DVDs and TV, whether we like it or not, are part of our parenting toolkit.
When your little ones no longer call for Mr Tumble, and Mr Bloom is relegated to the compost heap, it is time to ask Scooby Doo, where are you?
Boredom with CBeebies doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with the ability to appreciate cartoons for older kids. Often these cartoons include weird characters and scary monsters that are at best bewildering and at worst frightening.
So something that is well-paced, loud, funny, well written and a hit with post-CBeebies youngsters is worth a look.
Created in 1969 in response to parent-run organisations complaining about the amount of violence within children’s TV, the Scooby Doo franchise incorporating Fred Jones, Daphne Blake, Velma Dinkley, and Norville “Shaggy” Rogers— and their talking Great Dane Scooby Doo - has always made sure to focus on clues, mishaps and adventures rather than on battling scary monsters.
Even though the characters now use laptops, mobile phones and gadgetry (go Velma!), each mystery tour ends with the kids unmasking the spook-of-the-week to reveal a real person in a costume.
See, nothing to be frightened of.
In their most recent adventure, Scooby Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon, released this week, the team travel to California to meet their comic book heroes but when the gruesome villain Mr Hyde unleashes monster bats, howling hounds and sinister slime upon the festivities, it’s time for Mystery Incorporated to follow the clues and catch the monsters.
This movie is a PG because there are some scenes that will frighten young children, so best watch it with your young ones first. Hopefully you will find it as enjoyable as my sprogs do (and as reassuring as I have).
You can purchase a copy of Scooby Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon here for £7.49
You’ll notice that all DVDs produced by Warner Bros these days include Ultraviolet, a code that enables you to instantly stream and download your movie on your computer, tablet or phone and share it with up to five friends. Nice.
Disclosure: Warner Bros provided us with a copy of Scooby Doo! Mask of the Blue Falcon for the purposes of this review. The views expressed here are my own.
