Joey Wetmore, Block E Class
A Clue for Scooby-Doo
By William Hannah and Joeseph Barbera
In the novel, A
Clue for Scooby-Doo, the setting is crucial to the story because it typifies the
stereotype of teens at the time. Although
it appears to have no given time or place, for example the beach is merely
labeled “Rocky Point”, closer examination reveals clues.
I would guess that the time period is the late 1960’s or the early
1970’s based on the style of dress and the eyeglasses that would appear
outdated by today’s standards. The
language used by the characters typifies this time period with statements such
as, “Groovy” and “Far-out”. I
would hypothesize that the location is
The protagonist is Scooby-Doo, but the main characters of
the crime fighting team make you believe they act as one.
They could definitely be labeled as adventurous and inquisitive as they
seek to fight any injustice or mystery that confronts them.
I would consider them all developing characters as they search for clues
that help them learn and overcome the obstacles of the mystery or case.
Their adventures eventually help them to mature as productive members of
our society as they fight crime.
The antagonists are unknown to the protagonists at the
start of the story. All that the
protagonists know is that ships are missing and there is some ghost diver
causing alarm. The protagonists do
not see a connection to these two events despite it being obvious to the
audience of readers. The story
evolves and we are given clues to the identity and locations of the criminals/
ghosts and stolen ships. I would
consider them static characters because they do not change for the better or
worse. They stay the same as they
head to jail.
The conflict seems internal as the team make decisions and
tries to uncover the mystery, but the external conflict of the criminal’s
activities dominates the plot because it is those activities that cause all of
the problems.
The inciting incident reveals the problem of the story when
our happy group of squeaky-clean teenagers attempts a nighttime party on the
beach. As an audience, we see the
ghost diver enter the water, but the true inciting incident is when the
protagonist, Scooby-Doo, is surfing and first encounters the ghost diver.
This leads the team on an adventure of rising action where
along the way they encounter a mysterious, widowed witch of a sea captain, and a
beach hermit that sounds stereotypically like a pirate.
These interviews lead to more action and clues when the team discovers
that boats are missing.
When the team discovers a subterranean cave that holds all
of the stolen boats, the mystery seems solved, but the problem is still
occurring until the antagonist is captured in a plan-gone-wrong that is geared
toward slapstick comedy. Only when this thief is captured do we have the climax.
The falling action reveals that the ghost diver is actually the
supposedly dead sea captain, Captain Cutler.
He and his “witch” wife hatched a plan to fake his death in order to
act as a ghost and steal boats. They
actually thought that the authorities wouldn’t try to catch a ghost.
The plan may have worked if it wasn’t for the help of, “Those
Meddling Kids.”
There is dénouement where the team reads the newspaper
back at the malt shop and we learn of the more detailed plans of the imprisoned
Cutler family. This leads us to the
conclusion/resolution where we see Scooby pay a joke on the team and when they
are all laughing, Scooby laughs, smiles and winks.
I do not feel that the conclusion was satisfactory.
First, the dénouement was too clean; everything was wrapped up too
neatly. Secondly, Scooby’s final
scene was too akin to the cliché, “And they all lived happily-ever-after.”
It was so mind-numbingly predictable that I was insulted as a reader.
The authors should have left a more mysterious ending that made the
audience think, or they should have utilized some important message or theme
about why some people do bad things. It
was an opportunity wasted by the authors and clearly shows the intelligence
level they were attracting was an audience far below my reading level.
The type of reader that would like this book is someone
that has very little time to read, and maybe needs to read materials below grade
level. If you enjoy television shows
that make you reminisce about the good-old-days of your childhood where every
problem is solved in under thirty minutes, then this book is for you.
Other titles that are similar to this would be any other screenplays by
Joseph Hannah and William Barbera such as Hong Kong Phoowie, The Banana Splits,
and H.R Puffinstuff: all classic 70’s children’s’ shows.