Mystery in Persia

Mystery in Persia, also known as Scooby-Doo Meets Jeannie, is the third episode of the second season of The New Scooby-Doo Movies, and the nineteenth overall episode of the series. It first aired 22 September 1973 on CBS.
== Premise ==
Scooby and the gang, along with Jeannie and Babu, help a prince battle the evil spirit that was let out of a bottle. But who did it and why?
== Synopsis ==
The Mystery Inc. gang is driving along in the countryside. Shaggy notices how deserted the road is, and is hungry. They see Corey Anders and Henry Glopp driving along in their motorcycle. Soon, Jeannie is following along, flying overhead in a sitting position. Scooby imitates her magical ponytail with his tail. The Mystery Machine crashes and the rest of the gang finally recognizes Jeannie and friends. Scooby and Shaggy, in an amorous daze, call for Jeannie, blaming Fred for the accident, and calling the Mystery Machine an "old truck". She magically removes it from the mud. Shaggy asks her to "zap up some food", and she instantly creates a picnic. Sandwiches disappear from Shaggy and Scooby's hands and Babu appears standing in the potato salad.
Fred asks Jeannie's gang to join them, and they leave off driving. Jeannie causes Scooby to float along with her, but when Babu tries to do the same with Shaggy, he makes the whole Mystery Machine ascend to the sky. Jeannie puts it back on the ground. They stop, at a fork in the road. Babu receives a message from the Great Hajji for Jeannie to come to Persia to help a Prince Abin, a friend of his. The next scene they are in ancient Persia, and unbeknownst to them, a man and an evil genie are plotting against the Great Hajji and his help, Jeannie.
The gang arrives in front of an old palace. A gate opens by itself, Shaggy and Scooby start running and Jeannie magically brings them back. Inside, they check several doors but don't find anybody, so they decide to sleep over in some of the rooms. In his room, Scooby sees a veiled ghost in a closet, who comes after him, and then after Babu and Shaggy. Babu tries to make him disappear, but only makes the bed they're hiding under disappear. He then calls for Jeannie who makes the ghost disappear. Shaggy thinks it was a joke, but Jeannie says it was a "dangerous game" being played by someone. Henry is grooming himself in a mirror and then his reflection begins acting funny, moving differently than he is. He tries to explain to Cory who doesn't understand. He then tries to demonstrate in the mirror for Cory and Jeannie, but now nothing strange happens, and they think, he was only imagining.
A vulture flies around the palace and then everybody suddenly disappears from their beds, all landing in a room full of doors, save Jeannie and Babu. Jeannie senses her master (Cory's) presence in a nearby pyramid. Landing in the room, Shaggy thinks it's all a dream. Henry blames "the me in the mirror" (to the confusion of everyone else). They then try some doors, finding only a strong wind and a monstrous hand. Jeannie magically opens a door from the outside and Shaggy and Scooby, who had just been convinced to try another door, fall out. Everyone is now reunited and are then welcomed to Zendat by Abin's uncle Abdullah (the man earlier seen with the Jinn), who appears above the pyramid.
In Prince Abin's palace, Abin explains his problem. Strange things have been happening; ghostly voices in the night. Yet, if Abin doesn't stay in the palace for one year he cannot become Sultan. Legend has it that an evil jinn who was imprisoned by Abin's ancestor was making the noise, indicating that someone has released him. Shaggy, Scooby, Henry and Babu hear the voices and take off running around the palace and scare each other from around a corner. Jadal, the evil jinn appears scaring Scooby. They run and Babu 'splits' literally. Uncle Abdullah encourages Abin to leave. Jadal chases the four around the palace. Every trick Babu tries to perform is a blunder. They hear Jadal and Babu disappears. Shaggy, Scooby and Henry escape by disguising themselves. They smell food and run to a kitchen and begin eating out of a kettle. A woman shows up and shows them that it is laundry. The rest of the gang enters. Jadal appears out of the fire, freezes everyone and imprisons Jeannie in a bottle (as he had been imprisoned for 10,000 years), and then disappears with her; Abin just now realizes that she is a real genie. Abin offers to leave the palace. and give up the sultanate. Everybody searches the palace. Shaggy, Scooby and Babu find "Watch this spot" painted on the floor, and that section of the floor carries them down to a cellar. The others see the spot, and are carried up to a room Abin never even knew about. Henry sees a window with a camel walking in the desert outside, and thinks it's a "realistic picture". He leans to far and falls out. Then suddenly the whole room tilts, and they all fall out, landing in Jadal's cave. Velma finds a "thousand year old" bottle, and Abin gives it to her. Meanwhile, Babu, Shaggy and Scooby hear Jeannie, and think it's her ghost. Then they see her imprisoned in the bottle in a hole in a wall, but it is protected by an invisible shield. Scooby howls, breaking the bottle; Jeannie is now free and kisses Scooby. Soon she, sensing her master, finds him and the others from on the other side of a solid rock wall. Jeannie recognizes Velma's bottle as being 10,000 years old.
