13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo!

Reviewer: Alyice Edrich

The Cartoon

13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo!, Complete Series

The Plot

A cartoon series that ran for a single season in 1985. The series centers around the gang's search for 13 ghosts who've escaped from a Demon Chest.

Starring

Vincent Price, Casey Kasem, Don Messick, Heather North, Susan Blu, Arte Johnson, Howard Morris, and more.

Review

After Scooby mixes up the gang's travel plans, Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Daphne, and Scrappy end up in a small town near the Himalayas where Scooby and Shaggy are tricked into opening a treasure chest, known as the Chest of Demons, filled with 13 evil ghosts.

As the gang ventures off to locate the ghosts and return them to the treasure chest, they're accompanied by Flim Flam, a child con-artist, and Vincent Van Ghoul, a warlock (and mystic) with the ability to "see all".

Tagging along, in secret, to make sure misfortune and mishap follow the gang and foil their plans are the chest's caretakers—two fumbling ghosts named Weerd and Bogel.

Each episode centers on the gang finding one of the 13 ghosts. In each episode the gang locates the ghost, runs from the ghost, attempts to catch the ghost, runs away from the ghost again, meets up with someone who needs saving, and eventually saves the day.

Not once does the gang meet up with Velma and Freddie and there's no word on to their disappearance, either. It's as though they simply never existed—which of course, is strange considering the series was so successful with them.

There is also no sign of the Mystery Inc. Mystery Machine, either. It's been replaced with an airplane flown by Scrappy-Doo and a rundown red van.

Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, and Daphne are just as charming and entertaining as ever. However, they seem to take a back seat to Flim-Flam and Scrappy-Doo, who appear to have a more active role, and voice, in the series.

Though I don't necessarily miss Freddie, I'd much rather have him on the team than Scrappy-Doo and Flim-Flam who seemed to grate on my nerves after awhile. And I really missed Velma's insight and her trademark, "jinkies", exclamations.

As for Vincent Van Ghoul, I absolutely loved his presence in the series—but that could simply be because I have a little crush on Vincent Price whom the character is created for.

Your Task

Forget what you know about the original series. Forget that Velma and Freddie were ever a part of the team. And just enjoy this series for the quirkiness that it is. If you do that, I promise that you'll find it an enjoyable series and one that you can let your kids watch without a single worry.