"Coast to Ghost" on first watch was an episode seen later than most of the other episodes of 'The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo'. It did not leave much of an impression on me and was easily forgettable a short while afterwards. Remember on first watch reading the basic plot synopsis, pressing the remote control's info button, on the television guide on screen and finding it a lot more intriguing and a lot more urgent than the actual episode execution itself.
On all re-watches of the whole of 'The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo' (will admit to liking it better than most), my feelings are not much different. It still is one of my least favourite episodes, along with "Reflections in a Ghoulish Eye" and "When You Witch Upon a Star". It is a very uneven episode, albeit with a couple of interest points, with a promising start but peters out too early and suffers further from being forgettable, having the worst villain of the show and having the show's worst individual scene.
There are by all means good things. The animation is nicely drawn, with a nicely varied colour scheme and contrasts and well detailed backgrounds, such as at the beginning. The music has energy and haunting atmosphere, again the opening scene is particularly well scored. The main theme is wonderfully Gothic accompanied by the inventive opening titles sequence. The voice acting is very good, particularly Vincent Price as dignified and authoritative as ever. Hamilton Camp makes a conscientous effort as Rankor and is the only thing about the character that works.
It is very interesting, and that is something picked up upon on later viewings, to see a different side to Bogol and Weerd. It was great to see a cunning and manipulative side where they are more intelligent and deceptively nicer than usual, instead of the bumbling comic relief henchmen they are in their other appearances. The beginning is absolutely great and Vincent's predicament does have some degree of tension. The head of SAPS was spooky.
However, the story feels very thin and over-stretched, with it taking forever-feeling to get anywhere. Also found it unfocused in the second half to the extent that one forgets what the aim of the mission is. The whole Vincent turning slowly to stone dilemma is obvious but what the gang need to reverse what happened to him leaves the head. Some of the comedy is too on the goofy side, of the rest of the episodes only "When You Witch Upon a Star" fared worse in this regard (at least this episode didn't feel out of place within the show tonally). Especially with the cops and the seeing double gag was only mildly amusing the first couple of times.
Ending is very rushed. The biggest disappointment is Rankor, getting my very easy vote as the worst and most forgettable of the show's villains and one of only two ghosts to not feel like one of the chest's demons (the other being Morbidia from "Me and My Shadow Demon"). He showed promise in his first scene, but after that he comes over as very underused, too clueless, the complete opposite of powerful and too much of a secondary villain (with the head of SAPS being the head one). For a villain meant to be powerful and dangerous, his aim of getting into a society is completely irrelevant and makes no sense. Another issue with him is how he is defeated, which is completely lame, insultingly anti-climactic and his final line is facepalm-worthy. It gets my vote as the worst scene of 'The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo', yes even worse than the "Give Em the Old Flim Flam" musical number in "Reflections in a Ghoulish Eye".
Overall, watchable but not very memorable. 5/10.
On all re-watches of the whole of 'The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo' (will admit to liking it better than most), my feelings are not much different. It still is one of my least favourite episodes, along with "Reflections in a Ghoulish Eye" and "When You Witch Upon a Star". It is a very uneven episode, albeit with a couple of interest points, with a promising start but peters out too early and suffers further from being forgettable, having the worst villain of the show and having the show's worst individual scene.
There are by all means good things. The animation is nicely drawn, with a nicely varied colour scheme and contrasts and well detailed backgrounds, such as at the beginning. The music has energy and haunting atmosphere, again the opening scene is particularly well scored. The main theme is wonderfully Gothic accompanied by the inventive opening titles sequence. The voice acting is very good, particularly Vincent Price as dignified and authoritative as ever. Hamilton Camp makes a conscientous effort as Rankor and is the only thing about the character that works.
It is very interesting, and that is something picked up upon on later viewings, to see a different side to Bogol and Weerd. It was great to see a cunning and manipulative side where they are more intelligent and deceptively nicer than usual, instead of the bumbling comic relief henchmen they are in their other appearances. The beginning is absolutely great and Vincent's predicament does have some degree of tension. The head of SAPS was spooky.
However, the story feels very thin and over-stretched, with it taking forever-feeling to get anywhere. Also found it unfocused in the second half to the extent that one forgets what the aim of the mission is. The whole Vincent turning slowly to stone dilemma is obvious but what the gang need to reverse what happened to him leaves the head. Some of the comedy is too on the goofy side, of the rest of the episodes only "When You Witch Upon a Star" fared worse in this regard (at least this episode didn't feel out of place within the show tonally). Especially with the cops and the seeing double gag was only mildly amusing the first couple of times.
Ending is very rushed. The biggest disappointment is Rankor, getting my very easy vote as the worst and most forgettable of the show's villains and one of only two ghosts to not feel like one of the chest's demons (the other being Morbidia from "Me and My Shadow Demon"). He showed promise in his first scene, but after that he comes over as very underused, too clueless, the complete opposite of powerful and too much of a secondary villain (with the head of SAPS being the head one). For a villain meant to be powerful and dangerous, his aim of getting into a society is completely irrelevant and makes no sense. Another issue with him is how he is defeated, which is completely lame, insultingly anti-climactic and his final line is facepalm-worthy. It gets my vote as the worst scene of 'The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo', yes even worse than the "Give Em the Old Flim Flam" musical number in "Reflections in a Ghoulish Eye".
Overall, watchable but not very memorable. 5/10.
