Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold is an odd, but not unwelcome, merging of the two franchises. It feels neither like Scooby-Doo (Frank Welker) visiting an episode of Batman: The Brave and the Bold nor Batman (Diedrich Bader) guest-starring on Scooby-Doo but instead a mashup of the two that provides plenty of fan-friendly moments and a host of winks and nods for longtime Batman fans (ranging from the Riddler's cell number to one hero's famous love of cookies).

Batman: The Brave and the Bold should never have been cancelled, and credit to this idea that allows many of the show's voice actors and characters to make a return here as Batman inducts Mystery, Inc. into the Mystery Analysts of Gotham whose members include the Dark Knight Detective, the Question (Jeffrey Combs), Martian Manhunter (Nicholas Guest), Detective Chimp (Nicholas Guest), Black Canary (Grey DeLisle), and Plastic Man (Tom Kenny). And, we also get John DiMaggio reprising his role as a left-out Aquaman who keeps forcing himself into the action despite not being invited.

There are mysteries here for the Scooby Gang to help solve, and plenty of bad guys for Batman and the other heroes to knock-out (including a cameo from Catman). When the mastermind behind a plot tied back to one of Batman's earliest cases frames Mystery, Inc. as criminals, Batman and the gang will have to stay ahead of both super-villains and heroes in order to prove just what is behind the ghost-like Crimson Cloak which will even require Scooby and friends dressing up in various Bat-sidekick costumes for the final showdown.

Available on DVD, the single-disc also includes Batman and Robin's (voiced by Olan Soule and Casey Kasem) two previous 1970s team-ups with Mystery, Inc. in "The Dynamic Scooby-Doo Affair" and "The Caped Crusader Caper."

[Warner Bros., $19.98]