This episode is an interesting one they actually visit Transylvannia rather than an American Castle built in a gothic style. A classic Scooby Doo spooky name Fortescue haunts the castle as a Vampire, and the gang have a hard time understanding how he keeps escaping his sell, a great story with plenty to like.
5 Reviews
Vampire bats and scaredy cats
TheLittleSongbird13 December 2021
"The Vampire Strikes Back" was one of those "liked it but didn't love it" sort of episodes on first watch. Due to loving the vampire and atmosphere, but being mixed on the story and the animation. Vampires were not uncommon villains in the Scooby Doo franchise, 'The New Scooby Doo Show's' "Vampire Bats and Scaredy Cats" had a very scary villain with a dark motive in one of that show's best episodes and 'The Scooby and Scrappy Doo's' "I Left My Neck in San Francisco" had that show's best villain.
As far as Season 2 goes, "The Vampire Strikes Back' is one of the weaker ones with my initial feelings being pretty much the same now. It was great to see the Hex Girls again (one of the episode's interest points), but they could have been utilised better. It's better than "Large Dragon at Large" and particularly "Homeward Hound", neither of which bad episodes in my view but were also quite mixed in the story. But it's no "Mummy Scares Best" or "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman", the latter of which being one of the most creative of the show.
On the most part, the animation is fine. Especially the colours and backgrounds, the vampire has a cool look too as does the ominous castle setting. The music isn't at odds with the action and has groove and atmosphere, really enjoyed the Hex Girls opening song and wished it wasn't too short. The more action oriented scenes don't come over as over-scored. The chase is good fun and well animated and there are some nice kooky supporting characters, including a Vincent Van Ghoul lookalike and a Peter Lorre-inspired hunchback.
A good deal of the writing works, Shaggy and Scooby are amusing as always and the Fred bat is priceless. The story is involving on the whole and has genuine energy and creepiness, with nothing feeling obvious. The vampire is far from goofy and has menace. Nice to see the Hex Girls again and the opening scene is truly atmosphere filled visually and musically. The voice acting is very good, as to be expected.
Not all the animation works, with some of the character animation and transitions seeming rushed. The humour also doesn't always work, with some of it sounding rather forced. Such as Fred's "tire treads bridge" line, don't like that the episode dumbs down Fred somewhat.
Did occasionally find the story confusing from trying to do a little too much towards the end, as well as being easy to figure out the writers did try to make the fairly predictable ending more complicated than needed. While the Hex Girls are cool, especially in the opening scene, they made a bigger impression in 'Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost' and did feel that they were on the underused side.
Good episode on the whole but not outstanding. 7/10.
As far as Season 2 goes, "The Vampire Strikes Back' is one of the weaker ones with my initial feelings being pretty much the same now. It was great to see the Hex Girls again (one of the episode's interest points), but they could have been utilised better. It's better than "Large Dragon at Large" and particularly "Homeward Hound", neither of which bad episodes in my view but were also quite mixed in the story. But it's no "Mummy Scares Best" or "Simple Plan and the Invisible Madman", the latter of which being one of the most creative of the show.
On the most part, the animation is fine. Especially the colours and backgrounds, the vampire has a cool look too as does the ominous castle setting. The music isn't at odds with the action and has groove and atmosphere, really enjoyed the Hex Girls opening song and wished it wasn't too short. The more action oriented scenes don't come over as over-scored. The chase is good fun and well animated and there are some nice kooky supporting characters, including a Vincent Van Ghoul lookalike and a Peter Lorre-inspired hunchback.
A good deal of the writing works, Shaggy and Scooby are amusing as always and the Fred bat is priceless. The story is involving on the whole and has genuine energy and creepiness, with nothing feeling obvious. The vampire is far from goofy and has menace. Nice to see the Hex Girls again and the opening scene is truly atmosphere filled visually and musically. The voice acting is very good, as to be expected.
Not all the animation works, with some of the character animation and transitions seeming rushed. The humour also doesn't always work, with some of it sounding rather forced. Such as Fred's "tire treads bridge" line, don't like that the episode dumbs down Fred somewhat.
Did occasionally find the story confusing from trying to do a little too much towards the end, as well as being easy to figure out the writers did try to make the fairly predictable ending more complicated than needed. While the Hex Girls are cool, especially in the opening scene, they made a bigger impression in 'Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost' and did feel that they were on the underused side.
