by Eric Minton

www.gettheloop.com

703-567-0532
eric@gettheloop.com

Building a mystery
“We needed another dimension for entertainment,” said Iwao Takamoto. He was describing the course of events back in 1968 when he was part of a team developing a new Saturday morning cartoon series, a teen-age “I-Love-a-Mystery” type of show. “We thought the addition of a dog would help,” Takamoto said. “It would modify the boredom one could experience having these kids stand around describing how they saw these intricate mysteries.”

Takamoto drew a great Dane and gave it human idiosyncrasies, birthing Scooby-Doo, star of a cartoon series still being produced more than 30 years later, title character of an upcoming live-action feature-length movie, and namesake of a growing line of Sally Corporation interactive dark rides. The company opened its third and fourth Scooby-themed rides on the same weekend (at Six Flags St. Louis, Missouri, and Fiesta Texas in San Antonio, Texas), prompting the question: what makes Scooby-Doo so cool after all these years and generations?

“I think it goes beyond the individual character in the show, I think it’s the general flavor of the show in total,” Takamoto said. The show is an adventure, influenced in its humor by old movie comedies, most notably Abbot and Costello, and created—and, significantly, still fashioned—at a time when the hippy era was fully emerging and the younger generation was, for the first time, “suddenly able to express itself in its own terms,” Takamoto said. Yes, Scooby is a cultural icon ensconced somewhere between Woodstock and The Beatles.

Because that icon is a cartoon, Scooby is an ideal franchise for an amusement ride. “It carries the traditional antagonist/protagonist relationship of a good story,” said Howard Kelly, President of Sally Corporation. “It has got adventure that children understand that can be taken up to the edge of either intrigue or scariness without going over.” For dark ride specialist Sally, with its “fright lights” shooting targets that trigger a response in the scene (ghosts emerging, flowers spinning, or Scooby himself popping up in the most improbable places), the cartoon provides a perfect combination of comedy and mystery.

Because that cartoon is an icon, Scooby also turns this amusement ride into a marketing bonanza. “Oh! there are so many places this park is going to win with Scooby, and not just on that ride,” Kelly said of the St. Louis installation. “They’re going to win in food and beverage, they’re going to win in retail.” Six Flags St. Louis already was offering guests a chance to “Scoobysize” their meals at one food stand. “The other thing is long-term impact,” said Dave Roemer, Six Flags St. Louis’ vice president and general manager. “Scooby is not something that’s going to be a hit today and gone in two years. When you think of the investment we put into one of these, and the heart and soul we put into it, we’d like to be around here in 20 years and have this ride still operating.”

“It’s a brand with legs,” Kelly said. A brand with four legs, in fact. “I knew Scooby-Doo had appeal to adults when I saw, this last Christmas, men’s size underwear with Scooby print.”

As hip a character as Scooby may be, a dark ride featuring him in itself is not enough to attain that “level of comfort” Roemer seeks. On all of its dark rides, Sally realized that to make them a hit, they needed another dimension of entertainment, to borrow Takamoto’s phrase, and that dimension is the Fright Lights laser target system and individual scoring consoles in the vehicles. Kelly likens the experience to being inside a video game, but with the reveals it is more like a shooting gallery in which riders keep score. “We had a family night out here, and the teens would get off, come around and ride again, get off, come around and ride again,” Roemer said. “They’d maintain these competitive packs.”

Notably, few of the first-day riders at St. Louis’ Mystery of the Scary Swamp even mentioned Scooby when they described their experiences. “The scenery was awesome, especially the Tiki room,” said Mike Damke, 12, who said he scored 28,750 points on one ride. “The graveyard with all the ghosts,” said Joey Carlo, 9, who claimed he “got a little scared when stuff popped out” but rode it three times and reached a top score of 16,300 points. “I liked the mist and the scenery,” said his 12-year-old brother, Tony (16,800 points). “With the ghosts all popping out, it’s a lot more interesting.” Eight-year-old Paige Cannon (7,000 points) cited the finale, a cave with dynamite exploding thanks to lighting effects, as her favorite room, and Samantha Gilstrap, 5, agreed. “I liked when the lightning flashed,” said Sam (1,250 points).

Roemer’s highlight is the giant alligator emerging from a crate. “I’m partial to alligators,” said Roemer (62,000 points). “I love the scene where you get through the swamp and get through the lightning and Mr. Alligator visits you.”

Scooby as a brand may have four legs, but the dark rides he has inspired scores points well beyond the personality of a great Dane and his teen-age pals.

Eric Minton (56,550 points)