We open on a dark castle atop a mountain in the Himalayas, set to creepy organ music. A cartoon version of horror film star Vincent Price gives the poem:
Once upon a midnight dreaming,
I woke up to a ghostly screaming
so I gazed into the crystal ball
to see what was new
and what I watched was truly shocking
the Chest of Demons; it was unlocking
unlocking the Thirteen Ghosts of Scooby Doo!
TO ALL THE GHOULS I'VE LOVED BEFORE
We now enter the castle, and pan through it, and are introduced to the dopey, comedy relief regular ghosts, Weird and Bogel (classic voices Howard Morris and Arte Johnson), and the glowing Chest of Demons, whose occupants, mad and raring to get out, hate them (likely because of their bungling nature), but they think might love them if they set them free. Problem is only the living can open the chest. They sense that the living are coming, and are "the stupidest on earth". We now make a visual focus on a plane, the flying Mystery Machine (the gang sure has moved up, and now once again just the foursome of Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy and Daphne), and Shaggy thinking he's seeing the "white sandy beaches" of Honolulu! (Daphne: "Look again, Lindbergh, that's not sand; it's snow!" Scrappy: "Who's the wise guy that moved Hawaii?"). Navigator Scooby thought "Himalayas" on the map was "Honolulu". (Shaggy: "What's the difference?" Daphne: "About 7000 miles!" Weird takes off his head and fires a little "black magic" that shoots up to the plane and removes the fuel cap. (As they begin losing altitude, Scooby's chattering teeth nibbles Shaggy's hair to a tomahawk! Scooby inflates his huge rubber duckie, which will become a regular feature this season!)
Meanwhile, the townspeople of Yursilvania are pursuing a haggling little miscreant, Flim Flam, who even then is selling them his "Lotsa Luck Joy Juice". The plane lands running right down the street, and Flim Flam escapes the mob by grabbing onto Scooby's rubber duckie, and it lands in front of the castle. Flim Flam meets the gang and tries to sell them a bottle. Weird and Bogel somehow pull the plane into the castle (through normal sized doors! How they do this is not shown). The kids and Flim Flam end up in court, and ordered to leave the town. When they come outside, they find the plane gone, grabbed inside the temple. (Bogel had mistakenly locked the door, when they wanted the gang to come in).
Flim Flam tells them about his mystic friend (and takes them to him); Vincent Van Ghoul, who is having supper (at his cauldron. Shaggy" I hope we're not the main course!") He looks on his crystal ball and sees where the plane has been taken, and says they must not go there, because of the "e-vil" that lurks within, which had also put a curse on the town, that each night when the moon rises, the townspeope turn into werewolves. The mayor and others are hearing this conversation, and now, instead of wanting them to leave before sundown, "we can NEVER let them leave!" Now the mayor stops and and has them watch the stage show, the vampire Ghoulio, who sings "To All the Ghouls I've Loved Before". He serves Daphne wolfsbane. She doesn't believe in werewolves, and to a howl, Shaggy asks "then what was that, the blue bird of happiness?" Ghoulio and everyone else in the town begin turning into werewolves, including Daphne (we start getting a bit of original 1969 score at this point). They duck into a manhole, but Daphne ducks in behind them. Flim Flam gives her some of his Lotsa Luck Joy Juice which turns her back to normal. ("Another satisfied customer!" We also get a nice hug between Shaggy and Daphne!)
Bogel jackhammers a hole in the door. When Shaggy sees it; "And there's a hole in your head if you think we're going in there!" The only other choice is to say out there, with the werewolves approaching (Now, a commonly recurring 1978 action piece plays), but they break through. Weird and Bogel take note of Shaggy and Scooby, who "look particularly stupid", and that they're the perfect ones to open the Chest of Demons. Flim Flam gives the werewolves his joy juice, turning them back to normal. The mayor explains that many years ago, the townspeople captured the thirteen most hideous ghosts in the world, who were placed in a chest within the crypt of this temple, and before it was locked, the curse was placed on the town. Shaggy and Scooby are sneaking to find the exit (A 1972 "Scooby Doo Comedy Movies" transitional piece is playing now), and open the door to find a game show, "Let's Make A Squeal" hosted by "Haunty Maul" (Weird, with Bogel as the female assistant), offering a brand new car. They can trade the car for what's behind curtain #1, the Flying Mystery Machine ("Hey! That's OUR plane!"). Door 2 is a "doggy dream house" (shaped like a hydrant, and with a big bowl of bones in front). The other choice: "THE BOX" (i.e. The Chest of Demons; "There's something inside this box that's so amazing, so incredible, so astounding, it will TAKE YOUR BREATH away!"). They cut to a break so they can decide.
The others have looked everywhere for the plane. Flim Flam mentions Vincent knowing where it is, and he appears before them ("Of course I know where it is; I'm a mystic! I know all") The plane is downstairs in the crypt of darkness, "taken there by two spirits whose only goal is to lure unsuspecting poeople down there to open the Chest of Demons. Fortunately, no one but a complete fool would ever open that awful box". Flim Flam adds "Yeah, noone but a complete dodo, a coocoo bird, a total loon". Which reminds Daphne of Shaggy and Scooby. (Even Scrappy says "uh, oh!") Back downstairs, they have to decide. They debate as the the plane or the house, and when decided, suddenly choose, in unison, "THE BOX!", based on a "dumb hunch" (Weird: "Well let's just see how 'dumb' your hunch is!") The others come running (a bit of 1968 score commonly used on Scooby, such as when the walls close in on them in "Night of Fright is no Delight", plays), Scrappy says "Uncle Scooby, Don't open the...", just as they do ("never mind!"), and a fiery pillar emerges from the chest, and then forms a demonic looking head, and turns into something like a steamroller that first runs over Weird and Bogel (who thought they were coming to "thank" them, and the flattened ghosts still say "your welcome!"), and then bursts out of the temple, and then takes to the sky, scattering and looking just like red sperm!
Vincent explains what they're up against now, (more 1969 score plays) and that they have to be returned to the chest by the ones who opened it; "namely, YOU!" (sticking his finger on Shaggy's nose). He gives them a crystal ball to contact him, as they'll be needing his help. And Flim Flam is coming with them; him and Scrappy in the pilot's seats of the plane ("I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship!") The plane has no gas, but no problem, Flim Flam uses Lotsa Luck Joy Juice. They fly off, Vincent wishing them "Happy ghost hunting", and Weird and Bogel riding on the outside of the plane, saying "Aloha!", as they will be aiding the ghosts thereafter.
•Daphne has an all new outfit, and hairstyle (and really her face is redesigned as well), and Shaggy's shirt is orange (and this will be used to represent "classic Shaggy" in the movie "Scooby and the Cyber Chase", when his regular shirt will be green again), in addition to the gang's own private plane now.
•So now we have a new (second) young "annoying Cousin Oliver" character who will be a regular, after Scrappy, long established and softened down from what he was when he first debuted. A lot of people who hate Scrappy also dislike him, and both have been made bad characters in modern productions, though they are still harder on Scrappy, who in this series is nothing like the brat people remembered him as! A lot of people still do like the concept of the show, however.
•Here we see the ultimate fruition of Shaggy and Scooby as total idiots. Even Scrappy, who previously believed only highly of his uncle, agrees with Daphne that they are the "fools", "dodos", "total loons", etc. who will be tricked into opening the chest.
•The show is a mixture of new score, and some of the Scrappy era '79-84 score, and on occasion, they will even bring out 1968-78 score.
•This marks the return of Howard Morris to Hanna Barbera cartoons in about 20 years. He had done several voices in the '60s, the main ones being Atom Ant, Mr. Peebles (Magilla Gorilla), Mushmouse, and Breezly Bruin (from Magilla-related series'). Around '65-6, he reportedly had a falling out with Hanna Barbera, and quit doing voices for them; and worked mainly at rival studio Filmation on characters such as Jughead (The Archies), and several Groovie Goolies; most notably Mummy, whom Bogel sounds 100% identical to, including the frequent “dontchaknow". The final (1966) seasons of those HB shows, Don Messick took over the first two (with voices not too different from Scrappy), though Morris continued the others through that season. By the 1980's, things had apparently cooled down enough. He was actually on the long list of auditionees for the original Scrappy Doo in 1979!
We pan in on the temple, Vincent chants "I seek the spirits that will not rest, the 13 ghosts from the deee-mon chest. By the vapors of Avishnu. I found one, and the dark power of the spirit is beyond belief!" Now we cut to the gang, and not only do they have a "Flying Mystery Machine", but an all new ground van as well! (All red, with a stylized "MM" integrated into the gray stripe on the outside, and all sorts of high tech gadgetry inside). Vince appears in a hologram, and tells them they are closing in one one of the 13 ghosts, Maldor the Maleficent, master of black magic from the dark ages. He seeks the Wonder Wand of Zacras. They don't need to find him, he'll find them, but they should head for the castle of Princess Esmeralda, where the Wonder Wand is hidden. They read the map, which bursts into flame, and it's Maldor, daring them, and he disappears. In the castle, Maldor has Esmeralda in a sleep. Scooby pulls a brake cord on the van, which stops them, and run out into a forest containing monster trees. Everything in the forest is evil; even a rabbit scooby plays with, who then grows into a huge dragon.
We now get the start of a new comedy feature we'll see heavily in the next series: "news flashes"; here called "Special Editorial from Scooby Doo News". Shaggy is the anchor, snd he cuts to correspondent Scrappy, at "the Department of Television No-no's". He's there with TV "No-no" expert Loretta Cutitout, who cautions about the use of fire in the scene with the fire breathing dragon. Scrappy asks "You got smething against dragons?", and then the dragon is there with them, being defended by him, and he cries, and Scooby enters and plays the violin. Scrappy continues "What's he going to do? He's got to eat; he's got a family to feed; have YOU been down to the unemplyment office lately?" By now, she's crying. Cut back to Shaggy, with the dragon next to him, and we "rejoin our program already in progress".
They try several bits with the dragon, and then lose him. They now appear before Maldor. Now, in the storyline, we get Scrappy again acting like an attorney in a court case with Flim Flam, now grilling Scooby himself, on the stand. He then jumps in Maldor's lap crying, but Maldor throws them all in a cell anyway. In the cell with them is Zagras the wizard, who has lost the wand, and was locked up for not telling Maldor where it was. He says there's no way out, but Flim Flam points to a brightly lit exit with bright lights and signs and all (more of this wacky humor we shall see more of, to come!) He puts his glasses on, then they push their way out (it turns out to be a revolving door). Daphne lands in a case, next to the one Esmerald is in (Maldor: "Welcome to my slumber party!") and now Daphne will join her in "the sleep of ages". Scooby and Shaggy are making "Scooby stew", and Scooby takes what looks like a jewel studded ladle out of a drawer, but it starts creating magic in the pot, such as several rabbits and an elephant coming out of it.
They, and Flim Flam and Scrappy come back together, and find Maldor casting the sleep spell on Daphne, and he fires a ray at them, but it bounces off of Scooby's ladle. It's actually the Wonder Wand! He then begs Scooby "Here doggy, good doggy, here boy, give me the wand", etc. He fires a ray that puts a hole in the wall allowing Scooby to escape. Confronted by Maldor outside, who activates one of the monster trees, Scooby remembers the wizard telling him "in the right hand, the wand fills the world with beauty". The wand now turns it into an apple tree, and the dragon back into a rabbit. Meanwhile, nothing the others do can wake Daphne. Maldor grows to an immense size and turns Scooby into a fly, and then Maldor turns himself into a frog. Flim Flam gets the chest and scoops him up in it. Scrappy turns Scooby back to normal size with the wand, but he still has a fly's wings and eyes, and sees multiple images. Whe wizard thanks them for saving his kingdom. The spell can only be broken by the kiss of a great danish prince. Scooby's enters, back to normal, and dressed as a prince, and he's a Great Dane ("That's close enough!"), and licks Daphne, waking her up, and then Esmeralda, who (veiled) turns out to be a female Scooby-like dog who chases him, saying "My prince!" "And so sweet prince we bid adieu to the thirteen ghosts of Scooby Doo!"
