Am a big fan of Scooby Doo and have always liked but not loved 'The New Scooby Doo Mysteries'. Some episodes are better than others, and it is very common for when two episodes are doubled that there is a difference in quality, in some cases a big difference. Neither "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul" or "EIEIO" did anything for me as a child, and both have always been among my least favourites of the show. "The Stoney Glare Stare", "The Bee Team" and "South Pole Vault" also being least favourites.
Neither of them do anything for me too as a young adult either and it is the only single episode coupling for that to be the case. Of the single episodes couplings, "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul"/ "EIEIO" is by far the weakest and one of three double bills where the quality between the two is consistent with each other. "Doom Service"/ "A Code in the Nose" and "Dooby Dooby Doo Ado"/"Showboat Scooby" being the others but in a good way, whereas this coupling is in a bad way. All my other double bill reviews have reviewed each episode with a few paragraphs each and an individual rating, but as both episodes here have pretty much the same strengths and flaws and the same in rating an exception is going to be made.
Redeeming qualities are not very many this time. Both of them have cool settings, television/film studio settings have always worked wonders on Scooby Doo and the farm setting for "EIEIO" was unique as was the scenario (unfortunately the uniqueness was not particularly well executed). The coda in "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul" was quite cute and Scooby's cartoon was intentionally bad yet entertaining.
The regular voice acting is very good in both, Casey Kasem and Don Messick have never been equalled as Shaggy and Scooby and Heather North is my personal favourite Daphne voice actress. The music still fits nicely and fun to listen to, while the intro brings a lot of 80s nostalgia.
Sadly for both episodes, that is pretty much it for the redeeming merits and actually don't know which is the worse one of the two, with the same flaws being executed equally badly. "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul" gets the slight edge when it comes to having the more irritating supporting characters, especially Mr Bananas' assistant. Yet "EIEIO" has a truly bizarre atmosphere that does not fit the show at all and also feels pretty out of place within any of the 80s Scooby Doo incarnations.
Both episodes have mysteries that are wafer thin to the point of near-non existence, and ones that are very predictable ("EIEIO" getting the slight edge here). The humour is neither memorable or funny, the gag with the tears was plain weird for example and even Shaggy and Scooby are blander than usual. The villains are very weak, Monster Mutt is more goofy than scary and the giant mouse is introduced too late and underused (not to mention there is so little that is menacing about it). Both the denouements are blatantly obvious, only the motive in "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul" was a marginal surprise but it felt underdeveloped and out of the blue in how it's introduced. The support voice acting is not good (abrasiveness and talking through the nose-sounding don't sound appealing), Mr Bananas' assistant faring worst and MacDonald being least bad.
Overall, very mediocre at best. 4/10.
Neither of them do anything for me too as a young adult either and it is the only single episode coupling for that to be the case. Of the single episodes couplings, "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul"/ "EIEIO" is by far the weakest and one of three double bills where the quality between the two is consistent with each other. "Doom Service"/ "A Code in the Nose" and "Dooby Dooby Doo Ado"/"Showboat Scooby" being the others but in a good way, whereas this coupling is in a bad way. All my other double bill reviews have reviewed each episode with a few paragraphs each and an individual rating, but as both episodes here have pretty much the same strengths and flaws and the same in rating an exception is going to be made.
Redeeming qualities are not very many this time. Both of them have cool settings, television/film studio settings have always worked wonders on Scooby Doo and the farm setting for "EIEIO" was unique as was the scenario (unfortunately the uniqueness was not particularly well executed). The coda in "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul" was quite cute and Scooby's cartoon was intentionally bad yet entertaining.
The regular voice acting is very good in both, Casey Kasem and Don Messick have never been equalled as Shaggy and Scooby and Heather North is my personal favourite Daphne voice actress. The music still fits nicely and fun to listen to, while the intro brings a lot of 80s nostalgia.
Sadly for both episodes, that is pretty much it for the redeeming merits and actually don't know which is the worse one of the two, with the same flaws being executed equally badly. "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul" gets the slight edge when it comes to having the more irritating supporting characters, especially Mr Bananas' assistant. Yet "EIEIO" has a truly bizarre atmosphere that does not fit the show at all and also feels pretty out of place within any of the 80s Scooby Doo incarnations.
Both episodes have mysteries that are wafer thin to the point of near-non existence, and ones that are very predictable ("EIEIO" getting the slight edge here). The humour is neither memorable or funny, the gag with the tears was plain weird for example and even Shaggy and Scooby are blander than usual. The villains are very weak, Monster Mutt is more goofy than scary and the giant mouse is introduced too late and underused (not to mention there is so little that is menacing about it). Both the denouements are blatantly obvious, only the motive in "A Scary Duel with a Cartoon Ghoul" was a marginal surprise but it felt underdeveloped and out of the blue in how it's introduced. The support voice acting is not good (abrasiveness and talking through the nose-sounding don't sound appealing), Mr Bananas' assistant faring worst and MacDonald being least bad.
Overall, very mediocre at best. 4/10.
