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For the unrelated Charlton Comics story, see Hassle in the Castle (Charlton Comics).
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Hassle in the Castle is the third episode aired, and the second produced, of the first season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!

Premise[]

After getting lost in the fog, the gang arrive on Haunted Isle, where they meet an unearthly ghost haunting an old, abandoned castle.

Synopsis[]

While the Mystery Inc. gang are boating, the weather turns a little bit gloomy and they accidentally run ashore on Haunted Isle. The Island is the location of Vasquez Castle (named after an evil pirate named Vazquez who sailed the seven seas in the year 1612.) which has been abandoned for many years. The gang wander the beach until Scooby Doo finds an old map that has a message trying to scare the gang away. Undaunted, they continue to the castle and search for clues.

Once they're inside the castle, Daphne and Velma start a discussion about a book that Velma read about trap doors once. But Daphne denies the thought, and in turn, she falls through a trap door in the floor leading her to be separated from the gang. Then the gang starts searching for Daphne, soon Daphne lands in a separate room and swiftly dodges the ghost's grasp and heads off to find the rest of the gang.

Shaggy and Scooby Doo continue to search for Daphne with Velma and Fred, and then come across a talking skull which tells them where they need to go. They become so terrified that they run into a different room, and then Shaggy states that he wished he had a ham sandwich to calm himself down. Suddenly, a ham sandwich appears and Shaggy's convinced that it's his imagination. He hopes his imagination will cut his sandwich in half, which happens after an ax falls on the table. Shaggy, once again, becomes terrified, so he and Scooby leave the room, but he comes back quickly for the sandwich.

They continue to run until Daphne hits Shaggy on the head, thinking someone else was coming. Velma, Fred and Scooby finally find Shaggy and Daphne, and the gang sees the Phantom for the first time. The ghost gives another warning, trying to scare them away. Then the gang chase the Phantom and try to tackle him, but they fail and, to their horror, they see the Phantom walk through a solid wall! They're all convinced the Phantom is real, and the place is truly haunted. However, they are unable to leave since they're marooned. Daphne finds the gang's first clue, which is an old key with an inscription saying "second passage of The Old Bell". They realize that the inscription is asking them to look in a book, and they go to the library.

The gang finds the second passage of The Old Bell, and discover that the word "catacombs" is underlined. Then they head to the basement, and use the key from the chest to unlock the door to the catacombs. Scooby is sent to survey the room before the rest of the gang enters. He discovers everything is okay, and the gang enters to find tons of clues. The gang finds: a saw-him-in-two box; disappearing cabinets; levitation tables; and other items commonly used in magic acts. The gang encounter the Phantom once more, and are chased around the castle.

The gang starts preparing their next trap. The items they use are: a suit of armor, a crossbow, a cannonball and an old spring. Scooby is the bait, costumed in a beige coat, a moustache and a black hat. The phantom is lured into the trap, and Scooby accidentally gets caught in it too. Scooby captures the ghost by falling on top of him.

The gang unmasks the ghost, and discover the culprit is ex-magician: Bluestone the Great. He came to Haunted Isle to find the hidden fabled Vasquez treasure. He used all his magic tricks to scare anyone away while he was searching for the treasure. The gang discovered that Bluestone floated using wires, but they still don't know how he was able to walk through walls. Bluestone says that's one of his best acts. The police allow Bluestone the chance to perform his walking through walls trick, which he performed using a projector and trick mirrors.

Scooby searches for the hidden treasure and instead finds a gopher!

Characters[]

Main characters:

Supporting characters:

  • None

Villains:

Other characters:

Locations[]

Objects[]

Vehicles[]

Suspects[]

  • None

Culprits[]

Culprit Motive/reason
Bluestone the Great as the Phantom He wanted to steal Vasquez's treasure.

Cast[]

Don Messick Scooby-Doo
Phantom
Bluestone the Great
Police officer
Casey Kasem Shaggy Rogers
Frank Welker Fred Jones
Stefanianna Christopherson Daphne Blake
Nicole Jaffe Velma Dinkley

Full credits[]

The following credits are how they are seen on-screen (or as close as possible).

Production[]

Although this episode was the third to air, it was the second produced.[1] Almost every time Warner Home Video releases the series in order from the first episode, they always put A Clue for Scooby Doo and Hassle in the Castle in production order instead of air date order. Of course, nothing is lost because there's no continuity between episodes, but it might be a problem for those that use the play all feature since it will show those episodes in the opposite order.

