issues tied to her birth parents. Wu lacks the practiced comedy air of the larger cast, which also includes comediennes Nicole Byer and Fortune Feimster. But this particular lack of polish is welcome, as Daphne emerges as the show's most emotionally authentic character.
Ridiculous humor and abandonment issues are an awkward mix, but Velma and Daphne at least try to work through their issues, in fits and starts, during the eight episodes available for review.
The action scenes are relatively few in number and tend to lack any real urgency. But a sequence involving a pickup truck and shaky terrain provides some thrills. Although the animated backgrounds are sharper and more textured, the visuals here seem less meant to captivate 2023 audiences than to evoke '70s cartoons, which they do quite skillfully.
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