‘Supernatural’ Had a Spooky Crossover With These Iconic Characters

The Big Picture

• Iconic characters meet in “ScoobyNatural” for a thrilling crossover with monsters and humor, adding violent twist to kid-friendly Scooby-Doo.
• “ScoobyNatural” blends fun humor of Scooby-Doo with the menacing paranormal threats of
  Supernatural
  , serving as a perfect horror crossover.
• The Winchester brothers and the Scooby gang join forces in “ScoobyNatural” for a blend of goofy fun and deadly stakes in a haunted house adventure.

Crossovers have created some of the best, worst, and strangest entries in movies and television. When they manage to be decent, they make for a great time seeing iconic characters from two separate franchises meet face-to-face. Monsters and villains tend to get put in crossovers for a showdown, but the good guys often come together to team up against evil. Such was the case with Supernatural in 2018 with a crossover episode that saw a beloved mystery cartoon and the monster-hunting siblings collide in grisly, funny ways. This is what makes the animated special, “ScoobyNatural,” a blast to watch, as there has always been an interest to see Mystery Incorporated get scary, and the inclusion of the Winchesters raises the stakes as violent death is suddenly very possible for those meddling kids and their talking dog.

“ScoobyNatural” Is a Crossover Between ‘Supernatural’ and ‘Scooby-Doo’

In Season 13: Episode 16, the plot picks up at the end of a case the Winchesters have taken off-screen. Something paranormal is happening at a pawn shop, which the brothers put a stop to with some holy oil and fire, and Dean (Jensen Ackles) is not one to pass up the chance to take home a new TV when the shop owner wants to show his gratitude. But the case isn’t over, as Sam (Jared Padalecki) and Dean get sucked inside the TV, placing them in an episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! While Sam is annoyed and concerned, super fan Dean is enthusiastic about getting his chance to hang out with his favorite animated characters.

The whole gang is here — Fred (Frank Welker), Daphne (Grey Griffin), Velma (Kate Micucci), Scooby (Welker), and Shaggy (Matthew Lillard). But the Winchesters’ arrival has disrupted the cartoon’s kid-friendly tone, replacing a man in the mask with an angry ghost from Sam and Dean’s world. It isn’t long before Castiel (Misha Collins) turns up, delivering his deadpan reactions even when talking to a Great Dane. Inside the haunted house for one night, everyone must work together if they don’t want to end up as a two-dimensional corpse when the credits roll!

‘Supernatural’ Recreates an Episode From the Original ‘Scooby-Doo’

It’s not a fake episode of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! that the Winchesters get stuck in, but one from the first iteration of the franchise, a 1970 episode from Season 1, “A Night of Fright is No Delight.” The brothers get pulled into what is revealed as Dean’s favorite installment from the original series that introduced audiences to the Mystery Machine and Scooby Snacks. Dean offers a personal nugget of info: as a kid, he looked up to the Scooby gang as role models while his father was away hunting real monsters. In the original “A Night of Fright is No Delight,” Mystery Inc. heads to the decrepit and haunted house that belonged to the recently deceased Colonel Sanders, who has arranged a guest list for a one-night event. If the guests stay in the house all night, they win a nice chunk of money.

While some elements of the classic episode remain the same, it isn’t a complete retread — one difference that is quick to notice is how the Scooby gang travels to the Sanders mansion. In the original, they take a boat ride to the house, on a stormy night that sends lightning bolts across the sky. Not the safest night to travel on the water, but there isn’t any real danger for the sleuths. In the crossover, Sam and Dean arrive at a malt shop where they spot Mystery Inc., and Dean invites himself and Sam to join their trip to the Sanders place. This is just one difference to spot if the episodes are watched together until the matter of life and death comes up.

In the original episode, the other guests at Sanders’ mansion are simply scared away, but here, they are brutally killed off. One gets stabbed in the back, and another is beheaded with their body strung up. The Scooby gang is unable to comprehend the gory sights at first, they’re just too innocent upon seeing the murders. But fear not, Dean won’t let anything bad happen to his favorite characters, he will especially make sure Scooby is safe, vowing, “I’d take a bullet for that dog.”Reality has invaded the spooky fun of Scooby-Doo, warning this night of fright really won’t have any delight.

