Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated is, without a doubt, the best distillation of the team of crime-solving teenagers and their talking Great Dane. I grew up watching the original Scooby Doo: Where Are You thanks to Cartoon Network and VHS compilations mother purchased at the grocery store, and have followed the team of crime-solving adolescents and their talking Great Dane since.

However, when I discovered Mystery Incorporated in college, it was an artistic transition equivalent to migrating from Batman (1966) to Batman: The Animated Series. The writing team on the show was one of the sharpest in television: it managed to refract small towns with unexpiated sins (Twin Peaks, Jerusalem's Lot,) popular horror (Nightmare on Elm Street, The Shining, Vincent Price 1980's film work,) A-list science fiction (Harlan Ellison!) and classic mythology through the prism of the collective mythology of Scooby-Doo, from ..Where Are You? to 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo to James Gunn's psychedelic live action translations and beyond. The resultant light was gorgeous (such as the work from Dan Krall and the team,) illuminating (the deconstruction of some of the staples of adolescent detective literature,) and powerful (the trajectory between Fred Jones and his 'father' Mayor Jones could have been ripped from the pages of a Jon Hassler novel, as it was written so beautifully.)

Thus, when it was concluded in the second season, I was immensely disappointed, but grateful that the creative team was able to conclude the show, instead of leaving with dangling plotlines. [I keep hoping that DC Comics will follow the trajectory of IDW with the X-Files and create a comic third season, especially since they are rebooting many of the classic Hanna-Barbera properties presently.] Anyway, the request of this petition is simple: I am requesting that Warner Brothers release their [Scooby Doo] magnum opus on Blu-Ray.

Presently, it can be accessed in high definition courtesy of Netflix and digital retailers such as iTunes. This shows that the heavy legwork of the conversion/upscaling process is done; it would not be a massive undertaking like remastering the original ...Where Are You Cartoons. Presently, in the physical medium, it an only be accessed through DVDs, which restrict a considerable amount of the visual information. Quite simply, the show is a beautiful sequence of paintings that needs to be shown as intended. I understand that the Blu-Ray medium is expensive: but, Warner Brothers released the Justice League series on Blu-Ray, which shows that there is a precedent for doing that.

Now, I recognize that the decision was made to rejuvenate the show with DC's ascension into mainstream cinema thanks to BVS and the upcoming Justice League. However, I am a member of the audience that would gravitate towards high definition editions of their beloved childhood animation programs. Plus, Justice League is similar to Mystery Inc. in regards to the mature storytelling, fantastic art design, and serialized narrative. Thus, a lot of the groundwork has been completed for marketing such a series. Now, if for some financial reasons Warner Brothers would be able to undertake the Blu-Ray release of the show, there are many options available as to who could. Companies such as Shout Factory have created stellar Blu-Ray releases for fringe titles, and there are plenty of On-Demand publishing services that I am sure could format and release the series masterfully.

Still, I am sure that the studio has the resources and budgeting to pull this off. The release would not have to be overflowing with special features, which I recognize are expensive to create and install. In fact, I would argue a bare-bones release would be fine, as long as the picture was not cropped terribly like the Dragonball-Z releases on Blu-Ray. The compensation for the absence of on-disc features could be a release of Robert J. Kral's music for the show, which was a masterful blend of 1980's John Carpenter and Angelo Badalamenti. It could be a disc added to the digipak, similar to the collector's edition of Highlander (which is fantastic!) or as a digital download from Watertower Music. Watertower Music has released the soundtracks for Batman: The Animated Series, which are spectacular; I would love to Mr. Kral's work in the same iTunes library.

Warner Brothers is responsible for some of my best artistic memories, whether it was watching Batman: The Animated Series on Toonami when I was young, participating in the filming of The Dark Knight Rises, or spending countless hours roaming the countryside in the Witcher III: Wild Hunt. The company creates marvelous media and has a record of presenting in the best possible releases. I hope to see one of their shows released in Blu-Ray with the wonderful soundtrack available.

Thanks for taking your time and consideration with this petition.

Sincerely,

Joel Robert Frehn