Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island promotional poster
Directed by	Hiroshi Aoyama Kazumi Fukushima Jim Stenstrum
Produced by	Davis Doi
Written by	Davis Doi Glenn Leopold
Starring	Scott Innes Billy West Mary Kay Bergman Frank Welker B.J. Ward Adrienne Barbeau Tara Strong
Music by	Steven Bramson Glenn Leopold
Editing by	Paul Douglas
Distributed by	Warner Bros. Home Video
Release date(s)	September 22, 1998
Running time	69 min.
Country	United States
Language	English
Followed by	Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999)

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is the first of a series of direct-to-video animated films based upon the Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons. The movie was produced from 1995 to 1998 and was released on September 22, 1998, and it was the first Scooby-Doo movie to be produced by Warner Bros. Animation, though distributed by Hanna-Barbera Cartoons. The Mystery, Inc. gang, which includes Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma, travel to Moonscar Island which is located in the Louisiana bayou. The film was directed by Hiroshi Aoyama, Kazumi Fukushima, and Jim Stenstrum, based on Glenn Leopold's unfinished Swat Kats episode "The Curse of Kataluna", and written by Leopold and Davis Doi.^{[citation needed]} The film and later following two films had a darker tone then the original cartoons. The song "It's Terror Time Again", sung by Skycycle, played after Scooby Doo and the others found out that zombies were real. The title track was performed by Third Eye Blind.^[1]

Plot

The movie opens with a somewhat horrific chase scene involving Mystery, inc. being pursued by a green troll-like monster. After a fortunate accident by Scooby, he is caught and discovered to be a counterfeiter. This is revealed to be a retelling by Daphne on her television program; after years of unmasking phony ghosts, the Mystery Inc. gang have gone their separate ways. Daphne and Fred go off to start a successful investigative TV series (Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake), Velma opens a mystery bookstore, and Scooby and Shaggy bounce from job to job, including work as customs officers at an airport, from which they are rather quickly fired after eating all the confiscated foodstuffs. However, when Fred decides that the next episode of Daphne's show should be about tracking down real ghosts, he reassembles the gang and brings them all to Louisiana.

After encountering many "men in masks" ("just like the old days"), such as a nerdy-looking guy in a lobster-man suit in a canned shellfish factory, an old man in a man-vampire bat (smilar to Man Bat) suit at a graveyard, a ghost which that turns out to be a hologram, and a zombie policeman, that turns out to be a middle-aged woman, the gang arrives in New Orleans, and are invited by a cook named Lena to visit Moonscar Island, the home of her employer. The island, Lena claims, is supposed to be haunted by the ghost of a pirate named Morgan Moonscar. Although the gang is skeptical, they decide to go along with Lena and visit the island. On the way, Velma tells the gang that Moonscar Island is the home of many unexplained disappearances over the years.

The gang arrives on the island and meets Lena's employer, Simone Lenoir, a beautiful Cajun woman, who explains about the haunting of Morgan Moonscar. En route to the island, the gang also meet Jacques, who runs the ferry from the island to the mainland, Beau, Simone's hunky gardener and Snakebite Scruggs, a grungy fisherman (after Big Mona, a catfish) and his hunting pig, Mojo. The first two-thirds of the film play out like a regular Scooby-Doo cartoon, with the gang checking out clues and working to prove that the "ghost" is just a person in a mask. Scooby and Shaggy are chased into a hole into a hole by Scruggs's warthog, Mojo. While trying to get out they accidentally pull down some of the wall they were trying to climb, reveling a skeletal arm. A mysterious green fog-like substance, appears and begins to be absorbed into, the bones. Afterwards the skeleton begins gaining skin and hair, until it finally transforms into, a zombie of Captain Moonscar. While trying to escape, they bump into Beau, who's a bit suspicious. Daphne, Fred, Velma, Lena and Simone go from the bushes. Scooby and Shaggy bring them to the hole, but it's empty. While the sun sets, Simone invites the gang to her house to stay for a night. As the gang is dressing up for dinner, Shaggy sees the ghost of a Confederate colonel in the mirror, to which Simone explains that the plantation was a temporary headquarters for a Confederate regiment in the Civil War.

Later that night, Scooby and Shaggy eat in the Mystery Machine, to keep Scooby from chasing Simone's cats (one of the movie's running gags). However, they're attacked by the army of zombies. Fred, Daphne and Velma go to look for them, but bump into Beau. They split up. Fred and Daphne find Scooby and Shaggy trying to escape as they discover an unconscious zombie. Fred thinks this is just a "man in mask", but breaks the zombie's head. It turns out that the island is home to real zombies. Scooby, Shaggy, Fred and Daphne separate. Fred and Daphne hear Lena's screams and run to save her. Fred drops the camera and it's swallowed by the quicksand. Fred and Daphne reunite with Velma and Beau. Scooby and Shaggy discover the dolls with Fred, Velma and Daphne's looks and play them, causing the real versions to do the same, but the play is interrupted by the zombies. Fred, Daphne, Velma and Beau come back to Simone's mansion and discover a secret passage. They find Lena and she tells them that the zombies kidnapped Simone and dragged her through the passage. Daphne, Fred, Velma, Lena and Beau find a secret chamber. Velma sees the footprints coming to the chamber are Simone's (meaning she wasn't "dragged") and starts to question Lena about Simone's "kidnapping".

The zombies, including Morgan, however, turn out to be the good guys: Simone, Lena, and Jacques are revealed to actually be werecats who drain the life force out of people to preserve their immortality and the zombies were their many victims (pirates, spice traders, Confederate soldiers, gangsters and tourists) who were just trying to warn them about the three villains. Simone and Lena find the Voodoo dolls with Fred, Daphne, Velma and Beau's looks and tie them up.

