Returning to SCOOBY DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND

Unlike most beloved pets that come into your life during childhood, Scooby Doo seems to be incapable of dying. That lovable talking dog and the gang of teen sleuths he roams with enjoy a fandom that spans generations. Since the characters were debuted in the original series SCOOBY DOO, WHERE ARE YOU! back in 1969, Scooby has remained one of the most popular cartoons in Hanna-Barbera’s gallery of characters. Between the show, its numerous spinoff series (my personal favorite is THE 13 GHOSTS OF SCOOBY DOO; Scooby, Shaggy, and Vincent Price hunting ghosts? Hell yeah son) and the TV movies that were constantly rerun in the early years of Cartoon Network, I couldn’t help but be exposed to and become obsessed with all things Scooby Doo as a member of the fabled ‘90’s Kids. 

It was just so much fun watching Scooby and Shaggy run around haunted houses and abandoned air fields chasing colorful spooks that always turned out to be some weird old guy scaring people off from something valuable he had stashed there, while Velma kept losing her glasses and finding clues, and Fred & Daphne wandered off to do…I don’t know, whatever the Hell they did. I was seven, I didn’t think too deeply about it. But it had been awhile since any new stories concerning the mystery gang had been unleashed on the masses.

Then, in the fall of 1998, the Scooby Doo franchise got a major shot in the arm when Hanna-Barbera released a brand new full-length Scooby film; A kid-friendly fright flick that would launch a slew of new Scooby Doo stories that are still continuing to this day: SCOOBY DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND. I’ll never forget the marketing for this film, which was simple yet so, so very effective: “This time, the monsters are real.” Sure, We’d seen Scooby and Shaggy go off on their own and get into some supernatural shenanigans in the past (the aforementioned 13 GHOSTS series, as well as films like SCOOBY DOO AND THE GHOUL SCHOOL and SCOOBY DOO MEETS THE BOO BROTHERS), but this was the first time we were going to see the full Mystery Gang have to be detectives while the threat of real creatures of the night loomed over them. ZOMBIE ISLAND promised this and it delivered in spades.

The film begins with Scooby and the crew running around a haunted castle on a stormy night, fleeing from a Gilman-looking swamp monster that’s chasing them. Of course, they eventually get the drop on the creature, and find that it’s just some counterfeiter hiding his operation behind a rubber costume. Flash forward some time later though, and we find that the Mystery Team has split up, with Shaggy and Scooby working as airport security (geez, they were really letting anybody work that gig before 9/11, weren’t they?), Velma running her own bookshop, and Daphne becoming an investigative TV reporter with her own show, with Fred by her side as her faithful cameraman. Daphne in particular is doing well for herself; her show’s successful, but she still misses the ol’ gang. Fred then surprises her by calling the rest of the team together to join him and Daph on their next assignment: investigating ghost stories of Louisiana.

At first, the crew finds themselves going through the same old song and dance, digging deep into multiple mysteries that always turn out to be some human-based scam. It appears they’ll never catch a break, until a sultry woman by the name of Lena (played by voice acting goddess Tara Strong), an employee on a pepper plantation located on a small island just off the bayou, approaches the crew with tales of ghosts that supposedly haunt the place. Eager to get footage of real paranormal encounters on video, Daphne and the crew set out for Moonscar Island. Upon arrival, the crew meets the owner, Miss Simone Lenoir (voiced by the great Adrienne Barbeau) who tells them her land is haunted by the ghosts of a pirate named Morgan Moonscar, who buried his treasure on the island.

The more time they spend on the island, the more encounters they have with all sorts of spirits that go about carving warnings into the walls, levitating people, and appearing before them as fleshy, rotting zombies. It seems pretty apparent that the ghosts are real, but as the gang soon finds out, they’re not the only dangerous creatures lurking around the bayou…

This film went straight to VHS, but viewing it, you’d swear that it must have gotten some form of theatrical distribution. The animation is so fluid and beautiful, even anime-like at certain points (indeed, the credits list a legion of Japanese animators who helped the production along overseas). The voice cast is impressive as well; along with the aforementioned talents of Strong and Barbeau, we’re graced with Billy West (REN AND STIMPY, FUTURAMA) voicing Shaggy in lieu of original actor Casey Kasem, Fred Welker reprising his part as Fred from the original series, BJ Ward taking on the part of Velma, and late, great Mary Kay Bergman (SOUTH PARK) playing Daphne, giving us one of the first depictions of Daphne as a strong-willed person ready to take charge of a situation (this iteration of the character was pretty much cemented as canon in the 2002 live action Scooby-Doo film penned by James Gunn). Scott Innes also gives a spirited performance as Scooby Doo himself, and would go on to voice both him and Shaggy in the sequel SCOOBY DOO AND THE WITCH’S GHOST.

What separates ZOMBIE ISLAND from the previous Scooby Doo films is that, unlike its 80’s predecessors, it actually does try to go for suspense and light scares, and for the most part it succeeds. As a kid, I have vivid memories of popping this tape into the VCR again and again to watch Scooby-Doo outrun the scary ghosts/zombies that were chasing him, with the mysterious green-blue glow of the ghosts acting as a haunting color cue that something bad was about to happen. And if the ghosts weren’t scary enough, the general weird vibes that Selena and Miss Lenoir put out definitely raised some flags—they seemed at times distant, yet inviting and oddly comfortable with the calamity surrounding their home. Even their gardener Ben came off like some weirdo loner with secrets. The gang really seemed to be alone on the island, and the isolation mounts the tension as the film progresses.

And the soundtrack in general is just awesome; it goes from being campy and high-energy to soft and creepy and transitions between these moods expertly. There’s even some pretty good original rock songs in the mix—“The Ghost Is Here” and “It’s Terror Time Again”, written by Glenn Leopold and performed by the band Skycycle, were made for the film and are prominently featured, with the latter functioning as the perfect song to score a sequence of the gang running into the night while being chased by a horde of zombies that rise out of the swamp. I would get so pumped hearing that song as a kid, and I’ll be honest with you, I get pretty stoked on it re-watching the film as an adult too.

SCOOBY DOO ON ZOMBIE ISLAND has undoubtedly withstood the test of time. It’s a well-made animated film on every level, and I’d venture to say that it’s the perfect primer to get a young kid into the world Scooby Doo. From there, they’ll want to watch any mystery involving that talking Great Dane, just like I did as a kid, and just as kids long before and long after me will.