What’s New Scooby-Doo? – The Vampire Strikes Back – review – TV Episode

Directed by: Unknown

First Aired: 2003

Contains spoilers

You know there were always cartoons that you look back on with fond memories and for me Scooby-Doo was one of them, though like many kids I fell out with them when they introduced Scrappy-Doo into the mix. Recent years have seen a revival with straight to video features, live action films and new series including this one – which thankfully are sans Scrappy-Doo (with one notable and forgivable exception).

This specific episode was from the second series and features the whole Scooby gang, Fred (Frank Welker), Velma (Mindy Cohn), Daphne (Grey DeLisle), Shaggy (Casey Kasem) and of course Scooby-Doo (also voiced by Frank Welker).

The episode starts with the Hex Girls, an all girl pop-Goth band, shooting a video. The band, consisting of Luna (Kimberly Brooks), Dusk (Jane Wieldin) and Thorn (Jeniffer Hale), are recurring characters having been in two of the Scooby-Doo features ("Scooby-Doo and the Witches Ghost" and "Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire"). The shoot is in the Fortescu Castle in Transylvania and is interrupted by a vampire.

The gang have been invited to watch the shoot and reach the castle, taking out the rickety bridge on route thus cutting escape routes, only to discover that the shoot is plagued by the vampire. The show then cuts knowingly across standard Scooby-Doo formulaic conventions as Fred suggests they set a trap, rather than look for clues, and uses Velma as bait rather than using Shaggy and Scooby. Thus the vampire is caught in the first few minutes.

An unmasking, of sorts, follows. I say ‘of sorts’ as the man is wearing makeup rather than a mask. Of course, having just arrived, they do not know who he is but that mystery is solved by Castle owner Owen DeCassle (James Arnold Taylor) who says he is Steve Fortescu (also voiced by Taylor), the son of those who sold the castle to DeCassle. With the bridge out he is placed in a dungeon cell for the night but warns that the real vampire will come.

And come he does but could it be the real vampire or is someone helping Steve escape his cell?

Lore wise we couldn’t expect too much from a short children’s cartoon and what we get seems at odds with standard lore. Garlic is effective, when the vampire trips over a garland! When reading a book on vampires Daphne discovers that they are able to leave their tombs once a year to hunt for their true love – a bizarre lore addition that owes much to the works of Dan Curtis (who fairly much invited the reincarnated love aspect of vampire films).

We also get the vanishing of both one of the Hex girls and Fred, leaving behind only a bat in each case. This leads to the assumption that a vampire can turn someone into a bat, rather than turn into one themselves. This addition was to give an on-running comedy vein where Shaggy and Scooby try to find Fred the bat.

I should also mention that we get a spooky butler type by the name of Retchfield, who keeps a pet bug on a leash. An obvious reference to Dracula and the character Renfield. Plus we see Vlad’s dentists as the kids drive to the castle at the beginning.

All told this seems a fun episode for the kids and yet perhaps it doesn’t have the nuances necessary for an adult audience, but those, like me, who grew up with the show will enjoy the self-effacing references to standard Scooby-Doo plot.

The animation is nice and crisp, and fairly bright – again very kid friendly. The voice acting is good enough, though again aimed solely towards children

The story, unfortunately, is curtailed by length, age considerations and music. There is the obligatory song during a chase but we also get the Hex Girls’ song at the beginning and a rendition by them of the Scooby-Doo theme at the end. Good fun for the kids though, if my son’s reaction was anything to go by as we watched it together on Boomerang. 5 out of 10.

The imdb page is here.