Ghastly Ghost Town

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, the manager 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 is sent down a 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 in the middle of the desert, and the Three Stooges being scared by the mysterious Gunslinger.

Later, the earth shakes, 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 with an idea of using Tyrone to dig their friends out. They succeeded, but two mysterious villains, the Gunslinger and Geronimo, 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 Geronimo 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 to a full crowd (with Ngogi and Gentle Gertrude being a big hit), and Shaggy and Scooby were awarded with a supersized hero sandwich for their role in capturing Crunch and Rhino. The sheriff allows Shaggy to have a small bag of uranium, which messes with Dingbat's radar again, and flys into the guys' sandwich. Fortunately, it all falls back into place and they start eating it, much to everyone's amusement.

Characters
Main characters:
 * Mystery Inc.
 * Scooby-Doo
 * Shaggy Rogers
 * Fred Jones
 * Daphne Blake
 * Velma Dinkley
 * The Three Stooges
 * Larry
 * Curly Joe
 * Moe

Supporting characters:
 * Ngogi
 * Sheriff

Monsters and other villains:
 * Giant bat
 * Geronimo /
 * Amos Crunch
 * Gunslinger /
 * Rhino
 * Robot Gunslinger
 * Cactus (Amos Crunch or Rhino)

Other characters:
 * Gentle Gertrude
 * Danny
 * King Kong
 * Lizard
 * Iggy
 * Dingbat
 * Frog
 * Wyatt Earp (wax figure)
 * Wild Bill Hickok (wax figure)
 * Jesse James (wax figure)
 * Billy the Kid (wax figure)
 * Customers

Locations

 * Desert
 * Dune
 * 3 Stooges Ghost Town
 * Mine ride
 * Zoo
 * Golden Dollar
 * Tyrone
 * Cafe
 * Dry Goods
 * Hotel
 * Last Chance Saloon
 * Cowboy Museum
 * Funhouse
 * Jail
 * London Royal Zoo
 * Passaic, New Jersey
 * Texas

Objects
Clues:
 * TBA

Food and drinks:
 * Super hero sandwich

Other objects:
 * Ngogi's collar
 * Curtains and curtain rail
 * Chandelier
 * Amos Crunch's flashlight
 * Tape recorder
 * Birdcage
 * Chocolate pizza
 * Shaggy's quarter
 * Player piano
 * Cigar Store Indian's axe
 * Coal
 * Water bottle
 * Drinking straw
 * Lantern
 * Flour barrel
 * AJAX Flour
 * Scooby's shovel
 * Moving staircase switch and controls
 * Giant jack-in-the-box
 * Distorting mirror
 * Robot gungslinger's gun
 * Barrel Scooby hides in
 * Uranium dust
 * Bucket, shovel, and pickaxe
 * Bucket in well
 * Dummies dressed like and
 * Grandfather clock
 * Cowboy hat
 * Bone
 * Movie projector
 * Movie reel
 * Shaggy's bag of uranium

Vehicles

 * The Mystery Machine
 * Mine carts
 * Tyrone
 * Bat truck

Cast
A few sources state different vocal credits for two of the Three Stooges:


 * Curly has also been credited to Joe Baker.
 * Larry has also been credited to Frank Welker.

