The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo

The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was the iteration of the long-running Scooby-Doo franchise that ran, fittingly enough, for thirteen episodes in the fall of 1985. I would have been starting my sophomore year of college then. That was the year I first met Ross Lomanitz, who studied under Oppenheimer. It’s also when I first started getting to know the woman who would be my wife, though it would still be a few years before we would begin dating. Needless to say, I had other things on my mind than Saturday morning cartoons. Still, I was enough a fan of Scooby-Doo to be aware of it. I’d heard that Vincent Price was in it. I turned it on long enough to see that Scrappy-Doo was in it and that there were some silly-looking ghosts and went back to studying physics.

Years later, my kids would discover the series and they watched it. However, I still gave it a pass. A few weeks ago, though, I happened to discover that a sequel movie had been made that claimed to actually finish the story. The premise of The 13-Ghosts of Scooby-Doo is that while on a holiday with Daphne, Shaggy and Scooby are duped into entering an ancient Himalayan fortress and opening a chest which contained thirteen demons. The first episode involves releasing the demons. The subsequent twelve involve capturing the demons and putting them back in the chest. So, in the run of the series, the thirteenth demon is never captured. The direct-to-video movie The Curse of the 13th Ghost serves as a series finale … of a sort. My wife wanted to see the movie and talked me into watching the series first.

The silly ghosts I saw when I first caught a portion of The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo are Bogle and Weerd voiced by Howard Morris and Arte Johnson respectively. They’re the ones that duped Shaggy and Scooby into opening the chest in the first place because they hope the demons will be grateful and help them become full-fledged demons. While I know this was made as a kids show, I didn’t care for their design, which made them look like refugees from Casper the Friendly Ghost. This is especially notable since a lot of the actual demons from the chest are given much more effective and creepy designs. Some work better than others, but generally I could see how younger kids especially might find the series honestly frightening.

Although Scrappy-Doo, Scooby’s nephew who is full of vim, vigor and irritating catchphrases, is part of the series, he’s actually far less annoying in this than he was in earlier iterations where he appeared. Some of that has to do with him not being the center of attention and getting relatively little screen time, but I think it also helps that they introduced a new character, a young con artist named Flim-Flam. Basically, Flim-Flam and Scrappy become a fast-talking, take-action team that nicely counterpoint Scooby and Shaggy’s preference to hide and find a good snack. Daphne ends up taking the lead as the one who holds everything together. She even has her own red Mystery Machine stocked full of state-of-the-art computer equipment.

By far the high point of the series is Vincent Price as the voice of Vincent Van Ghoul. He’s portrayed as a wizard who was guarding the chest and he helps direct Scooby and the gang to the location of the next ghost and serves as a mentor. As always, Price’s work is excellent and he continues to do a great job of walking the line between camp and horror. Some of his best moments are as the long-suffering mentor to a band of hapless teenagers.

The movie Curse of the 13th Ghost brings most of the original gang into the action. Scrappy is not there, though and the one time he’s mentioned, it’s written as though Fred and Velma don’t know who he is. I thought this was a bit of a shame, actually. Even though I’m not a Scrappy fan, I would have liked to have seen this sequel acknowledge his part in the series a little more. Likewise, we have no sign of the ghosts Bogel and Weerd. Since the movie was made in 2019, they couldn’t bring Vincent Price back, but Maurice LaMarche does a credible job as Vincent Van Ghoul. Flim-Flam does appear, now much more grown up even though they claim this is no more than a couple of years after the series. As the movie opens, Fred sells the classic green, flowered Mystery Machine, which gives them an excuse to bring the red Mystery Machine back, which was a fun touch.

I thought the animation and designs in the movie were great. I liked how Velma and Fred are skeptical that Daphne and Shaggy encountered real ghosts. The movie also does a great job of sidestepping whether there was a real thirteenth ghost or not. I’m one of those people who liked how Scooby and the gang kept discovering that the monsters and ghosts weren’t real, but criminals. Also, some of the direct-to-video films like Zombie Island and The Witch’s Ghost did a great job of giving us the gang confronting real supernatural threats. However, I always thought there were two missed opportunities. One was dealing with the issue that criminals in masks might actually be more dangerous than supernatural opponents. The other is that Scooby is well situated to tell X-Files-like stories where you’re never quite sure what’s real and what’s not. Curse of the 13th Ghost managed to tell something close to that kind of story. I just wish the movie had acknowledged Scrappy’s existence and maybe was set a little later in time, with a premise more like Zombie Island where the gang are now adults. This would have better justified the older Flim-Flam.

All in all, it was fun go back and visit this series from 1985 and it’s 2019 sequel. If you want to read my story of a group of rational people confronting ghosts and monsters, why not check out The Astronomer’s Crypt. You can see a cinematic video trailer and learn more about the movie at http://davidleesummers.com/Astronomers-Crypt.html