Scooby-Doo! And The Curse Of The 13th Ghost [DVD]

Director: Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton

Cast: Frank Welker, Grey Griffin, Matthew Lillard (VOICES)

Release Date: February 5, 2019

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10

Synopsis:

After the Mystery Inc. gang goofed up a case and nabbed an innocent man, they’re forced into early retirement from crime solving. It’s not long however, before their old friend Vincent Van Ghoul needs help and pulls the team right back into action. The gang has unfinished business they must tend to, which involves catching a ghost that previously got away. It all happened one summer while Velma and Freddy where away at camp. Scooby-Doo, Shaggy and Daphne secretly hunted down 12 of the world’s spookiest ghosts but failed to catch the most evil one of them all…the 13th ghost.

Now the elusive spook is wreaking havoc. Vincent needs help having him captured and confined to the chest of demons, a box that contains the other 12 captured ghosts. With the 13th ghost still on the loose, the gang will have to come out of retirement and finish the job once and for all. The chest however, is now located somewhere in a remote village in the Himalayas. Determined to help Vincent, the gang sets out on one of their most thrilling adventures yet! Bundle up and get ready for the icy slopes of the Himalayan mountains, chilling car chases, crystal balls and spine-tingling spells in this terrifyingly fun original movie!

Please Note: Warner Bros. Home Entertainment provided me with a free copy of the DVD I reviewed in this Post. The opinions I share are my own.

In this follow-up to ‘The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo’ animated series, ‘Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13^th Ghost’ sees our favorite mystery solving gang suffering from some difficult times after a few mistakes and wrongful accusations in their mystery solving endeavors lands them in hot water. But when the group decides to sell some of their unnecessary things at a garage sale they come across a magical crystal ball that Vincent Van Ghoul gave to Scooby, Shaggy and Daphne during a terrifying adventure involving 13 ghosts that they embarked upon together one summer when Fred and Velma were apparently at camp. Now, whether they like it or not they must help their old friend Vincent in trapping the final of those 13 ghosts which still remains uncaught to this day and end the whole fiasco once and for all; but convincing Velma and Fred of their story’s legitimacy might just prove equally challenging.

‘Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13^th Ghost’ offers fans the long desired conclusion to the short lived animated series ‘The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo’ which initially aired for one 13-episode season in 1985 and unfortunately never saw a fitting conclusion to the storyline or the capture of the final ghost; that is until now at least. Altogether the film does a fantastic job of keeping elements from the ongoing Scooby-Doo animated features intact while also continually paying tribute to ‘The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo’ throughout. Perhaps one of the most enjoyable and clever elements of this wildly enjoyable animated ride is its exploration of the other side of mystery solving, such as a truly hilarious early scene with the gang completely botching a mystery reveal and looking like complete buffoons. Some tidbits or absent characters within may mildly annoy fans of the original animated series that it provides closure to, but as a whole it’s still one of the best animated Scooby-Doo features in recent memory and one that fellow Scooby-Doo fanatics definitely won’t even want to think of missing out on.  And while I certainly do mean all Scooby fans, that goes double for those who were fond of ‘The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo’ and have probably only dreamed of some closure after all this time.

Overall, ‘Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13^th Ghost’ is a massively entertaining and hilarious adventure with your favorite mystery solving teens that finally offers fans of ‘The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo’ cartoon series from the 80’s some closure, while also frequently paying tribute to the series along the way. I can’t possibly recommend ‘Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13^th Ghost’ strongly enough to fellow hardcore Scooby fans, and especially so for those dedicated fans of the short lived animated series ‘The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo’ that it at long last provides a conclusion to. Filled with laughs, adventure and nostalgia around every turn, this is one truly spectacular Scooby-Doo animated film that Scooby fans young and old should have a tremendous amount of fun with, and quite possibly also find themselves wanting to revisit not far down the road.

VIDEO:

The DVD release of ‘Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13^th Ghost’ is presented in a 16×9 friendly Widescreen presentation utilizing the film’s original 1.78:1 Aspect Ratio. The video presentation looks pretty great for the most part, especially within the confines of the DVD format. It provides a sharp, clean and colorful presentation from start to finish with no noteworthy faults or problems to be uncovered along the way. Overall, this is a solid standard definition video presentation that should easily please those who are content with the DVD format in general.

AUDIO:

The DVD release features a 384 kbps 5.1 channel Dolby Digital soundtrack. This multichannel soundtrack offers a sharp, clean and at times fairly active audio presentation throughout. It often takes advantage of all five available channels in order to send planes whipping by, along with various music, nature activity and more, while always making certain that any dialogue or other audio elements that might occur simultaneously never become distorted or rendered inaudible. Overall, this is a quite capable 5.1 channel Dolby Digital soundtrack that makes a great compliment to the onscreen fun and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The DVD release of ‘Scooby-Doo and the Curse of the 13^th Ghost’ includes ‘2 Vintage Bonus Cartoons’, this time both of which are unsurprisingly episodes of ‘The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo’: “To All the Ghouls I’ve Loved Before” (running approximately 24 minutes in length) and “Horror-Scope Scoob” (approximately 24 minutes).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the DVD and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this DVD release are the property of their respective owners.

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 Film Rating: 9/10
Disc Rating: 7.5/10

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‘Scooby-Doo! And The Curse Of The 13^th Ghost’ Arrives Home on DVD & Digital February 5, 2019 from Warner Bros. Home Entertainment

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You can purchase your copy of ‘Scooby-Doo And The Curse Of The 13^th Ghost’ by clicking on the Amazon Cart icon immediately below!