Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (film)

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File:Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island poster.jpg
Theatrical-like poster.

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is a mystery horror comedy direct-to-video film based on the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! TV series in 1969. It released by Warner Home Video through the Warner Bros. Family Entertainment label on September 22, 1998. It is written by Glenn Leopold and Davis Doi, and directed by Jim Stenstrum. The film was intended to be a one-off, but high sales led to a sequel in 1998 called Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost, which itself was a success, ultimately leading to a series of direct-to-video films that continue today.

The film depicts Mystery Inc. as having grown from teenagers into adults, who are trying to find their own paths, some easier than others, such as Daphne, who has become a reporter with her own supernatural investigative show. This soon leads to a reunion, where Mystery Inc. travel to Louisiana, where all too real zombies and werecats plague the island they have been invited to.

Detailed summary

Flashbacks in italics

At a faraway castle, Shaggy and Scooby are shown to be chased by a large moat monster. The gang had all been previously searching the castle for clues. As Scooby comes crashing down on the monster, the monster is discovered to be Mr. Beeman, a real estate agent. Beeman had been printing counterfeit money.

This is a case that happened long ago, but Daphne remembers it as one of Mystery Inc.'s frightening cases, as she is interviewed on Chris's day-time talk show. Daphne is there to promote her mystery and travel show, Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake. Her past cohort, Fred, has stuck with her as his cameraman and producer, while she can't help but miss the others. As Daphne reveals a season of new segments called "Haunted America", Fred gets an idea and begins to make calls, which segues into what Shaggy and Scooby, and Velma have been up to.

Shaggy and Scooby, have recently been hired as customs inspectors at an airport, as it's implied that they may not have been able to hold any job for too long. While rummaging through luggage, Scooby sniffs out contraband cheese, which they then take to a customs storage room, where they find the mother load of confiscated food. They can't help themselves but eat everything in sight, which of course gets them fired. As they begin to cry, Shaggy receives a call from Fred.

Meanwhile, Velma has started her own bookstore, although she's become bored by the experience, preferring to be out solving mysteries than selling them. She is then cheered up by a call from Fred.

The next day, Daphne waits impatiently to be picked up by Fred, who has been busy with a surprise for her birthday, which she has completely forgotten about. Having arrived in the Mystery Machine, Fred opens up the back to reveal Scooby, Shaggy, and Velma exploding party poppers and blowing into party horns. Daphne is shocked and delighted, as well as touched by Freddy's sentiment. Mystery Inc. is back in business!

The gang decides to go to New Orleans for the first segment of the television program. They meet up with many fake ghosts such as a floating ghost, which was just a video projection, a vampire bat, who was just an old man stealing a necklace, a ghostly casino riverboat captain, who was really an old lady, and lastly a lobster-man in a factory, who was really a middle-aged man. Daphne is very disappointed to not find a real ghost. As Scooby and Shaggy look for food from local shops, Daphne, Fred, and Velma meet a young chef named Lena. Lena had overheard Daphne's disappointment and says that a real ghost named Morgan Moonscar haunts the island she works at. Velma looks up the island on her computer and agrees that there had been many strange disappearances on Lena's island. They agree to follow Lena back to her island.

The gang all express their excitement about visiting the island on the car trip down to the ferry. Real ghosts, homemade Cajun food, and the beautiful scenery. The gang meets Jacques, the ferry driver for Moonscar Island, and they board the ferry. Fred begins to videotape the bayou and Jacques discuss how pirates used to use the bayou to hide from the law, including Morgan Moonscar. Soon, Scooby and Shaggy accidentally fall off the ferry trying to catch a catfish named Big Mona. Alligators chase them, but they are rescued by an angry fisherman named Snakebite Scruggs and hunting pig Mojo. Shaggy and Scooby board the ferry again. They reach Moonscar Island and drive off the ferry. Jacques leaves back toward New Orleans. As the gang approaches Simone's house, who is the owner of the plantation Lena works at, they notice all the cats around the porch area. Scooby chases the cats and causes a big commotion, angering Beau the gardener and Simone the house owner. Daphne introduces herself to Simone and they discuss the plantation and its ghosts. Simone agrees that it is haunted by “restless spirits.” She agrees to Daphne recording around the plantation. They all enter the mansion except the cats and the gardener.