•Several new comedy features are tried out here, and this will pick up in "A Pup Named Scooby Doo"
"As darkness falls, and creatures of night howl and shout, the wind in silent whispers warns that trouble soon will be about" chants Vincent (to some 1969 score), and he hears a noise, and his crystal ball is on the floor cracked. He asks "who could have done this?", and "Why?" and we see a Shadow Demon hop out the window. The gang is driving in the new Mystery Machine, and Scrappy picks up something on the "Specter detector". They enter a coal mine, which is apparently loaded with "ectoplasm" (i.e. what ghosts are made of). Shaggy: "Like I always thought that ghosts were made of nothing!" Daphne says "Some ghosts are simply shadows", and then Scooby is afraid of his own. He has every reason to, as it turns into the shadow demon. They follow him and he causes the rope bridge they are on to fall, and grabs the chest. They land in a mine car on a severed track, but some stalactites fill in the gap.
They realize they have lost the chest, and toss the crystal ball around to each other like a hot potato, for fear of having to tell Vincent. Flim Flam decides to tell "Old Vince", but when he finally gets through to him, he's nervous and unusually reverent: "Uh, Vince; I mean Mr. Van Ghoul, sir...". In all his years of dealing with the macabre, he's never screamed, but this does make him scream. He tells them the ghosts will convene and try to destroy the chest before the sun rises, which is when they will lose their powers. They have to go to Befuddle Manor, and he starts to tell them something else, but the crystal ball reception goes (Flim Flam sticks a screw driver in it, and then Vincent's face is upside down, then it goes completely dead). What he needed to tell them was that parts of the manor are like a maze; those who enter never get out alive.
They arrive, and Flim Flam wants to pose as exterminators, and so allows mice to run into a hole to make sure they need one. They lady of the house lets them in, along with her hog-sized pet spider Griswold (who snickers like Muttley. Shaggy "If he's your pet; I'd hate to see what the real bugs are like!"). Scrappy says getting in was easy, and she reveals behind their backs, that she's really a vampiress, and "It's getting out that's impossible!" and turns into a bat. They see the shadow demon and pursue him. He splits into two, splitting the gang up down different halls. Scrappy Daphne and Flim Flam get trapped in a room (Flim Flam doesn't know the meaning of the word fear, except for begging, terrifed, at the idea of calling Vincent again!) The crystal ball still isn't working, so Vincent leaves on his magic carpet to come to them.
Shaggy and Scooby "have the shadow demon on the run" (he's chasing them), and suddenly, they find themselve on a stage, and then go into a song and dance routine with the demon, of "Me and My Shadow Demon". Scrappy bangs on the crystal ball (like he says Scooby does to the TV), and it projects a hologram of a train that actually bursts out of the room, allowing them to escape. They arive on stage as Shaggy and Scooby's act ends and the demon disappears, but then the bat flies in, and becomees the vampiress, introducing herself as Queen Morbidia, and the audience as monsters, and the gang, not as her guests, but as her prisoners, for eternity. (A 1976 "Scooby Doo Show" era piece, not used since that show, plays). She demands the chest of demons, and knows nothing about a shadow demon (whom they thought she sent to take the chest).
The monsters drag the gang into a prison, and Griswold begins pursuing them (Scooby gets caught in his web, but the shadow demon actually slings him free). They follow the demon through the maze as Griswold pursues (sounding just like a "Scooby Doo Comedy Movie" at this point, both 1969 and 1972 score, the latter not used since that show, play during this period). Griswold has caught up to them from the ceiling, and then the shadow demon enters, but turns out to be the shadow of a little man, Byron Befuddle, who built the place as his home, and had been waiting for them. His shadow, the demon appears beside him, and he controls it like a dog. He came to life when Morbidia came and took over. He had the demon take the chest to bring them there to get him out of the maze (and sent him to break Vincent's crystal ball so he woudn't stop them from coming there). The demon can pass through walls, "But when I try to do it, I hurt myself!"
Griswold breaks through the wall, and Byron takes them to where he hid the chest; Queen Morbidia's bed chamber! Morbidia enters (the recurring lone '78 suspense piece plays) and the gang has to run down several flights of stairs with Griswold in hot purssuit. Rather than being the basement, they are somehow at the top of the tower! Van Ghoul arrives outside the window, and they all ride the carpet, but then the weight is too much for it. They end up trapped on a narrow cliff, Morbidia takes the chest, and they realize they have to stall until the sunrise. So their "last word" is to sing a song, "Good Night, Ghoulies". Scooby holds one long final note, as everyone begins playing games, including Morbidia herself. He loses his breath as Vincent counts down the last three seconds to sunrise. The monsters all scatter, and she herself collapses into just her cape, which Flim Flam desposits into the chest.
"And now it is the the time of light; say farewell to the night, happily we greet the sun, bringer of laughter, joy and fun".
Flim Flam confesses to "having a little accident" with the other crystal ball, which is now also cracked. He has Scooby take him on Vincent's magic carpet to the Mystic Repair Shop, which is 1000 miles away. Vincent is slow catching on, and then yells "Flim Flam!" as they fly off!
•The title and song are a parody of the old standard "Me and My Shadow", written by Billy Rose and Al Jolson, and performed by Frank Sinatra with Sammy Davis Jr; and also Judy Garland, Peggy Lee, etc. The song originally stretched the word "shadow", but Shaggy and Scooby now unstretch it to squeeze the word "demon" in
•The episode fools us, as you would think it was obvious the shadow demon would be today's ghost, from the Chest of Demons, but it turned out to the shadow of the victim of the ghost, and the person who looked like the victim was actually the ghost herself
•This episode brings out the whole range of older stock Scooby music from 1969-78. The 1972 piece can be heard on episodes like "Frickert Fracas" when Shaggy, Scooby, Johnathan Winters and the scarecrow pop up in the hay in the barn.
"In Marrakesh, where swami's dwell, there stands a rather posh hotel. It's there our heroes hope to find, a wicked ghost with evil mind"
The gang arrives at the hotel where there is a paranormal convention, where they were to meet Vincemt, "to grab a ghostie". Scrappy aggressively charges in looking for the ghost. (When Daphne introduuces them as "the Scooby Doo Party", the concierge respects "the fanous Scooby Doo" and then gives them their room). Weird and Bogel, watching reveal the telegram that told the gang to meet there was phony, and "once they check in, they won't check out!" Suddenly, one of the maids preparing the room is sucked into the mirror. The ghost, in the mirror, chews out Weird and Bogel (and fires rays at them) for the wrong mortals being sucked in when it was supposed to be Scooby and friends. Vincent calls for the gang on a crystal ball at a crystal ball stand. He tells them he didn't send the telegram, and that it's a trap. Weird and Bogel are carrying the mirror toward them. Scooby gets sucked into a vacu-spook, and when ejected, crashes into the two ghosts with the mirror and destroys the area. Flim Flam had been haggling with its owner, and he gives it to him for free when he sees several angry people running their way.
They return to their room (1313), and the concierge and other maid is blaming them for the evil mirror. Scrappy and Flim Flam disguise as detectives who are arresting the gang. They look for an amulet Vincent told them would help them. One peddler calls them over and hands Daphne an amulet, with illegible writing, then runs away. She doesn't even know what to do with it. The ghosts disguise themselves and lead the others, who end up doing a song and dance of "Give 'em the Old Flim Flam", while they bring the mirror close to them, but they end up getting two other people (and chewed out by the ghost again). They find Daphne outside, and then go back inside and try to sneak up to get the vacu-spook without the concierge knowing, but he's right behind them. When the clock strikes 12, they begin celebrating New Year's, which fools the concierge and his guards until he notices the calendar too late ("I love New Year's! —except in June!") They split up, and Shaggy and Scooby duck into a room with Weird and Bogel in disguise. They dress them up as females and have them look at themselves in the evil mirror, and then Daphne arrives, and all three get sucked in!
They are now trapped in a warped dimension where the laws of reality don't work. One of the other people who was sucked in mentions the amulet they saw Daphne looking for, and she remembers, and now in the backward dimension, she can read the previously backwards message: "Mirror, mirror, magic portal, open up for this poor mortal". This frees all of them, and outside, Scrappy and Flim Flam are disguised as the maids, and use the vacu-spook, sucking in the ghost who was about to destroy all of them. The cowardly two ghosts flee, and the mirror dissolves and turns into the missing maid. The gang wins the Ghost-catcher of the Year award, given by the earlier peddler, who was really Vincent. He used the disguise because "My presence here might have scared off the demon, and we wouldn't have wanted that, would we?" Flim Flam tries to accept the trophy when it's really for Scooby, and then to answer "the secret of their success", they all break back into the top hats for an encore of "Give 'em the Old Flim Flam".
•Weird and Bogel return after being absent the last two episodes
•The vacu-spook is used instead of the Chest of Demons. This is similar to the Ghostbusters
•When the peasant (Vincent in disguise) hands them the amulet, one person standing nearby looks like the 1967 genie superhero Shazzan, except for being colored blue instead of red
"From dawn to dusk, Scooby Doo and his friends, pursue foul demons to the living ends, but when work is done, like you and me, the gang settles down to watch late night TV". In this case, the 'Spine-tingler movie", hosted by Zomba "the Son of the Bride of the Ghost of Frankenstein". (Vincent watches from his crystal ball, but then transports himself in with the pop. Scooby drags the Chest of Demons up the stairs to lock away for the night (and has to put on the security system). He slips and activates the sensors, and is almost crushed by a 20 ton weight. Suddenly, Zomba casts a spell that draws everyone into the TV.
We now see an imitation MGM logo with Scooby instead of the lion. It reads "Limitus animatus", and "Ranna Rarrera Extravaganza", and the gang is now in the movie they were watching, in a dark black & white cemetery. It's now clear Zomba is one of the 13 spirits from the chest, which she is going to find, and release her fellow spirits. Dr. Frankenstein and Igor quit, giving the roles to Scooby and Scrappy as the villagers with torches approach. (Later, we see Daphne as the bride of "Frankenscoob", and Shaggy as the constable who will put a stop to his experiments). Meanwhile, Zomba, in our world, has found the room where the chest is hidden and blasts away the door, but like Scooby, slips on his rubber duckie toy, setting off the security system, which tosses her out, at first, but she does get back in and shows Vincent on the crystal ball that she has the chest. However, this is an empty fake, and Flim Flam has the real one, but as soon as he gloats about this, she appears where he and Vincent are, and chases them. In the movie, Frankenscoob creates a dog-like monster that chases them, and Flim Flam enters as the director saying that was the worst acting ever, and then gives him makeup (1978 and 1969 score plays).
Zomba is coming, and Flim Flam tricks her into going into a door to be grabbed by the monster, but she just disappears out of his clutches. Vincent is trying to heat up a crystal that might get them out. A bolt of lightning is what they need, but Flim Flam adds too much power, and it overloads and blows, causing a ceiling collapse, pinning Frankenscoob's monster. He eats Scooby Snacks (to the tune of Popeye eating his spinach!) and becomes a muscular hero that removes the beams, creating a doghouse from them, and freeing the monster who is now like a pet. Zomba appears and chases them to the windmill. The others realize the only other way of escape is the demon chest, which will break the spell when Zomba is trapped. Zomba, Scooby and Shaggy spin on the wheel, with the chest, which is captured by Scrappy, and Zomba is eventually tossed into the chest. The gang is suddenly back at home, in front of the TV. However, the Frankensscoob monster has come with them, and in the kitchen eating "Frankenscooby snacks". Scooby: "That's my boy!" Both: "Franken-Scooby Doo!"
