Pros: Well made, especially for its budget; plenty of potential; modern aesthetics and sensibility; some good performances by cast.
Cons: Little menace or tension to be found in the pilot; some of the cast are way too old to be playing teens; inevitable rehash of 'supernatural high school' tropes; Scooby is largely irrelevant.
For what is, at its heart, a low-budget fan film of a children's cartoon, Mystery Incorporated looks good on the screen. Scenes are shot and lit well, the acting (while sometimes hit-or-miss) is professional, and the production hits all of the checkmarks necessary to air as a broadcast or cable series. The limited budget really only shows itself in the paucity of special effects and the lack of plentiful background extras in scenes that need them.
Content-wise, Mystery Incorporated eschews the original formula of "meddling kids/spooky house/old man in a mask" aesthetic in favor of a more 'Riverdale'-esque vibe in which teens act like (and are played by) 20-somethings while living in a superficially pleasant town where magic and supernatural evil lurk in the shadows.
Here, Fred (Elza) is ironically the only person who starts off believing in the supernatural (having witnessed something demonic murder his parents). Seeking answers, he partners up with Velma (Hutton), who gets to play both The Scully and The Willow here as she is a self-proclaimed Believer in Science who nevertheless also has access to a conveniently enormous collection of tomes about demons and monsters. Still off in their own corners are Daphne (Chancellor), a superficial socialite on the brink of developing a conscience; and Shaggy (Villain), a lonely pothead trying to shed his unwanted role of 'campus drug dealer.' Shaggy banters with Scooby, but Scooby doesn't talk back (at least not that we can hear).
With a low budget, it's perhaps a wise choice to not have any words come out of Scooby's mouth- I doubt it could have been pulled off convincingly- but it also robs the series of its traditional source of tension-relieving comic relief.
Then again, there's not much tension in Mystery Incorporated, nor is there much in the way of horror. The first ghost encountered (Miner 49er) is described by a character as "a really methed-out homeless guy" and is half as scary as one; his mayhem is largely limited to lunging at people and engaging in an unconvincing battle with Fred. A teaser at the end does seem to indicate that future villains will be a little more murderous and threatening, which is badly needed if this fan project is ever going to reach its full potential/number of proposed episodes.
Cons: Little menace or tension to be found in the pilot; some of the cast are way too old to be playing teens; inevitable rehash of 'supernatural high school' tropes; Scooby is largely irrelevant.
For what is, at its heart, a low-budget fan film of a children's cartoon, Mystery Incorporated looks good on the screen. Scenes are shot and lit well, the acting (while sometimes hit-or-miss) is professional, and the production hits all of the checkmarks necessary to air as a broadcast or cable series. The limited budget really only shows itself in the paucity of special effects and the lack of plentiful background extras in scenes that need them.
Content-wise, Mystery Incorporated eschews the original formula of "meddling kids/spooky house/old man in a mask" aesthetic in favor of a more 'Riverdale'-esque vibe in which teens act like (and are played by) 20-somethings while living in a superficially pleasant town where magic and supernatural evil lurk in the shadows.
Here, Fred (Elza) is ironically the only person who starts off believing in the supernatural (having witnessed something demonic murder his parents). Seeking answers, he partners up with Velma (Hutton), who gets to play both The Scully and The Willow here as she is a self-proclaimed Believer in Science who nevertheless also has access to a conveniently enormous collection of tomes about demons and monsters. Still off in their own corners are Daphne (Chancellor), a superficial socialite on the brink of developing a conscience; and Shaggy (Villain), a lonely pothead trying to shed his unwanted role of 'campus drug dealer.' Shaggy banters with Scooby, but Scooby doesn't talk back (at least not that we can hear).
With a low budget, it's perhaps a wise choice to not have any words come out of Scooby's mouth- I doubt it could have been pulled off convincingly- but it also robs the series of its traditional source of tension-relieving comic relief.
Then again, there's not much tension in Mystery Incorporated, nor is there much in the way of horror. The first ghost encountered (Miner 49er) is described by a character as "a really methed-out homeless guy" and is half as scary as one; his mayhem is largely limited to lunging at people and engaging in an unconvincing battle with Fred. A teaser at the end does seem to indicate that future villains will be a little more murderous and threatening, which is badly needed if this fan project is ever going to reach its full potential/number of proposed episodes.
