You are about to enter a recollection so weak, so boring, so passe … other reviews are much more suffice.
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These are… The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.
This series is probably one of the best (if not the best) series of the franchise so far.
Oop, too early.
This series is the Scooby-Doo’s franchise’s series of firsts.
It’s the first to entirely drop the same old of mysteries involving “guy-in-costume” monsters and even actual monsters and have our favorite gang face real ghosts. It’s the first to drop the format of a story involving such for a story arc involving capturing said ghosts. It’s the first (if not one of the first) to use self-referential humor. It’s the first series to officially last just one season. It’s the first series where the Mystery Machine got an upgrade. And It’s also the first where Daphne and Shaggy have an overhaul to their usual outfit.
So much to handle.
This series begins with Daphne and S-Club 3 (Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy) on what they think is the start of a trip (on their own plane no less; don’t ask how they got it -- that never got a ref) to Hawaii, but get sidetracked by Scooby misreading the map leading the gang to go to the Himalayas instead. But the troubles have only begun, as in a nearby castle, two ghosts - Bogel and Weerd - await them. Their plan is for one of them to open a chest that encrypts 13 of the most evil, dangerous and terrifying demons the world has never seen. And since you already know what happens next, we’ll get to that. Shag and Scoob are tricked Bogel and Weerd into opening… The Chest of Demons. During that time, the crew - and us the viewers - meet Flim Flam McScam (voiced by Susan Blu) - a child con artist who’s trouble for the local village he pillaged, and Vincent Van Ghoul - a mystick warlock with a brilliant sense of magic and a penchant for a damn good evil laugh (yes, the good old guy has an evil laugh); he was modelled after and voice by the one and only man/myth/legend Vincent Price. These two come became part of Mystery Inc. world by chance. Flim Flam joined after trying to scam the gang and later helped get their plane back, and now help them on their trek to capture the 13 Ghosts. Van Ghoul meanwhile helped the gang with his magic and contacted them by crystal ball from his place of residence (one with his person and the other en route with the group). On the other side of the coin, the ghosts did everything in their power to stop Mystery Inc. and Flim Flam from ending their plans of ruining some part of the planet and whomever inhabited it and sending them back into the Chest, with Bogel and Weerd as their second-hand henchmen. It’s almost a fight to the afterlife to capture all of the Ghosts and a return to (some) normalcy.
Let’s start with a walk on the dark side:
Up to this point, Scooby-Doo has been pretty scary (emphasis on pretty) with splotches of goofy, touches of cheesy and a big old dash of corny. But it also was entertaining and memorable -- for many reasons bad and good. This series meanwhile took scary and cranked it up to 12 AND A HALF, MEN. Instead of guys in a costume (some of such were genuinely menacing) that want to steal money and scare people away from a random warehouse, the following are actual spirits that commit some messed-up shit.
So let’s meet the haunted hoosegow :
Maldor the Malevolent - a Dark Age warlock who can fight you for a certain shiny utensil.
Queen Morbidia - a bossy ruler with a spider for a minion
Reflector Specter - the mirror demon that can trap victims in a parallel dimension
Zomba - transporter to media
Captain Ferguson - leader of a cruise ship the gang travelled on
Nicara - an enchantress that can steal a warlock’s powers with a kiss
Marcella - a witch from another dimension wanting freedom
Time Slime - a time-travelling ghost that can show a bad future
Demondo - who can trap you in random objects (including comic books)
Rankor - a vampire demon
Professor Phantasmo - the evil ringmaster of a haunting travelling circus
and Zimbulu - a lion demon
These ghosts do some unspeakable travesties throughout the series and didn’t care about who or what was left in their wake barely in one piece (living almost literally be damned). While few ghosts have made me cringe with a chill, this motley crew left me almost screaming something fierce and fearing the dark during the day. Lord alive, these ones were not to be messed with.
There was a reason they were stored in the Chest of Demons in the first place.
