It's been quite a while since I last covered anything from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! which is such a shame as this sow is one that alot of us really did grow up watching. As such I thought that it was only about right that I put an end to this dry spell by reviewing the very next episode of the show with this episode being a really fun and creepy episode that really does bring the horror aspect of the show to the front and centre of the episode itself and so then join me as I review the episode that has alot of images from the shows intro in it with the episode in question being called simply just "Hassle In The Castle" enjoy.
The plot of this episode is when the gang find themselves stranded on a mysterious island they find themselves being haunted by a ghost and have to solve the mystery of who this ghost is before it's far to late. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual episode that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt tat the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad as thus episodes plot while it could be seen as being rather generic for this show it also was early enough in this shows run that it does get away with it as well with this episodes plot being a bit more horror focused then the rest of the sows plots had been up until this point in time which is something that does make this episodes plot more of a must watch for fans of supernatural horror films and yet still somehow being more kid friendly then what it really had any right to be but at the same time tho this episodes plot really isn't all that good as all it does is give you the bare bones of a plot and that's really it and while that might be par the course for this show it is something that is still an issue with the plot of this episode at it makes the plot of the episode as a whole come across as being really weak when that's simply not even close to being true at all with the plot of this episode also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Starring in this episode is voice acting legend Don Messick as Scooby-Doo , The Phantom , Bluestone The Great and The Police Officer. Also starring in this episode is Battle Of The Planets star Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers , voice acting royalty and legend Frank Welker as Fred Jones , Here Comes The Grump star Stefanianna Christopherson as Daphne Blake and The Trouble With Girls star Nicole Jaffe as Velma Dinkley.
Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty really good. Which is something that's not really all that surprising as all of this episodes actors are not only some really good voice actors in their own right but are so well known for voicing these characters that for many they simply are the voice of these characters and heck out of all of them only Frank Welker is still with the franchise to this very day and is still playing Fred Jones as well as that's just how good of a voice actor that he really is with the actors acting in this episode being just as good as you'd really want it to be with it being clear as day that there all getting alot more comfortable in their roles which is something that really does shine through in the final cut of the episode with the true stand out performer in this episode being Don Messick as he has to play several characters and make them all sound unique and distinct enough that your not going to get them confused with any other character and still put in a really good performance in this episode which is something that really does do really rather well in this episode with the acting that's in this episode really being helped by the fact that the script for this episode is just so good that all this episodes actors really have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very episode.
Doing the animation for this episode is the legends and the greats that are currently over at Hanna-Barbera Productions. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual animation thats actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual animation that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty shockingly good with there not really being any animation errors in this episode and even more shockingly for a Hanna-Barbera project there was very few if any any repeating backgrounds with this episodes animation really making the creepy looking castle look gothic and quite creepy and while yes the characters do have there usual fluid animation when it comes to there walking they also get really fluid with the animation when Daphne falls down a trap a door which whilst it does look good it does also seem an odd place to put some really good animation but at the same time tho this episode does have one error that highlights just how cheap Hanna-Barbera really was as there is a room in this episodes main setting that despite being shown to match the color scheme of the whole castle in previous scenes for one brief shot with Scooby-Doo near the end of the episode it's shown to have these really garish pink walls and grey boards both of with nothing lighting it which is something that could have been fixed if the animators took another pass at that one simple and very easy to do shot but because of the fact that Hanna-Barbera was so cheap we do end up with alot of shots like this one in alot of there shows and movies as well.
As was mentioned at the very start of this review this episode does give us quite alot imagery from the shows opening intro. Be it Daphne walking away before a ghostly hand reaches out for her to the gang getting warned by The Phantom it's all in this one episode and it's all something that does make the episode worth watching if you were wondering where those scenes came from or even if you just someone who really loves Scooby-Doo as they are some great scenes and heck the the scene with gang getting a warning by The Phantom is so good that they makers of this episode chose to literally repeat the exact same scene which works for and against the episode as a whole it works for the episode as it does help to establish the fact that this character is meant to be a genuine threat to the gang but it against the episode for two reasons the first one being we just saw this exact same scene a few minuets ago and so of course we the audience are going to notice that it's really quite literally the exact same shot as before and secondly it makes Hanna-Barbera look even more cheap then what they already are as they could really could have fully animated a brand new scene to get across more of the fact that this character really is meant to be a threat to the gangs life with this having the added bonus of making the episode look better because of it and yet even really tho the fact that they repeated the scene really doesn't take away from the episode as a whole it still does add an air of cheapness to this episode as a whole as well.
