The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo
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This classic Scooby-Doo cartoon is the final show Scrappy-Doo is in, and it’s spookily enjoyable.
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The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo is an American animated television series produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions, and the seventh incarnation of the studio's Scooby-Doo franchise. It premiered on September 7, 1985, and ran for one season on ABC as a half-hour program. Thirteen episodes of the show were made in 1985. It replaced Scary Scooby Funnies, a repackaging of earlier shows; another repackaged series, Scooby's Mystery Funhouse, followed. This was the first show in which the Scooby-Doo characters actually encountered supernatural creatures, rather than criminals and grifters wearing disguises.
Summary
Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Daphne and Scrappy-Doo are all on a ghost hunt after Scooby was tricked into opening the Chest of Demons. They all work together along with a kid named Flim-Flam and a wizard named Vincent Van Ghoul to get all of them back.
Why This Season Rocks
- Good animation: an improvement over the previous Scooby-Doo shows and older cartoons in general, there are little to no errors, even the tiniest details enhance the entire show.
- It’s the seventh show of a beloved franchise.
- Interesting concept of the Scooby gang chasing real ghosts, which fits the franchise nicely.
- This is also the first time Vincent Van Ghoul appeared in the franchise, and he’s a wonderful character.
- The characters are still interesting with different types of personalities.
- Many of the main characters still have catchphrases that'll never get old.
- For example: Shaggy's "Zoinks!" or Daphne's "Jeepers!".
- There are still funny moments and running gags, such as Scooby and Shaggy's endless craving for food or how the others have to convince Scooby to continue catching ghosts by bribing him with Scooby-Snacks.
- Daphne is very lovable here, being a great character as always, and with a new very attractive look and design.
- Weerd and Bogel are very funny, goofy and hilarious villains.
- Scrappy-Doo is still likable here, retaining his better personality and voice from the two previous Scooby-Doo shows.
- Great voice acting, especially from Don Messick, Casey Kasem, and Vincent Price.
- Don Messick is still great as both Scooby and Scrappy.
- Susan Blu was okay as Flim-Flam.
- Vincent Price was awesome as Vincent Van Ghoul.
- Howard Morris and Arte Johnson both played Bogel and Weerd quite nicely.
- The new theme song is good, catchy, and timeless, but also spooky.
- This series had an awesome follow-up movie in 2019, Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, which wrapped up the series quite nicely.
Bad Qualities
- Flim-Flam was not a good character. He was an unnecessary addition, a pesky con man, and also an annoying begger and dirty coward. Since Scrappy is likable by this point, Flim-Flam became the new most hated character in the franchise.
- Thankfully, when the follow-up movie came later in 2019, an older Flim-Flam received massive character development, which made him a better character.
- Scrappy still has some annoying moments, but thankfully not too many.
- Sadly, the end of 13 Ghosts also marks the end of the good Scrappy appearing in Scooby-Doo shows, excluding a few rare cameos that came afterwards.
- The animation, while good, is frequently recycled, especially the running animations.
- Similar to other '80s television animation shows, there are a few animation errors, but thankfully not that many.
- The dialogue heavily uses exposition. Characters frequently state the obvious, even things that are being shown on-screen.
- Still, not all of the jokes land, especially the one-liners.
Trivia
- This series has many actors who had played their final or only role as the main character before leaving the main cast. Heather North as Daphne (she did briefly return to voice Daphne again from 1997-2003), Susan Blu as Flim-Flam, Arte Johnson as Weerd, Howard Morris as Bogel, and Vincent Price as Vincent Van Ghoul.
- This series is the only time Bogel and Weerd appeared in the Scooby-Doo franchise.