Most people born in the 1960s or later will be familiar with Scooby-Doo, the most recognized Great Dane in the world.
For those more advanced in years, think Enid Blyton's Famous Five; four young people continuously run into mysteries and then solve them with help from a talking dog.
Scooby-Doo fans have been gripped by the format for more than half a century but the twilight years may already be here.
Scooby on the Chopping Block
Last August, David Zaslav, President and CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, said the company had done a "reset" and would no longer release expensive films direct to streaming platforms. One of the first casualties was the almost complete Batgirl movie that reportedly went into company accounts as a tax write-off.
"We're not going to launch your movie until it's ready. We're not going to launch a movie to make a quota. And we're not going to put a movie out unless we believe in it," Zaslav said.
Batgirl was joined on the shelf by Scoob! Holiday Haunt, which cost $40 million and was almost finished. Scooby-Doo and the Haunted High Rise was also canned along with Scooby-Doo! and the Mystery Pups.
With reports suggesting that Scooby-Doo And Krypto Too! might meet the same fate, this weekend fans were thrown an unexpected but tasty Scooby snack.
Scooby-Doo And Krypto Too! Leaks Online
South Korean animation studio Digital eMation began work on Scooby-Doo And Krypto Too! in 2021 and stills from the film appeared online last year.
Then this weekend, amidst considerable uncertainty, the question of whether the film would ever see the light of day was answered when the entire show leaked online.
Screenshot of leaked copy
Nobody seems to know who leaked it, much less why, but Warner clearly doesn't want the film to be seen in public.
Warner Tries to Plug The Leaks
Whether the company intends to release the film or not, Warner's anti-piracy department is now working hard to take infringing copies down, including on YouTube where fans uploaded copies obtained elsewhere.
Twitter users who shared the excitement (and links to the leaked film) have also been targeted by Warner's takedown team. For reasons that aren't immediately clear, Brazilian Scooby-Doo fans appear to be among those most excited.
One slightly over-enthusiastic Twitter user found their account hit with five successive copyright complaints, presumably after posting links to pirate copies.
The question of who leaked the movie remains unanswered but two discussion platforms have been repeatedly mentioned as candidates for the first upload – Twitter and 4chan.
Initial Uploader Anonymous
While anything is possible, a post that appeared on 4chan Saturday afternoon has been attracting quite a lot of attention.
In 4chan tradition, a user under the name 'Anonymous' posted a link to the film and a screenshot, then disappeared.
At the time of writing the linked .mp4 file has been downloaded close to 6,000 times but that's from just one platform. Copies of the movie are now widely available elsewhere, including on various torrent sites.
Interestingly, the copies being shared via BitTorrent have a much larger file size than the 1.19GB variant linked by the poster on 4chan.
The Lumen Database currently lists other DMCA takedown notices targeting a full upload to Archive.org and a copy of the movie hosted on a Google Drive account.
Whether Warner will be able to identify the leaker is unknown. Right now, it looks like they've got another mystery on their hands.
From: TF, for the latest news on copyright battles, piracy and more.
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