Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics (Blu-ray Review)

• Reviewed by: Tim Salmons
• Review Date: May 22, 2026
• Format: Blu-ray Disc

Director

Ray Patterson, Carl Urbano, Charles August Nichols

Release Date(s)

1977-1978 (March 31, 2026)

Studio(s)

Hanna-Barbera Productions (Warner Archive Collection)

• Film/Program Grade: C
• Video Grade: A-
• Audio Grade: A-
• Extras Grade: D+

Review

Television programming blocks were numerous in the 1970s right through to the 1990s, some of the more famous examples being The NBC Mystery Movie, TGIF, and The Disney Afternoon, among many others. Hanna-Barbera, the kings of television animation, even tried their hand a time or two, bringing together some of their popular shows under one banner. Spoofing the Olympic Games, which had just taken place in Montreal during the summer and Innsbruck during the winter the year before, as well as the highly popular Battle of the Network Stars TV show, Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics would see many of Hanna-Barbera’s animated characters competing with each other for the gold (a concept akin to their more popular and similarly-themed series Wacky Races from several years prior).

Though Scooby-Doo is given top billing since he was the company’s most popular character at the time (arguably, he still is), the Laff-A-Lympics features the likes of Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Shaggy and Scooby-Doo, Quick Draw McGraw, Wally Gator, Grape Ape, Captain Caveman, Hong Kong Phooey, Dynomutt, Pixie and Dixie, Speed Buggy, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy, and many others taking on their villainous adversaries. They include the Daltons, Dread Baron, Mumbly, the Great Fondoo, the Gruesomes, and Daisy Mayhem. There are also guest appearances by the Flintstones, Peter Potamus, and Jabberjaw, among many others.

Snagglepuss and Midlew Wolf take up commentary duties while also interviewing the participants, who travel around the world in three teams: the Scooby Doobies, the Yogi Yahooeys, and the Really Rottens. Each week they face off in several competitions and based upon the number of points that each team receives per event, they’re given gold, silver, and bronze medals. Of course, all of this is for cartoon hijinks and cheating, but even if the latter takes place, the judges take it into account. The games occur all over the world, from the Swiss Alps to Spain, to the Grand Canyon to Poland, and to just about anywhere else that you can think of.

Truthfully, Laff-A-Lympics isn’t quite as much fun as its predecessor Wacky Races, partially because this is the era when outside influences were affecting some of Hanna-Barbera’s content, meaning parents. Part of the fun of Wacky Races was just that, the wacky part, seeing all of the ways the various drivers would go up against each other to get ahead, and whatever happened didn’t necessarily affect the race. It’s hard to do that same sort of thing in an Olympics-type of setting, where that kind of outrageousness, not to mention cheating, is less tolerated. Still, it’s fun seeing all of these characters get together for something as ambitious as this, even if it isn’t as entertaining as it perhaps could have been under different circumstances.

This is where the overall programming block comes in, which would also feature new episodes of Captain Caveman and the Teen Angels, The Scooby-Doo Show, and Dynomutt, Dog Wonder, even interspersing re-runs of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Twenty-four episodes of Laff-A-Lympics were produced, sixteen of which made up the first season of the show. The second season, re-titled Scooby’s All Stars, featured eight more, but with re-runs from the first season as well. Each episode was split into two parts, with one coming at the beginning of the programming block and the second toward the end. It was a decent success, and was later divided up for different markets over the years and included in different packages, leading to some confusion among those who weren’t there the first time around about which shows came first and in what form. Today, Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics survives not just as another Hanna-Barbera creation, but also as an interesting cultural artifact... and is perhaps more appreciated now than it was then.

Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics was produced using traditional cel animation on 35mm film, finished photochemically, and presented theatrically in the aspect ratio of 1.33:1. The Warner Archive Collection brings all 24 episodes with 48 segments total to Blu-ray for the first time, presumably restored from their original camera negatives (though not entirely), and encoded to three dual-layered BD-50 discs. Over nine hours of content is spread across the three discs, and though they were likely restored prior to Warner Archive’s involvement with them, they look great. Bitrates for each episode sits in the 30 to 35Mbps range, allowing for high levels of detail in every frame. There does appear to be some grain management applied, but nothing that compromises the quality of the animation. The line art is crisp and colors are rich, with deep blacks and excellent contrast. The image is also stable and organic. However, it’s worth mentioning that every episode features the opening credits from the first season of the show under its original title, whereas the closing credits are taken from the second season with the re-branded title Scooby’s All Stars, which are partially derived from lower resolution materials with digitally re-created credits. Despite these minor flaws, it looks terrific.

Audio is included in English 2.0 mono DTS-HD Master Audio with optional subtitles in English SDH. Levels are consistent from one episode to the next, more so than most of Warner Archive’s releases of animated content. Fidelity is generally excellent with fine support for dialogue, sound effects, and composer Hoyt Curtin’s score. Everything sounds clean with no issues to speak of.

The Warner Archive Collection’s 3-Disc Blu-ray release of Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics is housed in a blue Amaray case with artwork taken from the 2010 Volume 2 DVD release. The following episodes (with their original air dates) are included, plus one extra:

DISC ONE (SEASON 1 – EPISODES 1-8)

1. The Swiss Alps and Tokyo, Japan (September 10, 1977) (23:14)
2. Acapulco and England (September 17, 1977) (23:39)
3. Florida and China (September 24, 1977) (23:49)
4. The Sahara Desert and Scotland (October 1, 1977) (23:33)
5. France and Australia (October 8, 1977) (23:53)
6. Athens, Greece and The Ozarks (October 15, 1977) (23:49)
7. Italy and Kittyhawk, North Carolina (October 22, 1977) (23:55)
8. Egypt and Sherwood Forest (October 29, 1977) (23:51)

DISC TWO (SEASON 1 – EPISODES 9-16)

9. Spain and The Himalayas (November 5, 1977) (23:44)
10. India and Israel (November 12, 1977) (23:42)
11. Africa and San Francisco (November 19, 1977) (23:45)
12. Grand Canyon and Ireland (November 26, 1977) (23:46)
13. Hawaii and Norway (December 3, 1977) (23:43)
14. North Pole and Tahiti (December 10, 1977) (23:52)
15. Arizona and Holland (December 17, 1977) (23:53)
16. Quebec and Baghdad (December 24, 1977) (24:00)

DISC THREE (SEASON 2 – EPISODES 17-24)

17. Russia and the Caribbean (September 9, 1978) (23:59)
18. New York and Istanbul, Turkey (September 16, 1978) (23:58)
19. South America and Transylvania (September 23, 1978) (23:48)
20. French Riviera and New Zealand (September 30, 1978) (24:06)
21. New Orleans and Atlantis (October 7, 1978) (24:05)
22. Morocco and Washington, D.C. (October 14, 1978) (24:07)
23. Canada and Warsaw, Poland (October 21, 1978) (24:06)
24. Siam and the Moon (October 28, 1978) (24:06)

• Scooby-Doo! Spooky Games (HD – 23:14)

The bonus cartoon was included as part of the 2012 DVD release of Scooby-Doo! Laff-A-Lympics: Spooky Games collection, featuring a handful of original Laff-A-Lympics episodes and the newly-produced Spooky Games. It’s basically a standard episode of Scooby-Doo!, but it’s not a bad one. The premise being that the mystery-solving gang are invited to London to participate in the World Invitational Games, but the festivities are spoiled when an oversized golden Fortius statue comes to life to terrorize them. Needless to say, it’s another mystery for the gang.

It’s worth nothing that the episodes Smart House and Mystery of the Missing Mystery Solvers of Shaggy & Scooby-Doo Get a Clue! were included on the Volume 1 and Volume 2 DVD releases respectively. While some of the Marvel Comics/Hanna-Barbera comic books could have been included as extras, Warner Archive’s Blu-ray release of Scooby’s All Star Laff-A-Lympics is still more than welcome. For longtime Hanna-Barbera fans, this comes highly recommended.

- Tim Salmons

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