Good episode on the whole but not outstanding. 7/10.
Return of Hex Girls Vampire bats and scaredy cats
MarkLynnIreland129418 September 2022
Warning: Spoilers
Another quite a unique episode of Scooby-Doo when the Mystery Gang take a trip to Transylvania in a castle built with a gothic style. Speaking of which, we have the return of the trio of all-female rock group: The Hex Girls - even though much prefer them back in Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost movie. As this time, there's conflict Dusk has with Thorn and Luna.
Yet some classic music movies like the chase scene of Petrified Bride and the Scooby-Doo theme tune at ending.
There's no unmasking the villain in this movie as simply wiping the make-up off the vampire's face. After capturing the bloke, named Steve Fortescue, he gets locked in dungeon only to have another vampire on the loose and consider Steve's got an accomplice.
Some fans, even I realised myself, see the Owen guy is a lookalike to actor Vincent Price or even Vincent Van Ghoul (The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo). There's also the movie cameraman from that dinosaur episode from first series.
Yet some classic music movies like the chase scene of Petrified Bride and the Scooby-Doo theme tune at ending.
There's no unmasking the villain in this movie as simply wiping the make-up off the vampire's face. After capturing the bloke, named Steve Fortescue, he gets locked in dungeon only to have another vampire on the loose and consider Steve's got an accomplice.
Some fans, even I realised myself, see the Owen guy is a lookalike to actor Vincent Price or even Vincent Van Ghoul (The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo). There's also the movie cameraman from that dinosaur episode from first series.
Very clever episode
canrahoooly12 January 2022
Warning: Spoilers
I'll start by stating I give this episode a 10 based on scooby doo. I find number ratings arbitrary so when I give this episode a 10 I'm not saying it's citizen Kane, but rather exactly what you need from a good scooby doo episode. I'm in the middle of watching season two of what's new scooby doo for the first time since I was a child in the late mid to late 2000s. I can definitely say I enjoy the 2nd season more than the first. This is because they mixup the cookie cutter formula of every episode just enough where it feels refreshing, but not too much where it feels foreign. This episode in particular I found myself enjoying for a multitude of reasons. While normally I would be broad in my explanation to hit on many points at once, seeing as this is just a 20 minute single episode, I'll touch on specifics. The first thing I found refreshing was that the writers acknowledge the cookie cutter formula and use that as a source for jokes. Within the first 6 minutes, the gang catches the villain as Fred says he wants to set a trap. Velma questions him in shock and awe saying "you usually always want to split up first," to which Fred responds with "really I never noticed that." On top of this Fred's elaborate, unnecessarily complicated trap actually works for a change. Also instead of having shaggy and scooby as bait, he uses Velma as a replacement. When daphne question this Fred explains "shaggy doesn't have the hips for this one" (she is dressed in a wedding gown to attract the vampire). To make things even more funny, shaggy and scooby end up thinking Fred is turned into a bat, and take the rest of the episode trying to track down a specific bat that they think is "Fred bat." Also because of this side plot shaggy and scooby take a backseat in the episode in favor of daphne and Velma which is extremely refreshing for a change. Overall I would say scooby doo is at its best when it's absurd in a almost dry sense, and this episode hits on that in every level. Like I said in the beginning I'm not giving this a 10 like it's citizen Kane or The Godfather, but in terms of a good scooby doo episode, this is definitely a 10 in my book.
Atypical SD Episode
anishoe19 August 2020
Warning: Spoilers
I really don't remember watching this when I was a kid - and I remember swearing that I had watched every episode! Watched this episode for the first time and maybe there was a reason for it not being on any of the Direct-to-Video DVDs I owned. The story itself is fine - involves a quasi (modo)-Hunchback-esque character and vampires and callbacks to the original 1969 series. What bothered me was the inconsistency of animation-for some reason this episode did not feel like a typical episode animated for Scooby Doo, it felt like an episode edited for another series - the transitions were speedy and the limbs of Velma and Shaggy looked weird at times. Some of the scripting also felt too forced for the characters. As a viewer, I'm not super happy with the episode - however as an artist (not an animation artist), I can understand art direction changes + deadlines. Was a fun episode analysis for me, at least!
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