In the heart of Planet Snoopy at the storied Kings Island amusement park, there's a Scooby-Doo. Before they were the Woodstock Express, the coasters were themed to Scooby-Doo.

A recent Expedition Theme Park video dug into the history of Hanna-Barbera-themed parks and ended on a note that might catch fans' attention: a Scooby-Doo-themed coaster, originally installed in 1972, is still in action - but now branded as a Peanuts attraction.

This fun fact sticks out in part because of the inherent comedy of Woodstock following Scooby around instead of Snoopy, but he history is fascinating beyond the humor. Long after the Hanna-Barbera theme was stripped from the park, the Scooby-Doo coaster retained its name. But no one could have guessed what would happen next.

How Woodstock Ended Up Following in Scooby-Doo's Roller Coaster Footsteps

The History of Hanna-Barbera Land

The Expedition Theme Park video covered Hanna-Barbera Land in Houston, and that particular Scooby-Doo roller coaster had an interesting fate. While King's Island and some other parks built their own Scooby coasters before eventually rebranding, the Houston coaster was actually sold to California's Great America, where it became a Smurfs-themed ride, and then got themed for The Fairly OddParents, before Great American added Planet Snoopy. That's when it took on its final destiny by uniting animation and comics' two most famous canines. Along the way, other parks had similar trajectories.

Scooby-Doo may not have met Woodstock in any official Peanuts comic, but he's met plenty of other comic book characters, including in 2024's The Batman & Scooby-Doo Mysteries, available now from DC Comics.

The Kings Island and Kings Dominion coasters also had era where they were branded as the Scooby coaster and the Fairly OddParents ride before becoming Woodstock's Express. As one can imagine from all the chosen branding, the roller coaster is kid-friendly, sitting on a metal figure-8-style track and featuring fairly modest hills. It's fast; it's fun; but it's not so thrilling - at least not for the adults in the audience. The slow, low-impact pace might have contributed to the longevity of the coasters, which all launched in the 1970s and 1980s and are still active at the time of writing.

Scooby-Doo Is the Crossover King, Including with Peanuts

Even If It's Only in Roller Coaster Form

It's kind of funny to think of the idea of Woodstock hanging out with the "wrong" dog - but it's actually kind of a surprise that everyone's favorite bird sidekick hasn't ever met up with Scoob before. After all, it isn't as though Scooby-Doo hasn't been teaming up with everyone from Batman to Weird Al for about fifty years. The first big Scooby-Doo crossovers came during the heyday of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?, the first and still most-loved animated series featuring Mystery Inc. Over the years, Scooby has teamed up with dozens of pop culture icons in special episodes, TV movies, direct-to-video animated features, and, of course, comics.

Peanuts, on the other hand, has remained fairly self-contained as a franchise. When one considers that there have been dozens of movies and TV specials featuring the Peanuts gang, it's surprising that nobody has given into the temptation to cross over with any other big children's properties. That's particularly true now that new Peanuts shows and movies are coming from Apple TV+, which also makes shows like the new Fraggle Rock. There have been parodies and fan fiction, of course, but in of official Peanuts content, the closest fans have come to a true crossover are the Scooby-Doo / Woodstock roller coasters dotting the country.

Source: Expedition Theme Park