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Large Dragon at Large is the eleventh episode of the second season of What's New, Scooby-Doo?, and the twenty-fourth overall.
Premise[]
In the middle of a Renaissance fair in Scotland, a dragon starts terrorizing everyone.
Synopsis[]
The episode starts with a pair of wandering minstrels seeking shelter for the night in a small woodland cottage near Glasburgh, Scotland. While setting up a fire to keep themselves warm, the cottage ends up being set alight by what appears to be a large dragon, scaring the minstrels out of their wits.
Later on, we see Mystery Incorporated spending some at a renaissance faire all the way over in Scotland -- the gang (minus Velma) is dressed up in medieval-themed costumes and are having lots of fun. Shaggy finds it a bit silly that they came all the way to Europe for something like a renaissance faire (of which there are plenty back in America), but Velma explains that Glasburgh's faire is the only renaissance faire in the world that is held at a real medieval castle (as it dates all the way back to the Middle Ages). While exploring the faire, the gang sees a sign in front of a cave that says, "Beware the Glasburgh Dragon," which, of course, freaks out Shaggy and Scooby -- while trying to leave, they run into the wandering minstrels, who start singing about a treasure that is supposedly hidden somewhere within the castle. But the minstrels also explain (through singing) that no no one ever actually found the treasure...or at least, no no one ever found it and lived to tell the tale, because they have all been burned alive by the Glasburgh Dragon (or, as they call her, "Old Glassy").
Velma insists that the minstrels' story is just a folk tale and that dragons never truly existed, but right after saying this, smoke starts coming out of the cave and they see what appears to be a dragon coming out of it -- but it soon turns out that it is just a man in a dragon costume. Said man, a Scotsman named Ewan McEwan, introduces himself to the gang and insists that the dragon's legend is true, claiming that said creature singed off his eyebrows and also reveals how it burned up a local cottage the night before (even giving them a copy of the local newspaper showcasing the story). Mr. McEwan explains that he owns Glasburgh Castle and is also in charge of the renaissance faire -- when the gang offers to help him overcome his dragon problem, the Scotsman insists that he is fine before taking a picture of himself in his dragon costume with Velma. Just as Velma starts walking off, Mr. McEwan notices that Velma is wearing regular clothes and claims that he requires all visitors to wear costumes at his faire -- Velma tries politely refusing this, but when it becomes clear that Mr. McEwan is not budging, Velma reluctantly goes to change into the costume that she brought with her.
Velma soon turns back in a medieval princess costume, making it very clear to her friends that she does not want them making any comments about her costume and the gang soon goes back to exploring the faire -- while Fred tries his hand at a sword-in-the-stone attraction (with Daphne and Velma watching him), Shaggy and Scooby are exploring all the food options at the faire. While sitting down to try some of their food, it is immediately burnt to ashes by the Glasburgh Dragon. The duo immediately runs away back to main fairground and explain to the girls about what happened -- but upon looking in the direction of where Shaggy and Scooby are pointing, they just see Mr. McEwan in his dragon costume. Shaggy and Scooby soon run away again upon hearing a bunch of people screaming, thinking it is the dragon again -- but when Velma looks in the direction of where the screams are coming from, she soon starts screaming as well (albeit in excitement). The reason for all the screaming is because there's a meet-and-greet with an actor named Jamison Steven Ripley, who was the star of a TV-show called "The Round Table Gang," which (according to Daphne) was a TV-show about a teen-King Arthur that got cancelled quite some time ago.
Velma soon goes up to Ripley and, explaining that she was a huge fan of his old TV-show, brings out a doll of Sir Lancelot, Ripley's character from the show -- he happily signs it free of charge. Meanwhile, Shaggy and Scooby (still freaked out by the dragon) run afoul of one of the food vendors at the faire and are forced into a pair of stockades, with their punishment consisting of being pelted by produce. The duo does not seem bothered by this, even making some kebabs out of the produce that's thrown at them. But then the Glasburgh Dragon turns up again and starting breathing fire all over the faire -- Daphne gets the idea to have Velma distract the dragon in her princess costume, and soon the whole gang's running away from the dragon. They soon manage to get away from the creature, ending up at the "Feast of Fools," where the gang is mistaken for employees.
