Scooby and the Minotaur

Scooby and the Minotaur originally aired on October 29, 1983 with a story by Gene Ayres. It is the first half of the ninth episode of The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show and it finds the gang in Greece

Scooby and the Minotaur

The episode begins with several treasure hunters looking for the Golden Fleece at some Greek ruins. A female archeologist is feeling a bit competitive and wants to find it first, however, her attempts to dig are halted when a Minotaur emerges from a door. The Minotaur also chases all the remaining archeologists away.

We then cut to the Hotel Cretonla where the gang are checking in. Scooby is wearing a togo, with grape leaves in his ears.

We meet Mr. Kronos, the hotel owner, who has a sign above his hotel that says “Welcome Treasure Hunters”, while they watch all the treasure hunters disappear. We also meet Mr. Smith who is on his vacation.

Daphne, Mr. Smith and Mr. Kronos

Scrappy spots some hoof prints on the hotel floor and they follow them to the ruins. Scooby fakes a cold so he can get out of following the scent of the Minotaur any further, so Daphne and Scrappy continue on. Unfortunately the Minotaur ends up finding Scooby and Shaggy, even bursting through a blockade that Scooby has set up.

The Minotaur takes chase but Scooby and Shaggy get away by blending in with an old fountain. Daphne and Scrappy show up and they continue looking for clues, soon discovering a map on a pedestal, in which Mr. Smith also shows up and gets excited by the map and snaps a picture of it.

The gang follow the map and find the entrance to the Labyrinth of Knossos. Daphne bribes Scooby with one Scooby Snack and he works up the courage to open the door to the Labyrinth.. The rest of the gang enter and immediately run out as they spot the Minotaur. They all soon feel silly as they watch Mr. Krnos emerge from the door.

Mr. Kronos explains he was afraid they got lost in the Labyrinth, so the gang head back in where they soon meet up with the hairy beast. Another chase ensues and the gang hide in a room full of statues. Scooby finds a business card for the International Treasure Hunters Club, and Scrappy notices hundreds of little holes on the ground. The holes look like a trail so Scrappy follows them with the Minotaur following even more closely behind.

Scooby finally notices the Minotaur and another chase ensues. Scooby has had enough and confronts the Minotaur. The Minotaur crashes into a brick wall where he is trapped and Daphne grabs the bull by the horns and unmasks the Minotaur as Mr. Kronos.

Mr. Smith shows up and we learn that Mr. Smith is the president of the President of the International Treasure Hunters Club. Mr. Smith also explains that Mr. Kronos is also a member of the same club and he tried to chase everyone away. The little holes in the ground were from Mr. Smith’s metal detector.

Mr. Smith walks away and creates a bit of dust causing Scooby to sneeze, whereupon he finds the legendary Golden Fleece on a skeleton. Unfortunately Scooby sneezes the Golden Fleece into oblivion.

My Score

I give this episode a 6.5 out of 10. I quite enjoyed it, but it’s also very short to equate to anything memorable and significant.

We’ve had the Minotaur villain before in Lock the Door it’s the Minotaur, and I feel that episode is much better, mostly as they had more time to flesh things out.

Still, this one makes for a fun romp in Greece, and I very much dug the treasure hunting aspect of it. We also got to see the box of Scooby Snacks and that always makes me a happy camper!