Scooby and Shaggy give the rest of the gang a scare after screaming loudly. They had simply been surprised by how hot the plantation's peppers were. After Simone, Lena and the rest of the gang leave, Scooby and Shaggy scream again but this time it is because of ghostwriting on the wall that appeared suddenly. Daphne excitedly tapes the wall and another word appears while taping, carved into the wall suddenly. Viewing the tape later in slow-motion, the gang discovers that the writing was done by the ghost of Morgan Moonscar. Scooby and Shaggy get hungry and make a huge picnic basket of food. Velma returns to the wall to see what is under the wall paint. She uses a spatula to peel off all the paint behind the ghostly words written by the ghost. She discovers a piece of Morgan Moonscar's ship which was used in the construction of the mansion. Simone and Lena aren't surprised.

Scooby and Shaggy get into mischief with Simone's cats and Mojo the hunting pig. They fall into a hole, which they later discover is a grave. As they try to exit the grave, they pull off a piece of the wall and a skeleton hand falls from a hole in the side of the wall. Above them, a sinister-looking green fog-like energy manifests and envelopes the entire skeleton. It begins to gain skin, clothing and hair, and morphs into the zombie of Morgan Moonscar himself, and it begins to chase Scooby and Shaggy who escape the grave and run for their lives. They run into Beau the gardener but can't find the zombie afterward. The gang goes back to investigate the grave but it is found to be empty. It starts to get dark and Simone offers for the gang to stay at her home for the night. They agree.

Lena quickly but kindly shows the gang around to their individual rooms. Shaggy, who is excited about dinner, gets dressed and trims his beard. Scooby plays with an owl just outside the window. As Shaggy stares into the mirror, a Civil War ghost comes out of the mirror and tries to warn Shaggy telling him to “get away”, just as the ghost of Morgan Moonscar had tried to warn the gang by his message in the kitchen. Velma investigates the mirror and agrees that it is from the Civil War era. Everyone leaves for dinner. At dinner, Scooby causes trouble with the cats again. He and Shaggy have to eat a crawfish boil outside in the Mystery Machine. They enjoy the Cajun meal until the cats follow them to the mystery machine and all stare at them through the windows. Shaggy drives the Mystery Machine away in order to shake off the cats. Meanwhile, Fred, Daphne, and Velma discuss over Simone's dinner table why someone in a pirate mask would want to scare everyone off the island. Treasure? Oil under the island?

Back in the Mystery Machine, Scooby and Shaggy dare each other to eat one of the hot peppers. Soon, they both go running to a nearby lake for a large drink of water. As they drink, the mysterious green fog reappears and feeds its spirit at the bottom of the lake. Zombies start to rise up from the floor of the lake. Soon, zombies are rising from every location around. Shaggy and Scooby again bump into Beau who was out in the forest late at night and was holding a lantern. When they noticed Beau's eye pupils were missing they assumed he was a zombie too and they again fled in fright as Beau sees them fleeing away. Lena grabs lanterns for the gang to use as they head out to look for Shaggy and Scooby. They meet up with Beau and suspect that he might have to do with the Zombies when he was out looking for Shaggy and Scooby whom he saw running away screaming "zombies" but he didn't see any chasing after. Daphne suggests that they all split up and look for Scooby and Shaggy.

After some searching, Velma takes Beau due to thinking that he might be a suspect while, Daphne and Fred find the abandoned Mystery Machine. As they investigate around, A zombie's hand comes out the bushes touching Daphne's shoulder. Daphne karate-throws the zombie onto the ground and it stops moving She notices another hand coming out the bushes and she reaches to karate throw another zombie instead she karate throws Shaggy out of the bush and Scooby appears out of the bush right after. Daphne tapes as Fred tries to remove the zombie mask. (Since Shaggy was too afraid to keep the camera still filming Fred) He accidentally pulls the zombie's real head off. They realize the zombie could be real. The malevolent green fog again hits the lake and stirs up more zombies rising from the ground. As Fred records, the zombies get closer, starting to surround Fred and Daphne. They run away but lose the camera in quicksand. Scooby and Shaggy have already been running and they scream in fright as they look for any safe place away from all the zombies. The zombies look like they are from different eras and backgrounds. Some have modern cameras around their necks and tourist clothes on while others are dressed as pirates, Confederate soldiers and even gangsters in elegant suits.

Shaggy and Scooby fall into a cave and find voodoo dolls of Velma, Daphne, and Fred. As they begin to play with the dolls, the actions the dolls do, are connected to the real-life actions of the gang. Faraway, the rest of the gang begins to float and kick each other as their bodies are controlled by the voodoo dolls. Bats scare Scooby and Shaggy out of the cave and they are again chased by zombies.