While serving up food and drinks to the people in the dining tent, an employee named Shane Flinty introduces Jamison Stevenson Ripley (calling him by the name of his TRTG-character, "Lancelot") as the King of Ye Olde Renaissance Faire. While Fred tries serving some food to him, an upset Shane claims that he himself was supposed to the King of faire that year, but once Ripley showed up, the faire organizers decided to make him the King instead -- Fred tries helping Shane feel better by pointing out that there is always next year's faire, to which a still upset Shane replies, "If there is a next year." While the girls are up at the table of the faire's royal court, serving drinks to Ripley and the others seated at the table, the Glasburgh Dragon shows up breathing fire, causing a panic amongst the fairgoers. Ripley steps in to protect Shaggy and Scooby and scares off the dragon, and Mr. McEwan shows up just after the dragon leaves, mad that he was not able to get a photograph -- he explains to Shaggy and Scooby that he wants to take a picture of the dragon for the brochure of next year's faire, claiming that, despite all the havoc it is wreaked, attendance to the faire has increased significantly since the dragon showed up. Fred and the girls start expressing suspicion regarding the dragon, with Velma noticing a strange smell on the burnt-up tents and curtains. But right before she can describe what it smells like, they hear Shane Flinty calling for help -- a giant wooden beam fell on him, and after the gang and some other people help him out from under it, Shane claims that his shoulder got injured and it looks like he will have to forfeit the jousting match he was supposed to have against Jamison Steven Ripley the next night. Not wanting to cancel the match, Ripley and decides that Fred should fill in for Shane, which Fred readily agrees to.
The next night, Fred has all geared up for his jousting match against Ripley -- despite Fred not having any experience with jousting (aside from a class he took at the YMCA during the previous summer), he is eager to do it and assures the rest of the gang that he will be fine, especially since they do use real lances for jousting matches. But after someone other than Shaggy hands Fred his jousting lance and heads off to start his match against Ripley, the girls notice that Shaggy still has Fred's lance -- the gang soon realizes that the jousting rods that Ripley and Fred are real instead of fake, the girls put Shaggy into a knight costume (and it soon turns out that Scooby's in there as well) to save Fred and Ripley from getting hurt (or worse). Shaggy and Scooby manage to stop the match before Fred and Ripley can get to each other and the girls explain the situation to them -- the Glasburgh Dragon soon shows up again and kidnaps Velma, taking her to a tower in Glasburgh Castle.
While Daphne and the guys come up with a plan to rescue Velma from the castle, Velma finds some gas tanks with "GS" on them -- Mr. McEwan soon lets Daphne and the guys into the castle so they can rescue their friend, and they are soon inside the castle, looking for Velma, but they run into the dragon again. During this, Velma gets out of her prison and is reunited with her friends. The gang ends up in front of a tapestry that Velma realizes is a map to the treasure of Glasburgh Castle -- she also realizes that culprit behind their mystery is none other than Jamison Steven Ripley. Velma explains that the dragon is actually just some high-tech robot that Ripley has been using to scare people away so he could find the treasure -- the actor soon runs away, but falls into the moat surrounding Glasburgh Castle, which short-circuits his motion control suit of armor (which was what he used to control the dragon), which Velma claims are leftover props from his old TV-show.
Back inside the castle, the mystery is finally explained:
- The smell from the burnt tents at the Feast of Fools was caused by kerosene from flamethrower tanks, which was what gave the dragon the ability to breath fire -- and the "GS" on the tanks stands for "Glasburgh Studios," the TV-studio that filmed The Round Table Gang.
- When Shaggy questions why Ripley did what he did, especially since he is a big TV-star, Ripley admits that he has not been able to get much work as an actor since TRTG was cancelled -- in fact, pretty much the only acting work he has been able to get has been for things like renaissance faire.
During the confessions, Scooby is messing around with Ripley's animatronic dragon and accidentally burns up the tapestry displaying the treasure, which, of course, angers Ripley. But then Mr. McEwan comes in and reveals that the treasure map was a fake -- in fact, he had made up the whole story about the Glasburgh Dragon as a way to attract tourists, even shaving off his eyebrows and claiming that the dragon burned them off. Realizing that all his efforts were for naught, Ripley's taken away by the authorities.
Back at the faire, Shane Flinty's crowned as King -- during this, Shaggy and Scooby see the sword-in-the-stone and (wanting to use it for a kebab) successfully pull it out. Daphne points this out to Fred and Velma, the former of whom scoffs that they only succeeded because Shaggy and Scooby had worked together. But as the sword is the property of the new king of the faire, Shaggy and Scooby are put into stockades and the episode ultimately ends with the duo being pelted by produce.
