Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? Episode 5: Decoy for a Dognapper

Scooby goes undercover as a prize-winning great dane to sniff out a local dognapper.

Episode Summary

The episode begins with Scooby strolling through the neighborhood, when he witnesses a poodle getting kidnapped. He runs all the way to the beach to find Fred, Daphne, and the rest of the gang, who are having a party…all by themselves because no one else is there.

Scooby turns on the radio and listens to a news broadcast – there’s a local dognapper out and about, kidnapping prize-winning dogs. “Wow, like, a canine crime wave,” says Shaggy.

Kidnapped Dogs

Buck Masters, the owner of the first stolen dog, is offering a $500 reward for anyone who can find the missing dogs. The gang meets with him and learns that a prize-winning great dane may be the kidnapper’s next target.

Scooby disguises himself as this great dane to act as a decoy, and sure enough, he gets kidnapped. Shaggy chases after the kidnapper’s van but gets thwarted by the ghostly image of a Native American on horseback.

In a mountain hideout, we’re introduced to the kidnapper (an individual dressed as a witch doctor) and his accomplice (some guy), who brings in Scooby. The witch doctor quickly realizes that Scooby isn’t the great dane he ordered, and has him put in a box on a handcar and rolled down the mountain. Tracking equipment in Scooby’s collar alerts Daphne and the others to his position, and they promptly rescue him.

The Witch Doctor’s Hideout

With Scooby safe and sound, the gang explores the witch doctor’s hideout. Scooby and Shaggy immediately raid the kitchen and stumble on the stolen dogs. The dogs are freed and proceed to chase the witch doctor up a wooden support beam, where Scooby unmasks him – it’s Buck Masters! He wanted his dog to win an upcoming dog show, so he kidnapped the competition to ensure his dog would win by default (he would “unkidnap” his dog at the last minute).

Oh, and remember that Native American apparition Shaggy ran into? It was simply a projection (a projector in the back of Buck’s truck). The episode quickly ends after we learn this fact.

Thoughts

This episode started off fairly promising, with the non-supernatural mystery of the kidnapped dogs. Would you believe I would have been okay with this if that’s all we got? Then, halfway through the episode, we get the “ghost” and the witch doctor – who, by the way, is very uninspired in appearance and action.

Having Native American-themed antagonists this episode was an odd choice and definitely had nothing to do with dognapping. Worse is that the depictions of the Native American apparition and the witch doctor are outdated stereotypes and came off as more than a little racist.