•The security alarm is a sound commonly heard (once exclusively) in Filmation shows (generally for things like computers, and the Fantastic Voyage machine), but in the 80's, the different studios have been interchanging different sound effects
"Scooby this Scooby ghost chaser supreme; those monsters and ghouls have made our dog scream. His courage is gone, he no longer has any; because Scooby Doo has seen one ghost too many".
The gang is at a travel agency trying to book a trip, to calm Scooby's nerves; being a total wreck, clinging onto a chair. (He even hallucinates, seeing a monster in a fish tank, which is really a China travel poster beind the tank. He's also scared by Shaggy in a mask for Africa). Weird and Bogel, hiding in a plant, point out this trip, rather than relaxing Scooby, will scare him out of his wits.
They are now on the cruise (the Chest of Demons is among their luggage). Captain Ferguson welcomes them, and Flim Flam appoints himself First Mate. Weird and Bogel torment Scooby all throughout the trip, including appearing to him. Vincent tells them his spectral chart indictes spirit activity aboard the ship. They have to keep this from Scooby. They follow this over the crystal ball, to the bridge, where the Captain should be, but instead, "nobody" (who may be a "somebody with no body; a ghost") is steering it. The captain enters, and tells them the automatic pilot is steering the ship, heading for Bermuda, at 70°W and 27°N. The coordinates sound familiar to Vincent. The captain invites the gang to dinner with him, but not even the mention of food can get Scooby to go. Flim Flam talks him into a dream world where he's floating and relaxed. When he snaps his fingers, he then continues floating through the real world. Vincent realizes the coordinates are for the Bermuda Triangle. We see the ship approaching a stormy sea.
At the dinner, the captain welcomes them to the 50th reunion of the ship's final cruise. (Scooby is basically oblivious to everything said now). 50 years ago, the ship sank. (Shaggy thinks it's a joke). The captain unmasks, and is the travel agent, and, being transparent, also a ghost. (Scooby: "Ghosts! I laugh at ghosts!") Everyone on the ship is in fact a ghost. The ship now turns into the seaweed covered wreck it really is, as the ghosts chase the gang. They have to keep Scooby quiet without telling him why, so they tell him they're playing hide and seek, and don't want the captain to find them. Vincent tells them where they're heading, and further reveals that once the ship enters the triangle, the demon chest will burst open, freeing the spirits. Daphne says not if they can get into the bridge and turn the ship around. Now they tell Scooby they're playing football, and the captain's bridge marks the touchdown, so he dresses up as a player, and runs for the goal, and ends up twirling on the wheel.
The ship is very close to the triangle (which is actually marked on the water), and the chest is starting to open. The ship crosses the line, and the chest opens, releasing a one eyed, many tentacled whirlwind embodiment of the spirits. Even Weird and Bogel flee from it, and it even engulfs the other ghosts, who are on their side. The gang runs into the movie theatre, and when the ghosts enter through the screen, Scooby thinks it's a 3D movie, and even wears his red and green 3D glasses. The crystal ball is dropped, and the transporter, which they couldn't get to work before, finally works, bringing Vincent onto the scene. He transports the ship out of the triangle. So now, the chest can be locked again, and Flim Flam takes it to Scooby, to perform his "magic trick". He's on stage as "Scooby the Magnificient", and jumps into the chest himself. The ghost follows, and Scooby, back outside, slams it shut.
What they didn't count on, was that since the ghosts are defeated, their ship is defeated as well, and it simply disappears, leaving them to fall into the ocean (while Scooby floats down, and inflates his rubber duckie raft). When someone snaps, he comes to, as his frightened self again, and uses his tail to propel the raft from an approaching shark (who is really Weird and Bogel with a fake fin, but then they themselves are chased off by a cartooney huge real shark!)
•The chest is actually opened, and the ghosts released, but as one single entity, sort of like in the beginning. The chest being opened is usually dreaded as the undoing of all their work, and also, the destruction of the world (as Vincent even warned here) but the ghosts did not scatter again, they stayed in that form, which was easily captured.
•This episode has an element of the old mystery format, as the villain poses as someone else, and then "unmasks" himself. The actual ghost, as presumably a member of the 13, is never named or given an identity aside from the human guises
A SPOOKY LITTLE GHOUL LIKE YOU
We zoom in on earth from space, to a New Orleans parade, and Weird and Bogel sitting in from of the Wart& Warlock Hotel, where they've been waiting for us, and for their new boss. The gang is inside, watching Vincent be selected Warlock of the Year. Nikara arrives in a limo, and one look at her puts men in "the trance of love" (She actually resembles Jessica Rabbit). She spots Vincent, and plans to drain his powers. She tries to shoot her trance at him, but it bounces off of a teapot he's using, and hypnotizes a man bringing back Scooby and Flim Flam, who had eaten someone's food. She had also hypnotized Vincent's friend Voudini, who shows him who he's in love with and when he sees her he almost chokes, and then jumps up and runs. All the males in the room are now entranced, as Daphne points out "something very weird is going on".
She comes over and introduces herself to the gang and tries to hypnotize Shaggy and Scooby, but it doesn't work as they're not warlocks ("Do you wear contact lenses to get that crazy effect?" She touches a flower, wilting it). Flim Flam (who thinks she and Vincent are "a match made in heaven"; Shaggy: "or the other place") blabs that he's in room 1313, and she heads there. Outside his room, she commands Weird and Bogel to keep the kids away. With the gang approaching (and being "on the lookout for anything strange"), they jump into suits of armor and run ("Like that definitely qualifies as something strange!") Scrappy calls "puppy power", leading Daphne and Flim Flam after them. Shaggy and Scooby hide behind a plant and watch Nikara kiss Voudini, momentarily turning into Medusa and draining his power. They go tell the others, but are so winded running up the stairs, they have to do charades. Nikara disguises her voice as Scooby as she knocks on Vincent's door and he lets her in. (Then we finally see Scrappy put together all of the charades into what just happened!) Vincent turns away from her, but is facing a mirror, which reflects the spell, just as the others arrive too late. She says they'll meet later to "finish what we started", and he tries to follow her. Scrappy suggests "Plan 9: Date Wreckers Incorporated".
Vincent and Nikara are on a parade float, and the gang is now in the parade as a band and try to interrupt them. Then, she has Weird and Bogel row them out on the water in a gondola. The gang follows, as Vincent proposes. The gang arrives again, before they kiss, pretending to be tourists. She tells the ghosts to "take care of them", but all they do is capsize the boat. Scooby rescues the gang and Vincent with his rubber duckie. (Nikara threatens to report the blundering ghosts to the "Ghoulish Review Board", as they row her on the upside down boat). The gang doesn't want to hear the name "Nikara" again, and Vincent says "After tonight you won't", which makes them happy, but the reason why, is because she will become "Mrs. Van Ghoul"! (He invites them to their wedding). Flim Flam has him locked up in the bedroom with him. She and the ghosts plan the wedding. (If she doesn't kiss him that night, she loses the chance to drain his power).
The gang is scattered, and disguised, speaking to each other over walkie talkies in code. The ghosts decide to scare Shaggy and Scooby by making a gargoyle come to life. (They, jump, landing on Scrappy). They they disguise as maid service and Flim Flam lets them in, and they push Vincent's whole bed into a sack. They slip on a banana peel, and fall down a laundry chute without the sack. (Nikara threatens to kiss the ghosts and drain their power, but then fears she might "catch the germ" and become as stupid as they are). There is only one hour left, and she calls in their replacements; ghosts who rise from a nearby graveyard. They enter the room and lift Vincent out, taking him to her, and the gang runs, via ground, but is blocked by the parade.
It's now 10 minutes to midnight, and the ceremony starts (Weird and Bogel play the guitar). Voudini finds the gang and tells them where the wedding is. (A hooded figure looking like the "Ghostly Gondolier" from "Menace in Venice" is officiating). When they get to "Spook now or forever hold your peace", Daphne disguises as a housewife in a robe with hair curlers and a rolling pin, and Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy as their "triplets" (all in diapers, including Shaggy), and Flim Flam as a fourth child, looking just like Vincent. She unmasks him ("Would you believe I'm adopted?) It's now the stroke of midnight, and it looks like she's kissed him in time, but the time has run out, and the spell is broken, as it is for all the warlocks. A whirlwind picks up all the ghosts and deposits them in the chest (which then lands on Weird and Bogel). All the other warlocks carry Vincent on their shoulders, as the world's most powerful warlock.
"13 ghosts have been set free, and I don't know which is the scariest. But the grossest creature I'll ever see is something called 'the dinner guest'" (i.e. the gang, eating there with him, and not just Shaggy and Scooby either!) Instead of Weird and Bogel, today's spooky comedy relief bungling aid to the chest demon is a trio of witches patterned after the Three Stooges, the Brewski Sisters (whom he sees on his spirit monitor, along with an Evil Mist. The witches constantly sing "We are witches of the night; we're so hot we're out of sight! Cookin'! nyah-nyah-nyah, nyah, nyah...") The ghost tells them they must meet her at Stonehange at midnight to recite spell 13, which will make the four of them the most powerful witches in the world.
Vincent sends the gang to get the spell book. Vincent goes to the Evil Zone to look for the Demon Mist, while the gang arrives at the witches' house. Inside, they're putting together spell 13 (which includes "Paris Sewer water" ["Icky poo!"]; but they're out, as one of them drank it). Shaggy and Scooby parody Crazy Eddie as traveling salesmen (via "crazy" looks makeup; "Crazy Shaggy" and "Crazy Scooby"). Flim Flam and Scrappy enter, selling them "toilet water" (again, "icky poo!" Flim Flam "Not 'icky poo', but the essence of perfume"). While they all distract, Shaggy and Scooby take the spell book. When they reach for the book to turn them to worms, they find the "Encyclopedia Scoobitanica", they sold them! Scooby almost gets away with the book, but Hilda (the "Curly Joe" witch) sends bats after them that get it back, and then the witches fly out on the broom.
Marcella, the Evil Mist, and one of the ghosts who escaped from the chest, appears to Vincent. She binds him with some sort of spirit straps. The witches find the Golden Cobra Rattle (the other missing item), which is guarded by a cobra. Wanda (the "Moe" witch) reads a spell to turn Hilda into a snake, to distract the cobra. The gang, in the Flying Mystery Machine, have traced the witches to a pyramid, and disguise as Bedouins, but the witches recognize them. Hilda casts a spell to turn the desert into Paris so they can get the water, but turns it into Alaska instead, and the other witch, Esmeralda, successfully turns it into Paris and gets the water. The gang, watching, disguises as French artists and try to take the book, but cause the water to be spilled onto them, blowing their cover. They run as the witches shoot spells with the book. Marcella (as the Evil Mist again), orders them to Stonehenge, and the gang flies after them.
They all arrive at Stonehenge, the witches around a cauldron in the center, and the gang disguises as witches and the sisters agree to give them the book in exchange for a "puppy dog tail" (Scooby's. Daphne instead "throws in the whole dog", and he takes a bath). The Demon mist appears, and uncovers the gang, startling Wanda, who tosses the book up, to be caught by Flim Flam, who passes it to Scooby. Shaggy takes one of the brooms and scoops up Scooby, as Marcella was about to grab him, and the witches pursue. Meanwhile, Marcella's pink creature Idesvigg (whom she mistreats), takes the key to free Vincent, and gives him back his necklace, which she had taken but threw down on the ground. So they go to Stonehenge too, joining Shaggy and Scooby on the broom. He takes the spell book and changes something in spell 13 and gives it to the witches. It's now a spell to send Marcella to the demon chest. Now, the gang —and the witches, close, singing the witches' song.
