A Review of The Funky Phantom's Person-in-a-Mask Episodes

After writing up the post on The Flintstones recently, I was inspired by a conversation in the comment thread of that post to also revisit another classic "spooky" Hanna-Barbera show. The Funky Phantom is a very interesting little show that was sort of all over the place formula-wise. Many of the Scooby clones like Speed Buggy and Jabberjaw featured the protagonists fighting criminals not in costume. The Funky Phantom sometimes has the main characters, Skip, Augie, April, Mudsy, Boo and Elmo chase after people in ghost costumes, but there's also a healthy mix of episodes where they only chase criminals not in costume. There's also a few episodes that are kind of in-between, where they chase B-List villains. Some of the villains are quite amusing, such as Chickenman and Houndman, both of which are quite literally just guys in chicken or dog costumes. The Houndman is particularly funny to me, because for some reason he communicates with the mannerisms of a dog, such as howling, woofing and saying things like "that is grrr-eat!" lol. Here are pictures of both of them, for your reference and/or amusement.

There are nine episodes where The Funky Phantom Crew solves mysteries with people in ghost costumes, and I thought it might be fun to rank and review these episodes. I won't be including any of the episodes that featured criminals or other villains in these rankings. All of them would rank below these episodes if they were included, as I feel these are the absolute best of the bunch.

9. The Forest's Prime Evil
These episodes greatly vary in quality, and while there is quite a bit to like about this episode, I would say it's the weakest of the bunch. The episode has The Funky Phantom Gang camping in the woods, but they run into Bigfoot. The group quickly realizes that Bigfoot is actually a criminal in a costume, running an illegal scheme with his partner in a logging mill. I like Bigfoot's design quite a bit here, and I think the atmosphere is quite strong. There's a scene towards the beginning of the episode that has Bigfoot watching the gang from the midst, which starts the episode off really strong. However, I can't help but feel the episode would have been stronger if Bigfoot wasn't revealed to be fake so early on in the episode. I felt it caused the atmosphere to dwindle a bit to have the mystery revealed so soon, and didn't really allow any time for the audience to figure it out. I did think it was a cool touch that the real Bigfoot shows up at the end, although oddly, he runs off when the police show up. The takeaway here is clearly that Bigfoot has a messy past with the law lol.

8. Haunt in Inn
This episode features the group staying in a small inn after the hotel they'd planned on staying in was full. Upon arriving, they discover that the inn is haunted by a ghost. Like "The Forest's Prime Evil," the first half of the episode starts off super strong. The frame shakes a bit to create a distortion effect when the ghost appears, which gives it a very surreal, nightmarish affect. However, the atmosphere quickly dwindles in the second half of the episode, and the rest of the episode takes place during the day on a beach. The spooky feeling of the episode disappears, as does the ghost's distortion effect, and the ghost just looks like a guy wearing a bedsheet over his head. I would rank this one just a hair above "The Forest's Prime Evil," because I felt the atmosphere at the beginning was stronger, but it had a similar problem of the second half of the episode being a steep dropoff in quality compared to the first half. At the end of the episode, the inn's owner realizes it was profitable to have her inn haunted, so she hires Mudsy to haunt the inn for her on the weekends. There's an amusing scene to end the episode, where an old woman stays in the inn. Mudsy jumps out of the closet to scare the old woman, who has no visible reaction at all and just says "oh, isn't it exciting? It's a haunted closet!" I admire how simple that old woman is, just being mildly curious about the ghost rather than terrified as one would expect lol.

7. We Saw a Sea Serpent
This episode reminds me quite a bit of "The Loch Ness Mess," even though it's not nearly as good of quality. The episode has a very similar premise - the gang rents boats out on Black Lake, and runs into a huge sea serpent. There is also a mansion on Black Lake, which is haunted by a living gargoyle. The episode does feel a tad chaotic in places and not necessarily as well organized as it could be, but the strongest aspect of this episode is the atmosphere. Even though the gargoyle doesn't show up until near the end, and we don't see the sea serpent that much, the setting feels very dark and brooding. There is something about it that feels quite unsettling, which really strengthens the episode. I like the sea serpent from "The Loch Ness Mess" much better, although this sea serpent is pretty decent. I also really like the gargoyle's design. Oddly, he makes the same sound effect as the sea serpent, but it didn't particularly bother me. Although this episode could have been organized a bit better so that the gargoyle didn't feel like an afterthought at the end, the atmosphere of the episode makes it memorable to me.

6. Spirit Spooked
This episode features the group entering in a race in Mexico, but they are stopped along the way at a pyramid by the Ghost of Montezuma. I thought the ghost had a great design here, and I also really liked the setting of the pyramid. The setting switching between the gang racing and the pyramid felt really flawless, despite that the settings have two very different vibes. This was a strong Funky Phantom episode and I don't have really anything I'd change about this one, this was solid.

