Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers

This entry suffers from the presence of Scrappy. It was made in the mid-eighties when Scrappy was at the height (!) of his fame (?). He doesn't do much in this so it's not that bad. The story is about Shaggy (minus the rest of Mystery Inc.) being left a spooky mansion house in his uncles will. Conveniently said mansion is in the middle of a creepy swampland in the Deep South. The kind of place where there are always eyes watching from the trees.

As soon as he arrives, Shaggy has to deal with an annoying southern stereotype sheriff, a weirdo butler who wants to get his hands on the old uncle's hidden treasure, hickabilly neighbors and the ghost of his uncle telling to leave (then why did he give him the house?). There is also an escaped ape on the loose but even though only Scooby sees him (Shaggy doesn't believe it) he's just a big, cuddly monkey who wants to play.

The Boo Brothers are basically ghost versions of the Three Stooges. They're listed in the phone book as being experts in the busting of ghosts. This isn't a job they do well though, so Shaggy's payment at the end is a bit too generous.

There are some laughs to be had and the plot is mildly interesting but too many running jokes are just plain bad. The hillbilly neighbor joke becomes very boring and could have been done without. The animation is a bit dated, though it has enough modern touches (lens flares in car lights) to distract you from it. And I like the dark, decaying atmosphere of the swampland. The color pallet is mostly made up of dark blues and purples (the story takes place all in one night) and the backgrounds are not as generic as the earlier, cheaper TV shows.

For the average fan this is a worthy effort though I would just catch it on the Cartoon Network instead of forking over the cash, unless you're a Scooby completist.

The DVD is in 1.33:1 full frame, as drawn, with a Dolby Mono soundtrack that is unsophisticated but workable. The Region 2 release comes in a sturdy Keep Case but the Region 1 is still in a cruddy snapper. Extras are minimal childish fluff.