Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Never Ape an Ape Man (1969)

 

A really fun episode.

In this episode the gang visits Daphne's Uncle, director John Maxwell. They decide to work as extras on his new film, The Ape Man of Forbidden Mountain. However, when a real ape man shows up and ruins the movie, the gang has another mystery on their hands.

There is a lot of fun to be had in this episode. While the ape man is not creepy, he does have a great design that makes him feel real threatening. The scene on the bridge early on has a good sense of suspense with Scooby being in real danger. The green background in this scene only gives it a greater sense of atmosphere which increases the suspense. In fact, this whole episode benefits from beautiful background art that gives it a delightfully creepy feel. The chase scenes here are fantastic and quite exciting. At the same time the humor here is wonderful. This episode features Scooby humor at its absolute best. The scene with the ape man putting on a Scooby-Doo mask and pretends to be Scooby's reflection. This is an old gag, which dates back to silent films. However, the sheer ridiculous extreme this gag is taken to here (including the ape having a Scooby-Doo mask) makes it feel very fresh and funny. The "Shaggy snack" also cracked me up.

My only real problem is that once again the mystery is too easy to solve thanks to a lack of suspects. 

The very next year this episode would be adapted into comic book form in Gold Key Comics' Scooby Doo... Where Are You! #1, which was released in March 1970. The comic book adaption made some changes to the original story including adding an ending, where John Maxwell rewrites the movie so that the gang can be the stars, with Scooby as the ape man. 

This is classic Scooby-Doo at its best.