By now I'm sure you have heard about the new not-for-kids animated Velma series coming to HBO Max. There has been a lot of speculation as to how the series is going to be, if it will be any good, and what we can all expect.
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| Image from Shape.com |
I'm not going to go into my thoughts on the show, as I really need to see it to know what it's going to be like. So I'm just going to stick to the facts and let you decide how you feel about it.
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| Image from HBO Max |
“We have a not for children, Mindy Kaling project called Velma because she was excited to reimagine what Scooby-Doo would be like if Velma were of East Asian descent and lived in a different world. And in that version, which is going on HBO Max first, there’s no dog and no van but we have our 4 key characters through a different lens and I think it’s great. Allowing our creators to play with our IP is super powerful.” said Ascheim.
When Mindy Kaling was referring to the new Velma series, she said “I’m so excited about that. I’ve been wanting to do an animated show forever. I think I sound like a 15-year-old girl when I talk, so it’s great to finally be able to use it in a show. She is such an amazing character because she has this cult following,” Kaling added “She’s a queer icon for so many people. She’s the brains behind the Scooby gang. I just love her. She’s not skinny. She’s a huge nerd. She’s smart and unabashedly so. So I’m excited. I feel honored to portray her in an animated show. And it’s fun to play.”
That is all the information we have so far on the series. What are your thoughts? Are you excited for it?
I wish everyone would have the great attitude you have about not judging the show until it comes out. I can understand why people might be a little skeptical because the show is exploring such different territory than any other Scooby-Doo show has previously. However, some comments I've read online seem pretty extreme, like "this is show is going to ruin the franchise" and "this is the worst Scooby show ever." It hasn't even come out yet, so I don't know why people are judging it so harshly already. We know very little about the series, so why look it at with such a negative lens from the start?
ReplyDeleteI'm really excited for the series though and am interested to see Mindy Kaling's take on Velma! Hopefully it will come out this year now that Guess Who has wrapped up in a lot of countries.
I'm not sure how I feel about it, though I am not completely taking a stand to be silent about how I feel, just on this blog post. We do discuss it on Scooby Panel 4 a bit. I will give it a chance to see how it is, but I'm not really going to be into it if they make it graphic.
DeleteI wondered if I should give this one a shot, but I'll be 100% honest: Having now read Kaling's quote above, I'm not sure I'd watch this if somebody paid me money to do it. I have less than zero interest in this sort of "reimagining", or ANY "reimagining" of anything Scooby related, and at this point in my life, I think I'm entitled to feel that way, and to choose to simply not participate in something that I feel is just not appropriate. If anybody wants to rag on me, I'll be in my Scooby-closet watching episodes from 1969.
ReplyDeleteEveryone is entitled to their own opinion :) We did talk about this on the panel a bit, so you know how I really feel about it lol. It will be interesting to see just how adult this series turns out to be or if they will keep it toned down for the sake of Velma.
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