Velma, Beau, Fred and Daphne go back to the mansion to look around. The power is out. Also, the staircase leading upstairs has been lifted up, with a tunnel going down beneath. Fred finds Lena there who says that she and Simone were attacked by the zombies. The zombies had supposedly grabbed Simone and dragged her away down the tunnel. They all head down the tunnel, Velma leading the way by following footprints on the ground. They all enter a voodoo ritual room which was where the cave led to where Scooby and Shaggy were at earlier playing with the voodoo dolls. Velma comments how Simone walked down the tunnel and hadn't been dragged by a zombie. By then it was too late, though. Simone uses voodoo dolls to capture Fred, Daphne, Beau and Velma. As she ties up the dolls, the gang can't move in real life. Simone explains how to preserve her immortality, she has to drain the life force of victims she lures to the island. She and Lena turn into terrifying werecats. Meanwhile, Scooby and Shaggy run to the dock and meet up with Jacques whom they thought they could ask for help, unfortunately he quickly turns into a werecat as well and begins to chase them.

Velma accuses Simone of stealing Morgan Moonscar's treasure. Simone yells in anger at the name of Moonscar and starts to detail the origin of the horrible curse: she explains how she was a peaceful settler until Morgan Moonscar and his pirate crew drove all the islanders into the bayou to thier death by the alligators and took over the island. She and Simone prayed to their cat god in order to destroy the pirates and receive immortality. The cat god granted their wish and turned them into werecats. They killed all the pirates and later plantation workers who had taken over the island for a pepper garden. However, their wish came at a big price: upon becoming werecats, Simone and Lena were actually cursed into preserving their "immortality" at the expense of absorbing other people's souls every harvest moon, or else they will die. Jacques was also given immortality as a werecat.

As Simone is discussing her past, Scooby and Shaggy were captured by Jacques as well but just as Jacques was about to take Scooby and Shaggy's lives, the zombies appear and pile on top of Jacques, giving Shaggy and Scooby some time to escape, in which they fell back into the cave from earlier, but this time further breaking into the voodoo room just in time before the gang was about to be drained of their life force. And Simone again has had enough of seeing Scooby because he was a dog; she and Lena transform into stronger werecats and chase Scooby and Shaggy around the room. Velma reaches her voodoo doll with her feet and begins to untie it. When Lena and Simone catch Scooby and Shaggy, the zombies enter the room as well and start chasing the werecats to stop them from draining their victims. Daphne realizes the zombies are the "good guys" and warns Shaggy of Simone and Lena. The zombies help Shaggy and Scooby as the two try to flee away from the cave where Jacques appears and as they try to flee away from him because of being scared out of their wits, Lena and Simone grabbed them and tried to drain Shaggy and Scooby's life force. Daphne and Velma, now free, make voodoo dolls of Simone and Lena and use them to keep away from Shaggy and Scooby. They capture them temporarily, and Beau waves a torch at them to keep them away. Shaggy and Scooby's life force was restored to normal as Beau and Fred check on the two.

Suddenly, the three werecats and the zombies start to shake and shrivel up into bones, and then dust; midnight had passed, and the werecats had taken too long to drain life force.  The eerie green light snakes throughout the room. The spirits of the zombies are avenged and can finally rest in peace. As the gang witness the spirits ascend up to the sky, the Civil War ghost again manifests briefly thanking the gang for helping avenge them, much to Scooby's discomfort upon witnessing him manifesting.

Beau explains that he's really a detective, and had been investigating the disappearances on the island. After admiring the beautiful sunrise, the gang drives onto the ferry and leave back for home. However, all of Simone's cats show up on the ferry as well (and oddly their eyes emit an eerie glow), much to Scooby's discomfort.

In a post-credits scene, Scooby pours the same cats a glass of milk.

Memorable quotes

Shaggy: Like, hi, boss!
Boss: You-you-you ate all the contraband!
Scooby: Excuse me.
Shaggy: Like, untrue, boss. We didn't eat it all. There's still a couple of Gorgonzolas left. Help yourself!
Boss: You're a couple of Gorgonzolas! You're fired!

Fred: Uh-huh... Well, no offense, Lena. But it's probably just some guy in an old pirate suit trying to scare off the local kids.
Lena: The ghost is real. Of course, if you're too scared to go...
Fred: Scared? Me? No, I-I don't think so.

Fred: Either hold it still or give it to Daphne.
Fred: It's the gardener.
Daphne: No!
Fred: It's the fisherman.
Shaggy: No!
Fred: It's the ferryman. Maybe it's... real?

