Out of all the Hanna Barbera series to stem from the sixties and seventies, I’d have to say that “Josie and the Pussycats.” Sure, it was in essence a pure “Scooby Doo” rip off, with a Shaggy character voiced by Casey Kasem, a Freddy character with an ascot, goofy animal sidekicks, and even re-using its chase music on many occasions, but it’s just so much better than “Scooby-Doo” which I’ve always considered an overrated franchise to begin with.
Around the time “Scooby-Doo” became a ratings hit, Hanna Barbera pushed one rip off after the other with a group of kids solving mysteries paired with a goofy sidekick and scared hero. In spite of all that, this series has always been much more entertaining to sit through; “Josie and the Pussycats” is one of the hipper animated series to come from Hanna Barbera with genuinely entertaining comedic characters including the cute Melody who is so dumb and predates the lovable blonde airhead before Chrissy in “Three’s Company.” She was just much more entertaining to watch. And who can forget the catchy theme song that is hard to resist and easy to memorize?
Like “Scooby-Doo,” this series featured a group of traveling teens who always managed to stumble into mysteries and monsters. Excluding “Josie and the Pussycats in Outer Space,” this series had some of the more entertaining plots involving actual villains and creatures that didn’t inspire the predictable reveal in the end. Finally available on DVD in its entire sixteen episode run, “Josie and the Pussycats” involves the musical trio, their road manager, and a few of their friends getting into all sorts of adventures, and my, is it still fun. There’s nothing here to get too analytical about, because “Josie and the Pussycats” is pure fluffy pop culture animation keeping in touch with its Archie comics route.
Straying from its original source, it does benefit from some funny moments. Melody in spite of being cliché is also rather adorable to watch and makes some of the goofiest jokes that become an instant fixture for the series. Why this series also stands out among “Scooby-Doo” is because it also features Valerie, one of the first animated African American characters on a Saturday morning series; she’s often a character who is much more level headed and rational than the rest of the group, and is void of any racial clichés for the sake of comedy.
Like the other series of its time, “Josie…” is based around a formula storyline of the group stumbling into mysteries on their way to a gig, with hilarity ensuing, but the voice work is much too strong as well as the inevitable chase music usually sung by the gang; it’s predictable folly that’s also very charming, and that’s something that’s hard to come by. “Josie and the Pussycats” is a better series than “Scooby-Doo” for the strong voice work, and catchy music that’s an otherwise redeeming trait in a typically formula and cliché series that Hanna Barbera was accustomed to once “Scooby Doo” took off. It’s a great DVD treatment worth your buck, that’s for sure.