'Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost' Ends a 34-Year Hiatus

The latest Scooby-Doo film is a followup on The 13^th Ghosts of Scooby-Doo, the 1985 incarnation of the Scooby-Doo TV program. Titled Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, it sees Vincent Van Ghoul contacting Scooby, Shaggy, and Daphne about finally finishing their ghost capturing mission.  After the three fill an astonished Fred and a sceptical Velma in about their past in hunting real ghosts, the Mystery Inc. gang meets up with Vincent to capture the thirteenth and final ghost that escaped from the Chest of Demons.

I’m pretty fond of Scooby-Doo (it should be obvious from how closely I follow the movies these last few years), and when I was a kid, I enjoyed watching its various series’ reruns a lot.  However, to be honest, The 13^th Ghosts of Scooby-Doo was a version of the show that I didn’t quite become attached to.  Thus, I totally forgot that that show ended with the 13^th ghost left uncaptured.

Nevertheless, once I was reminded of this detail (when the trailer dropped), I did get to appreciate that this story was finally being given closure after more than three decades.

Moreover, it excited me somewhat that, this time around, the entire Scooby gang was participating.  And, indeed, among the things that I enjoyed the most in this movie were Fred and Velma’s reactions to this side of their friends’ lives that they weren’t aware of.

As for returning characters from the original cartoon, only Vincent Van Ghoul and Flim Flam took part in this movie.  Weerd and Bogel weren’t in it, and neither was Scrappy-Doo (though his name was mentioned once).  I was actually surprised that Scrappy wasn’t in it.  Going into the movie, I was kind of anticipating that he would make an appearance – a cameo, at least.  But that didn’t happen, and it disappointed me a little.  I guess the franchise is still not ready to bring that notoriously annoying puppy back to the spotlight.

All in all, Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost is exactly the kid-oriented fun time I thought it was going to be from the start.  Moreover, although it’s still generally light and silly, I feel that this Scooby-Doo adventure to be a little bit spookier and more sophisticated than usual.