"There's trouble in the stars; I know it's sad, but true, our gang may bag a ghost or two, but they may lose, Scooby Doo!"
Vincent tells the gang via crystal ball, that Time Slime, one of the 13 ghosts, is using a time scepter to speed up time. (Shaggy: "Can he speed up dinners, so it's right after our lunch?") If he isn't stopped, the world as we know it will end. He begins speeding up time, as Weird and Bogel watch. They are driving the Mystery Machine along a cliffside road, and notice everything is running faster. They drive right off a cliff, and Scooby activates his "safety rubber duckie".
They arrive at Cuckooosberg ("We'll clean your clock in no time"). The sun rises and sets in a matter of seconds and several of these sped up "days" pass (they keep putting on and taking off their sunglasses). Time Slime, in the grandfather clock in the center of town, activates a trap door the gang falls through, and demands the Chest of Demons. Vincent casts a spell with the crystal ball that rescues the others, but leaves Scooby. He casts another spell for him, but the time scepter he's holding interferes, and sends Scooby into his own past.
At the Dooville Veterinarian Hospital, Scooby is born (his father gives the nurse a dog buscuit!) He shifts the scepter's controls to the present, and he sees his whole life along the way, including opening the chest, and some of the ghosts we've seen, and finally Time Slime. He is now totally distraught; "No more! No more!" When he arrives, he quits the gang "No more ghosts, no more monsters!" and leaves, going back to his parents! (Weird and Bogel search his room for the scepter but land in the bird bath). Shaggy calls the house, and his parents tell him he's not coming back.
So now, the gang has to replace him. They actually audition dozens of dogs, including Bone Crusher Bigelow (a huge bull dog). Eventually, a dopey Saint Bernard, Bernie Gumsher comes in asking directions for something else, and Flim Flam thinks he's the perfect replacement! As he pitches him to the others, he falls over, asleep. Now, we cut to a TV set, showing "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo with Bernie Gumsher", and it's just him sleeping in that same position! Now, kids everywhere are upset that Scooby is gone. The newspaper covers this, as does "News Nightline", with a caricature of Ted Koppel, who cuts to the White House, where a caricature of President Ronald Reagan says "America needs you!" Scooby, watching, is crying. Time Slime, Weird and Bogel appear in the gang's house, and Time Slime demands the scepter (they say Vincent has it), and the chest, or he'll "pulverize" them (Bernie: "Duh, uh, excuse me; getting pulverized isn't in my contract!" Flim Flam: "Sorry Bernie; but you didn't read the fine print").
Time Slime has the chest, and places the gang (with Bernie) in the "killer clock", a timed trap with a knight that will club them with a morning star in a few minutes. (Scrappy: "If my Uncle Scooby were here; he'd show you a thing or three!" Bernie: "Uh, duh I don't think the role of Scooby Doo is a good career move for me right now!") He's about to open the chest, and Vincent uses the time scepter to freeze time. He then appears before Scooby, wakes him out of frozen time, to show him the future (less than 10 years later) without him, after Time Slime opened the chest.
The world has become a "mechanical wasteland". Scrappy and Flim Flam are motorcycle riding punks. When Scooby asks if they remember him, Scrappy says (in a sort of foretaste of the live action movie) "I had an Uncle Scooby once. I thought he was a hero. But then that lousy chicken abandoned me. Now, Time Slime's my hero!" They both try to run them over, but Vincent uses the scepter to escape. They next find Daphne, who is happy to see Scooby, but is now Time Slime's old slave. Shaggy is now a crazy hermit, walking around talking to himself, waiting for Scooby to return (but doesn't recognize him). The motorcycle gang of Scrappy, Flim Flam, Time Slime (with Daphne riding with him), Weird, and Bogel come and grab Shaggy, the last rebel. As they take him off, he shouts "Scooby Doo, Where are You?"
Now, he wants to rejoin the gang, and Vincent puts him back to right before Time Slime opened the chest. Just as Daphne repeats "it would take a miracle to save us now", Scooby enters, eats his Scooby snacks, knocks aside the knight who then clubs Weird and Bogel out of the town and into a cloud, and then swings at Time Slime, and Scooby catches the chest (which Time Slime had actually already cracked open), and Time Slime falls down stairs into it. Driving away from the town, Flim Flam tears up Bernie's contract, but still acts as his "agent" and wants to make hom a star doing other stuff. He's again, sleeping.
Scooby has saved the world again! "Who knows what would have happened to the world if Time Slime had won!" Scooby and Vincent wink at each other. "So farewell for now, from our happy crew, and from the 13 ghosts of..." "Scooby dooby Doo!"
•This story greatly parallels "Scooby Goes Hollywood" where he gets tired of ghosts, quits, and is replaced by another dog, and the world is upset
•It's also similar to "Ship of Ghouls" in Scooby being totally fed up with ghost chasing
•Last season, they made up a president for "Night Louse at the White House". This time, they created a caricature of an actual, sitting president, Ronald Reagan
•Scooby's replacement is a big dopey Saint Bernard. When Scooby was first being created, one of the other choices was a big dopey Saint Bernard (which was decided against due to similarity to Hot Dog of the Archies)! We can wonder if this choice of a replacement in this story was intentional!
•Scrappy, in the future scene, shows contempt never seen before, for Scooby, for abandoning him. He actually sounds a lot like the evil Scrappy of the 2002 live action movie (created in the atmosphere of 2000's internet-fueled Scrappy-hatred), who despised Scooby and the gang for not letting him be the leader.
•Also in the future scene, everyone in that time period has aged (including the three ghosts!), but the younger Scrappy and Flim Flam have not even grown; their being older is just represented by their "punk" clothes. This might even be taken to go along with the claim in the live action movie that Scrappy's size was actually not from being a "puppy".
At the National Gazette ("We print news fit to make up") printing room, Weird and Bogel are printing up newspapers for Demondo, the ghost. A demon comes from the comic, scaring the ghosts, and Demondo enters and sends him back to the paper, saying his time will come. He adds a liquid spectral elixir, that prints newspaper monsters that are in his power. They will be delivered around the world, and the monsters will rise. But first, he has to get rid of Scooby. He'll fill a pen he has with cosmic ink, and use it to trap Scooby and the gang on a comic page. He jumps onto the page and tells the two lesser ghosts to give the paper to Scooby.
At the gang's house, Vincent wakes up refreshed ("I must have had 20 nightmares!") and rings his bell. The gang has been waiting on him for 24 hours a day for a solid week, as his castle is recobwebbed. ("Now he's turning into 'the thing that wouldn't leave'!") The ghosts toss the paper right into Scooby's mouth and he brings it to Vincent. Scooby takes the comics, to read Platypus Duck. (by Tom Ruegger!) He actually speaks, saying "You're in for a quack up", and Demondo emerges and creates a whirwind with the pen that sucks them up and draws them into the paper.
Scooby grabs the pen, and they land in the beginning of a Playpus Duck strip, with a koala in a diner. Demondo lands in "Astrid 2000" (a spacefaring female hero), and the pen lands in "Missing Link" (By "N.E. Anderthall") where dinosaurs roam.
In the diner, the waitress calls the owner, Platypus Duck, who does his song "Quack, quack, quack; I'm Platypus Duck!", and adds a verse singing to Scooby. He can take them to the Wacky Wizard, who is three strips down and can help them. (Scooby opens the door to the "Lousy Lizard" instead). Demondo watches them, but think they have the pen. Scrappy finds the trap door down to the lower strips. Lousy Lizard prompts Shaggy to jump first.
Vincent isn't even aware that the kids are gone, and Weird and Bogel enter as recyclers and find the chest, but Bogel accidentally turns on a fan that blows the papers around. The paper containing the gang and Demondo has landed inder Vincent's bed. The gang and Platypus lands in "Astrid 2000", whose ship can take them to the wizard. Demondo beams the gang to where he is, and he demands the pen. They now realize they have to find the pen themselves. Demondo threatens to drop Scooby into the void of space. Platypus stops the ship, tossing Scooby and Demondo back inside, and Demondo is sucked outside. They run into the boundary of the next strip, which is the Wacky Wizard, ad land right in his castle. He tries a spell, but it only turns Scooby into a seal.
Weird and Bogel drop a vase, and when Vincent asks for Daphne, Bogel disguises as her, and Weird as Shaggy (complete with goatee). Demondo is approaching the wizard's castle. He finally shows them where the pen is, but Demondo enters to see this, and then heads for "The Missing Link". The Wizard magically sends them to the strip, and Scooby quickly finds the pen, but Demondo runs by and snatches it. They pursue, and cross more strips (with Astrid and the Wizard following, to help).
Demondo enters Platypus Duck's diner, which is where the secret door must be. (The koala and waitress join in the chase). Lousy Lizard sets a trap for Platypus, but catches Demondo, and Scooby grabs the pen and finds the door. They all escape, just as the ghosts have gotten the paper from under the bed. Scooby had dropped the key, and Demondo is opening the door to follow, but Scooby balls up the paper and throws it into the Chest of Demons. They think their comic friends got locked in as well, but they appear, and Platypus goes into his song routine, thanking Scooby, and the comic stars came to stay. "Quack, quack, quack; I'm Scoobidy Doo!"
•Another character voiced by Howard Morris, this time in a voice similar to Jughead from the Archies
•Great concept, of moving between strips. When they look down the trap door at the lower strips, its like looking down the side of a building
•"Tom Ruegger", author of the "Platypus Duck" strip, is actually a writer for this and other Scooby series!
We open on a man frantically trying to get somewhere, that includes climbing the mountain towards Vincent's castle. Vincent is inside communicating with the gang (in the Flying Mystery Machine heading to southern California; as usual, Shaggy and Scooby for fun, when they're rally on mission; and as with this season, due to ghostly activity in California picked up by the Specter Detector). Vincent tells them that tonight is the initiation night for SAPS, the "Spook and Poltergeist Society". Ghosts will be out in great numbers to cause havoc, to become members of SAPS. The man makes it to Vincent's door (his bell is screams). He's delivering his Chinese food, but forgot his fortume cookies, and now has to go back. A vampire turns into a bat, and then into a mist that ovetakes him, turning him into a vampire. He returns to Vincent, not with the fortume cookie, but with the jewel the Eye of Eternity, that will turn him into stone in 24 hours. The vampire leaves the delivery man's body revealing that he is one of the ghosts from the chest (Rancor), and this is his revenge. As Vincent tries to reach for the crystal ball, Rancor calls SAPS to tell them of his success in the initiation. He also watches "that dismal duo" of Bogel and Weird, who are also (foolishly) hoping to be initiated.
Weird and Bogel carry the monster formula to the parade float hangar to create monsters from flowers on the floats. The gang follows the spectre readings to the same place (and seeing someone broke in, where Bogel crashed the drum of monster formula through the wall), and hearing them enter, the ghosts turn invisible, but the gang can still see the hose they are carrying. Flim Flam tries to show it's just a magic trick and ends up tickling them. They turn visible, and Bogel fires the hose, turning a flower into a monster. They disappear again, and overhear Vincent telling the gang (after a bit with a pair of FBI detectives who thought they were “flower nappers” and were grabbed by the plant themselves) that he's turning to stone.