Jadal appears and duels magically with Jeannie. But Jeannie, knowing all his tricks, defeats him, forcing him back into the bottle. Fred and Jeannie point out that whoever released him was the big master, and therefore the cause of all the trouble. Jeannie makes him appear, and it is Uncle Abdullah. He felt the power and wealth of the sultanate was rightly his because Abin's father ruled with love and not by force "as a sultan should". Jeannie cannot judge mortals, so she imprisons him in the bottle with Jadal for the Great Hajji to take care of.
Shaggy and Scooby eat out of the kettle again, but this time instead of laundry, it is soap. Scooby hiccups bubbles.
== Characters ==
Main characters:
* Mystery Inc.
** Scooby-Doo
** Shaggy Rogers
** Fred Jones
** Daphne Blake
** Velma Dinkley
* Jeannie (only appearance)
* Babu (first appearance)
* Corey Anders (only appearance)
* Henry Glopp (only appearance)
Supporting character:
* Prince Abin (only appearance)
Villains:
* Jadal (only appearance)
* Abdullah (only appearance)
Other characters:
* Great Hajji (mentioned)
* Flash Gordon (mentioned)
* Prince Abin's father (mentioned)(deceased)
== Locations ==
* United States
** Yankee Stadium (mentioned)
** North Dakota (mentioned)
* Iran/Persia
** Zendat
*** Palace
== Objects ==
* Jeannie's bottle
* Potato salad
* Toothbrush
* Toothpaste
== Vehicles ==
* The Mystery Machine
== Suspects ==
* None
=== Culprits ===
Culprit	Motive/reason
Abdullah
Jadal	To take over the palace.
== Cast ==
Don Messick 	Scooby-Doo
Abdullah
Prince Abin
Casey Kasem 	Shaggy Rogers
Franklin Welker	Fred Jones
Jadal
Heather North 	Daphne Blake
Nicole Jaffe 	Velma Dinkley
Julie McWhirter	Jeannie
Joe Besser 	Babu
Mark Hamill 	Corey Anders
Bob Hastings 	Henry Glopp
== Full credits ==
The following credits are how they are seen on-screen (or as close as possible).
Show
== Notes/trivia ==
* This is Scooby-Doo and the gang's first adventure outside the territorial United States.
* Jadal the Evil Djinn was the first character to be from another world.
* This is the first episode to feature real supernatural beings (i.e., Jeannie and Babu).
* According to Islamic tradition, the Djinn (a.k.a. genies) are beings made out of smokeless fire that are invisible to the human eye, who have their own society and can perform supernatural feats.
* Just like most of season 2, at 12–13 minutes of this episode, music is used from Hanna-Barbera's action shows from the mid-late 1960s.
* Early production art for Hanna-Barbera's 1977 "all-star" Battle of the Networks spoof, Laff-a-Lympics, featured ]|Jeannie and Babu as members of the Scooby Doobies team, but legal problems with Columbia Pictures Television prevented Jeannie's inclusion in the show. However, Babu was wholly originated by Hanna-Barbera, and so was retained.
* This episode marks the first time an actual member of the Three Stooges had appeared on Scooby-Doo. Joe Besser was briefly a member of the trio, from 1957 to 1959.
* This episode and the previous episode are the only episodes to have red title cards.
=== Cultural references ===
* Daphne Blake mentions Flash Gordon.
=== Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches ===
* When Shaggy is swimming in the pool, his shirt has long sleeves.
* At the end of the scene where Henry is getting ready for bed, Corey says "Good night" to him, but Henry's lips move with Corey's voice.