5. The Headless Horseman
This top 5 is really strong! "The Headless Horseman" is a parody of the classic Halloween tale, and I think it does nearly as good of job as "The Headless Horseman of Halloween" did in The Scooby-Doo Show. The group runs into the great-great-great grandson of Ichabod Crane, who says he's being chased by the Headless Horseman. He is wanting to protect his love interest, Lori, from The Headless Horseman, as well as Richard Travers, who wants to make Lori his girlfriend. I didn't really love Lori as a character here, I feel they made her a bit overly vein (she at one point says that the boys only stay in Sleepy Hollow because she's there in a very haughty way, which I didn't love, but it didn't bother me significantly either). I really liked the design of the Headless Horseman here. There's a scene in particular I loved, where the Headless Horseman is trying to reach out of the wall to capture the group. I felt that scene was really creepy and very well-done. I thought this was overall an excellent modern adaption of the classic Legend of Sleepy Hollow story.

4. Mudsy and Muddlemore Manor
I really debated whether to put this one third or fourth, as this one and the next one are really close in quality. The episode features Mudsy returning to his old home when he was alive, Muddlemore Manor. However, the mayor (whose ancestors had a feud with the Muddlemores) wants to tear the house down, and the gang has to try to fight City Hall. Meanwhile, a creepy ghost named the Spirit of '76 is punching holes in the wall to look for a fabled treasure in Muddlemore Manor. Much of the episode is focused on the group trying to stop the mayor, so the ghost is kind of an afterthought that only appears a couple times. Despite this, I have a huge soft spot for this episode and remember it being one of my favorites from childhood. Mudsy returning to his old home gave this episode a very warm feeling, and it's really sweet to see flashbacks of Mudsy's old memories. At the same time, the atmosphere is slightly unsettling, because of the ghost and the fact that Mudsy is worried about losing his childhood home. Even though the episode is a hodgepodge of multiple things plot-wise, I feel like the plot as a whole works really well for what it is, and I still have a lot of nostalgia towards this episode. Also, as an aside, I learned recently that apparently there was an encoding error with this episode on the complete series DVD set. The outro of the episode begins as normal, but suddenly, the audio for the outro begins playing 5 seconds out of sync, on top of the normal audio. I had always thought it was just a manufacturing error with my disc specifically, but apparently, the mistake occurred on all the DVD sets that were produced.

3. Ghost Grabbers
Although this episode reveals who the culprit is right away, I feel like this is an example of how to do it well. The episode centers around Mudsy telling a story of why he hid in the old clock that the group found him inside, revealing that he was hiding from Redcoats who were burying their treasure. Mudsy and the group decide to stay in a hotel and look for the 200-year-old treasure that the Redcoats buried. One of the hotel clerks overhears their plan, and wants to nab the treasure with a criminal named Slippery Stark. The crooks dress up as ghosts of Redcoats and use a device to force Mudsy to tell them where the treasure is located. 

Even though the audience knows they're not real ghosts from the beginning, it was a really clever idea of the criminals to dress up as Mudsy's worst fear to trick him into revealing the treasure location. I feel the ghost's designs were really good and both criminals were very convincing in the costumes. Although I would say I am more nostalgic about "Mudsy and Muddlemore Manor," this is a slightly better perspective from a writing standpoint.

2. I'll Haunt You Later
It was super tough to pick the #1 option, but ultimately, I think I like the last remaining episode just a tad better than this one. This episode has the gang finding an old abandoned truck laying in the swamp, and they go searching in a nearby castle for the driver. They quickly discover the Ghost of Jean Lafitte, a French pirate, who chases them around the castle. The ghost's design is super creepy here and arguably the best villain design of the series. The spooky atmosphere of the castle is also amazing, and is definitely a step up compared to some of the other episodes here. I would argue this feels as much of a classic as some of the 1960s/1970s era Scooby-Doo content.

1. Heir Scare
We have arrived at my favorite episode of The Funky Phantom. The group's car, The Looney Duney, gets stuck in the bog, prompting the group to go inside an old mansion where the reading of a will is happening. The kids quickly discover that a marsh monster is haunting the mansion and threatening one of the heirs. Both this episode and the last one have a dark and creepy atmosphere established, but I feel this one's atmosphere is slightly darker and creepier. The Marsh Monster is a very strong villain, but ultimately the atmosphere is what pushed this one to #1. I consider this episode a classic and would highly recommend checking this one out if you ever have a chance.

I really enjoyed writing up these reviews and revisiting these episodes for the Halloween season! It had been a while since I've seen them, but it was very nostalgic to check these out again. I would recommend all of these episodes to any fan of Scooby, especially the top 6. I hope you enjoyed reading these reviews!