What Makes the “ScoobyNatural” Crossover Fun To Watch

The rights to both shows are owned by Warner Bros, which made it easier to get the special made, and this crossover was the best of both worlds. The animation on Supernatural is clean and digital but pays respect to the old-school animation. The opening title card blends the two series into one, where an atmospheric Scooby background of the Sanders mansion suddenly turns into the golden eye logo of Supernatural’s 13th season. The special strikes a balance between the menacing paranormal threat of Supernatural and the light humor of Scooby-Doo. Supernatural knew how to have fun with its storylines, it could poke fun at itself or go meta. This special isn’t the first time the Winchesters get thrown into a TV episode, in Season 6, Sam and Dean get transported into the “real world” where they are actors on a show called, you guessed it, Supernatural.

As for Scooby-Doo, there was always a light touch of horror without making the original series too scary, thanks to artist Walt Peregoy’s backgrounds. They are splendidly eerie locations, colored in blues and greens that do the heavy lifting to instill a creepy vibe without the episodes getting too scary for younger viewers. But there is still a fascination to see the story take a darker turn for the scaredy-cat Great Dane and his friends.

All the Times Scooby-Doo Went Full Horror

The Mystery Inc. gang has brushed shoulders with full-on horror many a time. In 1999, when The Blair Witch Project was released, Scooby-Doo did a spoof that aired on Cartoon Network, inserting Scooby, Shaggy, and the others into live-action footage of their trip into foreboding woods. It doesn’t forget the humor, but it does get unnerving, ending with the message that they have gone missing, leaving behind “hundreds of Scooby Snacks.” There is also the opening of the 2002 live-action movie, where Mystery Inc. confronts a villain more creepy than what they will find on Spooky Island — no offense, Scrappy-Doo. The Luna Ghost has a clownish design that won’t be a cure for anyone’s coulrophobia, with a jester-like head and narrow, sharp fingers that look like claws. Of course, it’s just a person in a costume, but the appearance is downright sinister. This interest in seeing horror in Scooby-Doo has become the focus of Travis Falligant‘s artwork.

Falligant created the “Lost Mysteries” series in 2014, and it is still ongoing, where your favorite characters encounter numerous heroes and villains from scary movies. Chucky (Brad Dourif) and Tiffany (Jennifer Tilly) sit in the back of the Mystery Machine as Scooby looks at them in fear. Dr. Sam Loomis (Donald Pleasence) is ready to warn the teens about the Haddonfield Boogeyman in another portrait. To keep the art series updated, there is Valak (Bonnie Aarons) the demonic nun who won’t be getting her habit pulled off to reveal a mortal underneath, just as there is the startling grin of Art the Clown (David Howard Thornton), greeting Mystery Inc. The crime-solving friends may never have to face these figures, but in “ScoobyNatural,” fans can see what would happen if a classic Scooby-Doo episode got very dangerous for its heroes.

‘Supernatural’ and ‘Scooby-Doo’ Make for One of the Best Horror Crossovers

Sam, and especially Dean, get to be surrogates for the audience when they meet the animated sleuths. It’s not just hanging out with them and solving a case that is a perk for the Winchesters, the outlandish logic to their cartoon world means Dean, who is always hungry, can swallow the most layered sandwich he’s ever had. This crossover gets to be goofy and deadly while knowing what makes these two shows beloved to their fanbase.

At one point, Dean prepares to race Fred, but the Impala is no match for the nostalgic power in the engine of the Mystery Machine. Plus, this wouldn’t be a true love letter to Scooby-Doo if it didn’t have a wild chase scene in the haunted house, with the Winchesters and Mystery Inc. racing in and out of doorways, and popping out of vases that are perfect hiding spots. In line with the Mystery Machine as a speed-racer and the hallway chase, Supernatural treats getting to make a Scooby-Doo episode like a badge of honor. After Mystery Inc. gets rid of their nervous jitters from the grisly change of pace, they might just admit this night of fright brings much delight.

Supernatural is streaming on Netflix.

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