Characters

In order of appearance:

Mentioned and non-speaking characters are in italics

Locations

Objects

Vehicles

Development

When Warner Bros. became the owners of the Hanna-Barbera intellectual properties after their parent company, Time Warner, bought out Turner who owned the studio at the time, Scooby-Doo was initially suggested as an idea for a movie simply because it was noticed that merchandise sold well and tested positively in polls for mothers/housewives. The film was an experiment in the home video market, and supposed to be a one-off, so time was more relaxed than usual and Warner Bros. saw no reason to interfere.[1]

When it came time to devise the story, a "brain trust" came together, including Davis Doi, Jim Stenstrum, Glenn Leopold, and Lance Falk. The movie having a combination of fake and real monsters, was suggested by Falk to appease the differing views of Stenstrum, who wanted real monsters, and Leopold, who thought having real monsters was against the Scooby-Doo formula, as there needed to be a solvable mystery for the audience. Davis agreed to real monsters because he felt that the premise of having someone behind a fake monster couldn't hold for the length of a movie like it could for an episode.[2]

The plot isn't entirely original, as it is repurposed from Glenn Leopold's script of "The Curse of Kataluna", an unfinished episode of the cancelled TV series SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron.[2] Leopold also used a similar premise for The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest episode "Eclipse". However, had that episode of SWATS Kats been finished, the story wouldn't have had been used.[2]

Most of the original cast were replaced from previous Scooby-Doo productions:

  • Don Messick, the voice of Scooby-Doo, had only just died before recording took place, so he was replaced by radio personality, Scott Innes.
  • Heather North, the second voice of Daphne, was initially cast, doing a table read and spent a day doing half her lines in the booth,[3][4] but after recording half her lines, the studio decided they needed someone fresh,[5] so North was recast with Mary Kay Bergman, who redid all of North's existing lines.
  • For Velma, instead of going back to Nicole Jaffe, the casting department went with Ward, who had performed the voice of Velma the previous year in the Johnny Bravo episode "Bravo Dooby-Doo".
  • Casey Kasem was the most difficult to get back as he had strict demands in how he would only return if Shaggy was converted into a vegetarian to match the actor's own lifestyle, largely brought on by already refusing to act in a Burger King commercial as Shaggy. When they couldn't reach an agreement, Kasem was replaced with Billy West, who was already on a pay-or-play contract, in the hopes of a last minute change of mind from Kasem.
  • Frank Welker, the voice of Fred, was the only member of the original cast to be successfully brought. Initially there were some problems with concerns about his voice, as the recording director, Colette Sunderman, believed he should be talking in a higher pitch, but he had to convince her with old tapes that his performing the voice correctly. The confusion may have been the result of the likes of Cartoon Network time compressing episodes, which speeds up the audio and results in characters talking in a higher pitch than they usually are.[6]

Behind the scenes

  • There's a grave that reads "In Memory 1947-1972 Jimi Shindix", which is an allusion to musician Jimi Hendrix, who lived from 1942-1970.

