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Ghastly Ghost Town is the first episode of the first season and the first overall episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

Premise[]

After the Mystery Machine crashes into a sand dune and gets stuck near the Three Stooges' ghost town theme park, the gang try to figure out who's been scaring away the tourists.

Synopsis[]

While driving down a desert road, the Mystery Machine gets stuck in a sand dune after the gang tries to avoid a king-size bat, who is speeding down the road towards them. As a result, the gang meets the Three Stooges - Moe, Larry, and Curly Joe - who had opened a theme park in a real ghost town.

After inviting the gang to a restaurant, Moe explains that something unusual has been scaring away the tourists, and if they don't do anything about it, they'll be out of business. Soon, the gang meets Rhino the caretaker, who has been acting suspicious lately. Afterwards, they meet Tyrone, a mechanical T-Rex who has been roaring unexpectedly. Tyrone scares away the Three Stooges, at which time the gang runs into Amos Crunch, the manager of the theme-park, who tells them that they are trespassing. In the process, Scooby backs into the front left foot of Tyrone, which opens a secret door in the hull. Later, the gang, together with Crunch, discover that the roar was from a tape-recorder. After Tyrone had his last roar, Crunch destroys the tape.

The Three Stooges can get back to business, but there is one question remaining: What's with the king-size bat the gang saw earlier? Meanwhile, Crunch, who is also acting suspiciously, is being followed by Velma, but as she stands at the front porch of the caretaker's office, she is sent down a trap-door and into the abandoned mine used for the mine ride.

After realizing that Velma has disappeared, the gang split up to look for her, with Shaggy and Scooby searching the Ferris wheel area, Fred and Daphne searching in the desert, and the Three Stooges searching the cowboy museum. Unfortunately, they don't find her. Shaggy & Scooby end up in the hall of mirrors section of the ghost town saloon, Fred and Daphne get tricked by someone dressed in a cactus costume in the middle of the desert, and the Three Stooges are scared away by the mysterious Gunslinger.

Later, an Indian war dance in the park leads to the ground shaking, which scares away The Three Stooges and they get on the mine ride, only to have no idea where they are heading. Meanwhile, Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, and Daphne reunite, and when Shaggy suggests asking Crunch and Rhino for help, while they appear to be playing cards in their office, the Gunslinger appears. Fred and Daphne get sent down the trap-door, and land right on Velma, while Scooby deals with the Gunslinger, only to end up in the well. After witnessing the Gunslinger suffering from a short circuit, Shaggy tries to get Scooby out, only to have the both of them end up back in the well.

Meanwhile in the mine, the Three Stooges crash into a dead end and reunite with Fred and the girls, during which they realize that the mine is full of uranium. Unfortunately, they become trapped in the mine after Velma sneezes from the dust, resulting in a cave-in. However, Moe insists that they could dig their way out, though it doesn't go as well as planned. That's when Velma notices a huge ventilation pipe near the crash site, and they will be able to communicate with anyone on the surface.

After getting out of the well, Shaggy and Scooby hear their friends' voices from the top of the pipe, and after realizing what has happened, they headed off to find a way to rescue them. Initially, they think they can get some help from Crunch and Rhino, but it turns out that they are only dummies dressed in the caretakers' clothes.

Scooby comes up with an idea of using Tyrone to dig their friends out. They succeed, but two mysterious villains, the Gunslinger and Geronimo, plot their getaway on the king-size bat. Shaggy and Scooby use Tyrone to chase them and successfully foil the villains' getaway. Meanwhile, the Indian war dance is revealed to be just a silent film, played on a secret projector.

After their capture, Tyrone drops the two villains at the town jail, and the pair are identified as Crunch and Rhino. They had discovered uranium in the abandoned mine and used the Gunslinger and Geronimo to scare everyone away so they could mine the uranium illegally, and smuggle it across the border via the king-size bat for a huge profit.

