Ghastly Ghost Town

The Ghastly Ghost Town is the first episode of the first season of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.

Premise
After the Mystery Machine crashes into a sand dune and gets stuck near the Three Stooges' ghost town theme park, the gang try to figure out who's been scaring away the tourists.

Synopsis
While driving down the desert road, the Mystery Machine gets stuck in the sand dune after the gang tries to avoid a king-size bat, who is heading down the opposite direction on the road. Later, the gang meets the Three Stooges--Moe, Larry and Curly Joe--who had opened a theme park, which is a real ghost town.

After being invited over to a restaurant, Moe explains that something unusual has been scaring away the tourists, and if they don't do anything about it, they'll be out of business. Soon, the gang meets Rhino the caretaker, who has been acting suspicious lately. Soon, they meet Tyrone, a mechanical T-Rex who has been roaring unexpectedly, which scares away the Three Stooges, and the gang ran into Amos Crunch, another caretaker of the theme-park, who told them that they were trespassing, and in the process, Scooby backs into the front left foot of Tyrone, which opens a secret door in the hull. Later, the gang, together with Rhino, discovered that the roar was from a tape-recorder. After Tyrone had his last roar, Crunch destroyed the tape.

Now the Three Stooges can get back to business, but there was one question remaining: What's with the king-size bat the gang saw earlier? Meanwhile, Rhino, who too is acting suspicious lately, is being followed by Velma, but as she stands at the front porch of the caretaker's office, she was sent down the trap-door and into the abandoned mine used for the mine ride.

After realizing that Velma had disappeared, the gang split up, with Shaggy and Scooby searching at the Ferris wheel area, Fred and Daphne searching at the desert, and the Three Stooges searching in the Cowboy museum, with no better results: Shaggy & Scooby ended up in the hall of mirrors section of the ghost town saloon, Fred and Daphne being tricked by someone dressed in a cactus costume, and the Three Stooges being scared by the mysterious Gunslinger.

Later, the earth shook, due to the Indian war dance, which scared away The Three Stooges and they get onto the mine ride, only to have no idea where they were heading to. Meanwhile, Shaggy, Scooby, Fred and Daphne reunited, and when Shaggy suggested to ask Crunch and Rhino, who appeared to be playing cards in their office, for help, the Gunslinger appeared, with Fred and Daphne being sent down the trap-door--and landing right on Velma--while Scooby dealt with the Gunslinger, only to end up in the well, while the Gunslinger suffered a short circuit. Later, Shaggy tried to get Scooby out, only to have the both of them end up back in the well.

Meanwhile in the mine, The Three Stooges crashed into a dead end and saw Fred and the girls, and it was realized that the mine is full of uranium, but after Velma sneezed due to the dust, they suffered a landslide, trapping the six in the mine. However, Moe insisted that they could dig their way out. However, it didn't go as well as planned. That's when Velma noticed that there was a huge pipe near the crash site, and they'd be able to communicate with anyone on the surface.

After getting out of the well, Shaggy and Scooby heard their friend's voices from the top end of the pipe, and after realizing what has happened, they headed off to find a way to rescue them. Later, they thought they could get some help from Crunch and Rhino, but it turns out that they were only dummies dressed in the caretakers clothes.

Later, Scooby came up of an idea of using Tyrone to dig their friends out. They succeeded, but two mysterious villains, the Gunslinger and the Cigar-Store Indian, plotted their getaway on the king-size bat, as Shaggy and Scooby used Tyrone to go chase them, and successfully foiled the villian's getaway. Meanwhile, the Indian war dance was just a silent film, projected on a secret projector.

After the capture, Tyrone dropped the two villains at the town jail, and the pair were identified as Crunch and Rhino, who had discovered uranium in the abandoned mine and used the Gunslinger and the Cigar-Store Indian to scare everyone away so they could mine the uranium illegally, and smuggle it across the border via the king-size bat for a huge profit.

The Three Stooges later reopened the theme park, and Shaggy and Scooby were awarded for their role in capturing Crunch and Rhino, as well as foiling their uranium smuggling plan. The theme park showed Ingagi the orangutan and a large reptile in cages; Shaggy and Scooby have been rewarded with a large sandwich.

Cast and characters
A few sources state different vocal credits for the Three Stooges:


 * Moe has been credited to Pat Harrington, Jr, Olan Soule , Paul Winchell and Moe Howard himself.
 * Curly has been credited to Daws Butler, Frank Welker and Joe Baker.
 * Larry has been credited to Daws Butler, Frank Welker and Joe Baker.

Villains

 * Robot Gunslinger
 * Cigar Store Indian

Suspects
None

Locations

 * Sand dune
 * 3 Stooges Ghost Town
 * Golden Dollar
 * Tyran
 * Cafe
 * Dry Goods
 * Hotel
 * Last Chance Saloon
 * Cowboy Museum

Notes/trivia

 * The episode's title card uses the same theme that SDWAY episode, Mine Your Own Business used.
 * The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century (1920s - 1970s) best known for their numerous short subject films. Their hallmark was physical farce and extreme slapstick. "The Three Stooges" film trio was originally composed of Moe Howard, brother Curly Howard and Larry Fine. Shemp Howard replaced brother Curly, when Curly suffered a debilitating stroke in May 1946. Joe Besser (who portrayed "Babu" in a later episode of the Scooby Doo Movies) was part of the trio from 1955 to 1957. Curly-Joe DeRita joined the trio in 1959 and remained with the group until 1970.
 * When this episode aired, the Three Stooges were all retired. Moe and Larry passed away in 1975 while Joe Besser passed away in 1988, and Curly-Joe passed away in 1993.
 * Though famous for their extreme slapstick, in this episode the Stooges are "toned down" due to the nature of the program.
 * The yellow jumpsuits worn by the Stooges during their two appearances in the series do not appear in any other Stooges media (film or cartoon).

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * While requesting help from Shaggy and Scooby, Fred loses his lower body.
 * When Scooby was telling the gang about the gator, Shaggy's lips was moving when Velma's voice was heard saying "You mean" before Velma's lips was moving.
 * The Mechanical T-Rex looks like a real monster when it was seen on a cliff, but then looks like a robot when they encountered it.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * Ingagi the orangutan is pictured in a mirror (2D) and then steps out of the mirror (3D).
 * As Fred and Daphne are walking in the desert, only Daphne is leaving footprints.
 * While requesting help from Shaggy and Scooby, Fred loses his lower body.
 * In a span of 5 seconds, Scooby is in and out of a hole that he dug 5 times.
 * Right after they begin the search for Velma, she is seen right behind Freddy looking for herself.
 * Though this is the premier episode of a new Scooby-Doo series, the villains are not "unmasked" like in the episodes of the previous incarnation of Scooby-Doo.
 * George Cannata's name is misspelled "Goerge Cannata" in the credits.

Home media

 * The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies

Quotes
"Those DARN kids!"
 * - Crunch

"Yeah, they spoiled everthing."
 * - Rhino

"Ready, Aim....FIRE!!"
 * - Shaggy

"Atta boy! Scooby."
 * - Shaggy