* When Henry uncovers his head after Jeannie came into his and Corey's room, he's wearing a shirt that is the same color as his hair instead of two shirts that are different shades of green.
* When Scooby gets away from Jadal, Babu's vest is briefly missing.
* When Babu attempts to show Scooby, Shaggy, and Henry that he can travel through walls, his lips don't move when he says, "Yapple-Dapple!"
* When Babu accidentally split himself the first time, he was split above his red stripes, but before he put himself back together, he was split ​below the stripes.
* When some of the group begin to search for the others in the palace, some shots show Corey with blond hair instead of brown.
* When the group finds themselves in the strange room, Fred's blue collar is briefly colored white. Also, when they're looking for a secret panel, Henry speaks with Abin's voice.
* When the group were tipped out of the window, Abin never fell through the window, yet he was seen falling onto the pillows. Also, Daphne was shown falling out of the window, but she never fell onto the pillows, although she was there to find everyone else.
* When Abdullah says "I would've ruled as a sultan should rule — with force", his red turban is now colored white. Afterwards, it changes to back to its original red.
* When Jeannie flashes Abdullah into the bottle, her arms briefly disappear.
* Before Jadal is put into the bottle, it is orange and opaque; but after he and Abdullah are put into it, it is now greenish-brown and translucent. If this is due to Jadal being in the bottle, it doesn't occur earlier in the episode.
* In the last scene when Fred says "Don't you guys ever learn?", he speaks with Henry's voice and Daphne's headband is colored black instead of purple.
=== Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities ===
* While it is still used poetically, Persia was the original name for Iran by the West until 1935; Velma is the only one who seems to get its modern name right.
* Iran does not look anything like what is depicted in the episode. In fact, the setting in this episode looks like a cross between Saudi Arabia and Egypt. The djinn legends actually originated in what is today Saudi Arabia.
* Prior to the establishment to the theocratic government that rules Iran today, the leader (or king) of Iran was normally referred to as the "Shah", not "sultan". "Shah" is a Persian word that means "king". The title "sultan" is Arabic, not Persian.
* This also contradicts Jeannie's home from I Dream of Jeannie. In the live-action series, Jeannie came from modern-day Iraq (Sumer), not Persia.
* Corey didn't know what happened with Henry and the mirror and didn't believe him, but he was watching Henry and the mirror Henry.
== Home media ==
* The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection DVD set released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2019.
* The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The (Almost) Complete Collection Blu-ray set released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2019.
* The Best of The New Scooby-Doo Movies: The Lost Episodes DVD released by Warner Home Video on June 4, 2019.
== Quotes ==
== Gallery ==
7c15c1c18896d4a328d00a21537a8cf2--scooby-doo-movie-vintage-cartoons.jpg
421b826a313a860024cc9e06e11ea716.jpg
5C1280FD-680C-43D8-BAE7-7A23D0AD66C4.jpeg
D2A605F6-6DB4-481C-99B9-138C9FCB9030.jpeg
Abin and Jeanie.png
CE14BDC1-7F5D-43CA-B120-38836A591159.png
8766.png
FC376FA6-56E9-466F-98D6-3318C2FF45BD.jpeg
2C964FEE-CA63-497D-8831-82E804E1EAED.png
5AB87BA9-A333-4C93-BB15-DC25E1403272.jpeg
1C8BB017-7705-4C31-849A-09A7DDBFAF3A.jpeg
9B17A6CE-FCBC-4F3C-B689-E8E0C9E38619.jpeg
3B5800B4-8FC8-4A3B-964E-9959C535A591.jpeg
Looking good.jpeg
Throne Room.jpeg
32EB08BF-9F68-4353-8D10-DD1C17400327.jpeg
F04D78C1-A4D5-428E-A119-E35E3A4C3E22.jpeg
F5D0A2A5-E21D-4C02-9366-A6E3529C1597.jpeg
18CF96AD-C597-44C2-BA27-D847053A4E14.png
40DFB07B-3D9E-4885-849C-EFBA136FA30E.jpeg
== External Links ==
* Scooby-Doo Wiki: 
Category:TV Episodes
Category:Scooby-Doo
Category:The New Scooby-Doo Movies
Category:The New Scooby-Doo Movies episodes
Category:Episodes set with Royalty
Category:The Funtastic Index