Hassle in the Castle

Hassle in the Castle is the third episode of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.

Premise
After getting lost in the fog, the gang arrive on Haunted Isle, where they meet an unearthly ghost haunting an old abandoned castle.

Synopsis
The gang is out on a fishing expedition but have become lost in the fog. Their boat runs aground on Haunted Isle, the location of the Vasquez Castle, an old pirate fortress. On their way to the castle to find help, they find an old map with a threatening note at the back warning them to leave. Inside the castle, they contemplate the portrait of Vasquez the pirate; Daphne falls through a trapdoor; and the rest of the gang flees in a panic when a cackling laugh breaks out. The rest of the gang tries to find Daphne, but Scooby and Shaggy become separated from Fred and Velma, meeting up with a talking skull. A panicked Shaggy idly asks for a calm-inducing ham sandwich, and the sandwich materializes out of mid-air. Fleeing again, Scooby and Shaggy find Daphne and Fred and Velma, and the full gang is then threatened by the Phantom, a billowing, sheet-wrapped figure. Fred, Shaggy and Scooby try to tackle the apparition, but they pass right through it; the Phantom then disappears through a wall. Even Velma thinks that they must have stumbled onto a genuine haunting.

Daphne discovers a giant key engraved with the message "Second Passage of The Old Bell". They deduce that this must refer to a book, and they find The Old Bell in the castle library; the second passage in the book refers to "catacombs." Beneath the castle they find a room stocked with magician's props. The Phantom appears, spreading panic; for a moment it looks as though Shaggy is being sawn in half before it is revealed as a trick. Fred, Daphne and Scooby try fleeing on a magic carpet. When they all regroup after losing the Phantom, they resolve to catch the Phantom; to that end, they send Scooby (dressed up in a hat, trenchcoat and moustache) out to lure the Phantom into a trap. He brings the Phantom in but lands in the trap himself. Fortunately, he falls out of the trap, catching the Phantom, who is unmasked as Bluestone the Great, a magician-turned-crook wanted in six states. Bluestone was searching for the Vasquez treasure and using his magic tricks to frighten snoopers away. Scooby then goes digging for the treasure, but only finds a squirrel.

Characters
Main characters:
 * Mystery Inc.
 * Daphne Blake
 * Fred Jones
 * Scooby-Doo
 * Shaggy Rogers
 * Velma Dinkley

Supporting characters:
 * Police officer

Monsters and other villains:
 * Phantom /
 * Bluestone the Great

Other characters:
 * Crab
 * Laddie
 * John Wayne
 * Rabbit
 * Rin Din Din
 * Squirrel
 * Vasquez

Locations

 * Haunted Isle
 * Vasquez Castle
 * Library

Objects
Clues:
 * Key
 * The Old Bell

Food and drinks:
 * Ham sandwich
 * Mustard
 * Olive
 * Scooby Snacks
 * Super Shaggy Sandwich


 * Other objects
 * A saw-him-in-two box
 * Anvil
 * Cannonball
 * Chandelier
 * Crossbow
 * Disappearing cabinets
 * Dummy head
 * Giant saw
 * Levitating table
 * Magic carpet
 * Magician's hat
 * Magician's wand
 * Map
 * Projector
 * Shaggy's coins
 * Skull
 * Spring
 * Squirting flowers
 * Suit of armour
 * Phantom's telescope
 * Trick mirror
 * Vase
 * Vasquez's treasure

Vehicles

 * Mystery Inc.'s boat

Suspects
None

Full credits
The following credits are how they are seen on-screen (or as close as possible).

Produced and Directed by Joseph Barbera and William Hanna

Associate Producer Lew Marshall

Story Ken Spears Joe Ruby Bill Lutz Story Direction Howard Swift

Voices Nicole Jaffe Hal Smith Casey Kasem John Stephenson Don Messick Jean Vander Pyl Vic Perrin Frank Welker Stefanianna Christopherson

Animation Director Charles A. Nichols Production Design Iwao Takamoto Production Supervisor Victor O. Schipek

Layout Bob Singer Alvaro Arce Paul Gruwell Mike Arens Alex Ignatiev Ric Gonzales Bill Lignante

Animation Bill Keil George Rowley Oliver E. Callahan Ed Love Rudy Cataldi Bill Nunes Zdenko Gasparovic Joan Orbison Bob Goe Jay Sarbry Hicks Lokey Ken Southworth Lloyd Vaughan

Background Styling Walt Peregoy Backgrounds Ron Dias Gary Niblett Daniela Bielecka Rolly Oliva Title Design Bill Perez Titles Robert Schaefer

Musical Director Ted Nichols Technical Supervisor Frank Paiker Ink and Paint Supervisor Roberta Greutert Xerography Robert "Tiger" West

Sound Direction Richard Olson Film Editing Gregory V. Watson, Jr. Ted Baker Chip Yaras Camera Dick Blundell Bill Kotler George Epperson Cliff Shirpser Charles Flekal Roy Wade

A Hanna-Barbera Production © 1969 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.

a hanna-barbera production A Taft Broadcasting Company

Notes/trivia

 * Although this episode was the third to air, it was the second produced. Any time Warner Home Video releases the series in order from the first episode, they always put A Clue for Scooby Doo and Hassle in the Castle in production order instead of air date order. Of course, nothing is lost because there's no continuity between episodes, but it might be a problem for those that use the play all feature since it will show those episodes in the opposite order.
 * This is the first episode in the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! series to use the standard title card sequence.
 * The following snippets from this episode can be seen in the first season's opening and closing sequences:
 * The Phantom's arm grabbing at Daphne just as she walks away, following her intuition after getting lost down a trap floor.
 * The skull talking (indicated by its glowing eye sockets), albeit with an extreme, zooming close-up.
 * The scene where the Phantom says to the gang they will pay for not leaving. The background however is not within the castle, but the cemetery from What the Hex Going On?.


