Scooby Doo celebrates it's 50 year this year. This series began with "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" that aried on CBS in 1969 then it exploded in popularity that it later received more series and later movies. Toys and prodcuts were made and sold well, it became big. Hanna-Barbera even tried copying themselves with making shows that kind of copied the formula of Scooby Doo. The characters have had a long lasting effect in our media so here at Joshuaonline, we are going to be taking a look each month at a piece of Scooby-Doo media in commemoration.
Back in 1985 it's December and a couple of children (let's say a boy and girl) are watching the final episode of "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo" and not knowing it was the last episode.
Almost 34 Years later : Warner Brothers Animation releases "Scooby Doo and The Curse of The 13th Ghost" finally a finale.
Personal story time: I grew up watching my Scooby Doo Media on Cartoon Network (and possibly TNT) and remember watching the 13 th Ghost of Scooby Doo , swearing they did catch all 13, even thinking with 13 episodes they did catch them all but nope. (Pokemon Fail) I do love that series though.
The 13th Ghosts of Scooby Doo was the 7th series and to explain it in short talk. Scooby Doo had kind of fallen out of popularity by the 1980's the series had been seen as kind of predictable and over saturated. That did stop them from making Scooby Doo series instead they tried new things like adding Scrappy , removing everyone that wasn't Shaggy (don't do the joke , don't do the joke) and Scooby. They did add Daphne back to the series for the 6th series "The New Scooby and Scrappy Show" in 1983. So this series has All those plus a boy named Flim-Flam (why would you name your child that?). Anyway, this series decided to something different to make Scooby Doo hip! fresh! amazing! new! wow! to the audience. This time the ghosts are real! (I may use this line again)
For you Scrappy haters out there (mean), this is the last series with him in it. The series ran from 1985 for 3 months on CBS worked on by the man who created the 90's animation hits "Animanics, Tiny Toon Adventures, and Pinky and The Brain" , Tom Ruegger. (He also created Histera! which needs to be loved you!) So, 33 years later , Warner Bros , who now was the rights to Scooby announced they were going to release a new movie that will finally wrap up the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo.
Our fake children are now in their 40's are jumping with joy. Let's begin. After the Jump because we talked too much.
The movie starts with Vincent Van Ghoul (who was in the original series played by Vincent Price) and since Vincent Price is dead now (boo!) they have Maurice LaMarche doing Vincent's voice, with the chest that held the 13 ghosts that was the chest that Scooby and Shaggy opened in the original series to allow the releasing of the ghosts. Vincent runs off with the chest to protect it from Evil while his friend gets uhhh killed. (dark)
Now the movie is in color and pause. So in this movie we don't have Scrappy (because you know) and also Fred and Velma are back which is a little strange for a movie that's finishing up the series that didn't have F and V in it. Un pause, we might be a little ahead of ourselves. The gang is chasing a guy who looks like Abe Lincoln whom they catch and try to pull of his face but that's his real face. it's a twist they messed up they got the wrong guy. The sheriff tells them that they need to stop solving mysteries and if they are caught doing it again they are going to the clink.
You know you are just handcuffed in pretzels , right?/Copyright Warner Bros.
They sold the mystery machine. (You know, Fred, you could have re painted the van) This brings us to our plot of one un-finshed thing. There's a crystal ball that came from the original series that Vincent used to talk to them with. Vincent talks with them and tells them that it's time to find the 13th ghost. Fred and Velma don't know what's going on because they weren't there, and this special explains that they were away at camp. (guess that makes sense)
I have the same faces around the magic orb/ Copyright Warner Bros.
Even the original red van from the series shows up. Also it's a stick , Fred can't drive a stick, what? Well our plot has started pretty quickly and they look for the 13th ghost also called Asmodeus. Velma is skeptical because someone has to be, and Shaggy (don't do the joke) explains the reason he and Scooby are on edge with ghosts because they've seen the real ones. (Uhh, so not using the Pup-Named Scooby Doo cannon eh?) We also get a cool car chase in this movie (the the CGI is a little weird).
This CGI is worrying/ Copyright Warner Bros.
