The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo
You know a show has reached its end when it starts running out of ideas from the well. Normally series that end up at this point start trending into territory that is far away from the initial conceit of the storyline. Consequently instead of breathing fresh life into the ageing franchise they look desperate in trying to remain relevant with their misbegotten concept. “The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo” fell into this hole as it was Hanna-Barbera's final incarnation of the original Scooby Doo series that had begun in 1969.Gone were the days where they were unmasking criminals in the carnivals or the boardwalk. Now they were chasing real monsters and ghouls which sadly took away much of the fun and mystery the series once enjoyed. By this time show was inspired by all the special effects comedies that were ruling the roost in pop culture, particularly “Ghostbusters” (1984). In this version we are left with what remains of the original mystery gang: Uncle Scooby & his annoying nephew Scrappy Doo, Shaggy, and Daphne. The whole set up of the show was that Scooby and Shaggy, being the huge idiots they are, opened up the mystical Chest of Demons which unleashed 13 of the worst demons upon the face of the earth. Since they just happened to be the ones that opened the chest it is their job to recapture all of the demons before they screw up humanity even further. Along the way some obnoxious Middle Eastern kid named Flim Flam joins them and two bumbling ghosts by the name of Bogel and Weerd haunt the group down in order to stop them from capturing all of the released demons. The story editor of the project was Tom Rugger, who wanted to shake up the franchise by making it more self-referential and break the rules in the episodes. This sounds fresh, but the new style could not overcome or mask some creative problems that had been plaguing the franchise for a while now. The style would have worked more is the show was simply rebooted entirely or if it was applied to a totally new show altogether where they were not tied down by the franchise. The series failed, but it would find its way outside Hanna Barbera when Rugger and a group of animators left the studio to Warner Brothers where they would use it to far greater effect for their cartoons “Tiny Toon Adventures” and “Animaniacs”. The best part of the show hands down is Vincent Prince, or as he is known in the show as “Vincent Van Ghoul”. It’s fun to see him in a cartoon and he really does give it his all in his vocal performance. He even narrated the cool theme song as well which I included above since there are episodes uploaded. I just wished the cartoon would have been on the same level as his voice because he deserves better than this show. While his addition did not save the show or the franchise from creative fatigue his presence alone makes it enough to check the series out.