There are some bad things about this episode tho like the fact that they don't really give The Phantom much in the way of personality. Heck we don't even get to find out why he's scaring people until right before the end credits start to role which again is pretty par the course for this show but the same time tho the other episodes usually have alot more supporting characters in them so you can kind of forgive them as there trying to make the mystery aspect of the episode as good as it could possibly be but here because of the fact that there are no supporting characters to make you wonder who it could be and heck we don't even get to meet who The Phantom is until he's unmasked and therefor the makers of this episode really should have put alot more effort into making The Phantom have more of a personality and while the episode does gets credit for at the vert least trying to make him creepy with the creepy looking castle and the fact that he's a ghost when you look at his costume however it doesn't make you scared of him it just makes you laugh at him as all it is is basically someone's bedding with eye holes and thats really it and while that might be great a Halloween costume for a Scooby-Doo villain where you can go and be a little bit more creepy and scary that's not enough and while granted this show is made for kids and so you can't really scare them all that much but at the same time tho kids love to be scared and therefor having a villain that looks a little bit more creepy would work really well in this episodes favor.
Oddly enough one of this episodes biggest weaknesses it's mystery aspect as they not only don't have anyone that you can say is a suspect in the episode but there's also no to build up with the gang realizing how The Phantom travels around the castle. With that part coming right at the end of the episode and it's right of nowhere almost as if it was more of an afterthought then something that the makers of this episode did intentionally while the episode does show the gang not only looking for but also finding clues they don't exactly set up for the main culprit of the episode is thus making it more of a surprise when they do the big reveal which is something that they do explain away in a way that does make some sort of sense for the episode but at the same time given the fact that a mystery does require suspects having the main villain be set up at the start of the episode outside of his Phantom disguise is something that would have made alot of sense even if he's just seen in the background somewhere and yet by not doing that there robbing us the audience of a chance to work it out for ourselves which does in turn make this mystery feel like the type of mystery that they'd put in a later Scooby-Doo movie rather then something that they would have done in an episode of the show as the movies don't typically set up who the main villain is either and yet the show would typically show of who the main villain is at the start of the episode which makes it all the more odd that they went and did it not only in this show as well but this early on in the shows run as it's something that doesn't really work not only for this show but for this franchise as a whole either.
Now then this episode has / had an exact grand total running time of exactly twenty minuets and fifty seven seconds. Which is pretty much the bogstandard running time for this shoe to have and to this episodes credit this episode really does have the right amount of plot there to really over that amount of running time however tho due to the fact that this episode really doesn't have any suspects to it whatsoever this episode really can't use it's running time all that wisely as not only do we not get to see more of the castle which would have been great to see as it would have made the episode feel alot more creepier and bigger then what it actually is but they also don't flesh out the mystery aspect of the episode by giving us suspects which would then allow for us the audience the chance to work out for ourselfs who did and to work why they did it as well and yet because of the fact that the episode didn't bother to do any of that it means that they have to pull something out of nothing when it would have made alot more sense for there to be more suspects and heck they could even have kept the same motivation because the police officer at the end of the episode even states that the gold that this episodes criminal was after is also really sought after by other people and so it would have made perfect sense for there to be alot more people there at the castle during this episode then what we ultimately ended up seeing but I really will admit that this episode really does have some really good pacing to it tho.
So now then as this is a comedy that really means that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very episode was in all honesty not that bad. AS there some really funny moments to be found in this episode alot of which oddly enough do include Scooby-Doo himself with very few of them including quite literally anybody else in the gang which is something that does make sense as afterall the show is named after Scooby-Doo and it therefor does make sense that he would get alot of the episodes jokes with the best one being the joke where Scooby pretends to be ill just to avoid being bate for The Phantom which works not only because of the fact that it was set up earlier on in the episode where he tried a very similar tactic only this time it was avoid looking around a creepy looking room but also because of the fact that it does feel like it was in character for Scooby-Doo to do something like that and it's something that movies like Happy Halloween Scooby-Doo , Scooby-Doo . Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed and Scooby-Doo! And Kiss: Rock And Roll Mystery forgot to do despite alot of them being good films and having there own funny moment with Scooby-Doo in them where as here alot of his jokes felt in character for him and because of that they all came across as being really funny jokes in there own right in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.
Overall this episode was a decent but flawed episode as it doesn't really give the mystery part of the episode all that much attention when it's something that should have been getting more attention then what the actual comedy part of the episode was getting as people come to Scooby-Doo for the mystery and not the comedy in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very episode in this very review and a such that really does mean that this very episode really does earn itself grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.
Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review well then boys and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all o the images hat I personally used in this very review from the official Scooby-Doo fandom wiki page and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get the images from this very episode that I used in this very review being the really great the official Scooby-Doo fandom wiki page really simply just due to the fact that really alot of if not really all of the images that are all really from this very episode with alot of them being better quality then what you'd really think of and all of the images are really of course up and really on the official Scooby-Doo fandom wiki page are also really all fairly high in quality and as well as them all being really fairly freaking high in definition.
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