Back to Bogel and Weerd, they’re an interesting duo. What they want more than anything is for the 13 Ghosts to acknowledge them. So they want outright dim fools to open the Chest of Demons to unleash them, kiss their backsides and be their bootlickers (enter Shaggy and Scooby). Evil and cunning, yes. But after Episode 1, these two knuckleheads become more (and very, I might add) entertaining. Their attempts to help the Ghost of the Half-Hour succeed in destroying a part of the world and piece of humanity (and smooching their ass sore) is nothing short of hilarious. They certainly add levity to the buzzsaw-cutting tension and scares throughout the series. Their banter certainly was one of the main things to love, even if the are the main recurring villains of the series.
The characters of this series have a lot going for them here (starting on our main four):
--Daph continues her role from The New Scooby-Doo (and Scrappy-Doo Show/Mysteries) as the brilliant leader and is now more of an action girl, actually fighting against the monsters to save the day. Plus, her new outfit of a tracksuit is perfect, as her dress and scarf aren’t worth acing off against these
--Scrappy continues on his maturity streak, abstaining from fighting random tall dudes for no reason (although seriously he can do it) and is just as aware of the craziness as Daph. Although he talks a lot here. (Nope, still not annoying to me.)
--Shaggy & Scooby are still their usual goofy dippy selves, but even they get serious here. And their iconic friendship and loyalty is as strong and powerful as ever here, and is tested in heartbreaking ways in a few episodes (especially “It’s a Wonderful Scoob” when a ghost exposes Scoob to a bad future where everyone is trapped in horrible fates, Shag screams at him in painful insanity for his return after he quits the gang temporarily.
It’s very refreshing to see our favorite gang solidify their traits from the last... (either two shows or one series) and become a more awesome team to fight the villains.
And now let’s meet the new members of the team:
Flim Flam (as mentioned earlier) is a child con artist. While his oil selling is irritating the people of the Himalayan village he frequents, he does become somewhat more useful when he helps, saves and joins Mystery Inc. on their journey. Emphasis on somewhat, because his plans rarely go what and befallen the gang into more turmoil. Fortunately, his work with the rest does save the day.
Here’s a shock: Flim Flam... doesn’t really annoy me. And even funnier, I expected to find him annoying before watching. I see him as an okay character, and someone who’s able to help the rest of the team whenever necessary - goof ups aside. Anyway, I find this funny: while Scrappy-Doo is seen as the abomination that forever tainted the franchise (the hell he did), he’s generally not the most hated thing about The 13 Ghosts -- Flim Flam is. I can understand why (maybe), but to me he’s not as reprehensible as many other people do find him. He’s a-okay in my book, but I do find his scratchy voice (by Susan Blu) pretty irritating in some episodes, his confidence and cockiness being obnoxious, his flip-flopping between overconfident cockiness and begging not to be hurt being aggravating, his somehow being friends with Vincent (he affectionately calls him Vince [ironically, Shaggy once called him just that, and Van Ghoul shaded him for it]) baffles me, although his friendship with Scrappy is pretty cute…
Oh. Never mind.
And finally, probably the real reason why The 13 Ghosts is awesome and is still fondly remembered years after its first airing is Vincent Van Ghoul. As a warlock, he is incredible incarnate. His powers are awe-inspiring. His voice is both chilling and charming (with brilliant touches of comic seriousness in it too; the guy does it well). His suit game is on-point. And he has the most awesome evil laugh any hero can produce. Makes sense, as he is modeled after and voiced by Vincent freakin’ Price. And when I hear him speak, I’m caught on every word; his voice has so much charm, charisma and character, whether he’s being serious or funny (or even both), is calm or hammy, you’ll know you’re in for his own brand of entertaining in any in every episode. And it’s very clear Mr. Price himself had a grand old time in the booth portraying the character the producers made for him. And the fact that the producers made Van Ghoul for Mr. Price and based much on him and the characters he portrayed throughout his legendary career, says so much - like they loved his works and thought he’d be perfect to star in a Scooby-Doo series. Sweet Trilogy of Terror, they were so right. Whether good guy or not, Mr. Van Ghoul was - still is - and always will be one of the best characters in all of the Scooby-Doo franchise.
Now a bit about the tone: It’s scary as shit. But it’s also funny as fuck.