Characters[]
Main characters:
Supporting characters:
- Ewan McEwan (only appearance)
- Shane Flinty (only appearance)
Villains:
- Glasburgh Dragon (only appearance)(no lines)(robot)
- Jamison Steven Ripley (only appearance)
Other characters:
- Pan lute player (only appearance)
- Lute player (only appearance)
- Officious dwarf (only appearance)
- Judge (only appearance)
- Constable (only appearance)
- Puny sword puller (only appearance)
- Ruthie Girl (only appearance)(no lines)
Locations[]
Objects[]
Vehicles[]
- None
Suspects[]
Suspect | Motive/reason |
---|---|
Ewan McEwan | To make publicity for his faire. |
Shane Flinty | Angry that he isn't the king of the faire. |
Culprits[]
Culprit | Motive/reason |
---|---|
Jamison Steven Ripley operating the Glasburgh Dragon | To find the treasure. |
Cast[]
Songs[]
Song | Credits | Performed by | Character performance by |
---|---|---|---|
"The Ghosts of Me and You " | Written by Vinnie Fiorelli, Chris DeMakes, Roger Manganelli, Louis "Buddy" Schaub, Pete Wasilewski | Less Than Jake | N/A |
Notes/trivia[]
- This episode originally premiered on Kids' WB as the show's second "Unsolved Mystery" (the first one being The Vampire Strikes Back earlier in the season). After watching, viewers would have a chance to go online to guess who the culprit was. [1]
- The scheme utilized by Jamison Steven Ripley is similar to that of the culprits from The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode The Lochness Mess. In both episodes, the culprits scared people away with giant monsters (Glasburgh Dragon and the Sea Serpent) in order to hunt for treasure and, after being caught, find out that the treasure they were seeking was actually fake.
Cultural references[]
- Glasburgh is a combination of the Scottish cities Glasgow and Edinburgh.
- The logo of Glasburgh Studios is a parody of the Warner Bros. logo.
Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]
- None known.
Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]
- The sign outside the supposed dragon's cave, misspells Glasburgh as "Glassburgh."
- When the lute player and the pan flute player sing to Shaggy and Scooby about the dragon, the sound of the pan flute can be heard, despite the playeer not raising it to his mouth once.
- The end of the episode is a great absurdity: since Shaggy and Scooby managed to remove the sword from the stone, both should, by the rules of the Fair, be the kings, but instead, both are placed by the judge in pillories.
- There is a unvoiced character and unmentioned character that is most likely Jamison Steven Ripley in disguise. It's never explained why he gives Fred a real jousting lance against himself, potentially harming himself.
In other languages[]
Language | Name | Meaning |
---|---|---|
French | Le dragon de Glasborough | The Dragon of Glasborough |
Greek | Ο Δράκος της Γλασκόβης | The Dragon of Glasgow |
Italian | Il tesoro del drago | The Dragon's Treasure |
Spanish (Latin America) | El Vuelo del Dragón | The Dragon's Fly |
Home media[]
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Volume 7 - Ghosts on the Go DVD released by Warner Home Video on November 5, 2005.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Volume 6 - Recipe for Disaster VHS released by Warner Home Video on November 21, 2005.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Volume 6 - Recipe for Disaster DVD released by Warner Home Video on November 21, 2005.
- Hva' Nyt, Scooby-Doo?: Del 6 - Den Hemmelige Opskrift DVD released by Warner Home Video on November 22, 2005.
- Quoi d'Neuf, Scooby-Doo?: Volume 6 - La Porte de l'Atlantide DVD released by Warner Home Video on March 30, 2006.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Volume 6 - Recipe for Disaster DVD released by Roadshow Entertainment on September 6, 2006.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Complete 2nd Season DVD set released by Warner Home Video on June 7, 2007.
- What's New, Scooby-Doo?: Volumes 5 & 6 - Top Dog & A Hot Dog! DVD released by Warner Home Video on May 30, 2011.
- Best of Warner Bros. 50 Cartoon Collection: Scooby-Doo! DVD set released by Warner Home Video on August 13, 2019.
- 3 Spooky DVD Treats: What's New, Scooby-Doo? - Volumes 4-6 DVD released by Warner Home Video.
Quotes[]
Ewan McEwan: Hey, not so fast. you gotta wear a costume at my fair, lady. |
Daphne: We've got to distract that thing! |
Velma: (Trips and loses her glasses) I hate this dress. (Finds her glasses) I can't imagine this getting any worse. (She is kidnapped by the dragon) OK, it got worse. |
External links[]
- TBA
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Recipe for Disaster | What's New, Scooby-Doo? Season 2 |
Uncle Scooby and Antarctica |