The Funky Phantom

Hanna-Barbara decided to try to ply their own Scooby Doo waters yet again with this teen-aged cast mystery romp. You don't actually get to see the story of how they met "the Phantom" as an episode, only as the intro sequence to each cartoon.

The Phantom is voiced by Daws Butler, who, if you watched early 60s cartoon shows, you'll immediately recognize as the voice of Snagglepuss ... among many others, such as BooBoo the bear.

Kristina Holland, voicing the pretty blond April, is one of the few voice actors in cartoons who also had a decently active on-screen career, appearing as a guest star on many popular TV series.

Mike Road, the voice of Race Bannon on Johnny Quest, voiced some weekly bad guys, and Mickey Dolense of The Monkees even got in on the act.

Now, I'm one who tired of Scooby Doo after just a couple of years, so this show, a pale reflection of Scooby Doo, doesn't do much for me. But I do like a good ghost story. You'll find that "Mudsy" reminds you of The Canterville Ghost ... he's even drawn like Charles Laughton in the 1944 version, which is my favorite treatment of that story.

The short-lived animated series "The Funky Phantom" was another example of Hanna-Barbera trying to cash in on the astounding success of "Scooby Doo,Where Are You?",and not to mention a slew of rip-off copycats that were using the same exact formula that ran throughout the entire decade of the 1970's. But this one followed the exact Scooby formula,but with an unusual twist: A trio of teenagers who solve mysteries and clues with the help of a friendly ghostlike character(voiced by Daws Butler)who acts as their companion as they go from one town to another to basically solve crimes,deal with the supernatural, and fight off evildoers as they unravel the clues and bring in the usual villains.

How did they meet this ghost? A trio of teenagers,April(Tina Holland),Skip(Mickey Dolenz of "The Monkees" fame),and Augie(Tommy Cook)take refuge from a storm one night to reset the clock to the proper time of midnight. This released the still-nervous ghost of Jonathan Muddlemore known as "Muggsey",who would join the teens in their Looney Duney buggy. Muddlemore was a cowardly New Englander hiding from the British in 1776 in his mansion's grandfather clock found the spirit of himself and his cat Boo freed almost 200 years later,thanks to an accident.

Some major difficulties were caused by Muggsey and Boo,who typically became invisible whenever any sort of fear struck them. And who reappear whenever the kids got themselves in trouble with some diabolical villain or help them to escape from certain harm. The teens had their own pet to help out with the mysteries,their bulldog named Elmo. This was a copy of the Scooby Doo formula. Hanna-Barbera stockplayer Daws Butler reprises his Snagglepuss character for this short-lived series and it shows in some of the episodes. The series premiered as part of ABC's Sunshine Saturday Morning schedule from September 11, 1971 until September 1, 1973. Produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions. Out of the 17 episodes that were produced,the original episodes ran on ABC from September 11,1971 until September 2, 1972. Its second season consisted of repeated episodes that ran from September 9, 1972 until September 1, 1973. In 1980,the gang returned to Saturday Mornings as part of NBC's The Godzilla Super Power Show" in repeated episodes.

I caught this on the Saturday morning "Boomerang" show and it stirred a memory of having watched it on Saturday mornings long ago in the 70's. The bizarre thing about this (which didn't really click for me as a kid) is it's almost a carbon copy of Scooby Doo...teenage sleuths, goofy sidekicks (the phantom/his cat)...even the same music! Even more amazing is a Shaggy-like character complete with goatee! I really don't know what Hanna Barbera was thinking here....guess they were trying to capitalize on the success of Scooby...but it's nowhere near as endearing. The man who does the voice of the Phantom is, I believe the same who does Babu, Jabberjaw, ad infinitum...which really adds negative points in my book. Watch it for a slice of Hanna Barbera's "other" toons...

Funky Phantom is a re-invention of the Scooby Doo formula of kids going around solving mysteries, as is so often with so many other Hanna Barbera offerings that pervaded the 1970s.

I don't want to make this another cruel review of Hollywood animation post 1940s, but I need to get the bad out of the way. Funky Phantom used recycled voice talent with little variance on the characters they were voicing. Couple that with a cheaper animation approach, look and feel, and you get a series of cartoons that aren't worth a whole lot.