The Three Stooges reopen the theme park to a full crowd (with Ngogi and Iggy being a big hit), and Shaggy and Scooby are rewarded with a supersized hero sandwich for their role in capturing Crunch and Rhino. The sheriff allows Shaggy to have a small bag of uranium, which messes with Dingbat's radar again and it flies into the guys' sandwich. Fortunately, it all falls back into place and they start eating it, much to everyone's amusement.

Characters[]

Main characters:

Supporting characters:

Villains:

Other characters:

  • Gentle Gertrude (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Danny (only appearance)(no lines)
  • King Kong (mentioned)
  • Lizard (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Iggy (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Dingbat (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Frog (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Wyatt Earp (wax figure) (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Wild Bill Hickok (wax figure) (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Jesse James (wax figure) (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Billy the Kid (wax figure) (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Vulture (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Customers (only appearance)(no lines)

Locations[]

Objects[]

Vehicles[]

Suspects[]

Suspect Motive/reason
Rhino Surly attitude. The Stooges mentioned that he was acting rather suspicious lately.

Culprits[]

Culprit Motive/reason
Amos Crunch as the gunslinger
Rhino as Geronimo
To mine and smuggle uranium illegally.

Cast[]

Don Messick Scooby-Doo
Ngogi
Sheriff
Casey Kasem Shaggy Rogers
Frank Welker Fred Jones
Heather North Daphne Blake
Nicole Jaffe Velma Dinkley
Daws Butler Larry
Pat Harrington Moe
Henry Corden Rhino
Geronimo
Tyronosaurus Rex
Michael Bell Robot gunslinger
Ted Knight Amos Crunch
Gunslinger

A few sources state different vocal credits for two of the Three Stooges:

  • Curly has also been credited to Joe Baker.[1]
  • Larry has also been credited to Frank Welker.[1]


Full credits[]

The following credits are how they are seen on-screen (or as close as possible).


Notes/trivia[]

Miscellaneous[]

Cultural references[]

  • The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century (1930-1975) best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. "The Three Stooges" film trio was originally composed of Moe Howard, brother Curly Howard, and Larry Fine. Shemp Howard replaced brother Curly when Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1946. Curly died in 1952 and Shemp died in 1955. Joe Besser (who portrayed Babu in a later episode of The New Scooby-Doo Movies) was part of the trio from 1957 to 1959. Curly-Joe DeRita joined the trio in 1959 and remained with the group until 1970.
    • When this episode aired, the Three Stooges were all retired. Moe and Larry passed away in 1975, Besser in 1988, and Curly-Joe in 1993.
    • Though famous for their extreme slapstick, in this episode the Stooges are "toned down" due to the nature of the program. Moe is a pretty nice guy, while his classic persona was a malicious bully.
    • The yellow jumpsuits worn by the Stooges during their two appearances in the series do not appear in any other Stooges media (film or cartoon).
  • Velma indirectly calls Ngogi, King Kong, a movie monster, resembling a colossal gorilla.
  • Geronimo was a prominent leader of the Bedonkohe Apache.
  • Curly Joe calls Geronimo (pretending to be a cigar store Indian), "kemosabe", which is the term of endearment and catchphrase of Tonto, the Native American sidekick from the radio and television program, The Lone Ranger.
  • When Velma is missing, Curly Joe calls out "Come out, come out, wherever you are," a line from a musical number in The Wizard of Oz.
  • Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James, and Billy the Kid are all historical figures from the American Old West. Billy the Kid is lampooned and depicted as a baby.
  • When the gunslinger short circuits, Shaggy says, "The fastest short circuit in the West", which is a reference to the Benny Hill song, "Ernie (The Fastest Milkman in the West)".

