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Big Appetite in Little Tokyo

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Big Appetite in Little Tokyo is the first episode of the second season of What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and the fifteenth overall.

Premise[]

Shaggy becomes Tokyo's most wanted criminal when it is believed he can transform into a 30 ft Godzilla-like monster after accidentally eating a cursed pizza.

Synopsis[]

In his office in Tokyo, factory owner Dr. Akira Onodera is visited by the Ancient One, a wizard angry with the construction of his new wharf. The Ancient One warns of a curse before disappearing. Meanwhile, Velma wins a robotic contest with her new robotic dog, Dogbot, beating her rival, Elliott Blender. Velma wins a trip to Tokyo to present her invention to Onodera. Upon arrival, Onodera expresses amazement of Velma's invention, but they are attacked by the Ancient One, who curses them. Dogbot launches a pizza to deflect the curse, but Shaggy eats the pizza, placing the curse on himself.

Mostly skeptical of the Ancient One's curse, Shaggy and Scooby stay at Akira Onodera's guesthouse, with Shaggy chaining his leg to the floor in case he became the monster. However, in the night, a giant monster resembling him wreaks havoc on the streets of Tokyo, destroying buildings. In the morning, Mystery Inc. is visited by police Lieutenant Keiko Tanaka. Shaggy discovers that his chain had been broken, suggesting he broke out of his restraints to become the monster. After being recognized as the monster by several witnesses, Tanaka confronts them and attempts to arrest Shaggy.

Mystery Inc. runs from Tanaka, embarking on a bullet train in an attempt to escape them. However, Tanaka enters the train via helicopter and subdues Shaggy, but after the train abruptly stops she is launched forward, allowing Mystery Inc. to escape into downtown Tokyo. Though Elliott appears and attempts to give their location away to Tanaka, they successfully escape and check into a capsule hotel for the night, though Shaggy sleeps in the bank vault for added security. Despite this, a 30 Foot Shaggy breaks out of the vault and attacks the city again.

After finding Shaggy sleeping in the morning, Mystery Inc. decides to contact Velma's high school teacher, Professor Pomfrit, for assistance. They agree to meet at Asakusa Temple, but their phone call is intercepted by Tanaka. Tanaka catches Mystery Inc. in disguise at the temple entrance, but Shaggy gets away on a rickshaw led by Dogbot. Shaggy wakes up at Takamoto Studio, an abandoned studio previously meant for filming movies about giants. They question why Dogbot led Shaggy to the location, so they return to Dr. Onodera's factory.

At the factory, they discover Elliott speaking with Akira. However, they are immediately attacked by the 30 Foot Shaggy, which destroys much of the factory's equipment and chases them. However, the monster slips on the Dogbot's rickshaw, falling and damaging its legs beyond repair. Velma then uses a hot sauce to corrode the monster's face, revealing the robot's operator underneath.

The perpetrator turned out to be Professor Pomfrit. Jealous of Dr. Onodera's success, Pomfrit created the giant robot in order to destroy Dr. Onodera's factory. Hearing of Dr. Onodera's conflict with the Ancient One, he modeled the robot off Shaggy to frame him for the crime while making it appear to be the result of the Ancient One's curse. Before being escorted away by Tanaka, Pomfrit apologizes to Velma for using her invention for his personal gain. Akira asks what the Ancient One has to do with the whole situation and Tanaka tells him that the Ancient One has never existed, Shaggy asks if he could have been a spirit, to which Dr. Onodera tells him that whatever the Ancient One was, he knows that he will be happy that he decided to build the dock somewhere else, since he doesn't want to see anything destroyed after everything that happened. Following the investigation, Velma gifts Dogbot to Elliott and Onodera decides to build his wharf in a different location to appease the Ancient One.

Characters[]

Main characters:

Supporting characters:

Villains:

Other characters:

  • Mr. Blender (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Mrs. Blender (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Desk clerk (only appearance)
  • Fisherman (only appearance)

Locations[]

Objects[]

  • Ancient One's scepter
  • Noodles
  • Sushi boat
  • Popcorn
  • Pizza

Vehicles[]

  • Limousine
  • Japanese bullet train
  • Rickshaw (Dogbot transformation)

Suspects[]

Suspect Motive/reason
Shaggy Rogers He was cursed to turn into a monster. The monster also looked like him.
Elliott Blender He lost again to Velma's invention. He also followed the gang to Tokyo.

Culprits[]

Culprit Motive/reason
Professor Pomfrit piloting the 30 Foot Shaggy robot To destroy property belonging to Dr. Akira Onodera out of jealousy while framing Shaggy Rogers in the process.
Dogbot Programmed by Pomfrit. It was used to chew through Shaggy's chains so it would look like he broke loose, and to transport Shaggy to the places where the attacks took place.