Notes/Trivia[]

  1. The Phantom's arm trying to grab at Daphne just as she walks away, following her intuition after getting lost down a trap floor, only with a different background and The Phantom's arm is less transparent.
  2. The skull talking (indicated by its glowing eye sockets), albeit with an extreme, zooming close-up.
  3. The scene where the Ghost says to the gang they will pay for not leaving. The background however is not within the castle, but is set in front of the cemetery from What the Hex Going On?, Shaggy also has head movement.
  4. Shaggy's terrified face when he hears the phantom laughing, only it is set on a plain black background.
  5. Velma's close-up when she sees the Ghost, with a zoom-in and set in front of the Kingston Mansion.
  6. Scooby gulping seeing Shaggy apparently get cut in half only it is set on a plain black background.
  7. The gang's shadows passing by. The background, however, takes place in a hallway with the sliding bookshelf in the Kingston Mansion, instead of a hall of the Vasquez Castle.
  • This is the first episode of the series where the gang do not meet any suspects. In fact, aside from Scooby and his friends, the only other characters are the Phantom/Bluestone and the police officer.
  • This is the first episode not to have the Mystery Machine.
  • This episode contains the first trap of the series.
  • The debut of Scooby-Dooby doors in the series.
  • The Phantom is just referred to as "Ghost" in his model sheet.[2]
  • Bluestone the Great is simply referred to as "Magician" on his model sheet.[3]
  • This is the first episode to use a skull prop to scare intruders away and then imply that it could be real.
  • Shaggy's sandwich, the Super Shaggy Sandwich, has a similarly sounding successor called the Shaggy Super Sandwich in A Night of Fright is No Delight.
  • It may be a coincidence that the armour in Fred's trap resembles the Black Knight from the first episode.
  • The police officer was reused as a coast guard officer in Go Away Ghost Ship, and then another one in the The Scooby-Doo Show episode, Scooby-Doo, Where's the Crew?
  • This episode was one of four Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episodes, (the other three being A Clue for Scooby Doo, Jeepers, It's the Creeper, and The Backstage Rage), that were selected for the 1998 VHS Scooby-Doo's Greatest Mysteries by being voted "Most Popular" by the fans.
  • In the Supernatural episode Regarding Dean, Sam Winchester puts on this episode to distract his memory-less brother Dean while he attempts to figure out the mystery of what happened to Dean's memory.
  • In the Young Sheldon episode A Dog, A Squirrel, and a Fish Named Fish, Sheldon watches this episode as a way to curb his phobia over dogs.
  • The This Is Life With Lisa Ling episode "Furry Nation" shows a brief clip from the episode (specifically Scooby in his "human" getup taunting the Phantom) during the introduction, as Lisa explains how cartoons starring anthropomorphic animals bring happiness to children.
  • During Velma's scientific explanation of fog, she calls it "nubilation".
  • The opening scene of Act 3, in which Fred uses the door to open the basement, followed by a scene of the catacombs, and some of Scooby's fake wounded routine, were removed from the Turner print of the episode that has aired on Cartoon Network and Boomerang.

Miscellaneous[]

Cultural references[]

  • After Shaggy politely thanks the skull for telling him where the gang went the skull replies, "S'awright", the trademark reply Señor Wences's Pedro (the head in a box) does. Hanna-Barbera previously used this joke during the end credits of The Quick Draw McGraw Show.
  • Fred tries to talk Scooby into being Laddie, and then John Wayne in order to catch the phantom.
  • Rin Din Din is a reference to Rin Tin Tin, a famous movie star dog in the early 20th Century.

Adaptations[]

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

  • While Fred is shown holding the boat steering wheel, the wheel hasn't been drawn into his left hand, only his fingers are holding on, and his right hand is just next to it.
  • In the first close-up of the gang on the boat, Velma's skirt loses its pleats the entire time. At the same time, Scooby's spots on his back are missing, even when the camera switches to another close-up showing just him and Velma.
  • When Freddy takes the map, he's looking at the back until Scooby's close-up, when the map is suddenly turned correctly.
  • Shortly after losing Velma and Fred, Shaggy is seen briefly whistling together with Scooby, before telling him to stop as it makes him nervous. Maybe Shaggy wanted to whistle and Scooby was whistling over him.
  • While Shaggy's on the floor after having a blow to the head from the vase, Scooby's sclerae are brown.
  • The rims on Daphne's cuffs are whitish on close-up of her holding the key.
  • The page they're on says "2", despite the fact that they're halfway through the book.
  • When Fred says, "This is the place!", Daphne's pantyhose are missing.
  • When the gang finds the door that fits the key, the room looks different in two different shots. The first shot could be their perspective before seeing the magic props.
  • When Shaggy says, "Groovy," his eyes disappear.
  • "Into the closet," says Fred, but the closet resembles the same room.
  • The falling anvil produces white "force lines" common to cartoons to denote moving objects. Only, these lines remain in the shot.
  • Bluestone wears gloves throughout the episode, except when Scooby falls on him.
  • Bluestone's costume has a separate mask at episode's end, although it doesn't look that way at any other time.
  • Half of the time, the scenes are in the castle corridors or the room with the props, but it’s easy to get the locations mixed up.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]

