No that isn't a bad review, but an early on quote which I found quite amusing. This is another episode which furthers the main story and has another appearance from a familar yet perhaps unwelcome face. All in all it was a decent episode which I very much enjoyed.
Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated (TV Series)
A Haunting in Crystal Cove (2011)
User Reviews
Review this title2 Reviews
Haunted house spook up
TheLittleSongbird11 June 2023
It was great to have an episode that delved more into Fred's personal life and to see Mayor Jones in a bigger role that gave him more depth. 'Scooby Doo: Mystery Incorporated' really impressed me on first watch, as did pretty much all the individual episodes (for me this is one of the few Scooby Doo shows to not have a bad episode, the first for that to be case since the original). Including "A Haunting in Crystal Cove", which on first watch was one of the creepiest episodes.
"A Haunting in Crystal Cove" is a wonderful episode in almost every way. In a season with a high number of great episodes and where even the weaker episodes were still good, it is one of the best, creepiest and most illuminating. It showed great potential from the very start and that potential was consistent all the way through, which was refreshing having seen some episodes for other shows that had a brilliant opening but underwhelmed pretty badly not long after.
To me, "A Haunting in Crystal Cove" is marred only by the identity of the spook being given away too soon and also not being particularly surprising.
Can't fault everything else. It starts off brilliantly, with one of the show's creepiest openings that was pretty nightmarish after my first watch. The main mystery engrosses and isn't too simple or tries to do too much that it becomes muddled. Also have always really liked how much the ongoing Crystal Cove mystery has advanced in storytelling and characterisation, both having come on a long way since the beginning. The music has the right amount of mysterious atmosphere.
Writing has a good balance of funny, mature (Fred's personal life is handled very well and isn't soapy) and thoughtful. The spook is truly frightening with a clever and quite unique character design.
Have no issues with the gang, their interaction (with a real sense of caring for solving the mystery) or the character writing. The voice acting is dead on.
Overall, wonderful. 9/10.
"A Haunting in Crystal Cove" is a wonderful episode in almost every way. In a season with a high number of great episodes and where even the weaker episodes were still good, it is one of the best, creepiest and most illuminating. It showed great potential from the very start and that potential was consistent all the way through, which was refreshing having seen some episodes for other shows that had a brilliant opening but underwhelmed pretty badly not long after.
To me, "A Haunting in Crystal Cove" is marred only by the identity of the spook being given away too soon and also not being particularly surprising.
Can't fault everything else. It starts off brilliantly, with one of the show's creepiest openings that was pretty nightmarish after my first watch. The main mystery engrosses and isn't too simple or tries to do too much that it becomes muddled. Also have always really liked how much the ongoing Crystal Cove mystery has advanced in storytelling and characterisation, both having come on a long way since the beginning. The music has the right amount of mysterious atmosphere.
Writing has a good balance of funny, mature (Fred's personal life is handled very well and isn't soapy) and thoughtful. The spook is truly frightening with a clever and quite unique character design.
Have no issues with the gang, their interaction (with a real sense of caring for solving the mystery) or the character writing. The voice acting is dead on.
Overall, wonderful. 9/10.
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