The New Scooby-Doo Movies (TV Series) The Frickert Fracas (1972) User Reviews

Not quite classic, still hugely enjoyable

[TheLittleSongbird · 8/10 · 15 August 2016]

Although the animation quality frequently was far from great and some guest stars and villains make more of an impression than others (particularly in the first season), 'The New Scooby Doo Movies' while not consistent and its flaws are more noticeable is one of the better Scooby Doo shows.

"The Frickert Fracas" is a hugely enjoyable episode. So far (re-watching the episodes in order after a long time), "The Dynamic Scooby Doo Affair" and especially "Wednesday is Missing" are superior episodes, but it is better than the decent but not great and very flawed actually "The Ghastly Ghost Town".

Particularly notable is Jonathan Winters himself, who is a lot of fun while not swamping the mystery, and Winters clearly has a ball as himself and even revels in his speciality of imitating old ladies (the grandma character is priceless here). Also the scarecrow, who is one of the series' better villains and the best one up to this point.

As ever with Scooby Doo, the atmosphere has a creepiness and the humour here is right on point, especially with grandma and the gem of a sequence with the giant wheel, one of Season 1's funniest and most imaginative moments perhaps. The dialogue is vintage Scooby Doo, and even with famous guest stars 'The New Scooby Doo Movies' (at least in the first season) was true to the spirit of 'Scooby Doo Where are You' and what made that show so great.

Music is full of energy and atmosphere, with a catchy theme tune and the voice work is top notch.

Only complaints here are the too-easy-to-figure-out identity of the villain and particularly the less than great and sometimes poor animation quality, with crude drawing and distractingly bad goofs that do outweigh some atmospheric colours and backgrounds.

In summary, hugely enjoyable episode of the series. 8/10 Bethany Cox

Who is Jonathan Winters?

[kaukau1 · 7/10 · 1 October 2020]

As New Scooby-Doo movies go, this one is decent. The gang are all great and there's a very funny setup of Winters, Shaggy, and Scooby quietly wrestling for the position of most cowardly. I also laughed at the extended water wheel scene - an underrated slapstick set piece!

Still, a real risk of these kinds of guest star focused episodes is one of timeliness: 40 years on will we remember who the guest stars were and why the jokes they told were funny? The answer for this episode is... kind of a resounding "no". I had no idea who Jonathan Winters was, and don't think I've ever heard any of his old routines.

From context clues I assume that Ma Frickert was a recurring character that Winters would do in his comedy, and I'm sure there's a long catalogue of hilarious Frickert's Farm jokes that presumably viewers in 1972 would have been familiar with, but watching in 2020 it's all sort of baffling. His stand up style of doing voices is also fairly dated, but that scene at least was funny because of how ineffective his bit ended up being.

I was trying to think of a good modern analogue, and the best I can come up with is this: imagine if Bob's Burgers did an episode where the kids ran into James Corden, *playing himself*, and they did a spoof on carpool karaoke. Would that still be funny to people in 2050?

(Side note: Bob's Burgers is smart with their cameos, as the celebrities play random one-off weirdos, so who the voice is becomes a fun bit of trivia but is not integral to the plot of the episode).

Scooby and the gang have a timelessness to them - partly because the franchise was so successful that they're still making new episodes, but also because of how clear their character definitions are, and how broad a lot of the jokes are. Plenty of original episodes have a joke or two that's distinctly 1970, but 40 years later you either miss those or find them dated in a charming way. To have the episode center not a character or a trope or a broad caricature, but rather a particular comedian's routine, just doesn't hold up nearly as well.

It's still enjoyable, and if you ignore the parts where we, the viewers, are clearly supposed to know what Winters is talking about, he turns in a solid performance.

The Frickert Fracas

[jaydengauci-17195 · 10/10 · 21 June 2023]

This is actually my favourite episode of the New Scooby-Doo movies. I've searched lists online of people ranking the episodes of this series and it's either in their top 3 or their bottom 3. I really enjoyed this one, I had never heard of Johnathon Winters prior to watching this but in this episode he was really enjoyable to watch. I honestly enjoy when the guest star does something funny in the episode, not just follows Fred, Daphne and Velma to look for clues, but I'd rather see them goof around in the chases with Shaggy and Scooby. I do think the plot slightly dies down after they find the 2 musicians in the well, but it's a minor complaint. All of this series is underrated, considering nowadays' cartoon standards I give this episode a 10. But for Scooby Doo back then I'd say 9/10 or 9.5/10. Still great and I still gave it a 10 on here. The fact that these episodes are rated so low here on IMDB irritates me because I just love how classic and honestly beautiful this show is. Every scene drawn from scratch takes real effort. Minor animation errors really do not bug me and honestly take me back. I love it.

Winters of Our Discontent

[jacobstaggs · 6/10 · 21 June 2019]

This episode was fairly enjoyable. Shaggy makes a clever observation about how the farmhand could possibly be the scarecrow. Jonathan Winters uses his Maude Frickert voice to good effect but as himself he often fails to deliver the laughs and sometimes his comedy stretches really thin. at times, it got really annoying The gang filled their roles nicely. The mystery was a little more complex of a whodunnit. The only thing that changes the score from an 8 to a 6 is Jonathan Winters.

Chicken Skis!

[richard.fuller1 · 26 March 2006]

When the Scooby movies missed, they missed big time, but when they did something right, they are truly memorable in all the scooby adventures and the clone adventures (speed buggy, jabberjaw, josie and the pussycats, etc).

Jonathan Winters is one of the better ones, and for Jonathan's lines (which nine times out of ten is the only saving grace in many of these guest star adventures.) Winters even does one better by voicing Gramma Frickert, which Winters did quite often back then, imitating old ladies.

The gang are looking for a secret recipe for chicken feed on Gramma's farm, all the while being chased by a mysterious scarecrow.

In watching the cartoon, it is easy to go 'there is no guest star' and forget that gramma was voiced by Winters as well.

Gramma tosses out some very funny lines, such as when a prowler falls in the rain barrel.

"There goes my hair washing water!" she fusses.

Hands-down, our favorite when we were kids was the old lady holding onto the tail feathers of the giant rooster and proclaiming "chicken skis!" We loved that line so much! Well, it doesn't take much to amuse kids.

There was poor animation bits, such as the visible giant rooster behind the chicken shed just before it breaks apart.

Still, mainly for Winters, this was one of the top five Scooby movies.

The Frickert Fracas

[Michael_Elliott · 14 December 2013]

The New Scooby-Doo Movies (1972)

"The Frickert Fracas"

Scooby and the gang stop at a gas station to fill up when they run into Jonathan Winters who is needed a ride to Frickert's Farm. The gang gives him a ride but once they arrive they learn that there's a mysterious scarecrow scaring people off trying to find a secret formula that turns chickens into giants. Overall this is a pretty decent episode even though it's certainly not a classic and doesn't come anywhere near that level. For the most part there are enough good moments that make this worth watching and especially if you're a fan of Scooby. Some of the highlights include a wonderful sequence on a giant wheel that Shaggy ends up on and can't get off. Another highlight is the scarecrow, which has a terrific look and makes for a very good villain. There are quite a few funny jokes including a long sequence where Winters makes various noises to try and scare the scarecrow but of course something goes wrong. The special guest Winters makes for a good character here as he's given several good scenes. The regular members are all in fine form and that's especially true for Scooby and Shaggy. Fans of the series will find enough laughs there to make it worth watching.

Episode: B-