10 Criminally Underappreciated Classic Cartoons

Generally speaking, there's two major warning signs that a cartoon franchise has jumped the shark: the characters either go into space or get de-aged into children. There's almost too many examples to name of those decisions signalling the end of a franchise's popularity, but that wasn't the case with "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo".

"A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" was actually the iconic Great Dane's return after a two year absence following the Vincent Price led "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" in the mid-eighties. While The 13 Ghosts was oftentimes grating and hard to watch, while actually never receiving an official ending until a 2019 direct-to-video release if that helps illustrate how obnoxious it was, "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" was surprisingly fresh and inventive.

The de-aged Mystery Inc. actually had a better characterization in the series than most of the franchise's preceding shows, especially when it came to Fred who took the role of conspiracy theorist in the series as opposed to just being the same generic ascot-wearing leader. The show still stuck to tradition where it mattered the most too, by keeping the same episodic beat that made the franchise famous after the show lost its direction with a more adventurous take.

For bringing an iconic franchise like "Scooby-Doo" back to its roots, while actually improving it in some areas, "A Pup Named Scooby-Doo" deserves to never be lumped in with the other, less successful de-aged cartoon classics of the time.