As I said earlier, The 13 Ghosts is the scariest and darkest incarnation of the S-D franchise. Actual ghosts committing actual carnages that would scare even The 10,000 Volt Ghost, Miner 49er and the Ice Cream Ghosts into fetal positions; characters going through shit that would put them in an insane asylum; and animation that some probably wouldn’t even watch in the day. While its dark tone is brilliantly done, so is its funny side. The humor was also cranked up to beyond bizarre levels. Besides the usual goofy antics of Scooby and Shaggy, sight gags of many types were featured and written very well. And I think the reason why is because had these gags and the ramped-up humor not been a part of The 13 Ghosts, there’s a chance the horror and thriller aspects would scare and turn off young viewers, causing them to turn off ABC during its timeslot. Even without that in consideration, The 13 Ghosts has to be the funniest Scooby-Doo series I’ve ever seen (and so far, the last was New Scooby and Scrappy). It’s use of breaking the fourth wall is also a plus; really, it’s so blatant, it’s like the characters are saying to you “Yes, we just broke the fourth wall”, without ever uttering it. And it’s like they had a hundred fourth walls at the ready for one joke and get three more for the next; And as someone who loves referencing self (especially in the deprecating type causeImugly), The 13 Ghosts is chock full of SRH; what with punchlines based on from Scooby’s raccent, the ghosts being weirded out by the main group’s randomness, the show itself, the franchise itself, how everyone got on random outfits and props out of thin air (unless they came from Flim Flam’s hoodie pocket), this show went way past out there to be funny, and it worked. All of this can make your head spin if you think hard about it, but it makes you laugh your butt off when you just go with it.
Really, you’ll be on the floor in seconds.
If you’re well-versed on the Scoobyverse -- or even if you’re not, the work on The 13 Ghosts is by the staff fronted by a dude by the name of Tom Ruegger (whom has worked with the franchise before starting with New Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo, and later gained heightened praise throughout the 90s as creator and producer of Tiny Toon Adventures and Animaniacs, along with being the next series in the franchise). Honestly, this guy is incredibly talented and deserves high regard in the television animation industry. There’s no end to his genius.
Oh, and speaking of no end, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo infamously ended its 13-episode run on December 7, 1985 with Mystery Inc, Flim Flam and Vincent capturing only 12 ghosts. This was a shocking development that made me wonder why. But since typical Saturday morning cartoons were usually 13 episodes long (previously 16 or 17 in the first season, then to 8 for some reason in the second [seriously can someone explain this to me please?]). Also, it was a smart call to have the first episode set up the overall story and get the gang and Flim Flam on their way to find fight and capture the titular collective of ceased colorful criminals, with Mr. V helping from afar and doing whatever Vincent Van Ghoul do that’s too cool for school. But that leaves twelve episodes left; why did we have a steady stream of one ghost per episode? It would’ve been better to have one or two episodes that have two ghosts team up and get captured. Plus, in my opinion, I didn’t like that the ghosts were introduced sometime after the start of an episode. Either way, it would’ve been great for just one more episode that introduced the 13th and last ghost and have the gang fight it in a bang-up of a final battle that finally brings The 13 Ghosts of Scooby to a fiery and satisfying conclusion…
Oh wait, there is.
Scooby-Doo! And the Curse of the 13th Ghost.
On February 5, 2019, Warner Bros. Home Entertainment released a direct-to-video feature film follow-up to the series, and it more than does give us that...along with more questions. The main characters are back with Fred and Velma joining the ride and a fantastic performance by Maurice LaMarche as Ms. Van Ghoul (taking over for Mr. Price, whom passed years after its non-ending). I’ll give it a review soon.
But for now, this is the end. The end of Scooby-Doo on ABC, the end of the original incarnation(s) of Scooby-Doo, and the end of a legendary franchise. For now…
Next week, Scooby is reborn. Join him and Mystery Inc as they solve mysteries… while they’re still in elementary school, and he’s barely house-trained. He’s A Pup Named Scooby-Doo.
For now, though, tis the end of another passible review to another rip-roaring, wild, crazy and iconic show seen anew. I'm Andrew Pollard,saying "Rooby-Rooby-Roo!"
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