Despite 'The Scooby Doo Show' being a big personal favourite when younger (am still immensely fond of it, wouldn't be reviewing all of its episodes recently so passionately if not so), there were episodes that didn't click with me when younger and "Jeepers It's the Jaguaro" was one of them. The Jaguaro and the climax are memorable, but the mystery isn't really, some of it confused me and even as a child the sloppiness of the writing was difficult to ignore or forgive.
"Jeepers It's the Jaguaro" sadly fares pretty much the same as a young adult, and actually the flaws are even bigger today than as a younger fan. It is not a terrible or unwatchable episode, it never has been, and has its moments and interest points, but it is a very problematic and frustrating one in my view and not just one of Season 3's worst but one of the show's worst too (others are worse but that doesn't stop me being indifferent to the episode). It just doesn't come together.
Will start with the good. The Jaguaro is one of the show's most memorable villains, both the appearance and roar were frightening as a child and still creeps me out. The climax is one of the most tense of the whole show, not many climaxes of the franchise had this degree of danger and it was as scary as the Jaguaro. The natives manage to be every bit as scary and bring a darkness to the episode, one part on the too dark side for the show though, which is what sets the episode apart from the rest. Thematically, although some may be too distracted by the flaws to notice, "Jeepers It's the Jaguaro" is one of the show's darkest with not many episodes going to this amount of great lengths Shaggy and Scooby especially go through in order to survive.
Shaggy and Scooby are as amusing and loveable as ever, also felt sorry for them here, and one of the biggest surprises here was seeing more of Fred's resourceful and cunning side. Having the advantage of having one of 'The Scooby Doo Show's' most exotic locations, the animation is vibrant and the quality has come on a good deal, with there being more finesse than in the previous two seasons. The music is nostalgic but also more elaborate. Love the theme song, one of the franchise's best. The voice acting for the gang is fine.
That for the supporting characters is another story sadly. When it comes to the top 3 'The Scooby Doo Show' episodes with the worst or un-authentic accents, "Jeepers It's the Jaguaro" has to be on the list along with "A Highland Fling is a Monstrous Thing" (which was actually not a bad episode at all otherwise) and "The Warlock of Wimbledon". Barney especially sounds out of place in terms of not being sure where he is supposed to be from. It's not just the accents though, the supporting voice actors sounded as if they were not interested in what they were given. Some amusing moments with Shaggy and Scooby aside, the writing here is sloppy, with a few tone-deaf observations that some may deem culturally insensitive.
Along with the non-Brazilian accents, the numerous basic inaccuracies regarding the wildlife and culture make the time and place even more confused. Also felt that the Jaguaro and Shaggy and Scooby's subplot were much more interesting than the mystery. Which to me has always been dull and forgettable. Capped off by a mess of a final solution where everything is explained, which is not only not a surprise at all in any way (as the responsible's guilt is not in any doubt even before the halfway mark) it also doesn't make sense to the point of impossibility with two major holes in the plot concerning the perpetrator, even worse than the ending of "A Creepy Tangle in the Bermuda Triangle" for similar reasons except it's done worse here. Everything with the plane landing and sabotage immediately raises suspicion, unrealistically too easy in the case of the former and too much of a risk with the latter.
In summary, watchable but heavily flawed. 5/10.
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