Well, it's Tuesday Night yet again, and time for another new episode of Scooby Doo Mystery Incorporated. Tonight's episode is called "Night Fright" and features the one and only Vincent Van Ghoul.
Tonight(because I have a slight headache and decided to do the blog early) am I for the first time during the show's run, not waiting until the show airs on the west coast to write the blog review for this episode.
First, we have our weekly SDMI Canadian update; so far in Canada, episode 25 has aired, which leaves only one episode left of Scooby Doo Mystery Inc. this season. Unfortuntely because of Cartoon Network's long, long break between new episodes, the final episode will not air until July 26th, while in one week the final episode is set to air in Canada.
Hard to believe that the end of the season(at least for our friends up North) is coming this weekend. We'll get to all the secrets, plot points and such about that episode when it airs in the US, but for now let's get to tonight's installment in the USA.
Our story begins on a dark and stormy night, and as what has happened many times during this season, Scooby and Shaggy are watching a Vincent Van Ghoul movie. This time the duo are watching a film where Vincent has to take on a horde of zombies, and becomes one as well.
While our favorite cowardly and hungry duo are watching their hero in a movie, there's a knock at Shaggy's door. And who should be at the door then.... yes, the one and only Vincent Van Ghoul.
Shaggy and Scooby Doo are very suprised to see their horror hero, who has dropped by their humble abode to inform them of something very important. In this case, it was that they won the "Have Dinner with Vincent Van Ghoul essay contest" or something like that.
Apparently the duo were one of... two entries in the contest; well, them and an eskimo. Who knew Eskimos liked Vincent Van Ghoul horror movies anyway? Anyway, to make a long story short, the duo gets to eat dinner at Van Ghoul Manor, or whatever's the name of it.
Not only does Vincent Van Ghoul star in horror movies, but he also has a hearse. Later, the trio arrive at Van Ghoul Manor and Van Ghoul arms the mansion's security system; naturally this seems odd, but he has a good explanation for it.
At dinner, the trio enjoy a nice fondue(yes, I did say fondue) and are having a nice time, until they are rudely interrupted. Three of Van Ghoul's movie monsters have come to life to attack him and scare him; although for some reason, two of them resemble Dr. Phibes and The Fly(the first was a Vincent Price movie role, and I think the second was as well, but i'm not sure about that).
Anyway, after Vincent explains to them that these monsters are actors, and are part of a reality TV show, a real life monster named Night Fright attacks the trio. This monster wants Van Ghoul's head, and is not very pleasant to look at obviously(although he also resembles one of the Legend of the Vampire villains, but that's coincidental, I think).
After some typical chase scenes, Van Ghoul, Shaggy and Scooby come to realize that they are trapped, and they need help. So, coming to the rescue are Fred, Daphne and Velma, who after being phoned by the producers of the TV show, hurry over to Van Ghoul Manor to help their colleagues.
Velma as she gets the phone call is busy looking at some artifacts from the Darrow Family Archives, while Fred and Daphne wait 2 hours for a table at the Bloody Stake restaurant, while just as they get a table, they have to go rescue Shaggy and Scooby(bad timing huh?).
After Fred and the girls meet Van Ghoul, and Daphne continues to talk about her empty stomach, they agree to help Vincent capture Night Fright. As the rest of the episode progresses, we get a few tinkle jokes, Van Ghoul acting as scared as Shaggy and Scooby, and Vincent talking about some movie roles he turned down.
Finally, it comes down to trap setting time, and as usual the trap works. But the villain behind the mask is the TV show's production assistant of all people; the PA also was a writer on a movie Van Ghoul never made called "Scream, Scream, Time to Die", which happens to be what Night Fright keeps saying throughout the episode.
The PA then talks with Van Ghoul, and Vincent ends up letting him make a movie about Night Fright, which will be released whenever he gets out of prison(or maybe not). Another member of the TV Show's staff then suggests that he might be able to make a TV Show about Scooby and the gang's exploits, but then decides it wouldn't work. Because after all, who would watch a TV show about four teenagers and a dog solving mysteries anyway?
The episode ends with Daphne devouring everything in sight, as she's still hungry after all. Also, after dressing up as The Mutant Bee, Vincent offers everyone dessert; he then begins laughing evilly(sort of), and soon the rest of the gang join in, which was a pretty funny moment in itself.
So, there you have it: another week, another blog and another review. I liked the episode, as we had Vincent Van Ghoul center stage, and Shaggy and Scooby on their own for a while. I give this week's episode an 8.5; not any romance or Mr. E development(but we'll get to that eventually).