If you were a kid who came home after school in the 70s and 80s, or even the 60s, and you saw Warner Brothers or MGM classics from the 30s, 40s and even 1950s, then you noticed a difference in quality between the guys who were offering Bugs and Daffy as well as Tom and Jerry, and the guys who were offering Scooby Doo, the Chang Clan, Funky Phantom, Wakcy Racers, Stop the Pigeon, Huckleberry Finn, Yogi Bear, and just a whole host of animated offerings that had a cheap look and recycled feel that, and I can only speak for myself, had me turning the channel.

Funky Phantom comes from that post corporate industrial period when the Hollywood social psychologists felt they had to create something for the kids that was beyond the slapstick antics of classic studio animation. Funky Phantom was part of an effort to get kids to stop and think about their fears or people presenting fears. Scooby Doo did this, even the Flintstones or the Groovy Goolies, and in particular the "Super Friends" (Justice League of America) all did this by trying to offer something that had stories that tried to be more sophisticated, but, again I can only speak for myself, came across as cheap and ham-fisted.

Reason; Japan was already offering more sophisticated action mystery animation for children that didn't rely on condescending tropes of including cute side kicks (Scrappy Doo for Scooby Doo) or kid audience avatars like The Wonder Twins for the Justice League or their substitutes Wendy, Marvin and Wonder Dog. Japanese animation had full fledged violence with bloodshed realizing that children knew how to accept violence without becoming programmed by it, and to this end also realized that it was important to put the violence in its proper context so that good young healthy minds could make their own decisions about it based on their parents' values of how to judge said actions.

Funky Phantom attacked American children with the usual cheap animation techniques that didn't have an ounce of artistry in Japanese offerings, and certainly were not as smooth as Disney or classic pre 1960s animation.

Funky Phantom, like all of the other Hanna Barbera offerings, takes all of the aforementioned elements and gave American children a repackaging of what was essentially the same theme of trying to teach children to be critical of the world about them.

In my opinion not only did it not succeed in this, but the cheap presentation of 1970s animation really had a lot of kids turning the channel. Just look at the number of reviews on Amazon between the DVDs of classic animation and the Hanna Barbera shows in the 1970s. I remember talking with kids my age about which cartoons were good and which were bad. We all agreed that classic cartoons from MGM and WB simply outclassed anything Hanna Barbera could throw at us.

Funky Phantom, with a perpetual re-use of voice talent (Dan Butler re-using the same character for the phantom that he did for Snaglepuss) re-use of the same set of sound-effects from the same sound studio in Burbank, and using the same formula of young kids solving mysteries and taking on crimes, couldn't be a bigger flop in terms of social objectives.

The proof is in the pudding; the UFO, ESP and astrology social phenomenons hit an all time high in the 70s and 80s. Religion fundamentalism continued to be on the upswing in the bible belt and beyond. And mysticism of all forms, and just a fascination with the supernatural, continued to grow among the same audience that watched Hanna Barbera's offerings.

Funky Phantom was poorly animated. Had a laugh track because it wasn't funny. Relied on cute characters to try and rope in boys and girls. And didn't even look good nor was it well animated. That's on top of all the social psychology injected into it and its cousin shows made by the same animation studio.

And that's pretty much what I think of Funky Phantom and all of Hanna Barbera's offerings from the late 60s up through the 80s.

Not a memorable show other than the fact that it was produced. If you need a nostalgia blast, well, there are better shows out there. Funky Phantom is another product of the cultural depression that was the 1970s in the United States of America. Thank goodness that era is over with.

Teenagers Skip Gilroy, April Stewart and Augie Anderson ride their dune buggy Looney Duney with their dog Elmo. They find ghosts from 1776 in a clock at a spooky house. It's scared patriot Jonathan Wellington "Mudsy" Muddlemore and his cat Boo. They go off to fight for justice and unmasking mysteries.

It's a Bizarro Scooby Doo from Hanna-Barbera. With Scooby Doo's success, it's not surprising that they would try to create another one. I do remember watching the reruns way back when although all I truly remember are the ghosts and their disappearing sounds. It is paradoxical that the premise is supernatural but like the Scooby gang, the kids usually uncover hoaxes that are revealed to be non-supernatural. The characters are less appealing. Quite frankly, April looks alien with her giant almond eyes and no nose. It's all slightly off and way too similar. It lasted 17 episodes with some minor revivals in other media. It's a footnote in the story of Hanna-Barbera.