The Creepy Creature of Vulture's Claw is the first of three segments of Scooby's All-Stars. It was later repackaged as the tenth episode of the third season of The Scooby-Doo Show, and the thirty-fourth episode overall in the series.
Premise[]
While visiting Vulture's Claw Botanical Gardens, owned by one of Velma's friends, Professor Greer, the gang confronts a seven-foot-tall praying mantis that roams the grounds, and is scaring away Professor Greer's associates.
Synopsis[]
Late at night in Vulture's Claw Botanical Gardens, a postman knocks on the door of a mansion, delivering a package for Professor Greer, who does his studies at the garden. All of a sudden, a seven-foot tall praying mantis creature appears and attacks the postman, forcing him to speed off in his truck, terrified.
Meanwhile, the gang is going to visit Professor Greer at the botanical garden. They arrive at the front gate of Vulture's Claw Botanical Gardens, and swerve to avoid hitting the fleeing postman. Concerned by the mailman's hasty departure, the gang investigate. They encounter an intimidating man who accuses the gang of trespassing. After Velma explains that they are visiting as friends of Professor Greer, the man introduces himself as Harry Keeble, the caretaker of the gardens. He warns them to leave, and to take Professor Greer with them, warning them about something big and evil running loose in the gardens, before making a suspicious exit, leaving Velma concerned about the professor's safety.
The gang make their way through the gardens looking for Professor Greer. Scooby and Shaggy wander off and have a run-in with the praying mantis creature. They flee and run into Fred and the girls, and tell them about the mantis. Professor Greer appears and confirms Shaggy and Scooby's sighting, that there is indeed a creature in the garden. Professor Greer takes the gang to his mansion and explains that the mantis creature has scaring everyone else away, and the only one left is Mr. Keeble.
Professor Greer shows them a laboratory he found hidden in his mansion, and also shows them a diary that states the mantis was created when whoever wrote the diary entry made a fatal mistake in an experiment. Velma makes a note that the entry about the mantis is the only entry in the diary. Professor Greer also tells the gang the mantis didn't start showing up until he started working there. Scooby manages to bring a suspicious man out of hiding, who has been eavesdropping. Professor Greer introduces the man as Clive Dickerman, a real estate agent who wants to buy the garden from Professor Greer, and Clive tries to bargain with Greer, but Greer refuses to sell the gardens. Dickerman threatens Greer and makes an ominous exit. Greer tells the gang it would be best if they leave in the morning before anything bad happens to them.
The gang has a meeting and Fred and the girls decide to explore the gardens to investigate. Scooby and Shaggy dislike that idea and decide to go to bed. Shaggy and Scooby then change their mind, realizing they will be all alone in the mansion, and as they are about to leave their room, the mantis appears and chases them. Meanwhile, Velma, Daphne, and Fred have another look at the laboratory and the diary, and find that there is no indication whose diary it is. They find another eavesdropper, and discover Professor Greer's assistant, Eric Arby. He claims that he ran away when that mantis creature appeared, but then came back to help.
Scooby and Shaggy manage to escape the mantis and meet up with the rest of the gang. The mantis makes another entrance, and frightens Eric away. After reuniting, the mantis kidnaps Daphne. Fred, Velma, Scooby and Shaggy wake up Professor Greer and ask for help in finding Daphne. Professor Greer agrees as soon as he changes. Fred, Velma, Scooby and Shaggy run out to the garden when they spot a moving light from the window, only to find it was Clive Dickerman snooping around the garden. Fred and Velma begin to question Dickerman, but he escapes into the garden.
The mantis then appears and chases the four. They manage to lose him, and then they find Daphne in an old cabin. They run into Mr. Keeble again, and he warns the gang once more before leaving. Upon returning to the mansion, the gang find fresh footprints covered in oil inside. Professor Greer appears, and the mantis's silhouette appears outside the window. Professor Greer flees, leaving behind oily footprints, and then Velma figures it out.
Suddenly, the mantis attempts to attack Fred, Daphne and Velma, but Scooby and Shaggy trap the mantis with a chandelier and just before they are about to unmask the praying mantis, Fred thinks it's Harry Keeble but Harry Keeble tells the gang that he isn't the mantis. Daphne thinks that it's Clive Dickerman, but he too tells the gang that he isn't the mantis. Shaggy and Scooby think that it's Eric Arby, but he also tells the gang that he isn't the mantis. Finally, Velma unmasks the mantis to reveal to everyone that it was actually Professor Greer.
