The Creeping Creatures
The Creeping Creatures | |
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Scooby howls for his life as the Creeping Creatures climb to the roof of The Mystery Machine. | |
Premiere date | July 19, 2010 |
Run time | 23:06 |
Starring | Frank Welker Matthew Lillard Mindy Cohn Grey DeLisle Gary Cole Patrick Warburton Francis Conroy Kath Soucie Casey Kasem John DiMaggio Billy West David Kaye Beverly D'Angelo |
Music composed by | Robert J. Kral |
Writer(s) | Jed Elinoff Scott Thomas |
Storyboard artist(s) | Mike Borkowski Gary Hartle Doug Murphy Phill Norwood Craig Wilson |
Director(s) | Curt Geda Collette Sunderman (voices) |
Animation director(s) | Seongmook Jung Gyuchang Lee Gyeongae Min |
Art director(s) | Dan Krall |
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Title card | |
"The Creeping Creatures" is the second episode of Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated season one. It aired on July 19, 2010 on Cartoon Network. It was written by Jed Elinoff and Scott Thomas, directed by Curt Geda, and voice directed Collette Sunderman.
The gang gets stuck in Gatorsburg after the engine to the Mystery Machine is stolen, so they must spend the night in a creepy hotel, which is crawling with vicious gator people.
Detailed summary
Memorable quotes
Mayor Jones: Malevolent mushroom caps, Fred!
Gunther: We would've gotten away with it, too, if it weren't for you meddling juveniles and your unauthorized investigation of our synthetic gator accessories.
Characters
In order of appearance: | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Organizations
Locations
- Earth
- United States
- California
- Gatorsburg
- Gator Avenue
- Gator mine
- Gator Burger
- The Drowsy Gator Hotel
- Crystal Cove
- Jones residence
- Crystal Cove High School (mentioned)
- Vasquez Castle (mentioned)
- Fort Bragg (mentioned)
- Gatorsburg
- New York (mentioned)
- Broadway (mentioned)
- California
- United States
Objects
Vehicles
- Station wagon
- The Mystery Machine
- Steam locomotive
- Grady Gator's towtruck
- Sheriff Stone's squad car
Production
Development
Filming
It was copyrighted in 2010.
Music
The theme song was written and performed by Matthew Sweet. The music was composed by Robert J. Kral, and was edited by Christine Luethje.
Release
Dates are in order of release:
- United States: July 19, 2010 on Cartoon Network
- United Kingdom and Ireland: October 25, 2010 on Boomerang
Behind the scenes
- The family in the opening of the episode is a parody of the Griswolds in the film National Lampoon's Vacation:
- The cartoon parents look practically the same as Chevy Chase's Clark and Beverly D'Angelo's Ellen, with David Kaye doing an imitation of the former and D'Angelo herself playing the wife.
- The cartoon station wagon (with the luggage on top) is based on the Wagon Queen Family Truckster in the film; both have the crown logo.
- The significant difference is that the parents have only one young daughter, whereas, in the latter, the parents had a teenage boy and girl, as well as not owning a dog, although they do take along their relatives' dog for a short while.
- Both feature a gag with the dad getting more gas.
- Traps Illustrated is a parody of Sports Illustrated.
- Gatorsburg's riches were built on discovering a gator mine, instead of an oil mine. Yes, that's the joke!
- The old miner in the flashbacks is based on Nugget Nose, the title character of the TV series The Galloping Ghost.
- Curiously, Shaggy sits at the front with Fred and Daphne, instead of Velma.
- The hotel has paintings of Dogs Playing Poker and American Gothic, but with anthropomorphic alligators.
- The cases involving the Phantom of Vasquez Castle and Carlotta, the gypsy, is in reference to the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episodes "Hassle in the Castle" and "A Gaggle of Ghosts", respectively. Although technically, that series doesn't belong in the same continuity as Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated. Carlotta wasn't the name of the gypsy in the latter, but is borrowed from "The Ghosts of Grimstone Castle" in Gold Key Comics' Scooby Doo... Where Are You! #10.
- Shaggy says "Zoinks" twice.
- None of the gang say their catchphrases.
- Special thanks are given to Joe Ruby and Ken Spears, not because they worked on this episode, but because they created Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
Errors
- Is the Fort Bragg listed as 27 miles away the same Fort Bragg all the way in North Carolina, which is 2213 miles from California?
- Shaggy finds a tiny cooked alligator in burger buns, despite the fact the gator mines ran dry.
- It's never explained who installed the new engine. Was it Ed Machine?
- Mr. E says in the second letter that their case was the first part of the puzzle, which is never elaborated on. Outside of what was retconned later on with the "Dog Dies" message, nothing that went on in Gatorsburg, the Creeping Creatures, and the missing engine had anything to do with the series overall arch.
- An empty cop car still remains at the end of the episode.
Legacy
- Mitch Watson stated on the podcast, Unmasked History of Scooby Doo, that the hotel's neon sign flicking to show "The Dog Dies" was a one-time gag, but was changed to mean something deeper when he heard fan speculation about it meaning something deeper, eventually being retconned in the season two episode "Theater of Doom."
- The scene where Fred shows Daphne his scrapbook is used as a flashback in "In Fear of the Phantom," when Daphne gets frustrated with his treatment of her and joins the Hex Girls, which forces Fred to think back at the times he's spent with her and realize how much she means to her.
- It becomes a running gag of the family at the beginning driving into trouble. The other times are in "Night Terrors" and "Stand and Deliver."
- When the Mystery Machine runs out of gas in "Howl of the Fright Hound," Daphne first asks if the engine is missing again.
Marketing and promotion
The episode inspired the second stage of Cartoon Network to update their online game, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Crystal Cove Online, which was updated at the time of the episode's release.
Critical reception
In other languages
Language | Name | Meaning |
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French | Les Crocomonstres | The Crocomonsters |
Greek | Πλαστά Πλάσματα (Star Channel) Έρποντα Τέρατα (Boomerang) |
Fake Creatures (Star Channel) Creeping Monsters (Boomerang) |
Hungarian | Nyálkás kísértetek | Mucous Specters |
Italian | Creature Raccapriccianti | Creepy Creatures |
Portuguese | Monstros Assustadores | Scary Monsters |
Russian | Ужасные Чудовища | Scary Monsters |
Spanish (Latin America) | Los Cocodrilos | The Alligators |
Spanish (Spain) | Las Criaturas de la Noche | The Creatures of the Night |
Ukrainian | Страшненькі Створіння | Spooky Creatures |
Home availability
- In the United States:
- January 25, 2011: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Season One, Volume 1 on DVD.
- October 8, 2013: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: The Complete Season 1 on DVD.
- In the United Kingdom and Ireland:
- August 29, 2011: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Volume One on DVD.
- 2012: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated on DVD (Argos exclusive).
- In Australia:
- September 7, 2011: Warner Home Video releases Scooby-Doo! Mystery Incorporated: Season One, Volume 1 on DVD.