Hi I'm Dranzerstorm
You may remember me as a regular contestant on the caption battle contest.
Welcome to Retro Retrospective, my world dedicated to the old guard of the Otaku world; expect some reviews of the old & obscure, and in-depth geeky knowledge with the occasional top ten and I now have a logo.

Little info about me
Well I'm British and I'm in to all things animated and nostalgia.
I've grown up with every cartoon going and have watched hundreds of anime.
Oh and to answer a question I was asked once, no I don't wear glasses in real life, I would wear Loke's sunglasses though.

Top 10 Plots That Are Still Alive

In our second list are the plots that are still going, for better or for worst.

1. Lets Make Everything Fashionable
Concept: Take a concept that needs reinventing and turn it into fashion dolls
Status: Thanks to this plot we've lost Movie Monsters, Fairy Tales, Geeks and even My Little Pony, it's slowly taking over Super Heroes as well.

2. The All Male Hero Team
Concept: Started by Ninja Turtles, a group of male heroes fighting for justice.
Status: Still going by the Ninja Turtles and is still being used by other franchises, even Lego.

3. The Overly Complex Mystery
Concept: Has become a staple of recent cartoons, the overall plot is one giant mystery to be solved.
Status: Looks no sign of stopping if Infinity Train is green lit by Cartoon Network.

4. The Scooby Doo Ghost Plot
Concept: Started by Scooby Doo, copied by clones made by the same creators, solving Groovy Mysteries involving ghosts.
Status: Attempts have been made to make the concept more perilous in nature and even trying the more complex mystery plot but ultimately still the same plot and still done by Scooby Doo.

5. The Man Child Brigade
Concept: An unfortunate addition to the 00s era, young adults acting like ADHD kids when they should have the maturity to hold down a paying job.
Status: Only ever done right by Regular Show, refuses to die and gets worst in quality as more Spongebob clones come out as well as Spongebob himself.

6. The Superhero Plot
Concept: Superheroes, Plain and Simple.
Status: As long as there are major live action superhero films there will be cartoons featuring superheroes.

7. The Spoilt Brat
Concept: A younger child character acting like a spoilt brat.
Status: Started by Caillou, made world famous by Peppa Pig, created a generation of spoilt brats, stop using it before my niece and nephew's generation suffers.

8. The Celebrity Cartoon
Concept: A Celebrity imprinting their image in cartoon form.
Status: You thought it died with MC Hammer didn't you? No it's alive and well thanks to WWE. I look forward to Ice Age 6 featuring John Cena as a wrestling gorilla.

9. The Princess in Training
Concept: A Princess in Training learning how to be a real Princess despite already being one.
Status: Disney have been doing this to death with Sofia the First and Elena of Avalor, it's very tired and often portrays the characters as being too perfect.

10. The Really Insulting Remake
Concept: Take an Old Cartoon and Remake it, in a bad way.
Status: Has been an uncomfortable trend in recent years, anime is equally as guilty at this. Powerpuff Girls, Teen Titans, Scooby Doo, Bugs Bunny the list goes on.

Cartoon Vault: Shaggy & Scooby Doo: Get a Clue

Now lets review a cartoon that has a lot of criticism for going way off formula. Lets look at Shaggy & Scooby Doo: Get a Clue.

But first some history, when it comes to Scooby Doo, arguably the best selling characters are Scooby and Shaggy, that's why they could get away with their own series along with Scrappy Doo, which went off formula from the ghost chasing to genuine mystery solving, something that also existed with the TV movies, but this incarnation Get a Clue took things in such a different direction that it's completely lost as Get a Clue has less to do with mystery solving and more to do with taking down an evil genius mad man. The plot goes that Shaggy's rich uncle Albert goes missing and leaves everything to Shaggy in his will but the evil Dr Phineus Phibes is after Albert's research so it's up to Shaggy and Scooby to stop him, using all forms of technology open to them. This is one of the last cartoons made by Joseph Barbera before his death at the impressive age of 95 years, Joseph of course being one half of Hanna Barbera.
My history with Scooby Doo is a bit mixed as I appreciate the originals and even some of the Scrappy Doo series, I'm not such a fan of the modern Scooby Doo shows or it's TV Films, as for this one it kind of falls in between which is strange considering that it doesn't have anything to do with solving mysteries, in fact you could say it's a poor mans spy and super hero show. But in a strange way I welcome the direction this series was taking.
There's a point in history where a character in any cartoon becomes tired and Scooby Doo and his friends at this point were becoming this and Get a Clue was the breath of fresh air it needed, even if it took away what Scooby Doo was famous for, it's no different to the many spinoffs during Hanna Barbera's run during the 70s and 80s which looking back was utterly, utterly terrible.
So in conclusion I'd say this made people stand up and notice and while fans would clearly miss the traditional Scooby Doo, it doesn't hurt to test the waters of another genre.

Tribute List: Those We'll Miss in 2015 Part 2

Continuing straight away from the last entry we cover those we'll miss who passed on from April-June

Kirsten Bishopric 1963-2014
Veteran Canadian Voice Actress whose credits include Zoicite from Sailor Moon among many others.

George H. Heilmeier 1936-2014
Pioneer of LCD which revolutionized television of whom without would not have gotten close to the HD era.

Bob Hoskins 1942-2014
British Actor whose roles included Eddie Valiant from Who Framed Roger Rabbit as well as the live action Super Mario among many other roles.

Efrem Zimbalist Jr 1918-2014
Veteran actor & voice actor whose roles included Alfred from a number of DC universe cartoons as well as Dr Octopus in the 90s Spiderman among hundreds of other roles.

Kouji Yada 1933-2014
Veteran voice actor whose credits include Dr Gero from the Dragonball universe among many others including Zeff from One Piece.

Eric Hill 1927-2014
British Children's Author of Spot the Dog.

Francis Matthews 1927-2014
British Actor who provided the voice of Gerry Anderson's Puppet character Captain Scarlet in the series of the same name.

Casey Kasem 1932-2014
Radio Broadcaster and voice of Shaggy from Scooby Doo, a role he played for 40 years among other voice works including Transformers.

Steve Viksten 1960-2014
Writer for Rugrats, Hey Arnold (as well as voice of Oskar Kokoshka), Recess, Duckman and the Simpsons.

End