They now devise a scheme to be granted initiation into SAPS by saving him. So they disguise themselves as men (though the gang still recognize them), and claim to have reformed their ghostly ways. They tell them the effects of the eye of eternity can be reversed by looking into the Mask of Mumba, which is in a museum on the east coast, and they'll take them. Asked why; they're getting their revenge on SAPS for never allowing them in. The head ghost is watching this, and thinks they're serious and sends Rancor to destroy them (in addition to “those troublesome kids and their dogs”). At Vincent's castle, him telling them there's no choice but to trust the ghosts, Weird whispers to Bogel the plot, that if they trust them, they might be able to swipe the chest, which would get them into SAPS for sure. Skeptical of the ghosts, Flim Flam has them reach into a hat, where they get handcuffed to Shaggy and Scooby (both in the hat, and who had been cuffed by the earlier detectives) in order to keep an eye on them.
When they get back to the alley, they see the Mystery Machine being towed by order of the two cops. (And Shaggy had left the keys to the plane inside). Flim Flam tells the gang of his own travel agency, which books them a flight on “Fly By Night Airlines”, whose fleet is old run down biplanes (“I think the Red Baron has been here!”). Rancor arrives and possesses a truck and chases them with it, but crashes. Weird and Bogel run through a fence, but since Shaggy and Scooby can't go through it, they are all slung into a water tower. Rancor swaps eyeglasses with the pilot, so that he sees in double. (Like when they pass over the Mississippi River, he sees the “Misterssippi” next to it!) The detectives are now pursuing them in their helicopters. They lose them by ducking into a railroad tunnel. Rancor now turns into a storm cloud and shoots lighning at them, downing them. They land on top of a blimp. Vincent is by now stone up to his neck. To speed up, Flim Flam sticks the blimp with a pin (giving them a quick tour of the country, from the Grand Canyon to Mount Rushmore to the Empire State Building). They land in Massachusetts, where the mask is. The two cops have already caught up to them in their car.
They enter the Salem Witch Museum and find the mask. Weird and Bogel demand to be uncuffed for helping them out, and when they are, they grab the chest and the crystal ball. (“And as for you, Vincent, I guess we'll have to start calling you 'Rocky' from now on!”) The gang chases them, and Scooby ends up in the mummy crypt. Rancor enters and possesses a suit of armor that picks the ghosts up and begins to take them back to SAPS (they beg “we can explain”; then “it was his idea”, but don't do the obvious and show that they have the chest; and why can't Rancor or the head ghost see that anyway?) Scooby comes out looking like a mummy, and trips, knocking them over, and they drop the chest and the crystal ball. Vincent (in the crystal ball), is rolled around and hits the wall under the mask, which drops, allowing him to look into it, reversing the curse.
The cops arrive, and the gang points to the ghosts, who disappear (the only thing left is the Scooby mummy). Rancor returns, however, fleeing the rising sun. Looking to get out of the light, Flim Flam and Scrappy open the chest; “How about here; it's nice and dark” (as he flies in as a bat, he actually thanks them!) The head ghost chases Weird and Bogel into the distance, saying they'll never be members of SAPS. “Bon voyage! And DO forget to write!”
In Dooville, Scooby is being welcomed home with a big banner and neighbors chanting his name, being a "world famous ghost chaser". (She's made up a double batch of Scooby snacks, which look like regular bones). They hear a train coming, but it's not Scooby, but rather Professor Fantazmo's Circus Fantastique. He comes out and tells everyone that that night, the circus is free. The gang's train is less than an hour away, and to get everyone in the "Dooville spirit", Scrappy cheerleads "give me a Doo. Give me a vi, give me a lle. What's that spell?" "Doovilleh?" Weird and Bogel are on top of the train watching, and then uncouple the car, and activate a switch for a collision course with another train, but it simply rolls over it. They then bend the track so that they're running on land (A guy sitting on his porch with his cow says "There's something you don't see everyday. A newfangled mobile home!") At a crossing, it makes the right turn, rerails itself and couples back to the train!
It seems nobody is there, and they find the Scooby snacks left behind. They hear the circus music and find a flyer for the circus. They enter, and meet Fantazmo, and see Scooby's parents. (They do their tutu greeting dance as seen in "Wedding Bell Boos"). Flim Flam shows Fantaz the chest, which he thinks would be a great attraction in his side show and then suggests being partners. Vincent calls on the crystal ball, and is suspicious of the music and the circus name. Fantaz tells Flim Flam the funhouse is closed, because he speaker system is out of order and you can't hear the calliope music (which begins putting people in a trance).
To trap the gang, Weird and Bogel change the "closed" sign to "free pizza", luring Shaggy and Scooby in. Inside the creepy place, they "don't want to see the kind of pizza they make here", but are locked in, and the door knob turns rubber, landing them against a wall where monster masks fall on them, scraring Weird and Bogel, who fall into their own trap (and takes a long time to realize they can just disappear). Shaggy and Scooby look out a window and see Scrappy with a clown prize, which to them looks like a monster. The merry go round also, "doesn't look too merry!", and Mumsy and Dada are buying food from a monster. They crash out of the funhouse front door, and grab everyone else, who don't want to leave. Inside the Doo house, they find Flim Flam gone, and we then see he has snuck back to the circus. Fantaz has him sign a contract ("You're one of us, now!") and then uses his whip to transform him into a ringmaster. Behind his back, he looks through the pockets of his discarded clothes for the chest of demons, and shakes out a huge pile of stuff, but the chest isn't there. He realizes his friends have it.
Weird and Bogel run into him, and figure out he is one of the 13 ghosts, and he sends them with his magic whip to find Scooby's house. There, they create huge balloons that lift it up. Unaware of this, they contact Vincent who tells them what is going on (including the calliope music disguising the midway full of "monsters, monsters, monsters"), and that they must rescue Flim Flam before dawn, or he'll be trapped in the circus forever. Shaggy and Scooby refuse to go back to the circus, but when they run out the front door, that's exactly where they're hovering over, and they fall into a tent, landing in a bin where they come out looking like clowns. The house lands (on Weird and Bogel) right before Fantazmo, who demands the chest (which "is protected by puppy power!"). Scrappy and Daphne run, but Daphne is tripped up by Weird and Bogel, and captured by Fantaz, who puts her under the spell.
Scrappy is now alone, carrying the chest, but runs into Scooby. They go with Shaggy to look for the others. They see Daphne, as a guard in front of the fun house, and she (under Fantazmo's control) sends Weird and Bogel after them and the chest. Scooby's parents (and Eggbert and Constance, the man and cow) enter the Big Top tent. He puts Flim Flim in a trance as well. Chest or not, in any minute, his circus of living evil will depart, with a whole new crowd of victims (including Scooby's parents). Shaggy and the dogs crash into the tent, and Flim Flam shoots a ball of fire with the whip, which destroys the calliope. Everyone turns back to "what they really are", including the circus monsters, and Fantazmo into a decrepit old ghost man. Flim Flam now sees him for what he is, and he uses the whip to pick him up and spin him into the chest.
Everyone enjoys Scooby's homecoming (including Eggbert and Constance), but now the only problem is getting the house back to where it belongs. Flim Flam uses the whip, but it's now in some snowy wilderness. ("Hey, what do you want from me; it's a defective whip!") "The evil circus has closed its door, and barren Fantazmo is no more, for that, we thank our plucky crew, our favorite hero...", "Scooby dooby..." [Constance cuts in] "Moooo!".
•Now we see Scooby's own home town, "Dooville"
"Where will Scooby and his crew find their next bugaboo? In a tomb, or up a tree? Not this time; they're on TV", at station KREEP, the show "Stuff So Scary and Horrifying You Won't Believe it, or ELSE", hosted by the Frankenstein-like Boris Kreepoff. (He and Vincent went to Terror Tech togetther, in Class of '36. Not 1936; just 36!) The gang is there (with the chest) to be on the show (Shaggy and Scooby are terrified, hiding in a trash can, and dumped out of it, find they are sitting next to a mummy! They say "You can't convince us!". Then Daphne offers Scooby snacks; "You can bribe us!")
They are going to use the vacu-spook to nab an elusive demon on the show. Boris interviews the Amazing Tellulah, who writes the horoscopes in the paper. She says the spirits predict grave danger for one with the initials of "SD". Weird tells Bogel to flip the switch controlling the trap door backstage when he gives the signal. He gets everything completely mixed up, and Weird ends up pushing it, dropping everyone and leaving the chest of demons on stage, and then they turn the lights off, and swipe it. Vincent goes back to his castle to see if he can he can get to the bottom of this "de-backle". The Scooby snacks, which were backstage, are now on stage, and Tellulah feels a powerful spirit vibration from the box, and wants to hold a seance to get to the bottom of this (Shaggy: "How about letting me hold that box to get to the bottom of it!")
Weird and Bogel think they've tricked the mortals, but the Simbulu the lion demon appears saying they've bungled it, as neither he nor them grabbed the chest; someone else got to it before he did. Tellulah does a tarot card reading, and it shows the chest is at a lighthouse, and was taken there by an evil spirit. The only lighthouse is the one on Lookout Point. Simbulu and Weird and Bogel are already there, with Simbulu to look for the chest. Weird and Bogel disguise as caretakers, and open to Shaggy and the dogs, and take them to the top, and then float out into the air. They then push the lighthouse over, where it's hanging over a cliff. Flim Flam has Daphne drive the Mystery Machine over the cliff, and he inflates the rubbber duckie raft, for them to climb on when they land in the water.
They go back and ask Tellulah how someone knew they were going to the lighthouse, and she says she's found out her room is bugged. They have another seance, and see Vincent on the crystal ball, who says they are in grave danger since one of his most important books has been stolen; the Grand Toll of the Chest of Demons. Whoever opens the Chest of Demons on the winter solstice (that night) will have all the power in the universe. She next gets an image of the chest at the cemetery. Again, the three ghosts are already there. When they split up, Scrappy tosses Shaggy and Scooby into the crypt ("Oh, boy; my Uncle Scooby's goona be a hero!") Shaggy does the "Grecian urn" joke, while a zombie hands him a lamp. They run back out and fall on Daphne, who says there's no such thing as a zombie. As they are all lined up behind her, Shaggy utters "humina! humina! humina!" They run, and they and Flim Flam use tour guide disguises to send them off on a tour bus. One of the zombies dropped off tickets to Boris' TV show. They head back there, and in his room, find the floor plan of the temple where they found the chest, Vincent's stolen book, and airline tickets to Tibet, so they know he flew to Tibet and stole the book, and probably also stole the Chest of Demons.
Vincent arrives, and he knows why. In the TV listings, it says Boris will open the fabled Chest of Demons on the air, that night. We now cut to him, on stage, ready to do the act. The gang arrives, telling him "Stop! You don't know what you're doing!" (Director: "That hasn't stopped him yet!") When they tell him of the "unspeakable horrors", and the entire planet "reduced to smoldering ash"; the director says "Well, that's show biz!" Even if all that's true, at least Boris will get back at Vincent for humilating him at Terror Tech. ("You were always more popular with the ghouls!" "Can I help it if I'm just irresistable?")
Tellulah enters, saying the power will be hers (instead of Boris'). Scrappy realizes it was her who sent the "baddies" after them at the lighthouse and graveyard. She then reveals she wasn't a mere medium, but rather Simbulu, the lion demon himself! (Scrappy: "You're a lyin' demon, alright!") He opens the chest, a group of ghosts swirl around, and Vincent laments "all is lost!" Flim Flam enters with the Vacu-spook and sucks them all up (Weird and Bogel cut out, as Simbulu shouts "you cowards!") and places the vacu spook in the chest. Daphne pulls a switch, and it rotates the stage, solving the mystery of how Boris made the chest disappear, and were replaced with the Scooby snacks. The director thinks the whole thing was on the camera, but all that is seen is Shaggy and Scooby saying hi to their parents.