One parting thought from this week's episode: what would happen if Vincent Van Ghoul from this series met the original Vincent Van Ghoul? I think it would be very cool, and I might consider writing about it, so stay tuned. Other then that, i'll return next week with another blog and another review, so see you all then.
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7 comments:
One thing that this series does is to pay homage to the "classic" Scooby, from Velma's little tour in the pilot episode of the monsters they've unmasked (Scooby Doo, Where Are You?), to Scooby's dream (New Scooby Doo Movies), to Scrappy Doo and Flim Flam (I forgot that series with FF), to Van Ghoul (13 Ghosts). To critics who might not like SD:MI much, you might want to appreciate this aspect a little more.
@SAGG: Absolutely; that's another reason why I like this current Scooby series so much, it's the homages to classic Scooby that makes it completely awesome.
To me, it seems that the producers and writers of the show not only went over old Scooby material, but also read a lot of fan fiction stories online as well.
I say that because this series seems to include about a half dozen fan fiction cliches, which is kind of cool.
The fan fiction cliches i'm talking about are a continuous story arc, Fraphne and Shelma romance, guest stars, real ghosts and monsters and more frightening villains then in any other Scooby series aired so far.
By the way, since you frequent the Scooby Addicts board Sagg, have you read the posts and spoilers about episode 26 of SDMI? All I can say is WOW! and excuse my french but HOLY CRAP!!!
I cannot wait for the first season to finish here in the US on Cartoon Network, and then for Season 2 to start immediately after season 1 ends.
Seriously, I want the next season to start of this in August, because I seriously want to see how this turns out.
How can you honestly have cliff hangars like the ones they came up with, and not pay it off after a while? I don't know if you're old enough to remember it but Who Shot J.R. was the perfect cliff hangar; they had the J.R. getting shot thing at the end of one season, and then within the first few episodes of the next one(after a summer break of course) they resolved it and everyone found out who shot JR.
This is the exact same thing; after season 1 ends, I could understand maybe taking a couple month break to digest what's happened and have some time to chat about what's to come, and then probably around Late October/early November ideally(just in time for sweeps), start the next season.
And within the first couple episodes of the next season, we get the gang reunited and they go back on the trail of mysteries; at least, that's what I think should happen.
By the way, since you frequent the Scooby Addicts board Sagg, have you read the posts and spoilers about episode 26 of SDMI? All I can say is WOW! and excuse my french but HOLY CRAP!!!
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But of course, Scoobyfan1 (or Nickle), since I started that thread, and am contributing to it even as we post. :) They'd better not have too long of a gap between seasons like they did between Episode 13 and 14. No May 2012 starts!!
As I wrote over at Toon Zone, I thought Maurice LaMarche, a very underappreciated impressionist, IMPO, did a terrific job as Vincent Van Ghoul, channeling Vincent Price as well as you possibly could.
Seems the reason for the long delay in CN resuming new eps is a dispute between them & WB over the contract. Gee, y'don't think money had something ta do with it?
To SAGG: Flim Flam was also on 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. As if the fanbase needed another Cousin Oliver type (which is how they perceive Scrappy).
@Sagg, I figured that, and I kind of forgot that a little bit as well.
I totally agree; and since I have seen several places that the show is getting a second season, Cartoon Network cannot screw around with this show.
I can understand maybe having a couple month, two maybe three months after the first season ends to start the 2nd season.
To give people a chance to discuss the 1st season and to do a review and such. To use a sports example, the Super Bowl for a long time was played two weeks after the AFC and NFC Championship games.
This was to give the teams a break, and make sure they rest their injuries and decompress before they start getting ready for the big game.
I look at SDMI the same way; let the show's first season run all teh way through, then maybe let the show take a couple month break, and then maybe in late October or early November or so, start running season 2.
At least that's the way I feel about it.
@Sagg, by the way, the series with Flim Flam was indeed 13 Ghosts.
@hobbyfan, I agree that Maurice LaMarche was excellent and is excellent as the current Van Ghoul.
I would like to see how he would handle the original Van Ghoul if(knock on wood) the 13 Ghosts series was revived somehow, but with Fred, and Velma and maybe Madelyn Dinkley replacing Scrappy and Flim Flam.
As I explained over at Toonzone in a couple posts, Madelyn would be a great replacement for FF and Scrappy because she has traits and qualities that resemble those of both characters.
As for money being a reason why the show was delayed as far as new episodes, I can see that.
But it doesn't make much sense; I mean what possible money issue could have come up or contract issue could have come up to delay new SDMI episodes from October all the way to May?
I would have thought the contract issues(if any) would have been worked out prior to the show's debut, and the whole season could be running in order without breaks, all the way through.
Which would mean that we wouldn't be talking about this right now, because the season would most likely be over by now.
Or at least that's what I would think.
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