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


 * Produced and Directed: William Hanna and Joseph Barbera
 * Associate Producer: Alex Lovy
 * Story: Jameson Brewer, Tom Dagenais, Ruth Flippen, Fred Freiberger, Willie Gilbert, Bill Lutz, Larry Markes, Norman Maurer, Jack Mendelsohn, Ray Parker, Gene Thompson, Paul West, Harry Winkler
 * Story Direction: Steve Clark, Mike Kawaguchi, Paul Sommer, Carl Fallberg, George Singer, Irv Spector, Howard Swift
 * Voices: Nicole Jaffe, Don Messick, Frank Welker, Daws Butler, Joan Gerber, Larry Harmon, Ann Jillian, Jim MacGeorge, Mike Road, Vincent VanPatten, Casey Kasem, Heather North, John Stephenson, Henry Cordon, Florence Halop, Pat Harrington, Ted Knight, Cindy Putman, Olan Soulé, Len Weinrib
 * Animation Director: Charles A. Nichols
 * Production Design: Iwao Takamoto
 * Production Supervisor: Victor O. Schipek
 * Layout: Bob Singer, John Ahern, Mike Arens, Ric Gonzalez, Alex Ignatiev, Ray Jacobs, Bill Lignate, Alvaro Arce, Mo Gollub, Paul Gruwett, Zygamond Jablecki, Herb Johnson, Lew Ott
 * Animation: Bill Keil, Ed Aardal, Lefty Callahan, Goerge Cannata, Izzy Ellis, John Garling, Fred Grable, Joan Orbison, Jay Sarbry, Irv Spence, Carlo Vinci, Ed Barge, Lars Calonius, Rudy Cataldi, Hugh Fraser, Bob Goe, Dick Lundy, Ed Parks, Ken Southworth, Dave Tendlar, Xenia
 * Backgrounds: F. Montelaegre, Gary Niblett, Dave High
 * Titles: Iraj Paran
 * Musical Director: Hoyt Curtin
 * Musical Supervision: Paul DeKorte
 * Technical Supervisor: Frank Paiker
 * Ink and Paint Supervisor: Jayne Barbera
 * Xerography: Robert ‘Tiger’ West
 * Sound Direction: Richard Olson, Bill Getty
 * Supervising Film Editor: Larry Cowan
 * Film Editors: Earl Bennet, Ron Sawade, Pat Foley
 * Negative Consultant: William E. DeBoer
 * Post Production: Joed Eaton
 * Camera: George Epperson, John Aardal, Dennis Weaver, Ralph Migliori
 * A Hanna-Barbera Production
 * RCA Sound Recording
 * © 1972 Hanna-Barbera Productions, Inc.
 * a hanna-barbera production

Notes/trivia

 * This is the series premiere of The New Scooby-Doo Movies.
 * The episode's title card uses the same theme that the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode, Mine Your Own Business, used.
 * "Ngogi" as it's pronounced (and spelt in closed captions) sounds similar to "Ingagi" (which is the spelling in the subtitles), this would make it an in-joke to the 1930 exploitation film of the same name (about gorillas and woman), a reference which would go over kids' heads.
 * The monsters aren't unmasked in this episode.

Miscellaneous

 * Disguises: None.
 * Scooby Snacks bribe: None.
 * "Zoinks" count:

Cultural references

 * The Three Stooges were an American vaudeville and comedy act of the early to mid–20th century (1930-1975) 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 New 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 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).
 * Velma indirectly calls Ngogi, King Kong, a movie monster, resembling a colossal gorilla.
 * Geronimo was a prominent leader of the Bedonkohe Apache.
 * Curly Joe calls Geronimo (pretending to be a cigar store Indian), "kemosabe", which is the term of endearment and catchphrase of Tonto, the Native American sidekick from the radio and television program, The Lone Ranger.
 * Wyatt Earp, Wild Bill Hickok, Jesse James, and Billy the Kid are all historical figures from the American Old West. Billy the Kid is lampooned and depicted as baby.

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 dinosaur when it was seen on a cliff, but then looks like a robot when they encountered it.
 * Right after they begin the search for Velma, she is seen right behind Freddy looking for herself.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * When Moe first talks about Tyrone (their mechanical lifesized Tyrannosaurus Rex) he says Tyrone is a plastic model, but when they go to see it, Velma comments that there is not a single break in the plaster.
 * The Three Stooges are with the kids as they examine Tyrone, but myseriously disappear when their manager, Amos Crunch, confronts the gang as trespassers and aren't seen again until the next scene.
 * As Fred and Daphne are walking in the desert, only Daphne is leaving footprints.
 * While in the desert with Daphne, Fred makes an amusing, but also "sexist" joke: "This desert reminds me of a woman, it goes on and on and on..."
 * In a span of five seconds, Scooby is in and out of a hole that he dug five times.
 * When the Stooges meet the gunslinger in the wax museum, he is clean shaven and has a rounded face. In all later appearances, he has a mustache and a thin face.
 * Moe states that an Indian that appeared was simply "a home movie projected against the black desert night", but one would still need a screen for the projector's image to be seen.
 * George Cannata's name is misspelled "Goerge Cannata" in the credits, and remains that way for the rest of the season.

Home media

 * 🇺🇸 The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies DVD set released by Warner Home Video on March 22, 2005.
 * The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies: Volume 1 DVD released by Warner Home Video on April 2, 2007.