Before the werecats begin the ceremony, Velma questions their knowing about Moonscar's treasure, making Simone reveal the origins of their rituals. Back in the 1700s, she and Lena were part of a group of settlers who wanted to make the island their home. One night, during the Harvest Moon, while the settlers were celebrating their successful harvest, Morgan Moonscar and his pirates came ashore and chased the settlers, except for Lena and Simone, into the bayou where they were eaten by the alligators. Heartbroken over their fellow settlers' deaths, Lena and Simone begged their cat god to curse the pirates, and after the wish was granted, they killed the pirates by draining their life forces. The wish, however, came with a price: Lena and Simone were cursed as well and, over the years, as more people came to Moonscar Island, they took the life force from them as well. Soon, Lena lured more people to the island, and they granted Jacque immortality in order to gain a ferry driver to bring more unsuspecting victims.

Scooby and Shaggy apparently come to the rescue. The gang, along with Beau, who is revealed to be an undercover police officer, defeat the cat-creatures (when it seemed they were cornered, the time for the werecats to drain enough life force had expired and their skin disintegrates away and their skeletons implode into dust) and free the zombies' souls to rest in peace. After the zombies' souls disappear, the ghost of the Confederate colonel thanks Scooby for helping break the curse. Fred and Daphne become a couple again. Daphne is upset for losing the camera, but the gang cheers her up and they go home. Just when the ferry is departing, Scooby manage to grab the edge, but his foot got caught then sling shot him in the air. He flew pass Snakebite when he finally caught Mona, but escape out of his net, leaving him stouted "Darn tourists!". Scooby landed safely in van's opened window. Before Scooby can enjoy a, chili pepper sandwich, he discovers that Simone's cats, now homeless, have followed the gang onto the ferry.

After the credits, Scooby, now acting more friendly to the cats, gives them a saucer of milk and finishes the movie with his catch phrase.

Featured Villains

• Simone Lenoir
• Lena Dupree
• Jacques

Cast

• Scott Innes as Scooby-Doo
• Billy West as Shaggy
• Mary Kay Bergman as Daphne Blake
• Frank Welker as Fred Jones
• B.J. Ward as Velma Dinkley
• Adrienne Barbeau as Simone Lenoir
• Tara Strong as Lena Dupree
• Cam Clarke as Beau Neville
• Jim Cummings as Jacques
• Mark Hamill as Snakebite Scruggs
• Jennifer Leigh Warren as Chris

Other information

Lists of miscellaneous information should be avoided. Please relocate any relevant information into appropriate sections or articles. (July 2009)

• American actor Billy West provided the voice for Shaggy Rogers in this film, as Casey Kasem refused to take the role as he had previously asked for Shaggy to be a vegeterian but didn't get his wish so Billy West took over. When it came to the production of the next film Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Scott Innes, who provided the voice for Scooby in this film and three other, replacing Don Messick after his death, offered to provide Shaggy's voice, therefore Billy West was no longer needed.
• As Heather North was unable to take the role, Mary Kay Bergman plays Daphne in this film and the next two, but Grey DeLisle took over after Bergman tragically committed suicide in November 1999. DeLisle later continues voicing Daphne in more Scooby series and films (except Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire and Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico).
• B.J. Ward who played Velma in the Johnny Bravo crossover episode, reprised her role in this film and the next three, as Nicole Jaffe, Pat Stevens, or Marla Frumkin were unable to take the role.
• Frank Welker is the only actor from the original series to reprise his role.
• The film was dedicated in honor of Don Messick.
• This was the first Scooby-Doo direct to video release to receive a PG rating in the United Kingdom as all others have been rated U.
• Toon Disney aired this movie for a premiere since Friday, September 18, 1998, Saturday, September 19, 1998, and September 20, 1998 and has shown this film from September 1998-May 2007. But, Toon Disney's Rating for this movie gives it G.
• Cartoon Network has showed it since Tuesday, August 4, 2009, Sunday, September 6, 2009, Monday, October 12, 2009, October 24, 2009 and December 4, 2009. Cartoon Network's Rating for this film is Y7-FV.

Comparison to other Scooby-Doo cartoons

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island featured real monsters instead of simple bad guys in masks. This was heavily promoted before its release including a tagline used during commercials stating, "This time, the monsters are real." This theme would be followed up in several subsequent direct-to-video Scooby-Doo animated films released in the late-1990s and early-2000s. Although real monsters had previously appeared in most of the 1980s Scooby-Doo series and features, this continuity was ignored with the characters said to be encountering real monsters for the first time. After Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, the direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movies would not feature real monsters again until Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King, which came out ten years after Zombie Island did. The tone of the three supernatural-themed movies were much darker and frightening then the original cartoons, as shown in Zombie Island for being the first Scooby-Doo movie to have both on and off-screen deaths (the main antagonists and pirates respectively).

In addition the film also makes no reference to Scrappy-Doo, restoring the original line-up for the show. In this movie and the next three, a new Mystery Machine was used that looked like a bus instead of a van, possibly to add in realism in the films as well to reflect the era of when the films were made.

The videos sold well and received generally positive reviews in the press,^{[citation needed]} leading to a series of future direct-to-video Scooby-Doo feature films, and a new television series, What's New, Scooby-Doo?. The movie currently holds a rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes.^{[citation needed]}

References

External links

• Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island at the Internet Movie Database
• Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island at Allmovie