Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur

'Scooby-Doo! Legend Of The Phantosaur' is the sixteenteenth installment in a line of direct-to-video (DVD) films based on the Scooby-Doo franchise. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation.

Premise
Mystery Inc.'s visit to a spa is disturbed by a "Phantosaur". Will Shaggy's hypnosis induced bravery save the day?

Synopsis
The gang travels to a remote town to stay at the La Serena Spa, to relax Shaggy after a scary experience in a haunted mansion. There, they meet Mr. Hubley who works there. Shaggy asks if there is anything to eat, and Hubley says no, but there is a barbecue in town.

The gang goes to the barbeque, and all but Shaggy and Scooby-Doo go off to see the paleontological dig of Professor Svankmajer. Shaggy and Scooby are too full to walk right away. When they set out, a lizard steals a biscuit from them, causing Scooby to go after it. He meets the Phantosaur and runs away. Later, Shaggy and Scooby are chased by the Phantosaur and narrowly escape.

Meanwhile, Professor Svankmajer shows the rest of the gang over the dig, and Velma meets Svankmajer's student, Winsor. She instantly sees him as a soul mate and they plan to go out on a date.

Back at the spa, Shaggy is in terrible shape after his fright. Mr. Hubley helps with aromatherapy, assisted by Scooby-Doo adding a Scooby Snack to the aromas. Shaggy becomes more calm, but freaks out again when Mr. Hubley tells them the legend of the Phantosaur. The legend says the Phantosaur was summoned by native Americans to drive out Spanish conquistadors, but it turned on them instead.

Hubley has an advanced hypnosis machine with a hologram projector. He hypnotizes Shaggy to become fearless and unstoppable when he heard the word "bad," and to switch back to normal when he hears it again. Then he orders Shaggy to forget everything; Hubley himself is affected by the hypnosis and he can't remember the key word for Shaggy.

Daphne, Fred, and Velma go back to the dig to look for clues. Velma is so lovestruck that she's not much use. She misses an obvious clue about many footprints going to a part of the cave where Winsor says they never go.

Meanwhile, Scooby and Shaggy go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant and start to eat it out of business. Then a biker gang comes in. Shaggy accidentally squirts the contents of a hot-dog bun on one of the bikers, who grabs him. Shaggy wets his pants. The biker says something about how he's going to get hurt "bad." Suddenly Shaggy is fearless. He knocks all of them out. Then the gang leader, Tex, arrives and challenges him to a motorcycle race on Dead Man's curve. Shaggy confidently accepts, even though he's never ridden a motorcycle before. As Tex leaves, he says he won't kill Shaggy "bad." Suddenly back to normal, Shaggy is terrified of the challenge he just accepted.

That night, Daphne decides to give him motorcycling lessons, because she drove a motorcycle when she was five. Shaggy and Tex have a motorcycle race, and Shaggy hears "bad" just in time and almost wins, until a Phantosaur shows up and he thinks in his mind that the monster must think it's so "bad," which is enough to make him cowardly again and get chased.

Eventually, they figure out that there were two phantosaurs and they were robots. The culprits were two mining company employees who wanted the silver they found in the area, which they couldn't get to because of the paleontologists.

Then, they get attacked by more dinosaurs and a fire-breathing Phantosaur, and learn that it was Professor Svankmajer and Winsor, much to Velma's dismay. They had found a complete dinosaur encased in quartz crystal, a beautiful and priceless find, and they wanted to keep it for themselves. They wanted to scare everyone off so they could dig it out and take it away. They disguised four other graduate students in velociraptor costumes, and created the larger fire-breathing Phantosaur with an advanced holgraphic projector (stolen from Hubley's hypnotism room), and paint-stripper devices that blasted super-heated air for the fire effects.

While they are underground, the dynamite charges Svankmajer set to blast free the dinosaur crystal go off (because Daphne left a paint-stripper on and the heat lit the fuses). Shaggy's hypnotic bravery comes in again, until Daphne praises him that he's "not bad." Shaggy has to complete the rest of the escape on sheer guts, and with some help from his new biker friends. Svankmajer and Winsor are arrested, but Velma says she will date Winsor again when he gets out of jail.

They then go back to La Serena Spa and Mr. Hubley tries to un-hypnotize Shaggy, accidentally turning the entire gang into Shaggys. The gang driving away in the "Mustard" Machine, debating who is the real Shaggy.

After the credits, it shows the van turned into a Shaggy.

Villains

 * Phantosaur
 * Velociraptors
 * Fiery Phantosaur

Locations

 * Hospital
 * Mansion
 * Shakey Joe's Coffee
 * La Serena
 * La Serena Spa
 * Serena Park
 * Mystery Inc.'s room
 * La Serena Silver Mine
 * Faith's All You Can Eat
 * X=1-
 * Dead Man's Peak
 * Dead Man's Trail
 * Dead Man's Curve
 * Dead Man's Avenue
 * Movie theater
 * Florist
 * Dinosaur exhibit (flashback)

Notes/trivia

 * A working title was Scooby-Doo! Attack Of The Phantosaur.
 * The idea of switching on and off bravery and competence by hypnosis was done in The Court Jester starring Danny Kaye. In that movie the trigger was a snap of the fingers.
 * On the DVD/Blu-ray cover, Fred, Daphne, and Velma were chased by a Dromaeosaurus.
 * The movie has a lot of scenes similar to modern monster movies -- the velociraptors chase Shaggy & Scooby into a kitchen that looks like the one in Jurassic Park (where the raptor scene in Jurassic Park took place), The Phantosaur's rampage through the town is similar to Godzilla destroying Tokyo, and the town movie theater sign says "Valley of The Gwangi & Beast From 20,000 Fathoms" (two movies that star dinosaurs).
 * Fred's increased interest in traps may be a reference to Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated which has the same cast voicing Mystery Inc.
 * In Shaggy's hospital room, Velma goes from frowning concernedly to smiling in a close-up on Scooby-Doo, then back to frowning, in the space of three shots.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * None known.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * Although Shaggy wet his pants, he never put on new ones.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo! Legend Of The Phantosaur DVD.
 * Scooby-Doo! Legend Of The Phantosaur Blu-ray.

Quotes
"1...2...3..." (guy picks up Shaggy, causing Shaggy to wet his pants), And... there goes the bladder..."

- Biker and Shaggy