Cast[]

Frank Welker Scooby-Doo
Fred Jones
30 Foot Shaggy
Casey Kasem Shaggy Rogers
Mindy Cohn Velma Dinkley
Grey DeLisle Daphne Blake
Kimberly Brooks Elliott Blender
Clyde Kusatsu Dr. Akira Onodera
Fisherman
Hotel desk clerk
Mako The Ancient One
William Schallert Professor Pomfrit
Gwendoline Yeo Lt. Keiko Tanaka

Songs[]

Song Credits Performed by
"UREI " Written by Yumi Yoshimura, Ami Onuki, and Andy Sturmer Puffy AmiYumi

Notes/trivia[]

  • The "meddling kids" line of the episode is given to Lt. Tanaka, as the villain apologized for his actions.
  • This is also the only episode of What's New, Scooby-Doo? to have the chase scene song played during a police chase instead of a regular monster chase.

Miscellaneous[]

Cultural references[]

  • The episode title is an allusion to the 1986 cult film Big Trouble in Little China.
  • This episode is a homage to Godzilla.
  • The 30-foot Shaggy is an allusion to the 1958 B movie Attack of the 50 Ft. Woman.
  • Professor Pomfrit is a reference to Leander Pomfritt from The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, also played by William Schallert. Dobie Gillis was a key source of inspiration for the development of the gang during production of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!.
  • Takamoto Studio is a reference to Scooby-Doo co-creator Iwao Takamoto.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

  • Near the end of the episode, Shaggy's ear is brown for a second.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]

  • Dogbot's size changes variously throughout the episode from the size of Scooby-Doo to a medium-sized dog.
  • Professor Pomfrit must be the greatest robot inventor in the world if he can create a giant, monstrous, robotic version of Shaggy in only a few hours.
    • He could, of course, have just reprogrammed an already-existing giant robot, like he reprogrammed Dogbot.
    • Perhaps he used Dogbot to make the Shaggy robot, and to hide it. Dogbot is pure scientific miracle - it can produce anything out of a tiny body shell, even when it couldn't possibly fit and when it doesn't have room for the raw materials, much less the production equipment (for example, the bed and the fresh-cooked pancakes created at the same time).
  • How did he make the robot appear and disappear almost instantly?
  • Professor Pomfrit's attempt to incriminate Shaggy also has no meaning. Since he wanted to ruin Dr. Onodera out of sheer envy, what would he gain by blaming Shaggy? Why did he not just build a regular-looking monster or follow his original plan and give the monster the face of Onodera himself?
    • And since the Professor wanted to destroy the Onodera factory, why did he not attack it first rather than attack the city?
    • Perhaps the Ancient One was just a projection with a fake curse, and the plan failed when Shaggy ate the 'cursed' pizza. That could be why Professor Pomfrit decided to use Shaggy as the monster.
  • Professor Pomfrit's explanation for his crimes was confusing, in which he said, "Because everything he has should be mine! Why is he rich, while I'm just an underpaid high school teacher?" Who was the "he" Pomfrit was referring to? Shaggy or Dr. Onodera? Since Pomfrit's crimes were more based around framing Shaggy than sabotaging Dr. Onodera, and that the dialogue wasn't clear about which of the two Pomfrit was jealous of, it's easy to miss that his goal was to ruin Onodera.
  • Elliott Blender is miscredited as "Elliott Binder."
  • Lieutenant Tanaka did not even bother to apologize to Shaggy for trying to imprison him unjustly (who could have accused her of a false attempt at prosecution) and neither did the professor for trying to incriminate him.
  • If the bullet train is traveling at 210 miles per hour, it is unlikely that Mystery Inc. could hang onto the roof or manage to move far enough to get inside the carriage; the wind would be similar to a category 5 hurricane.
  • Pulling a cord should not have derailed a train, and using such brakes outside an emergency is usually illegal.
  • The 30-foot Shaggy has four toes but leaves three-toed footprints.

In other languages[]

Language Name Meaning
Greek Περιπέτειες στο Τόκυο Adventures in Tokyo
Arabic لعنة طوكيو The Curse of Tokyo
Polish Wielkie żarcie w małym Tokio A huge grub in little Tokyo

Home media[]

Quotes[]

Fred: Shaggy ate the cursed pizza!


Fred: Wow, this is what I call rapid transit.
Daphne: This is the bullet train Freddie. And judging from my hair I'd say we're going 210 miles an hour.


Daphne: Jeepers. Ah guys, don't look now but it looks like Shaggy really is the monster.

External links[]


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