"And so our heroes once again, had foiled the schemes of ghosts and men. Led by one so brave and true. No one else but - Scooby Dooby Doo!"
•Here, we see the chest actually opened once again, and instead of a huge fiery whirlwind that takes off, it was just a trio of monster-like ghosts (not any of the ones captured). When you come to think of it the chest is opened for every ghost that is captured, and it's not explained how the others don't all get out, then. Also, this, and every instance of the ghosts threatening to open the chest, [Time Slime, etc.] contradicts the premise set in the beginning, that only the living can open it.
•This episode has a couple of elements of the old mystery format, as Simbulu disguises as someone else, and is then revealed at the end. Also, finding the "clues" that pointed to Boris.
•The last appearance of Daphne in adult form, until the Cartoon Network age revivals.
•Since the series itself is 13 episodes, and the first episode only establishes the premise, and no ghosts are captured, that means only 12 ghosts were captured in this series! This left-open hole was aimed to be closed in 2019 (just in time for Scooby's 50th anniversary) with the 29th in a long running series of Direct to Video movies, "Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost". It was messed up by having this 13th ghost turn out to be a typical fake ghost; the original mystery format long reestablished by then. All the ghosts in this series were of course, real. (Though they sometimes did disguise as other characters).
They also screwed it up with the ongoing rampant Scrappy hatred that marks the entire 2000's period. So the original gang has also been reestablished, and while Vincent (new voice replacing Vincent Price) and Flim Flam are brought back, Scrappy is absent. When Flim Flam asks where's Scrappy, Fred and Shaggy give each other this look; perhaps pointing to the series "Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated", where Fred said they should enver speak of him again. Velma then asks "What's a scrappy?", as if she had never heard of him. (Recall, the entire first season of Scrappy where she was present, the four specials last season she guested in, and the live action movie where she narrated how much a nuisance he was in a lookback, and he then turned out to be the bad guy).
This basically represents what we shall see soon, as the franchise is basically rebooted from scratch, and some of the characters, while again original, are changed, as are other details. So this will be a new canon, and the following three feature-length stories will mark the end of this old canon.
Hanna Barbera produced ten syndicated movies for it's top stars, which included entries such as "The Jetsons Meet the Flintstones", and a total of three were produced for Scooby. These pick up where 13 Ghosts left off, with the new Mystery Machine in one of them, and Shaggy's orange T-shirt. Daphne was again dropped, and so it's once again Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy, in what can be seen as feature-length "Scary Scooby Funnies", including the monsters being real. Where the first one, "Scooby Doo Meets The Boo Brothers" has the classic elements of the mystery format, the other two don't.
SCOOBY DOO MEETS THE BOO BROTHERS
We open with a last will and testament bequeathing something to "My Nephew Shaggy" being carried by the wind, and a curtain turning into a ghost waking Shaggy and Scooby, who take off in a green jeep, but Scooby runs back to grab the sleeping Scrappy. With the "witch" voice of June Foray reciting:
"I'll scare you, Scooby Doo, and Shaggy too, before I'm through; that's what I'll do! I scare goblins, ghost and ghouls Grownup folk and little kids; I even scare my cat!
But one thing frightens me so exceedingly, I hope I never see, the BOO BROTHERS! Very scary; legendary! Boo Brothers! Those very boastly, mostly ghostly, Boo Brothers!
Here I am, a poor old witch. So afraid, and shake and twitch; that's one group I'd love to ditch: The Boo Brothers! Very kooky, very spooky: Booooo Brothers!"
The intro continues with various creepy characters and scenes (including the witch herself), along with the Boo Brothers themselves; a trio of ghosts patterned after the Three Stooges: Shreako (Curly) Meako, (Larry), and Freako (Moe).
They're driving to the Southern plantation Shaggy has inherited. They get lost along the way. A huge gorilla helps get them unstuck from mud. They hear a police siren and are confronted by Sherriff Buzby, and Shaggy explains why he's going to the empty Beauregard Manor, and Col. Beauregard being his uncle, and he gives them the directions, but tells them it's haunted (which excites Scrappy. The gorilla is also explained by the transmission on his radio, of an animal circus train derailing).
They proceed, and pass through a graveyard. A colonel ghost is seen watching them, and the Headless Horsmen rides beside them, and then a demonic looking dog. They arrive at the mansion, and now Shaggy no longer wants it, as the three spooks they've seen approach. The door opens as they were trying to break it down, and they run into the fireplace. They are greeted by Farquard, a hunched over man wearing dark glasses, who was manservant to the colonel for 60 odd years, and thus feels like the rightful owner of the place, but says he is at their service. He mentions the inheritance includes family jewels hidden on the estate, which Shaggy didn't know about. Scooby begins seeing the escaped ape in the house, which Farquard says is a ghost ape, and then the sherriff enters and ends up drawing his gun on a stuffed ape.
The sherriff advises Shaggy to clear out of the place, again, Farquard jumps for joy, and drops a ring Scrappy picks up and shows the others. It has a "B" on it for "Beauregard", and inside, an inscription "For my nephew Shaggy". They start to leave, and the jeep sinks completely, so now they have to spend the night.
In their bedroom, the ghost of Beauregard enters on a penny farthing, saying to leave, and passes through a wall. Scrappy looks up "ghost exterminators" in a phone book and sees "Boo Brothers" ("Special this week, three ghosts for the price of one"). They call, and they instantly come through the phone (Shaggy: "When am I going to wake up from this nightmare?" They explain "Soitanly we're ghosts! It takes one to catch one!" ("Real ghost ghost hunters!") Scrappy thinks this is "totally rad!" They demonstrate with a "demonstrator ghost", showing their bungling.
Next door neighbor Sadie Mae Scroggins knocks on the door asking for black strap molasses, and dances with Shaggy, and then everyone is dancing. He begins eluding her and jumps in a bush, only to find her brother Billy Bob, who sticks his musket in his face. The Beauregards and Scroggins had been feuding. The ghost appears again, saying "leave this place", and Billy Bob is now shooting at the gang, while fighting with his sister, who says she wants to marry Shaggy ("Ghosts, guns, a goony girl! Like we gotta get out of this looney bin!").
°Being stuck there, Scrappy suggests looking for clues to the missing diamonds. The Boo Brothers have cleaned out the refrigerator, however in the ice tray is a diamond, and a letter to Shaggy, telling him about the fortune being hidden from Beauregard's enemies. What now follows is an extensive treasure hunt, with one clue in the form of a riddle, (accompanied by a jewel) [°], leading to another.
°The next clue is to "go to a part of the house with it's 'knee' out" (We see the shadow of Farquard, listening in). Inbetween, the ape follows Scooby, and Sadie Mae smooches Shaggy in a bush she pulls him into, leading Billy Bob to come after him, and then the ape is chasing all of them, until he is hit on the head by a brick from the chimney. Scrappy realizes that the "-ney" in "chimney", is the "knee" of the house! So they climb to the chimney, and find another diamond and note, but slide off, and a skeleton comes out of the chimney, and then tries to shake them from the roof gutter, but is scared away by the Boo Brothers. Shreak tells Shaggy to let go, but can't hold the weight, and all fall into a bush. Billy Bob is shooting like crazy (and even shoots a hole in the sherrif's hat and causes his pants to come down).
°Safe back inside, they read the clue, which says "You're nearer to the family jewels than before. A broken key unlocks the door". The ape re-enters and chases Shagy and Scooby, while Scrappy uncovers the skeleton, and attacks by biting on his robe, causing him to run ("Come back, ya cowardly bag of bones!" Here, we see the old Scrappy again!) He hears someone in the piano and thinks it's the ghost, and begins stomping on the keys, but it's Shaggy and Scooby hiding inside. Shaggy thinks Scrappy broke a key, and presses it, opening a secret passage. They now realize this was the clue. (A piano key, rather than a door key). Once inside, the skeleton presses the key, closing them inside. (Shreako also plays a joke on them by scaring them with the scary face).
°Stuck in a wall is another diamond and another note. "Look for a relative, who is quite old, who's face cannot look, and who's hands cannot hold". To get them out, since the Boo Brothers can pass through walls, Shaggy tells them to go out and press the piano key (Shreako plays a classical number first). Meako is now the pendulum on a grandfather clock. Scrappy now realizes this is the clue, and the next diamond and note are there:
°"There is no pendulum in this clock. So what does it lack, besides a 'toc'?" This is of course "a tic", which Scrappy is about to reveal, but he's grabbed away by Farquard, and a fight is heard in the next room, and Farquard runs, being attacked by Scrappy, from whom he took the diamond, which he insists is his. Scrappy then explains the "attic" is the "a tic" where they have to look.
In the attic, Scrappy finds the next note with a jewel necklace. Scooby decides to scare Shaggy (looking in a chest that looks like the Chest of Demons without the demon logo) by using a pair of long underwear to look like a ghost. Then, a real ghost appears, which Shaggy at first thinks is Scooby. It then takes the necklace and tells them to leave or suffer the consequences. Scrappy again bites down on his robe, and he seems to disappear, leaving just an empty shirt, but Scooby sits on it falling through a hatch down several floors.
°They leave the attic and read the next clue: "Don't leave any higher, just think what you're called, when you're not the buyer." They know it means "the one who sells something", but don't say the obvious word, yet. They hear some sort of thumping, and it's Farquard pounding on a door with a mallet, and he drops the necklace. Scrappy is somehow able to take it from him without him knowing, but now the ghost enters and takes it from Shaggy. They now end up with the Boo Brothers leading them through various doors and windows, only to find themselves trapped between ghost, ape and Billy Bob. They escape down a flight of stairs (as the Boo Brothers fight the Beauregard ghost). Shaggy and the dogs are now in the cellar. Which Scrappy realizes is the clue. Scooby opens a door and finds room full of ham. One is fake and contains the next clue. (We next get more shanaigans with Shreako, using a canon, and the ghost firing him into a wall).
°The clue reads "The next clue is large and flat; it's the kind of stone you wear as a hat". When Shaggy scoffs at the clue, saying "wouldn't I look cute with a stone on my head", Scrappy realizes it's referring to a "head stone", as in a grave. They sneak toward the cemetery, with Billy Bob right behind them, whose shooting now flattens the sherrif's tires. Scrappy tricks him into shooting a bear in a cave. At the cemetery, the skeleton begins following them and Scrappy finds a literal "head" stone, shaped like Uncle Beauregard. The hat moves, and under it is the next clue, which the ghost grabs, but Scrappy grabs back before they run off. They encounter the skeleton, who drops them through a trap door and demands the jewel broach and scroll, "or I'll...!" (Scrappy, "Or you'll do what; bonehead?" He then says "Let me out of here!" and runs off. They lift Scrappy out to go for help, and then we see what the skeleton ran from was the ape, who then begins stroking Scooby's head, who thinks Shaggy did it. He lifts both of them out, and they both run. (They mayor is now confronting the sherriff, by radio, about catching the animals, and as they walk through the forest, Shaggy is repeatedly, and unknowingly being saved from Billy Bob by Sadie Mae who's trying to grab him himself, and then the skeleton joins in).
°Back at the house (now with the Boo Brothers), the clue reads "You're nearing the end of this obstacle course, so if you go buggy, you won't need a horse". They realize "horse" and "buggy" point to the stable, of which there is one behind the house. (Farquard is listening through the door). Inside the stable is the headless horseman, but Scrappy sees it's not real, but mechanical with a dummy rider. As Scooby "rides" on it, Sadie Mae pulls Shaggy into the hay for a few smooches, and they land in a wagon that rolls outside, scraping against the sherrif's car and crashing. The mechanical horse then chases the sherriff into the pond, and Shaggy notes how he knew that all Scooby had to do was push a button to stop it. The ape begins walking behind Scrappy, but Scrappy begins empathizing with all the stuff he must be going through (the sherriff chasing him; etc). Scrappy realizes "buggy" was the one Scooby crashed into the well with.
