Scooby-Doo (character)

Scoobert "Scooby"-Doo is the titular main protagonist of the Scooby-Doo franchise created by Hanna-Barbera studios. He is a large brown talking dog who remains a heavily iconic figure after all these years. His name was inspired by the scat "Dooby-dooby-doo" on the last line of Frank Sinatra's hit song, "Stranger in the Night."

Character Description
He is the mascott of the amateur slueth team, Mystery Inc., and usually serves as the comedic relief, alongside his owner and best friend, Shaggy Rogers, throughout the series. He has many of the same characteristics of his owner, such as obsessive eating and cowardice. Because of this he usually treated as a person by the gang; this, and that he talks! And, despite his cowardice, he is very useful to the group, and sometimes chases villains and catches them. But most of the time he won't go into dark creepy castles or haunted house without being bribed with one or two "Scooby Snacks" (sometimes stylized "Scooby Snax").

Scooby has a speech impediment, and usually talks with an 'r' before each word and originally talked only seldomly, making gestures when trying to convey a message. However in recent years, he is shown to speak in complete sentences, and talks with only a minor speech impediment.

Scooby has opposable thumbs, allowing him the pick up objects with his paws, like humans would with hands. He also displays bipedal characteristics, allowing him to stand on two legs, but he usually walks on all four legs. He wears an off-yellow, diamond shape-tagged blue collar with his initials "SD", and has four toes on each foot, and unlike other dogs has one sole pad on each foot. This was to make it easier to draw him.

Before animator Iwao Takamoto began designing Scooby, he spoke to breeders of Great Danes. They described to him what pedigree Great Danes looked like, and Takamoto decided to make Scooby look the exact opposite, drawing him with a hump back, bowed legs, small chin, and even the wrong color.

Scooby was voiced by Don Messick until his retirement in 1994, and briefly by Hadley Kay in 1997. He was then voiced by Scott Innes from 1998-2002, and is currently voiced by Frank Welker, who also provides the voice of Fred Jones on the series. In the two live action films, Scooby Doo and Scooby Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed, Scooby's voice is provided by Neil Fanning.