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

  • While requesting help from Shaggy and Scooby, Fred loses his lower body.
  • During the scene in the desert, Daphne's head disappears for a couple of frames.
  • When Scooby was telling the gang about the gator, Shaggy's lips were moving when Velma's voice was heard saying "You mean" before Velma's lips were moving.
  • The mechanical T-Rex looks like a real dinosaur when it was seen on a cliff, but then looks like a robot when they encountered it.
  • Right after they begin the search for Velma, she is seen right behind Freddy looking for herself.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]

  • When Moe first talks about Tyrone, he says Tyrone is a plastic model, but when they go to see it, Velma comments that there is not a single break in the plaster.
  • While searching for Velma, Daphne and Fred get lost in the desert. However, when the Indian appears, screaming and yelling while thunder strikes behind him, Daphne and Fred are shown to have somehow returned to the amusement park with no explanation of how they got back.
  • The Three Stooges are with the kids as they examine Tyrone but mysteriously disappear when their manager, Amos Crunch, confronts the gang as trespassers. They aren't seen again until the next scene.
  • While Fred and Daphne are walking in the desert, only Daphne is leaving footprints.
  • While in the desert with Daphne, Fred makes an amusing, but also sexist joke: "This desert reminds me of a woman[…]It goes on and on and on..."
    • This is likely an example of how casual sexism was more normalized during the 1970s when this episode was produced.
  • In a span of five seconds, Scooby is in and out of a hole that he dug five times.
  • When the Stooges meet the gunslinger in the wax museum, he is clean-shaven and has a rounded face. In all later appearances, he has a mustache and a thin face.
  • Moe states that the Indian who appeared was simply "a home movie projected against the black desert night", but one would still need a screen for the projector's image to be seen.
  • The disguises the villains wear aren't unmasked, and they're treated as if they're not even wearing one.
  • Velma claims that the uranium interfered with Dingbat's radar. Bats use sonar, which is not affected by radiation.
  • There seems to be a lot of inconsistency throughout the episode as to who is disguised as the Gunslinger and Indian respectively. When the Indian is initially seen at various stages, he has Mr. Crunch's features (albeit speaks in a different voice); when both the Gunslinger and Indian are seen before they attempt to make their escape, the Gunslinger speaks in Mr. Crunch's voice (but has the face of the destroyed robot Gunslinger); when both are seen inside the Giant Bat vehicle escaping, Mr. Crunch is the Indian and Rhino the Gunslinger; and finally, when seen in jail Mr. Crunch is the Gunslinger and Rhino the Indian (albeit both speak in the other's voice).
  • Velma notes that the ground isn't shaking when the Three Stooges unwittingly play the home movie of the Indian, but she wouldn't have known that the ground shook the first time around as she wasn't present then.
  • End credits mistakes (that last for the rest of the season):

In other languages[]

Language Name Meaning
Greek Η Στοιχειωμένη Πόλη The Haunted Town
Hungarian Szellemvárosi frász Fright of the ghost town

Home media[]

  • UK Scooby-Doo in Ghastly Ghost Town VHS released by The Video Collection in 1985.
  • UK Scooby-Doo in Ghastly Ghost Town VHS re-released by The Video Collection on November 3, 1986.
  • UK Scooby-Doo in Ghastly Ghost Town (Watch and Play) VHS released by The Video Collection in 1989.
  • US The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 22, 2005.
  • UK The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies: Volume 1 DVD released by Warner Home Video on April 2, 2007.
  • US Scooby-Doo! Shaggy's Showdown DVD released by Warner Home Video on February 14, 2017.
  • US The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection DVD set released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2019.
  • US The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection Blu-ray set released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2019.

Quotes[]

Fred: Oh my, gosh! I think it's the Three Stooges!
Shaggy: More like the Four Stooges.


Fred: Look, we need help.
Moe: A psychiatrist could tell you that.


Gunslinger: Those darn kids!
Geronimo: Yeah. They spoiled everything.


(The king-sized bat approaches the valley)
Shaggy: Here they come, Scoob. (Pulls a lever) Let's go!
(Tyrone digs down and scoops up a large pile of rocks and dirt)
Shaggy: Ready...AIM...(The king-sized bat crosses the valley)...FIRE!!
(Tyrone dumps its load right onto the king-sized bat, stopping it)
Shaggy: Ha ha! That stopped them!

References[]

  1. 1.0 1.1 Film and TV Tributes to the Stooges. ThreeStooges.net. Retrieved June 3, 2015.


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