Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur is a 2011 direct-to-DVD animated comedy mystery film; the sixteenth direct-to-video film based upon the Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons, the film was released on September 6, 2011. It premiered on Cartoon Network on September 3, 2011.
Plot[]
The Mystery Inc. gang travels to a remote town to stay at the La Serena Spa in New Mexico, to relax Shaggy after a scary experience in a haunted mansion left him severely traumatized. There, they meet Mr. Hubley, who works at the spa. When Shaggy asks if there is anything to eat, Hubley says no, but there is a barbecue in town.
The gang goes to the barbecue, and all but Shaggy and Scooby-Doo go off to see the paleontological dig of Professor Svankmajer. Shaggy and Scooby are too full to walk right away. When they set out, a gila monster steals a biscuit from them, causing Scooby to go after it. He meets the Phantosaur (described as somewhat resembling an Appalachiosaurus by Professor Svankmajer) and runs away. Later, Shaggy and Scooby are chased by the Phantosaur and narrowly escape.
Meanwhile, Professor Svankmajor shows the rest of the gang over the dig, and Velma meets Svankmajor's student, Winsor. She instantly sees him as a soul mate and they plan to go out on a date, prompting Fred and Daphne to begin investigating without her.
Back at the spa, Shaggy is in terrible shape after a fright. Mr. Hubley helps with aromatherapy, assisted by Scooby-Doo adding a Scooby Snack to the aromas. Shaggy becomes more calm, but freaks out again when Mr. Hubley tells them the legend of the Phantosaur, the ghost of a predatory dinosaur. The legend says the Phantosaur was summoned by Native Americans to drive out Spanish conquistadors, but it turned on them instead.
Hubley has an advanced hypnosis machine with a hologram projector. He hypnotizes Shaggy to become fearless and unstoppable when he hears the word "bad", and to switch back to normal when he hears it again. He then orders Shaggy to forget everything; unfortunately, Hubley himself is affected by the hypnosis, so he can't remember the key word for Shaggy.
Daphne, Fred, and Velma go back to the dig to look for clues, but Velma is so lovestruck that she misses an obvious clue about many footprints leading into a part of the cave where Winsor warns of lurking snakes far below.
Meanwhile, Scooby and Shaggy go to an all-you-can-eat restaurant and enjoy a magnificent feast when a biker gang comes in. Shaggy accidentally squirts the contents of a hot dog bun on one of the bikers, who angrily grabs him and tells him, "Little buddy, this is gonna be bad." Shaggy, now suddenly fearless, knocks out the whole motorcycle gang and repels all their assaults on him. Then the gang leader, a large, muscular man named Tex, arrives and, taking an admitted liking to Shaggy, challenges him to a motorcycle race on Dead Man's curve. Shaggy confidently accepts despite never having ridden a motorcycle before. As Tex leaves the restaurant, he tells Shaggy that he won't kill Shaggy "too bad". Suddenly back to normal, Shaggy is terrified of the challenge he has accepted and by what he has done to the rest of the gang.
That night, Daphne decides to give him motorcycling lessons because she drove a motorcycle when she was five years old. Shaggy and Tex have their motorcycle race as planned, and Shaggy hears "bad" just in time and almost wins until a Phantosaur shows up. Shaggy thinks in his mind that the monster must think it's so "bad," which is enough to make him cowardly again and get chased, but he still miraculously wins the race.
Eventually, the gang figures out that there were two phantosaurs and they were robots. The culprits were two mining engineers who wanted the silver they found in the area, which they couldn't get to because of the paleontologists.
Once back at Hubley's, the gang finds the hologram projector gone and is attacked by a pack of Velociraptor and a ghostly fire-breathing Tyrannosaurus. They learn that it was Professor Svankmajer and Winsor, much to Velma's dismay. They had found a complete Allosaurus encased in quartz crystal, a beautiful and priceless find, and they wanted to keep it for themselves. They wanted to scare everyone off so they could dig it out and take it away. They disguised three other graduate students in velociraptor costumes, and created an original red Phantosaur with an advanced holographic projector (stolen from Hubley's hypnotism room) and paint-stripper devices that blasted super-heated air for the fire effects. However, both Svankmajer and Winsor admittedly regrets their recent actions.
While the gang is underground, the dynamite charges Svankmajor set to blast free the dinosaur crystal go off (because Daphne left a paint-stripper on and the heat lit the fuses). Shaggy's hypnotic bravery comes in again when Svankmejer comments on how "bad" the lower caverns are, and he flawlessly leads them toward the exit until Daphne praises him that he's "not bad". Scooby realizes the keyword but is unable to tell the rest of the gang (who misunderstand his "rad" as other words). Shaggy has to complete the rest of the escape on his own courage, and with some help from Tex and his biker friends. The remorseful Svankmajer and Winsor turn themselves in, but Velma says she will date Winsor again when he gets out of jail, which he happily agrees with.
The gang returns to the spa, where Mr. Hubley tries to un-hypnotize Shaggy but accidentally makes the entire gang turn into him. The end of the film shows the group driving away in the "Mustard" Machine.
A post-credits scene reveals the "Mustard" Machine wearing a wig that looks like Shaggy's hairstyle. The GPS inside the van says aloud that if it had hands, it would remove the wig, but as such, it has none.