Sunday, October 8, 2023

The Scooby-Doo! Show: Highland Fling with a Monstrous Thing (1978)

 



A fun episode. 

Velma's Scottish friend, Aggie McDuff is having ghost trouble. She is letting tourists into her old ancestral home and a ghost is scaring all the tourists away. Naturally she calls her friend Velma and the Mystery Inc. gang is soon on the case. 

This episode benefits from a wonderful sense of atmosphere. Though the gang has been in old castles quite a few times by this point, the Scottish flair gives this episode a bit of a unique feel. It also allows the backround artists to add some nice Scottish touches. As well as these little touches, this episode also has all the great spooky castle atmosphere that was already present in the previous spooky castle episodes. I especially love the use of the Lochness Monster and kilt wearing skeleton. The sense of atmosphere is even seen before the gang enters the castle with the gang driving through the Scotland fog and seeing the lakes of Lochness. Once again the background art is simply wonderful to look at. This episode also has a lot of slapstick gags involving Shaggy in Scooby. While this may not be laugh out loud funny they did make me chuckle and smile quite a few times. 

The problem with this episode is the ghost himself. With the amount of ghosts the gang has met, there is little to make this one stand out. He is neither creepier nor more intimidating than the many other ghosts, the gang has met. Because of this he simply comes off as another ghost, but this time with a kilt, making him rather forgettable.

Despite a weaker villain, this is still a delightful episode with a lot of fun to be found. 

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