Errors

  • When Pierre brings the guys their sandwich, the basket of peppers looks more like soup. The basket is also irregularly in front of the item next to it, instead of sitting next to it.
  • The Jacques Landing sign is missing grammar, so it neither says "Jacques' Landing" or "Jacques's Landing".
  • When Simone and Lena, as werecats, catch Scooby and Shaggy the first time, Scooby is missing his collar, which returns in the next shot, and later ripped off by Jacques. Scooby remains without a collar until the sunset, when they all leave Moonscar Island.
  • The glow on the cats' eyes aren't actually properly placed on their eyes but above them.
  • Lena's torn left sleeve is drawn incorrectly in the scene when she, Simone, and Jacques begin dying. Instead of her bare shoulder poking through a hole, her sleeve completely covers it while most of the bottom section is ripped off.
  • Velma's bookshop has three different names: "Dinkley's Mystery Book Shoppe" on the window; "Dinkley's Mystery Books" on the sign sticking out; and then calls it "Mystery Inc. Bookshop" on the phone.
  • The Mystery Machine has been redesigned to be more like a minivan, yet in-universe, it's still supposed to be the same. However, in the fourth DTV, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, Fred makes an oblique comment about it being good to be back in the old Mystery Machine while riding around in the Cyber Gang's van.
  • Shaggy says to Scooby not to hog all the hot sauce, but he doesn't use any himself anyway.
  • It's unknown how Simone provided for herself and Lena, as well as pay Beau for his work. She could actually sell the island's peppers, but that would probably bring more attention to the island than she would want. Of course, she might have stolen money from the victims they drained, as if what they were doing wasn't bad enough.
  • When Fred recorded the zombies that are real and ran with Daphne, he held the VHS camcorder backwards, but in the next shot after that, he drops it forward in the quicksand.
  • Morgan Moonscar's buried treasure does exist, as shown in the flashback describing his demise. However, it is dropped from the story altogether as a red herring, but the treasure presumably is still there.
    • The flashbacks show his crew carrying the chest ashore and later beginning to bury it, so it appears that the motive of killing the colonists was (at least in part) to keep them from witnessing where he buried his treasure.
  • The chances of an undercover detective (especially one investigating a possible string of homicides) not carrying a gun or a dispatch radio are extremely remote, even in a cartoon.
  • Why would the police wait until now to investigate the disappearances on the island when the latter has already been occurring for two hundred years? While the first disappearances would've been unnoticeable due to the population scarcity, it is very unlikely that they only just started noticing.
  • How Simone and Lena got ahold of Velma's eyeglass cleaning cloth and other articles of clothing and/or hair from Fred and Daphne was never explained. Beau already lived there so the two women could have taken something from him at any time.
  • The reveal at the end of Simone's cats' eyes glowing could suggest something more to them, such as a long lifespan (even immortality), since they were more than just house pets, they were creatures that Simone and Lena worshipped in the 1700s, meaning the cats in the flashback and Simone's could be one and the same, although, of course, this isn't directly confirmed.
  • Velma picks up a piece of red fabric, saying it was part of Lena's blouse. However, Lena's blouse is purple. Her vest and skirt are red. Since her werecat transformation didn't tear her vest, the fabric should be part of her skirt.

Everlasting influence

Scholastic published adaptations in Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island and Scooby-Doo and Zombies, Too!

In the next film, Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost, Ben Ravencroft hires Mystery Inc. because of the Moat Monster case he reads about in the newspaper.

Photos of Moonscar Mansion and the Moat Monster's capture are Easter eggs in the 28th and 29th DTVs, Scooby-Doo! and the Gourmet Ghost and Scooby-Doo! and the 13th Ghost, respectively. This was a tease building up to the 30th DTV, Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, where it acts like a long awaited sequel, although ends up more like a reboot of the whole event, changing several key scenes, the biggest of all that the real monsters were fake. A similar occurrence happened in Scooby-Doo! and the 13th Ghost, which undoes the fact that there were real monsters in the TV series it was supposed to conclude for, The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo.

Marketing and promotion

The film gained significant promotion from General Mills, NASCAR, Wendy's, and SpaghettiOs.

The film was highly publicized with the tagline, "This time the monsters are real."

Critical reception

Accolades

Award Date of ceremony Category Recipient Result
Annie Award November 6, 1999 Outstanding Achievement in an Animated Home Video Production Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island Nominated[7]
Golden Reel Award March 20, 1999 Sound Editing Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island Nominated[8]

In other languages

Language Name Meaning
Greek Ο Scooby-Doo στο Νησί των Τεράτων Scooby-Doo on Monster Island
Norwegian Scooby-Doo på Zombie-øya Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

Home availability

References

  1. ^ Falk, Lance (February 7, 2017). "APNSD! Episode 03: Interview With Lance Falk (Part 1)". A Podcast Named Scooby-Doo! Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  2. ^ a b c Falk, Lance (March 8, 2017). "APNSD! Episode 4: Interview With Lance Falk (Part 2)". A Podcast Named Scooby-Doo! Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  3. ^ 47CartoonGuy (September 7, 2019). "Behind the scenes Cast table read for Scooby Doo on Zombie Island one of the last productions at the old Hanna Barbera studios before its move to Warner Bros in Sherman Oaks California #ScoobyZombieIsland #Scooby50". Twitter. Retrieved April 27, 2020.
  4. ^ 47CartoonGuy (September 7, 2019). "Scott Innes, BJ Ward, Jennifer Leigh Warren and Heather North (before she was replaced by Mary Kay Bergman)". Twitter. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  5. ^ 47Cartoonguy (August 12, 2019). ""It's Terror Time Again: A Retrospective on Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)". YouTube. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  6. ^ Miller, Bob (April 1, 2000). "Frank Welker: Master of Many Voices". AWN. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  7. ^ "27th Annual Annie Awards". Annie Awards. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
  8. ^ Olson, Eric J. (February 22, 1999). "Sound editors shout Golden Reel noms". Variety. Retrieved April 26, 2020.
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