Creator of Scooby-Doo dead at 81.

[Crube]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/6243717.stm

He was responsible for characters from The Flintstones and The Jetsons when he worked for the Hanna-Barbera studio.

And he assisted in the design of films including Peter Pan, 101 Dalmatians and Cinderella, during a career spanning more than six decades.

Mr Takamoto was a vice-president at Warner Bros Animation at the time of his death, caused by heart failure.

He said he created Scooby-Doo after talking to someone who looked after Great Danes.

Informal training

The dog breeder showed him pictures and "talked about the important points of a Great Dane, like a straight back, straight legs, small chin and such", Mr Takamoto explained.

"I decided to go the opposite [way] and gave him a hump back, bowed legs, big chin and such. Even his colour is wrong."

Mr Takamoto also created Fred, Velma, Shaggy and Daphne

The character was named after a scat-style phrase at the end of Frank Sinatra's song Strangers in the Night, which contained the phrase "dooby-doo".

Mr Takamoto - who also co-directed the 1973 film Charlotte's Web - was born in Los Angeles in 1925.

He received informal training in illustration techniques from fellow Japanese-Americans in a prison camp, where he spent part of World War II.

His death occurred less than a month after that of Hanna-Barbera co-founder Joseph Barbera, who was 95.

Mr Barbera's business partner, William Hanna, died in 2001.

[Nega-Brent]

Ruh-roh Shaggy!

[J-Stop]

Would it now be in bad taste to dress up as Takamoto's ghost and 'haunt' Warner Bros. until they give everyone back their money for those god-awful live action movies?

We can probably get away with it too if they don't hire any meddling kids.

[Tanni Foemangler]

zoinks.

[JeremyGEE]

I wish scooby woulda went with em.

[Natsu]

Damn well that sucks

[HappyLittleBoozer]

Now we can never ask the man if there was really any underlying drug imagery in the show and if Daphne and Fred were always knocking boots.

[darkon]

Now we can never ask the man if there was really any underlying drug imagery in the show and if Daphne and Fred were always knocking boots.

Do we need to actually ask to know the answer?

RIP

[HappyLittleBoozer]

Do we need to actually ask to know the answer?

RIP

I'd just like to know if it's intentional.

[Ceraziefish]

Don't worry, someone will find his notes and release a series he never finished, call it the "Scoobymarillion," and it will explain things we never even suspected existed in the setting.