The New Scooby-Doo Movies (TV Series) The Haunted Showboat (1973) User Reviews

Great crossover

[Milk_Tray_Guy · 8/10 · 2 February 2022]

Hanna-Barbera loved the 'teenage mystery solvers' premise - as shown by the number of times they used it! The Funky Phantom, Speed Buggy, Goober and the Ghost Chasers, Josie and the Pussycats, and the daddy of them all - Scooby-Doo! And crossing those last two over must have felt like the most natural idea in the (cartoon) world. Of course, expectations would be high. Both shows had dedicated fanbases. Thankfully, the result didn't disappoint. The storyline is classic Scooby-Doo; the gang need shelter from a sudden, severe thunder storm - and the only place nearby is a haunted Mississippi riverboat! No sooner are they aboard than they (literally) bump into Josie, the Pussycats, Alan, Alexander, Alexandra, and their cat, Sebastian. Within minutes they've found the boat is troubled by the ghosts of an old captain and an 'Injun', and teamed-up to solve the mystery. I won't go any further and spoil, but this being Scooby-Doo you can pretty much guess how it plays out.

Josie, etc, bring their original voice cast, and they (and of course the Scooby regulars) nail it. Credit to the writers and artists/animators; keeping twelve (including the animals) featured characters fully involved, and onscreen together was no easy task - but they did it fantastically. Velma talking to Melody, Josie talking to Daphne, Fred working with Valerie, this is the stuff fanboy/girl dreams are made of.

There are a few mistakes (lips out of sync with dialogue, characters speaking with other characters voices, slight continuity gaffs), but The New Scooby-Doo Movies always struck me as a show made on the quick anyway, and those kinds of errors certainly weren't limited to this episode. As for the final reveal... I'll leave you to find out for yourself! Thoroughly enjoyable. 8/10.

Amazing one-time crossover between 2 great shows.

[morantjavonte · 9/10 · 31 January 2019]

I've loved Scooby-Doo my entire life and I've always had a love for the Josie and the Pussycats which is one of the most underrated shows I've ever seen. 2 shows with similar plots and characters crossing over is always a fabulous idea.

Going into the episode, I found it very entertaining and fun to watch. The plot is basically simple. Scooby and the Gang investigate a showboat that is believed to be haunted and they encounter Josie and her gang. They decided to team up and of course solve the entire case.

Pretty much everything is good with a few cons. Cons would probably be the bland villains and at times animated errors. One of my complaints was the chemistry could have been developed a little better. But it didn't bother me.

Overall 9/10

Not much of an improvement on "Mystery in Persia"

[TheLittleSongbird · 4/10 · 2 September 2016]

"Mystery in Persia" was a contender for the worst episode of 'The New Scooby Doo Movies', being one of the very few episodes of the show to not feel like Scooby Doo and Jeannie and her friends just didn't gel with the gang.

"The Haunted Showboat" may not be much of an improvement quality-wise, but it is an improvement at all, at least it felt like Scooby Doo. Credit is due here, the music has the usual energy and atmosphere with the theme tune as ever catchy and infectious if not as iconic as the theme tune for 'Scooby Doo Where are You'. The voice acting is very good, Casey Kasem taking top honours, and also enjoyed the chemistry between Shaggy, Scooby and Alexander, which brought some heart and amusing humour (if not quite enough).

However, when it comes to the crossover itself it does feel cluttered and like there were too many characters. Balance between Mystery Inc and Josie and the Pussycats was an issue too, only Shaggy and Scooby shine out of Mystery Inc while Fred, Velma and Daphne are side-lined to near pointlessness, while also having too much focus on Josie and the Pussycats where Alexander is the only halfway memorable one. Captain Scavenger is one of the dullest villains while Injun Joe is not sinister enough. Both characters are crudely and poorly drawn, and the perpetrators' identities are two of the most blatantly obvious (revealed too early as well) and least surprising of the show.

Story plays second fiddle to Josie and the Pussycats' guest appearance, the mystery feeling stretched, padded, pedestrian in pacing and really it is not much of a mystery at all. The writing is the same level of weak of "Mystery in Persia", leaden and cheesy with little of the endearing goofiness that is such a large part of the franchise's charm. The animation is poor here, not quite as bad as "Mystery in Persia" and the Globetrotters episodes, but it is crude and stiff and has choppiness and goofs galore.

Overall, one of the show's weaker episodes. 4/10 Bethany Cox