°In the hay is another jewel and the next clue: "To get to the bottom of things is the trick. Think of how you're feeling when you're not sick", which is of course the very "well" they are standing near. (Scrappy says he learned to figure stuff out like this, from Uncle Scooby). They crank Scrappy down, but follow because Billy Bob is shooting at them. A secret door leads to an old secret Civil war suplpy cave, and next to a tunnel opening is a pearl necklace and the next clue.
°It says "At the end of this tunnel are many more pearls, but on the way, are many more perils". They find a hatch, which comes up under a stone Scooby had earlier seen the skeleton under. The ghost is standing right over them as they emerge. He chases them back through the tunnel, and activates a lever that opens a chasm they jump over, and then he comes after them with a steam roller, but they lean against a rotating secret panel, leading them back into the basement. (Shaggy realizes this is how the ghosts have been getting around). There are more pearls and the next scroll there. Now that the tunnel is blocked, Shaggy thinks they may be rid of the ghost, but the Boo Brothers have the house filled with their family and friends, having a party.
When the food they have is "scream chips and bone dips", an unusually angry Shaggy breaks their record and throws them all out, including the Boo Brothers, who have done nothing but mess around. (To "But we haven't caught the ghost yet"; "That's the problem!") They give a sob story of being "orphan ghosts", which was why they needed the job. This works and has the gang crying, and rehiring them, and telling them to "shape up or ship out".
°The clue reads "There's no mystery about the next clue. Inside Bear Cave, the jewels in plain view!" On the way, Billy Bob chases them into a log over a cliff, leading to a new spin on the old Bugs Bunny gag when the ape gets involved too. Then, they are chased by the bear before they get to the cave. They finally see the jewels inside the cave on op of a stalagmite they climb, that falls over. Shaggy's jeep is there, and starts up amd moves toward them and they end up trapped between it and the returning bear, who is then chased back out by it. When it stops, they see a remote control receiver has been attached to it, and now it's out of range. We see the skeleton, with the remote control, as they drive off. They realize there must be a tunnel under where it sank. The ghost is now riding on the penny farthing. Back in the house, the ape grabs the jewels and scroll, and Scrappy makes a deal with him, and gets them back. The ape now enjoys riding the mechanical horse. Shaggy phones the sherriff about catching the ape, but the skeleton pulls the line out of the wall.
°The clue says "Go to a place that covers the tide, to find the last clue, just p.i.e.r inside", which is what has brought them to the boathouse. Scooby finds the skeleton in a storage bin.
°In a boat is the final clue (with a crown). It says "No more riddles; here ends the chase. The treasure's in the fireplace!" The skeleton is there, them solving the mystery for him, and drops a net on them and sets the boat running out in the river. It's lifted up by the Boo Brothers, who will now help them against the skeleton, who has found a lever beside the fireplace, which acts as a slot machine with three pictures. The skeleton pulls a gun on them, yet has hit the jackpot, which spills a huge pile of treasure on him. Unmasked, Scrappy was right, as it's the sherriff. However, another sherriff, with a mustache is in the door ("Somebody call me?") and the culprit is his brother, who likes to imitate ghosts as well as himself, and who he now takes into custody.
However, the ghost of Beauregard is still riding toward them, and falls, and is Scooby. Farquard now serves them a dish, but the Boo Brothers are inside, having eaten it ("I guess we take the cake!") Shaggy then decides to give them the house, and to give the treasure to the Beauregard Trust Fund for ophans. Driving away, they see the ghost of Beauregard standing in the road, and just drive past, fast.
•The Boo Brothers are stricly comedy relief, and absent for vast periods in the story (As Shaggy even scolds them for at one point).
•Such a classic ghost mystery should have had the whole gang, to represent the original format in this showcase of HB stars.
•The Sherrif and his twin brother were voiced by Sorrel Booke, known for his role as county leader Boss Hogg on "The Dukes of Hazzard"
•Instead of the new Mystery Machine, they drive in Shaggy's jeep, which is colored in a sililar green as the old Mystery Machine, and Shaggy's old T-shirt
SCOOBY DOO AND THE GHOUL SCHOOL
On a rainy night, the gang is driving in the new Mystery Machine (from the 13 Ghosts series). Shaggy has taken a job as a gym teacher (with Scrappy as his assistant. He lifts a barbell, and ends up with it rolling on the road outside of the back door like another axle). They encounter a school, but it's Galloway Military School, when they're looking for Ms. Grimwood's Finishing School for Girls, which is right next door, and looks like a haunted house, and even has a moat with a drawbridge. At the front door, a hand with no body lifts Scooby up, and inside he encounters a little fire breathing dragon. The meet Ms. Grimwood, who also introduces them to Matches, the dragon. She starts to introduce them to the girls; the first one flying in as a bat. It's Sibella, Count Dracula's daughter. Next is Winnie, the werewolf's daughter, and Elsa Frankenteen; Frankenstein's daughter. Shaggy and Scooby want to leave. They open a door to a basement, and see Phantasma, the Phantom's daughter who comes through a wall and plays an organ. In a mummy case is the mummy's daughter, Tanis. They want them to teach them how to beat the cadets at the boy's military school.
First, they teach them ballet. The boys at the academy are looking on a periscope and see the new teachers. They run across toward the girls' school after their volleyball amd are confronted by Matches. Next. Shaggy and the dogs take the girls jogging. They try to eat from the girl's garden, but everything is rotten (Which they take as a compliment "But every so often, something fresh sneaks in").
They are further being watched (via "venus spy traps") by Revolta, the witch of the web, and her sidekick the Grim Creeper. Revolta wants to have the girls under her control, and be the most powerful witch in all monsterdom. They are now planning to have a volleyball game between the two schools. The head of the boys' school, Colonel Calloway enters the girls school, encountering all the monstrous items (including an "early Inquisition" chair that has strapped him in), and talks to Ms Grimwood. She introduces him to the gang.
They continue exercising, and Scooby falls into the moat, where he's chased by the two headed shark, and then leads the girls swimming. Scooby splashes some water into the venus spy trap, which actually splashes Revolta and the Grim Creeper. In the volleyball match, the monsters have trouble due to their supernatural abilities (keep in mind, the boys don't realize the girls are monsters). They boys begin cheating bit, such as one of them using a remote control to guide the ball. Scooby ends up swallowing it when tossed, causing it to move in unexpected ways. Grimwood ends up winning 21 to 20. Calloway refuses to hand over the trophy, and the hand takes it from him.
This will give the girls the happiest Halloween ever (they make jackolanterns that look like Shaggy and Scooby). The girls show the gang pictures of their fathers, the classic monsters, who will be arriving. ("we're going to be trapped in a house full of monsters!") Revolta watches as they enter, and says they have grown soft, and looks forward to being the most feared name in the monster world. When Shaggy and Scooby begin hearing the monsters, they hide in a dumbwaiter, but everywhere they turn the girls are there, introducing them to their fathers. We see what the girls have made for their fathers in the school. The fathers warn Shaggy and Scooby to take care of their daughters.
Revolta has been watching the whole time, and sends her "spider bats" after Shaggy. One spins a cobweb headphone onto Shaggy's head as he sleeps, and she begins giving him commands. He will take the girls on a field trip to the barren bog, where they will be hers. The Grim Creeper is sent there to set her traps. Meanwhile, the boys school is going on a hike in the bog. Shaggy (who doesn't seem to know what to do next), suggests "a jog through the bog". Winnie outsmarts the Grim Creeper, but is placed under Revolta's control by the spider bats. Sibella saves the gang from some alligators, and tells them she can't find Winnie. (and Tanis and Elsa save the boys from quicksand). Winnie lures Phantasma into the shed, where she's placed under Revolta's control. They then try to lure Sibella (as a bat) in, and she's chased by the spider bats. Scooby is grabbed by the Grim Creeper, who's then singed by Matches, landing in the bog. Elsa and Tanis are lured into the shed, which Revolta then has rocketed to her. The spider bats catch Sibella and have the headphones on her, but she's trying to resist (having a strong will like her father).
Shaggy and Scrappy are watching this, and Scooby tells them the other girls are gone as well. They see the shack flying, and aim to follow in the Mystery Machine, but are stuck in the mud. The cadets, following the "Calloway Code" help them with a push, even though they took their trophy. They then tell them of the Grimwood girls being in trouble, but they don't want to help them that much ("What a bunch of sticks in the mud!"). They see the shack fly into Revolta's castle, but it is too high for them to get to. Calling "puppy power" ("Or make that a Scrappy and Matches power"), the barbell with rope is placed on a tree bent back, to sling them.
Revolta has all the girls before her and the Grim Creeper. The spell will wear off, but she's preparing another that will make them evil forever. At the stroke of midnight, she's going to "Revoltize" them! They gang encounters a lock that even Matches cannot burn through. Scooby uses his tail as a key. They split up (this modified version of the gang, sees Scrappy and Matches as one pair, and of course, Shaggy and Scooby as the other). Scooby finds a mirror that turns your reflection into a monster. Scrappy thinks it's a trick mirror like at the carnival. Shaggy's reflection actually pulls him into the mirror, (where he's trapped) and then jumps out taking his place. Revolta has ordered the Grim Creeper to put the girls to work.
Elsa sees the real Shaggy in the mirror who tries to tell her to warn Scooby, but all she, or any of the other girls under the spell can say, is "I only obey Revolta" (who Shaggy is hearing of for the first time). So now, the evil Shaggy reflection, known as the Mirror Monster, is walking with Scooby, who is unaware, until he says "Scooby Doo, I'm after you!" and then begins chasing him. Scooby disguises as a mummy, working beside Tanis, but the Mirror Monster still gets wise. Scooby runs, knocking a pail onto his head, and Scrappy finds him and pulls it off, realizes it's not Shaggy, and Matches lights him on fire, freeing Scrappy from his grasp. He says "It's too dangerous out here", and jumps back into the mirror; and pushes Shaggy out.
Revolta sees Scooby still in the bandages, who's stumbled into her lair, and thinks it's Tanis, as he puts together the cauldron. The Grim Creeper exposes Scooby, and the others come to his rescue, are lured into a trap, where the floor gradually opens into a pit the Creeper drops Scooby into. (We get "Hey! You can't do that to my Uncle Scooby!", just like in the Scary Scooby Funnies days!) They are all in a pit of water, with "the giant well dweller". Worse, Matches' fire has now been extinguished.
The cadets are in bed in their barracks, and now realize that they should help the girls, and fly in on their pedal helicopter, where they can trace the bat sound to the Castle Revolta. Scrappy distracts the well dweller with a game of handball, which allows them to use his scales as steps to climb out. It's now almost midnight, and the potion is ready. Scooby finds the secret entrance he used to get in. It now strikes midnight, and Revolta is pumping the potion into the girls. Shaggy and Scooby have slidden into where Revolta is, and knock the head pieces off of the girls, breaking the spell. They now see the Grim Creeper tugging on Shaggy and Scooby. Revolta sends the spider bats after the girls, but the cadets, now above the castle, drop water bombs onto them through an opening. ("You Calloway cadets are such showoffs!") Revolta begins firing rays at them, and they flee. She now turns Scooby into a toad, and a spider bat wants to eat him. Hopping along in the table, chemicals are knocked into the potion, ruining the formula. Matches now has his fire back, and attacks the spider bat. Tanis takes Revolta's wand and changes Scooby back, and Elsa throws the wand into the potion, which is now set to explode. The Calloway cadets save them with a ladder. The whole castle blows ("Looks like Revolta's going to need a redecorator!")
