Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) Review

"Like, we're not looking for ghoul-friends, right Scoob?!"

-Shaggy Rogers

Several years after the end of Mystery Inc., the gang has gone their separate ways and started new careers.  Daphne Blake (Mary Kay Bergman) is now a TV reporter and has her own show where she travels to haunted locations and Fred Jones (Frank Welker) is her producer.  He decides to get the gang back together and they travel to Louisiana.  They meet a woman named Lena (Tara Charendoff), who brings them to the haunted Moonscar Island, where they realize too late the monsters on the island are not bad guys in masks.  This time, the monsters are real!

What Works:

The most notable aspect of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is how dark this film gets.  The monsters are real and they are actively trying to kill Scooby (Scott Innes) and the gang.  This is the first time this franchise has gotten dark at all and it's extremely refreshing.  We see a group of people get attacked and killed by alligators, the gang almost gets melted via voodoo dolls, and the villains all disintegrate by the end of the film.  It's pretty bonkers for Scooby-Doo.

The villains themselves are really awesome.  For most of the film, we think the zombies are the bad guys and they have some great designs, but the true villains are the cat-creatures and they are the stuff of nightmares.  I definitely had a few bad dreams when I was a kid thanks to these guys.  My favorite of them is Jacques (Jim Cummings), the ferryman, who has a thick Cajun accent.  Combined with his cat-creature design, he is a truly memorable villain.

The story is also really good and parts of it would be reused for the live-action movie.  At the start of the film, Mystery Inc. has been disbanded for several years and the gang has all gone their own way.  This storyline was good when I was a kid, but it has aged very well.  I can relate to how the gang is feeling at the beginning of the film as I have friends who I don't see as much anymore either.  It's really fun watching them all come back together to solve mysteries again.

Daphne's new character direction is also interesting.  In the original series, Daphne, Fred, and Velma (B.J. Ward) all simply enjoyed getting to the bottom of the mystery.  This time around, Fred and Velma and the skeptical ones who are trying to figure out what sort of con is being run on Moonscar Island, but Daphne really wants the monsters to be real for once.  That's some interesting motivation and a solid way to evolve the franchise.

Finally, there are some really excellent songs in the film.  The band Skycycle performs both "The Ghost Is Here" and "It's Terror Time Again", which are some tasty jams.  The filmmakers didn't have to go nearly this wild when creating the songs for this film, but I am extremely glad they did.

What Sucks:

My biggest complaint with film stems from the fact that I have gotten old and crotchety.  It really annoyed me how inconsiderate Mystery Inc. was to the denizens of Moonscar Island.  They act a bit entitled and take Simone's (Adrienne Barbeau) hospitality for granted, especially Shaggy (Billy West) and Scooby.  So much of the conflict in the middle of the movie came from Shaggy and Scooby being terrible houseguests that it really rubbed me the wrong way.  In the context of the plot, it works.  Simone is extremely tolerant of their crap, but it makes sense once you learn her true intentions.  Even though it works within the story, it definitely made me like Mystery Inc. less.

Finally, there were a few moments where the writing came off as weak and repetitive.  Kids movies can have great dialogue, no excuses.

Verdict:

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was a breath of fresh air for this franchise and it holds up well.  The dark tone and high stakes make for an exciting tale, the villains are fantastic, the story is relatable, and the music is awesome.  I found parts of the movie repetitive and Mystery Inc. is less likable than they should be, but this is a solid movie and has definitely got it going on.

 8/10: Really Good