An excellent Scooby mystery.
Cartoon and comic book writer (as well as historian) Mark Evanier (who had previously wrote the first episode of this series and some Gold Key comics starring Scooby), turns in an above average script for this episode that helps make this a standout of this series. The Mystery Inc. Gang travels to Tokyo to see a major baseball game between an American and a Japanese team. However the game may not take place due to a dragon demon supposedly haunting the baseball field. Before you can say "Jinkies", the gang has another mystery on their hands.
While many Scooby mysteries of the 1960's and 70's have too few suspects to make the mystery need any thinking to solve, that flaw is not seen in this episode. While there are not many suspects, you could truly buy if one of the other suspects did it. When we find out who done it, the reasoning behind why this person tried to scare everybody is very well thought out. As is the way the gang deduces who the culprit is. The humor in this episode is also quite good. This episode has one of my favorite dialogue exchanges from this series. Shaggy asks, "You mean we traveled all the way to Japan just to chase down another ghost?" Velma bluntly responds, "Let me put it this way... yes." This is perfect and in character for both of them. This episode has some other well-done gags, including Scooby's way of stealing Shaggy's food and the payoff afterwards, Scrappy trying to get the gang's luggage and the ending gag, which is a great cartoony moment. The background work here is excellent as always, with great uses of lighting and shadows, that really bring an atmosphere to this mystery. The actual character animation is above average here and makes the characters come to life.
This episode is a great example of everything I love about Scooby-Doo!
No comments:
Post a Comment