 * This is the first episode of the series where the gang does not meet any suspects. In fact, aside from Scooby and the gang, the only other characters are the Phantom/Bluestone and the police officer.
 * This is the time episode not to have the Mystery Machine.
 * This episode contains the first trap of the series.
 * The Phantom is just referred to as "Ghost" in his model sheet.
 * Bluestone the Great is simply referred to as "Magician" on his model sheet.
 * This is the first episode to use a skull prop to scare intruders away and then imply that it could be real.
 * Shaggy's sandwich, the Super Shaggy Sandwich, has a similarly sounding successor called the Shaggy Super Sandwich in A Night of Fright is No Delight.
 * Rin Din Din is a reference to Rin Tin Tin, a famous movie star dog in the early 20th Century.
 * This episode was one of four Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episodes, (the other three being A Clue for Scooby Doo, Jeepers, It's The Creeper, and The Backstage Rage), that were selected for the 1998 VHS Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries by being voted "Most Popular" by the fans.

Miscellaneous

 * Disguises: Scooby as a human
 * Scooby Snacks bribe: 3
 * Zoinks count: 1
 * It may be a coincidence that the armour in Fred's trap resembles the Black Knight from the first episode.

Cultural references

 * After Shaggy politely thanks the skull for telling him where the gang went the skull replies, "S'awright", the tradmark reply Señor Wences's Pedro (the head in a box) does.
 * Fred tries to talk Scooby into being Laddie and then John Wayne in order to catch the phantom.

Adaptations

 * This episode was adapted in Gold Key Comics' Scooby Doo... Where Are You! #2. It was renamed Phantom of the Castle.
 * After the gang decide to stay together at the end of Scooby-Doo! The Mystery Begins, a montage follows in a similiar vein to the clips used in the opening sequence from Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!; one of them being the Hassle in the Castletalking skull.
 * In the continuity of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated, before the start of the series, the gang captured the Phantom of Vasquez Castle. Since the show is set in Crystal Cove, the castle would have to be somewhere in town or close to the shore since the castle in this episode is on an isle.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * While Fred is shown holding the boat steering wheel, the wheel hasn't been drawn into his left hand, only his fingers are holding on, and his right hand is just next to it.
 * In the first close-up of the gang on the boat, Velma's skirt loses its pleats the entire time. At the same time, Scooby's spots on his back are missing, even when the camera switches to another close-up showing just him and Velma.
 * When Freddy takes the map, he's looking at the back until Scooby's close-up, when the map is suddenly turned correctly.
 * While Shaggy's on the floor after having a blow to the head from the vase, Scooby's sclera are brown.
 * The rims on Daphne's cuffs are whitish on close-up up of her holding the key.
 * The page they're on says "2", despite the fact that they're half way through the book.
 * When the gang finds the door that fits the key, the room looks different in two different shots.
 * "Into the closet," says Fred, but the closet has stairs and passageways inside.
 * According to the solution to the mystery, all the flying objects are moved by wires. When Freddy and Daphne unroll the magic carpet, why don't they notice the wires?
 * The falling anvil produces white "force lines" common to cartoons to denote moving objects. Only these lines remain in the shot.
 * Bluestone wears gloves throughout the episode, except when Scooby falls on him.
 * Bluestone's costume has a separate mask at episode's end, although it doesn't look that way at any other time.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * It's not explicitly stated, but the Phantom would most likely be based on Vasquez.
 * None of the contents Shaggy mentions his Super Shaggy Sandwich having is seen on-screen.
 * Shaggy politely thanks the skull for saying "thataway," although, without a hand to point with or eye movement, there is no actual indication.
 * Shaggy and Scooby must've felt brave for a moment if they were actually trying to run after the Phantom, instead of running the other way.
 * The key they find is novelty size.
 * In trying to give a hint in the clue, the key probably meant to find a passage in the second page of the book. Either that or there was bad communication between the writers and animators.
 * Freddy asks what happened to Daphne although he can clearly see the trapdoor closing.
 * It really should be called a "saw-her-in-two" box as it's usually the magician's "lovely assistant" that is the volunteer. It might be a coincidence that Shaggy just happens to be the victim.
 * There would be no possible way Bluestone could make a dummy head or feet of Shaggy Rogersto be used in time (or even if he needed to use one). Does he have dummy heads of the others?
 * At the time of this episode Rin Tin Tin's name was not trademarked (it wasn't until 1993) so it could've been used instead of "Rin Din Din". Perhaps the writers did it intentionally or perhaps they didn't and thought three real-world names in a row was a bit too much.
 * Bluestone claims that he used wires to levitate. If that was true, who was working the wires?
 * How did the suit of armor in the trap grab Scoob by the collar?

Home media

 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries VHS released by Warner Home Video on April 13, 1998.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries DVD released by Warner Home Video on March 14, 2000.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo's Creepiest Capers VHS released by Warner Home Video on August 22, 2000.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries VHS released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2002.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo's Creepiest Capers DVD released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2002.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries DVD released by Warner Home Video on May 6, 2003.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 16, 2004.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo's Creepiest Capers Mini-DVD released by Warner Home Video on April 26, 2005.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete 1st and 2nd Seasons DVD set released by Warner Home Video on June 20, 2005.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: Volume 1 - A Monster Catch DVD set released by Warner Home Video on January 27, 2009.
 * Scooby-Doo's Original Mysteries DVD released by Warner Home Video on August 10, 2009.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series (limited edition) DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 9, 2010.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo! and the Pirates compilation DVD released by Warner Home Video on August 30, 2011.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 21, 2011.
 * 🇺🇸 Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 13, 2012.