They also mention Flim-Flam (squeaks). I'm also sensing a little plot line where Fred doesn't like not leading. Time to go searching for Vincent while Shaggy and Scooby make food. (as always) Velma continues trying to prove all the spooky stuff isn't real (because reasons). They find him and he's all tied up. They don't have to worry about looking for the 13th ghost because it's there already. (convenient) Oh wait there's a problem they don't have the chest which, I guess makes sense it gives us the rest of the movie's run time.
Good Doggo/ Copyright Warner Bros.
Vincent talks about through flashback how he found the chest of demons and maybe he should have left the chest of demons alone. They accidentally opened the chest letting the ghosts go, before Scooby and Shaggy let it go. Velma still is skeptical because this needs to dragged out. Vincent Van Ghoul has a private jet. Also Shaggy can fly a plane (what?)
Shaggy :The Pilot ? / Copyright Warner Bros.
They make it to the Himalayas to find the package holding the chest because Shaggy sent it there. Also there was a guy from the garage sale earlier named Bernie Allen he happens to be randomly there in the place that's deserted because of demons. (weak!) The car from the car chase earlier is there too. (KITT has gone mad!) Fred and Velma find this random guy and he seems to know something about the chest. While the others are still out running this car and avalanche it created.
So apparently, the random guy is selling stuff based off the chest of demons but doesn't have the chest of demons. He decides to join them to find the real one because he knows about the real. He has tons of monster hunting equipment. (why?) Velma still pulling the I'm skeptical thing because science. Fred still is feeling sad about what his role is anymore. Meanwhile, the others are stuck in a temple. Asmodeus is there too he found the chest of demons. They even do a slight 80's sounding music while trying to get the chest from demon. (This is kind of cool) Even doing the costumes to trick the monster thing they've done all the Scooby hallmarks here.
I wonder who this might be/ Copyright Warner Bros.
Asmodeus doesn't like being tricked so now he's chasing Scooby and Shaggy. Vincent's been having a hard time doing spells ever since Asmodeus showed up. he throws the crystal ball and stops the demon and calls them on their crystal ball to tell them to leave because it's between him and demon. Velma believes in ghosts now (what a quick turn around.) Everything looks bad so Fred can resolve his plot point he takes action and helps everyone else out as a good leader. Fred went to cheer leading camp. (what, that's random) That does explain earlier also this movie with the talking dog is goofy.
Here's the chest we've been talking about/ Copyright Warner Bros.
He can drive a stick now, well I'm glad that's resolved. Velma and Fred go to the random guy to get some monster hunting stuff and Scooby Doo, Scaggy, and Daphne jump out of the plane to get inside the temple again . More care chase because they really want to show us the beautiful CGI work they've done. Vincent and Asmodeus are still fighting each other. Shaggy and Scooby do a fake ghost thing and Velma almost kills them. (Dark) Also, the clues in the film if you didn't know the guy is Flim Flam. He somehow grew up bigger quickly. They also threw a Scrappy joke, Velma doesn't know who that is. (Because of course)
I don't know/ Copyright Warner Bros
Vincent has more back story, his ancestor apparently is the 13th ghost. (Well then) This means he sees it as a family squabble. Wait a minute, the 13th ghost isn't dead? (cop out!) I'm not going to spoil this part at all but it is pretty interesting what they did. The 13th ghost is caught and not was I was expecting maybe a little disappointing to me personally.
Oh wait Shaggy sent the wrong chest of Demons which happens to the be the cooler, Flim Flam was selling earlier , Shaggy was it's one purchaser. (of course) The gang isn't retiring after all.
This movie takes the things you expect in Scooby Doo and has fun with it. The series that this movie is trying to complete was a kind of darker but still had it's moments of goofiness and lightness. This movie does fun things like explaining where Fred and Velma were in the series, the idea they got a case wrong is interesting (and has been done before, more on that later). Some of the comedy is set up where a character says something and then it happens is repetitive but fine. Maurice LaMarche does a good job at playing a mimic of Vincent Price's voice for Vincent Van Ghoul. The ending kind of bugged me (again I won't spoil it) but it wasn't a bad ending. It's a goofy film but still fun and really, that's what I want from Scooby Doo. So if you are fan of the 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo check out this movie.
Tune in next time when we see if they bring back Scrappy in the future.
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