Have always been a big fan of Scooby Doo from a young age and am still immensely fond of it. As well as most Hanna Barbera. The best incarnations will always be 'Scooby Doo Where are You' and 'The Scooby Doo Show', with a lot of memorable villains, amusing and clever stories and classic theme songs and lead characters. Regardless of the animation not always having finesse and most reveals not being that surprising, though a few here did leave me floored.
"The Fiesta Host is an Aztec Ghost" is a very enjoyable episode, though one that has gone slightly down in my estimations as a young adult. It was great as a kid and Katazuma was quite intimidating. Yet through adult eyes it has for me been more noticeable that the final quarter or so is not as good as what came before it, while of course still being above average. Something that was true in some other 'The Scooby Doo Show' episodes as well.
Will start with the good things. The animation has some nice atmosphere and attention to detail, such as that genuinely eerie Phantom Barge, plus Katazuma is very freaky-looking in the early parts of the episode. Capturing the colourful fun of its locale beautifully, regardless of any lack of finesse in the drawing, and it did contribute to putting me off pyramids as a child. The music has a nice mix of nostalgic and haunting moments and the theme song is a classic, one of the best of the franchise. The voice acting is well done (excepting the come and go-sounding English accent of Professor Stonehack, who sounded like Frank Welker but could be wrong), with Don Messick and Casey Kasem still proving themselves to be the best voice actors for Scooby and Shaggy. Katazuma is imposingly voiced too, which added to the creepiness of the character in the first half.
Some nice dialogue, its goofiness being part of the show's endearing charm, while not overdone. Shaggy for example talking about speaking Spanish and then goes on naming food-related Spanish words was amusing. Everything with Shaggy and Scooby is endearingly goofy. The story is a lot of fun, with Katazuma having a quite creepy backstory. Everything with the Phantom Barge is very well done. Absolutely love the chemistry between the gang and always have. As said Katatzauma and also the Statue Creature (the introduction to the latter is actually pretty creepy) make a real impression in the first half of the episode. The gang all impress, especially Scooby and Shaggy, but in all honesty when did they ever not do so? The Aztec open the door trick part was clever stuff.
It is sad though that the final quarter wasn't as good as the rest, despite a couple of very clever clues. That's when Katatzuma became less menacing (the Statue Creature creeps out still), when the truth about him starts to emerge and the final quarter feels like a series of chases. The revelation shows though that it was a quite clever plan that was concocted.
Unfortunately too, the denouement is too obvious early on. Not just the responsible, who were suspectable as soon as introduced, but also the motive, which was not too hard to figure out early on either. The episode even has a familiar 'Scooby Doo' trope with a mysterious disappearance, and it has nearly always been done fairly predictably. It is also in this case fairly derivative, although a little later in the episode, derivative of other episodes that adopt that device. Anyone who has seen 'Scooby Doo Where Are You's' "A Tiki Scare is No Fair" will not be surprised, what happens in this regard is similar to that.
All in all though, it still manages to be a very enjoyable episode. Just not one of the best ones. 8/10