Velma explains that the diary in the lab only had one entry, a serious scientist would have kept better records than that. Fred adds that the equipment wasn't even hooked up, meaning the lab was a ruse. The next clue was in the entrance hall. When Professor Greer ran, he left oily footprints behind, proving he had been outside disguised as the mantis. Shaggy's confused, since they saw the mantis outside. Fred tells Shaggy that the mantis they saw outside the window was just a cardboard cut-out controlled by a pulley-system and the growls they heard were just on a tape player. Professor Greer did it because he found oil on the property, and wanted to scare everyone away so he could finalize the deal to buy it. Oil on the land was why Dickerman wanted to buy the garden so badly.
Dickerman tells everyone that he knew that was something fishy going on. Shaggy corrects him saying something buggy. The episode ends with Scooby ponders on the word buggy and laughs because he gets the joke.
Characters[]
Main characters:
Supporting characters:
- Harry Keeble (only appearance)
- Clive Dickerman (only appearance)
- Eric Arby (only appearance)
Villains:
- Mantis (only appearance)(no lines)(Professor Greer's disguise)
- Professor Greer (only appearance)
Other characters:
- Mailman (only appearance)
- Crocodile (only appearance)(no lines)
Locations[]
- Vulture's Claw
- Vulture's Claw Botanical Gardens
- Professor Greer's mansion
Objects[]
- Package
Vehicles[]
- Mail van
- The Mystery Machine
Suspects[]
| Suspect | Motive/reason |
|---|---|
| Harry Keeble | He tried to warn the gang away, saying something big and evil was loose in the garden. |
| Clive Dickerman | He wanted to buy the Vulture's Claw property from Professor Greer, but Greer wouldn't sell. |
| Eric Arby | He was found prowling around in the basement. |
Culprits[]
| Culprit | Motive/reason |
|---|---|
| Professor Greer as the Mantis | To get the property, which had oil. |
Cast[]
| Don Messick | Scooby-Doo |
|---|---|
| Casey Kasem | Shaggy Rogers |
| Frank Welker | Fred Jones
Professor Greer Eric Arby Mailman |
| Heather North | Daphne Blake |
| Pat Stevens | Velma Dinkley |
| Michael Bell | Clive Dickerman
Harry Keeble |
Notes/trivia[]
- This is the first episode to air under the Scooby's All-Stars block. Originally the TV season aired under the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! banner once again, but after nine episodes it was cancelled, and the remaining episodes aired as a lead-in to Scooby's All-Stars. Regardless of this fact, Warner Home Video cut their losses, and released the entire aforementioned TV season in Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Third Season, even though all the episodes have the opening to The Scooby-Doo Show, because that's how they were broadcast when the show went into reruns.
- This is the only episode where Daphne and Velma sit together in the back of the Mystery Machine.
- The purported origin of the Mantis is similar to The Fly (1958), a movie starring Vincent Price.
Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]
- The Mantis' lower body was missing briefly when the mailman saw him.
- When the Mantis was coming into the bedroom, its right elbow was shown to clip through the doorframe.
- There are a lot of times in this episode, where the colors are off color in some way. In many frames of the episode, parts of Scooby's body are off color with the rest (e.g his head being a lighter color than his body). This also happened with Shaggy (his sleeves being darker than his shirt, his arm being a different color from his other arm, etc). Velma's sweater also briefly appears lighter than the rest, and Daphne sometimes has her lips flashing from darker and lighter shades of pink.
Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]
- The explanation as to why Professor Greer was trying to scare everyone away doesn't really make sense as it is implied he already owns Vulture's Claw so the sale had already gone through.
- It's explained by Professor Greer that the deal hadn't been finalized so the property wasn't officially his yet.
- Crocodiles are generally found near bodies of water, not in basements. It's actually an alligator chasing them. Note that it's likely that Vulture's Claw is located in Florida, the only region in the world where both of these reptiles are native.
- Since the Mantis costume was not shown to have stilts, Greer's height must have changed drastically throughout the episode.
- However, it’s obviously because he used stilts off-screen.
- When Shaggy and Scooby are using Plan 46 from Fred's book of traps, he lets go with both hands. Surprisingly, Shaggy is seen sitting in mid-air. This may be an example of cartoon logic.
Home media[]
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Third Season DVD set released by Warner Home Video on April 10, 2007.
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series (limited edition) DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 9, 2010.
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 21, 2011.
- Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!: The Complete Series DVD set released by Warner Home Video on November 13, 2012.
Quotes[]
| Fred: Shag! Scooby! What are you two up to?
Shaggy: I'm up to here, Fred! I've had it with creepy mansions, muddy tunnels, secret passages, crocodiles snapping at my heels, and seven-foot insects scaring me half to death!! In fact, I don't think there's anything left that could scare me right now! Scooby-Doo: Who now? Shaggy: Like, except for that!! |
Footnotes[]
- ↑ a short-lived attempt
External links[]
- TBA
Gallery[]