Back in the school, Scrappy performs his "Scrappy Rap":
So with the cadets it was a snap, to escape Revolta's trap
Now let's get loose, and dance and clap, while I will lay on my Scrappy Rap
Over there is Daddy Drac, who's glad to have his daughter back
And all the guys frm Calloway, are here to dance the night away
And there's Ms G with Colonel C, groovin' to my melody
And Crunch, with Elsa Frankenteen, who wants to be a slamdance queen
And Phanty really does her thing, a dance for two, the Phanty Fling
Shaggy and my Uncle Scoob are always in a junky groove
Ms. G. brings in the new students and their parents; even more hideous monsters. Shaggy and Scooby run, "Meet us in Saint Louis". Scrappy tells Matches, holding the boom box; "Gee, I better do like Scooby Doo, and skedoo!" As they drive off, they wave at each other, and the gang howls.
SCOOBY DOO AND THE RELUCTANT WEREWOLF
"Tyler County, USA. A funny car race is in progress. A bright young driver named Shaggy maneuvers for the lead in his double dyno turbo blaster. Assisted by his faithful companions, Scooby Doo and Scrappy, and cheered on by his adoring but liberated girlfriend Googie". (For real! And she's pretty cute too!) They use alls sorts of tricks to win (like drilling under the ground).
"And so, as the Tyler County crowd cheers, our young hero Shaggy, accepts the winner's trophy, from Googie" (She leans to kiss him, but he moves, and she ends up kissing Scooby). "At this exact moment, the scene shifts, from a bright happy race, in Tyler County USA, to darkest, deepest Transylvania. Horrific home of the world's most evil menace, Count Dracula, where a meeting of all the monsters of his realm is being held. What has this creepy, crawly conclave got to do with a young, American race car driver? This is our story!
(As we zoom into his castle, we get recreations of the opening of the original show, such as the spooky red eyes).
The werewolf is missing, having gone to Florida and sent a postcard saying he's retired. All the monsters have to race, to be the Monster of the Year. The running gag is gameshow-style "hostess" Vanna Pira, assisting Drac, yet annoying him with her ditziness. Wolf-like creature Wolfgang looks in the Grimness Book of Records, which tells how they can get a new werewolf. Every 500 years, the moon comes into perfect position, for three consecutive nights, to create a new werewolf, and it starts tomorrow night. It even shows the one who is to become the werewolf, Shaggy! Dracula prepares to send the hunchbacked Hunch Bunch (Brunch and Crunch) after him. Even the other monsters are afraid of him. They have three nights to turn Shaggy into a werewolf and bring him back. "And so, two horrible monsters take off on their sinister mission! Will our unsuspecting hero Shaggy, be able to ward off this treacherous plot? We shall see!"
Shaggy and Scooby are watching a horror movie on TV. The Hunch Bunch lands outside in their batwing powered copter and creep up to the window. Shaggy has Scooby teling himself "monsters aren't real", but then he sees them in the window. When Shaggy looks, they have ducked. The moon moves into position. They go to bed, and Scooby gets a snack, and hears their plot to turn Shaggy into a werewolf, and sees them climbing. He wakes Shaggy as they cut a hole through the roof, but the plan doesn't work, as Shaggy's downstairs now and they have to try the next night. (When the others see no hole in the ceiling, Scrappy says "Don't worry uncle Scooby, we still love you even if you are a wacko!") So in the supermarket they manage to be able to push Shaggy out in a cart (without him seeing them) to the spot they've marked, but a produce truck parks on it. Now they only have one night left, and Drac transmits an image of himself via bat laser. He's lost his pants in the transmission). He says "you better get him this time, or you can turn in your humps!"
Shaggy takes Scooby and Scrappy on his date with Googie, because he doesn't want to leave Scooby home, "the way he's been seeing things that aren't there, lately". So the four are at the drive-in, watching another monster movie, and the Hunch Bunch are there (and see themselves on the screen, and think "they don't look like us, in the least"). The moon is coming into position, and Scooby sees them, and Scrappy takes him to get more food. When Googie says "wouldn't it be heavenly to put the top down", Brunch presses the button doing so, allowing a moonbeam to turn Shaggy into a werewolf. Googie isn't aware, and then he changes back to normal. He changes back and forth, and she thinks he's first hiccuping, and then growling at her for scolding him for drinking too fast. ("That boy! It's a good thing for him that I'm crazy about him!")
As he walks to get something for the hiccups, others scream when they see him in werewolf form, and then tell a cop, and they all pursue. Drac appears and tells the Hunch Bunch to cure his hiccups, so he stops changing. Scooby finally sees him change, and shows him a mirror. They jump into the car with Googie and drive off, her not realizing at first it's Shaggy, and everyone else pursues in their cars, but they lose them on a mountain. The Hunch Bunch drops moon dust on them that puts them to sleep (and cures Shaggy's hiccups as well), and hoists them away to Transylvania with their "bat copter"; and so "at last, the master will have his reluctant werewolf!"
Inside the castle, before all the monsters, the gang wakes up, on stone tables. Shaggy thinks it's a nightmare (the monsters begin fighting each other over who Shaggy is talking about). Dracula then explains why he brought Shaggy there. (Vanna then shows him the "consolation prize", via a series of real photos of Hawaii). Shaggy refuses, and he says they are free to go, but then drops a cage on them ("I had my fangs crossed!") They take them to the "guestly room", and they tie sheets together to escape, but climb down into the alligator jaws, and run back up. Scrappy finds a trap door, leading to steps that turn into a slide, and then (by the Hunch Bunch) into an elevator that takes them back to the room.
A voice tells them by the fireplace is a hidden door. Inside is a ghost, and they find a hatch leading to the cake in the monsters' party. Drac flies over, and tells them they're eating "Frog fudge", and shows them "spider web spaghetti", "plasma pizza" and "wart pudding". Then, the monsters all dance. Scrappy unwinds the mummy. Shaggy finds a secret door and they sneak out, but it's a room with a spike wall closing in on them. Even in this predicament, Shaggy refuses to drive in the race. Dracula then says if he wins the race, he'll change him back (he crosses his fangs again!) The wall then recedes.
A monster rooster crows, and it is the day of the practice. (Dracula is able to use sunblock to be able to stay up in the daytime). Dracula shows them the race course they will be driving. He lets them take Shaggy's racecar on a trial run, and the Hunch Bunch sets up numerous obstacles for them for their and Drac's own "good, rotten fun". Afterward, Drac has the Hunch Bunch switch around the controls of the "Wolf Car" Shaggy is to drive instead of his own car, and he also has changed the course. He's trying to get him to lose, so he can be a werewolf permanently. They also try to keep him up all night to make him tired for the race, but bungle every attempt.
On the day of the race, they suit up Shaggy who is sleepy anyway, but Googie's kiss wakes him. Scrappy and Googie, in Shaggy's car will drive ahead of Shaggy and Scooby in the Wolf car and radio anything that looks bad, in case Dracula has set traps. Dracula and Vanna host the race show (she thinks Shaggy is so "handsome" and practically cheers him on), and the running gag is the "crowd" of four locals saying "yay" in a monotone, bored fashion, if not sleeping. He introduces all the racers, and the sabotaged Wolf car crashes into all the others.
The Hunch Bunch will try to sabotage Shaggy all the way, but often bungle it, messing up Drac and the other racers, like (to start off), tying a chain from the Wolf car to the stage Drac is standing on. (When he tries to fire the starting gun at them and it backfires, then the crowd actually cheers! They cheer again when the Frankenwagon "electrifies" them with a bolt of lightening. As time goes on, we get a lot of slapstick comedy of the monsters trying to mess up each other or Shaggy). No matter what, Shaggy keeps getting out of every trap and getting back into the lead. (The most formidable being the "Shlockness Monster", which swallows them, and Scrappy spring into action to sprinkle pepper on him, sneezing them free; and at another point, the Witch Sisters shrink them, and Scrappy pumps them back to normal size).
This goes on until Drac realizes he needs to get rid of Googie and Scrappy, so he sends the Hunch Bunch, who hoists them away. Shaggy then follows, in the other direction from the race. They drop them over Lava Lake, but the Wolf car chews down a tree for them to land on. Shaggy reenters the race, and Googie leads the Hunch Bunch into a wall above a tunnel. "Dippy and Drippy" then toss a beehive, but the swarm chases them away. The other monsters have a big pile up, as Shaggy speeds back into the lead. (Drac wants to "chew up" the Hunch Bunch, but he has to "get in line" behind the bees).
The Hunch Bunch continues to bungle the traps. Drac finally unleashes "Genghis Kong", a giant gorilla that picks them up as the other monsters approach the finish line. He takes Scooby in his hand and drops the car, and under "operation skateboard", both cars slide large skateboards under him and push the ape into the race and he flattens the other cars, as Shaggy wins! (G.K.: "Sorrry!")
Vanna is about to hand the Monster of the Year trophy to Shaggy, but Drac stops her. All Shaggy wants is to be changed back ("I don't want to be Monster of this year, or any year...!"), but now Drac says there is no way to change him back, but Vanna blabs how that's a "monster fib", because in the Grimness Book it tells how to change back a werewolf. ("Bang! Zoom! To the moon!") Scooby grabs the book from him, and they all grab it from each other in passing. Scrappy finally grabs it from Shaggy's car, and Shaggy and Scooby jump in, and Drac and the Hunch Bunch follow in the Dracmobile (whose rear is a coffin). When that doesn't work, they use the bat plane, from which he shoots at them. The gang's car is able to jet away, but Drac creates a tornado that sucks them up. The lightning disintegrates the bat plane, and then the gang ends up riding on top of a regular plane.
They are back home, but Shaggy is still a werewolf. Googie has him repeat the spell to change him back: "Oogly boogly, wobbly wye. No more werewolf am I. I'm going to be, a normal guy". As Shaggy describes Dracula as "something was always eating at him", Dracula, answering through the "fourth wall", says "You said a mouthful", as he's in the ocean he fell into being chased by a shark. (The Hunch Bunch are in a sailboat nearby playing a board game).
Googie now tells Shaggy not to eat so fast lest he get the hiccups and turn into a werewolf again. As we look at her, we hear a hiccup and growl but it's not Shaggy. (Thinking he was playing a joke: "Shaggy! You nerd!") Scooby is now a werewolf, but it's only a mask. Shaggy tells Googie "We're all through with those werewolves and vampires and monsters forever!", but Drac is now outside looking in the window: "That's what he thinks!" The Hunch Bunch rise beside him and all three say "We're back!"
•That Shaggy has werewolves in his family was established in the "Scary Scooby Funnies" episode "Moonlight Madness".
•We would never have expected them to give Shaggy such a cute girlfriend. There was once talk, after the 13 Ghosts, of bringing Scooby Dee back as Scooby's girlfriend, which never materialized. Perhaps they changed it to Shaggy having a girlfriend instead?
•End of the Scrappy era and the last ever positive use of him in new animation. Within ten years, the new medium of the internet will be popular, and filled with negative sentiments about him, that will spread to new productions in the new millennium. (The very last thing he ever says is "Hooray!" when Shaggy is changed back to normal, and before that, was when they are glad to be home, and he says "I'll eat to that! Right, Uncle Scoob?" He's silent in the beginning of the last scene, and then absent from his spot to the right of Shaggy, in the very last shot, when the monsters are in the window
•End of the original run of Scooby in his original form. Right as this was released, the new season had already begun, which introduced the younger version of Scooby and the gang (the next fad after younger sidekicks), and the return of Fred and the girls, but with the personalities drastically changed.
Scooby and all related characters trademarks of Hanna Barbera and Cartoon Network (A Time-Warner Company)