MCU Beware: The Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe Is Upon Us

Success comes in waves. After Walt died, Disney was in such bad shape they couldn't get enough talent to animate Mickey Mouse giving halfpenny blowjobs in an alley. During the nineties, Marvel had to declare bankruptcy and was almost bought by Michael Jackson just so he could web-sling his way through Neverland. And if you told someone back then that these rinky-dink studios about the silly cartoons now own roughly 90% of the industry, are worth seventy billion dollars and oversee the largest film franchise the world has ever seen, they would've called you insane. Why mention this? Just to adjust your expectations for the following announcement:

There's going to be a Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe.

This week saw the final trailer of the upcoming Scoob! movie about everyone's favorite stoner couple. But jeepers gang, this isn't just a Scooby-Doo movie. Letting the mask finally slip, Scoob! reveals it's getting the ball rolling on an entire Hanna-Barbera Cinematic Universe. And it has all the first CU movie trimmings. Not only is it an overly epic reboot about fighting evil mechas and stopping the "dogpocalypse," it's also an origin story about the gang's first mystery and Scooby Doo's name (he's named after the food now, not the other way around, like a Waffles or a Pickles). Most importantly, Scooby and the gang will be joined by several famous(?) Hanna-Barbera characters, like the Blue Falcon, Dynomutt, Dog Wonder and Captain Caveman and Dee Dee Sykes, who all have to team up to chase Wacky Races' Dick Dastardly past the same three CGI backgrounds over and over again.

So, on a scale of MCU to the Cereal Box Monster-U, how seriously should we take this HBCU? Pretty seriously, actually, as the studio is going all out. Scooby legend Frank Welker and Will Forte as Shaggy are joined in the Mystery Machine by A-listers and legit Scooby snacks Zack Efron, Amanda Seyfried and Gina Rodriguez. Meanwhile, the future spin-off characters are played by big names like Ken Jeong, Tracy Morgan, Jason Isaacs, and none other than Marky Mark Walberg as the Blue Falcon. And how do we know that that means they're building this thing to last? Each one of those millionaires has kids aged seven to thirteen, an old Hollywood trick to get middle-aged movie stars in endless PG projects.

Hanna-Barbera Productions is also already working on a Jetsons and Flintstones reboot and a Who Framed Roger Rabbit inspired hybrid Tom & Jerry is set to hit theaters Christmas 2020. And if you're wondering if this new HBCU will skew more flashy Marvel or gritty DC, their parent company is Warner Bros. -- so think less Space Ghost: Ragnarok and more Snagglepuss v Hong Kong Phooey: Dawn of Justice. Not that we're complaining, because the reunion of Hanna-Barbera and DC Comics might mean a continuation of the greatest, most ambitious crossover between the world's two greatest detectives: Scooby-Doo and Batman.

For more weird tangents and excerpts from his Top Cat spec script, do follow Cedric on Twitter.