  • It's not explicitly stated, but the Phantom would most likely be based on Vasquez.
  • None of the contents Shaggy mentions his Super Shaggy Sandwich having is seen on-screen.
  • Shaggy politely thanks the skull for saying "that away," although, without a hand to point with or eye movement, there is no actual indication. The skull may have been pointing toward a non-visible doorway in front.
  • The Vasquez Treasure, which would be the focus of the episode, is never revealed to have actaully existed or was just a legend.
  • Shaggy and Scooby must've felt brave for a moment if they were actually trying to run after the Phantom, instead of running the other way.
  • The key they find is novelty size.
  • In trying to give a hint in the clue, the key probably meant to find a passage in the second page of the book. Either that or there was bad communication between the writers and animators.
  • Freddy asks what happened to Daphne although he can clearly see the trapdoor closing.
  • It really should be called a "saw-her-in-two" box as it's usually the magician's "lovely assistant" that is the volunteer. It might be a coincidence that Shaggy just happens to be the victim.
  • There would be no possible way Bluestone could make a dummy head or feet of Shaggy to be used in time (or even if he needed to use one). Does he have dummy heads of the others?
  • At the time of this episode Rin Tin Tin's name was not trademarked (it wasn't until 1993) so it could've been used instead of "Rin Din Din".
  • Bluestone claims that he used wires to levitate. If that was true, who was working the wires?
  • How did the suit of armor in the trap grab Scoob by the collar?
  • According to the solution to the mystery, all the flying objects are moved by wires. When Freddy and Daphne unroll the magic carpet, why don't they notice the wires?

In other languages[]

Language Name Meaning
French Le Château du pirate or Pagaille au château The Pirate's Castle, The Castle of the pirate or Chaos in the castle
Greek Το Σοτιχειωμένο Νησί
Το Μαγεμένο Κάστρο
The Haunted Island
The Enchanted Castle
Hungarian A Vaskéz-vár varázslója The wizard of the Vasquez Castle
Italian L'isola è stregata The island is haunted
Polish Spotkanie w zamku An encounter in the castle
Portuguese (Brazilian) De Sururu no Castelo Sneaking into the Castel
Latin America Spanish El Fantasma del Castillo The Castle's Ghost

Home media[]

Quotes[]

Daphne: You sure picked a spooky day to go boating, Freddy.
Fred: Well it didn't start out that way. What could've happened?
Velma: It's very simple. When the barometric pressure dropped, and the warm offshore air came in contact with an inland cold front, we ran into some unnavigable nucleation.
Fred: You're right, Velma. Whatever you said.
Velma: I said, we're lost in the fog.
Shaggy: (sticks his head out from the bottom) You buzzed?


(the gang's boat crashes into some rocks surrounding the surface of Haunted Isle during a dense fog)
Daphne: Now what happened?
Fred: Looks like we've run aground.
Shaggy: Yeah, but, like, where?
Velma: Well, if I'm not mistaken, it looks like we're stuck on Haunted Isle.
Shaggy: (sarcastically) I'm sorry I asked.


Shaggy: I'm so scared I wish I had a ham sandwich to calm my nerves. (a ham sandwich floats down out of nowhere)


Shaggy: Like, he went through the wall -- nonstop!
Velma: There's a very logical explanation for all this.
Shaggy: Quick, tell me.
Velma: The place is haunted.
Shaggy: (sarcastically) Thanks a lot.


Fred: But how did you walk right through a solid wall?
Bluestone: Ah, one of my best tricks. Let me give one last performance. (to Fred) Hold this rope. It was merely an illusion made with trick mirrors and a special projector. I could cast my image anywhere I wanted and by stepping away from the mirror, it appeared I could walk through walls.
Velma: I must admit Mr. Bluestone, you're a great magician but a bad phantom.

References[]

External links[]


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A Clue for Scooby Doo Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Season 1
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