The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo!: When You Witch Upon a Star (1985)

 

A delightful Scooby episode.

In this episode Marcella, one of the 13 Ghosts gives three inept witches a powerful book of spells, so thet can release her from the Zone of Eternal Evil, where she has been trapped. The gang goes to get the book of spells away from the three witches, while Vincent Van Ghoul, goes to the Zone of Eternal Evil to stop Marcella in person. 

This is a very fun episode. The humor works especially well here. The three witches are based on The Three Stooges. While as a huge Three Stooges fan, I know nothing can top the actual Stooges, these are really fun takes on the classic funny men of the movies. After seeing the gang take on some of the most powerful ghosts in the world, it is a nice change of pace to see them face off against three silly and fun characters as these. Yet we still get the spookiness and major threat with Marcella, who is delightfully creepy and whose magic is even a major threat to the great Vincent Van Ghoul. The story itself moves at a fast pace and is never dull for a moment. Yet despite this fast pace, it also never feels rushed. All the members of the gang get time to shine here and none of them are ever pushed to the background. This episode also benefits from the wonderful background art that so many of us Scooby fans love. 

I love a little in-joke here, where Scooby changes the channel on Vincent's crystal ball and finds a re-run of Scooby-Doo! Where Are You?

All in all this is a very fun episode.