THE SCOOBY DOO SHOW - THE CREEPY CREATURE OF VULTURE'S CLAW (1978)

 "THERE'S SOMETHING LOOSE IN THE GARDENS!  SOMETHING BIG . . .SOMETHING EVIL!"  

  OK, so everywhere I look calls this an episode of the third season of SCOOBY-DOO, WHERE ARE YOU?; however, 1978 is MUCH later than the original two seasons (which began in 1969-1970) and the opening of the show has a new theme song and clearly says "THE SCOOBY DOO SHOW". 

But what can ya do?  This is still vintage Scooby from the seventies and that's all I need to know!  Sure, the animation is a major step down from the first two seasons; quicker and cheaper done.  But again -- this is vintage seventies Scooby and I will have nothing said against it!  The gang from Mystery Inc. head out to the peninsula of Vulture's Claw (thus named because it's shaped like a vulture's claw, duh!) to see old Professor Greer; the guy in charge of the Vulture's Claw Botanical Gardens. 

They meet Harry Keeble the caretaker who unexpectedly warns them to leave with that quote up there at the beginning of this post.  Shaggy thinks they should leave too because he's "allergic to big, loose evil things".  And that big, loose evil thing a a man-sized praying mantis monster! 

Professor Greer shows the gang a secret Frankensteinian laboratory he's found inside the big old house which contains lab notes revealing that someone made a "fatal error in an experiment" and turned himself into a giant bug!  The praying mantis monster first appeared right after Professor Greer took over the place and there's a real estate developer named Clive Dickerman who is sneaking around the place and wants Greer to sell so he can level the place and put up a housing development.  Greer also warns the kids to leave in the morning "before anything happens to ya".  Of course, Mystery Inc. explores the castle at night and encounters the praying mantis monster.  And you, of course, know how this is all gonna go.  Because it's another classic episode of a classic show.  And my Halloween month wouldn't be complete without a few of Scooby's adventures.

As mentioned before, the animation is a step down from the original two seasons and is comparable to ALL Saturday morning animation from the mid-to-late seventies.  Not only is it more basic but there is an absolutely incredible amount of specks of grit which apparently got captured in between the animation cells.  But this is what we saw back then and I'm glad they didn't try to remove it or "clean it up".  This is part of the whole experience and would look as bad as that recent blu ray of the 40's Fleischer SUPERMAN cartoons which was ruined by attempts to "clean it up" so that's it's actually unwatchable.  Here we still have what the original seventies Scooby cartoons looked like and that's how I want 'em!