- For the Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated incarnation, see Vincent Van Ghoul (Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated).
Vincent Van Ghoul is a renowned magician and warlock, with extensive knowledge of the supernatural.
Physical appearance[]
Vincent Van Ghoul is a middle-aged male, with slicked-back black hair with streaks of grey, and a thin black mustache. He often wears a black suit with a red and black cape, or a blue outfit with a purple cape.
Personality[]
Despite being furious with Shaggy Rogers and Scooby-Doo for unleashing the ghosts, he concurred to assist them in their ghost-questing and gives the group a crystal ball through which he can contact them.
Powers and abilities[]
He has extensive magical abilities including magical transport and casting his image through a crystal ball. He can also change his wardrobe mid-transport; changing from his warlock robes to a formal suit and cape when assisting the gang.
Vincent's magic has also given him longevity, apparently having lived a eighteen centuries already; he mentioned that he went to high school with Boris Kreepoff in "76". When asked if it was 1876, Vincent replied "no. Just 76".
History[]
Early life[]
The last member of the Van Ghoul family, Vincent was an archaeologist in his younger days along with his friend Mortifer Quinch, who specialized in stage magic. The two sought out the vault of King Solomon, which contained the Chest of Demons, and succeed in locating the artifact. While Mortifer wished to become famous for discovering the chest, Vincent felt it to be too dangerous. However, he had inadvertently broken a lock sealing the chest, resulting in all thirteen ghosts trapped within making their escape.
Eventually, Vincent and Mortifer recaptured all of the ghosts, the last being Asmodeus. However, Vincent realized that the forces of evil would seek out the chest in order to free their masters. The two decided to split up, with Vincent declining Mortifer's offer to let him take the chest. To Vincent's horror, Mortifer's attempt to distract the menacing evils resulted in his apparent death.[1]
The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo[]
He was visited by Shaggy, Scooby and Daphne, with Scrappy and Flim-Flam in the first place, after they needed their assistance with their plane, which crash-landed in a nearby temple in Nepal. After Shaggy and Scooby unwittingly unleashed thirteen terrible ghosts from the chest in which they were locked, Van Ghoul told them they must trap them again. "Why us?" a frightened Shaggy moans, to which Van Ghoul replied, "Because you let them out."[2]
Van Ghoul acted as a mentor, and readily guided Scooby and Shaggy (it was strongly established he believed the pair needed guidance to keep out of trouble).[2] He directed them to the palace where Maldor the Malevolent took over. Despite a valiant effort on Scooby's part (by stealing the wand Maldor wanted) it was Van Ghoul's advice that a Danish prince- Scooby himself, who's a Great Dane- that saved the day.[3]
He had to come to the gang on a flying carpet, due to malfunctions in his crystal ball thanks to the Shadow Demon. He helped them get away, and filibustered until dawn afterwards, when Queen Morbidia and her monsters lost their power. In "Reflections in a Ghoulish Eye", the gang was falsely lured to a magic convention under the belief that Van Ghoul awaited them there. He revealed that it was a trick, disguised himself and came to the convention. He handed Daphne the amulet they needed in disguise, which proved useful when they were trapped in a mirror haunted by a monster later on.[4]
Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost[]
After twelve of the ghosts had been captured, Vincent left the Chest of Demons with Shaggy for safekeeping. He dedicated himself to hunting down the final ghost, Asmodeus, only for the King of Demons to apparently begin hunting him. He spent months fruitlessly trying to get in touch with his young friends, only succeeding after Mystery Inc. decided to retire following an unfortunate mystery gone awry. Traveling to his home, the group found Vincent trapped in a crypt, and freed him only to be attacked by Asmodeus.
Much to Vincent's dismay, he learned that Shaggy had not brought the chest, having apparently mailed it to what he had thought was Vincent's home in the Himalayas. After briefly attacking, Asmodeus departed, apparently to seek out the chest, prompting Vincent to take the group aboard his plane after sharing his and Mortifer's story. After arriving, the group split up, with Vincent joining his old friends in investigating a strange tourist while Fred Jones and Velma Dinkley left to find the package containing the chest. Vincent's party ended up losing the suspect, and soon ran into trouble as a demonic car tried to bury them under an avalanche.
After narrowly avoiding being buried in snow and arriving in a nearby temple, Vincent confessed to his friends that his wizardly powers had failed him since Asmodeus' first appearance. They soon encountered the demon, who proved to have the Chest of Demons in his possession, and attempted to recover it. They succeeded, but were left without an avenue of escape until Vincent, thinking quickly, threw one of his crystal balls at Asmodeus' feet, causing it to shatter. The magical explosion teleported his friends to safety, and through a spare crystal Vincent instructed them to flee and leave him to finish the battle alone.
Despite Vincent's urgings, the Mystery Inc. gang - joined by a grown up Flim-Flam - came to his aid, though they lost possession of the chest. Vincent then revealed that he felt responsible for finishing the battle because Asmodeus was once Asamad Van Ghoul, his ancestor. Asmodeus then opened the chest, but Velma-who had been skeptical throughout the adventure-pointed out the rule that the chest could only be opened by the living. Asmodeus was revealed to be a costumed Mortifer, who had faked his own death decades before, while the chest turned out to be a decorative cooler Shaggy had bought from Flim-Flam and then mistaken for the real thing.
Interpol agent Vance Linklater, who had been tailing Mortifer for some time, then appeared with a force of agents to arrest him. Mortifer admitted that he had wanted to get rich by selling off the chest, before using his magician skills to escape and enter the car that had triggered the avalanches previously. Vincent attempted to warn him against his vehicle's tendency to cause avalanches, but Mortifer ignored him and was caught in an avalanche that collapsed the bridge he was driving on. As snow erupted from the chasm, an image of Asmodeus appeared that transformed into Asamad before fading away.
Velma took the opportunity to explain to a confused Vincent that, by her reading of the Great Tome, Asamad had been searching for redemption rather than revenge all these centuries. Believing his ancestor had been protecting him, Vincent watched as Mortifer was taken away, though he took amusement at the thought that he could "visit him in the Ghoulag!" He then joined Mystery Inc. in reboarding his plane to depart, unaware that Velma had fabricated her translation due to her own skepticism. Before leaving, he encouraged Flim-Flam to "stay out of trouble", but seemed proud when Flim-Flam replied "No promises Vinnie".[1]
Scooby-Doo! Team-Up[]
Vincent Van Ghoul was one of the villains inside the giant Scrappy-Doo. When he, The Hex Girls, Flim-Flam, Robi, and Red Herring were caught, they revealed that they didn't have the same fame as the other incarnations of Mystery Incorporated. [5]
Appearances[]
Notes/trivia[]
- Vincent Van Ghoul is himself a parody of Vincent Price, who voiced him, and, like Price himself, presented his character in a pseudo-serious way. He often made serious comments that still managed to be funny, much as Price did.
- His overall appearance, mainly hairstyle and mustache, also resembles action movie star Charles Bronson.
- The SDMI crew received permission from the Vincent Price estate to use his likeness and voice.[6]
In other languages[]
| Actor | Language | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| Marcos Miranda (died 1988) | Brazilian Portuguese | |
| Hallvard Lydvo | Norwegian |
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost, direct-to-video film 29.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 To All the Ghouls I've Loved Before, season 1, episode 1.
- ↑ Scoobra Kadoobra
- ↑ Me and My Shadow Demon
- ↑ Scooby-Doo! Team-Up: Crisis of Infinity Scoobys
- ↑ Wyatt, Derrick J. (March 2, 2020). "Oh yes that is definitely true". Twitter. Retrieved on March 23, 2020.