A Menace in Venice

A Menace in Venice originally aired as the first of three segments of Scooby's All-Stars, later repackaged as the thirteenth episode of the third season of The Scooby-Doo Show, and the thirty-seventh episode overall in the series.

Premise
The gang goes to visit their friend Antonio in Venice, Italy, and find that he's haunted by the ghost of an ancestor, the Ghostly Gondolier, who seeks to steal the ancient necklace/family heirloom Antonio wears!

Synopsis
At the Venice Opera House, a hooded figure swings in and grabs a triangular medallion from its display above the stage. He escapes via gondola. He says to himself, "Soon the Doge's treasure will be mine."

The gang arrives in Venice, Italy, after their friend Antonio invites them for a visit. They travel via gondolas in order to reach Antonio's restaurant before it closes. During the trip, Shaggy and Scooby encounter a hooded figure whom they believe is a ghost. The gondolier who took them assures them it was just the fog playing tricks. They soon arrive to meet Antonio, where he informs them that he is still studying art at his academy. Velma proceeds to ask him about his famous ancestor, Doge Malvolio the IV. Antonio claims that his treasure was never found, along with his portrait. The only thing Antonio has left of his famous ancestor, is four golden medallions. He has one, the other two reside in the palace museum. The fourth was stolen recently.

As soon as they leave the restaurant, Antonio's friend Mario rushes up to him stating that another medallion has gone missing and was taken by the ghostly gondolier. Antonio takes the gang to the academy he attends to let his professor explain who the ghostly gondolier is. On the way, he shows them some portraits of his ancestors (minus the one of Doge Malvolio). Velma notes the similarity between them and Antonio, their green eyes. The gang meets Antonio's teacher, Professor Salari who tells them the story of the ghostly gondolier. During the rule of Doge Malvolio, the ghostly gondolier was sentenced to life imprisonment. He managed to escape and led his armies into Venice to overthrow the doge. The royal fortune vanished, except for the medallions. The gang and Antonio head to the palace to secure the medallion that is there. Velma notices that the gondolier who gave them a ride is lurking around.

Antonio shows the gang the medallion, and they all pass it around for a look. Daphne tries it on, and soon the ghostly gondolier appears behind her. Everyone makes a run for it, but Daphne manages to get captured by the ghost. The gang follows him outside where they see him rowing away in a gondola with Daphne tied up in a bag with her head sticking out. They are unsuccessful in catching him and notice that his gondola simply disappeared. Velma finds a small vial on the ground where the boat vanished. Velma, Fred, Antonio, Scooby and Shaggy meet up with Mario and they decide to search the academy. They split up. Shaggy, Scooby, and Antonio search the basement, while Velma, Fred, and Mario search upstairs. When Mario goes to retrieve keys from Antonio's office, Velma and Fred hear a scream,and then the ghostly gondolier's sinister laugh. They find Antonio's office ransacked and red plastic crumbs on the ground. Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby search the basement and notice that Antonio has vanished.

They are chased around by the ghostly gondolier. They escape him and meet up with Fred and Velma. They follow a pair of footsteps leading outside to a gondola, where they see the ghost in another boat. They chase him, but he stabs a hole in the boat, causing them to sink. Scooby discovers a hidden lever on one of the rocks, which opens a hidden room leading to the palace. It is there they discover the missing portrait of the Doge. Behind the portrait is a room where Antonio and Daphne are locked up. A clue in the portrait helps Velma figure out where the ghost is, along with the treasure. The gang traces the ghost to the Piazza San Marco where they see him use the medallions to open a secret passageway. There they find him, along with the lost treasure. When chasing after Scooby and Shaggy, the ghostly gondolier gets trapped in a punctured inflatable gondola and captured.

The Ghostly Gondolier turns out to be Mario, who is also a descendant of Doge Malvolio. He wanted to steal the medallions to recover the lost treasure, and didn't want to share it with Antonio. Mario masked his one family trait to keep their relation a secret, his green eyes. He used red contacts to make his eyes appear brown, which explained the red plastic Velma found. He also used a deflatable gondola in order to squeeze through tight crevices. Mario was arrested soon after.

The regular gondolier who had been lurking around shows up. He only wanted to return the car keys to the Mystery Machine, which had fallen out of Fred's pocket in his gondola.

Villains

 * Ghostly Gondolier/Mario

Locations

 * Venice, Italy
 * Venice Opera House
 * Academy of Fine Art
 * Merchant Venice Pizza
 * Doge Malvolio IV's Palace (flashback)

Notes/trivia

 * A doge was the chief magistrate in the former republics of Venice and Genoa during the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The last Doge of Venice abdicated in 1797. The word comes from a Latin word that means "duke".
 * Antonio has a pizza parlor called Merchant Venice Pizza. The title character in Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice is named Antonio.
 * He's also a descendant of Doge Malvolio. Malvolio is the name of a character in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night.
 * Salarino is another Merchant of Venice character, which sounds close to the name of Professor Salari.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * None known.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * The quantity and color of the pieces of luggage that Shaggy and Scooby unload from the van varies from shot to shot. There seem to be over a dozen pieces in the car. Shaggy catches seven that Scooby throws to him. But the two paddle the final distance to the pizza parlor on rafts made of four suitcases each. Velma seems happy with the "door to door service" and doesn't complain about all the luggage that must have been dropped at the dock or lost in the river.
 * The Ghostly Gondolier gets his name even before he died.
 * When the gang find the hidden passage and hear Daphne and Antonio locked in a cell she sounds like she has something covering her mouth, only mumbling not talking, but when the gang find her only seconds later she has nothing over her mouth.
 * The Ghostly Gondolier took Antonio to get the medallion, but Antonio was still wearing his when he was bailed out.
 * It would be impossible for Scooby to fly a statue possibly made of marble. Its weight would make it fall down to the ground and collapse. This is a perfect example of toon physics.
 * In the flashback that explains the Ghostly Gondolier's past, he looks the exact same as his ghost when he was alive.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Third Season DVD set released April 10, 2007.
 * Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released November 9, 2010.
 * Scooby-Doo! 13 Spooky Tales Around the World DVD set compilation released May 15, 2012.