Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island
Encyclopedia
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is a 1998 American animated
comedy film
based on the animated television series Scooby-Doo
Saturday morning cartoon
franchise. In the film, Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred reunite to solve a frightening new mystery: They leave for a haunted bayou island to investigate the ghost of Moonscar the Pirate.
The film was released direct-to-video
September 22, 1998, and the feature gained positive reviews in the press as well as commercial success. It is the first in the long-running series of direct-to-video Scooby-Doo films.
, 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, all assuming that since their mysteries have all been people in costumes, more mysteries can't bring anything new. 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 saved for the flights. 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", such as a nerd
y-looking guy in a lobster
-man suit in a canned shellfish factory, an old man in a gargoyle suit at a graveyard, a ghost which 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 (evidently based on Avery Island, Louisiana, which, like Moonscar Island, is an island formed by bayou
s and on which chili pepper
s are grown), the home of her employer. The island, Lena claims, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a pirate
named Morgan Moonscar. When she leaves, Fred comments that she is very cute, to Daphne's annoyance. Although the gang is skeptical (except for Shaggy and Scooby, of course), they decide to go along with Lena and visit the island. On the way, Velma informs 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 French
America
n 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 and Beau, Simone's gardener, whom Daphne says is cute (to Fred's disapproval) even though she was irritated with Fred for saying almost the same thing about Lena. They also meet Snakebite Scruggs, a grungy fisherman
(after Big Mona, a catfish
) and his hunting
pig
, Mojo. The first half of the film plays 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 by Scruggs's warthog
, Mojo, and end up falling inside a big hole. While trying to get out they accidentally pull down some of the wall they were trying to climb, revealing a skeletal
arm. A mysterious green fog-like energy appears and envelopes the skeleton, causing it to fall out of earth. The bones are then joint up to mount a complete human
skeleton, which then continues to transform, grisly gaining skin and hair, until it finally transforms into the zombie of Morgan Moonscar himself. While trying to escape, Scooby and Shaggy 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 area of the island was a temporary headquarters
for a Confederate regiment in the American Civil War
period.
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 gag
s). However, they burn their mouths by eating too much spice. Both of them rush to the lake to refresh themselves, when suddenly the sinister green energy which previously reanimated Morgan Moonscar's corpse reappears and deposits itself into the soil of the lake, causing a big army of zombies to reanimate and emerge from the lake to attack them. Due to Shaggy's bad driving skills, the Mystery Machine sloughs in a muddy bank, forcing him and Scooby to flee on foot. Fred, Daphne and Velma go to look for them, but bump into Beau. They split up. Fred and Daphne argue a little, both disliking the other's love interest and trying to prove they are the suspect. Fred and Daphne find Scooby and Shaggy (Daphne accidentally uses martial arts on them as she felt something was on her back) trying to escape as they discover an unconscious zombie (this zombie passed out due to Daphne's martial skill). Fred thinks this is just "another man in mask", but rips the zombie's head off. It turns out that the island is home to real zombie
s. Scooby, Shaggy, Fred and Daphne separate. Fred and Daphne hear Lena's screams and run to save her. Fred trips down on a stone and the camera falls into a quicksand
pond, which it sinks into. Fred and Daphne reunite with Velma and Beau (Velma started to grow suspicious on Beau because "he is never nearby when something strange happens around" and decided to accompany him wherever he goes). Scooby and Shaggy discover wax
-made dolls with the looks of Fred, Velma and Daphne and play with them, causing the real versions to do the same (in a classic voodoo
doll trick), but the play is interrupted by bats and the zombies. Fred, Daphne, Velma and Beau come back to Simone's mansion and discover a secret passage under the main staircase. 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 heading into the chamber are Simone's (meaning she wasn't "dragged", she walked down that tunnel) and starts to question Lena about Simone's "kidnapping".
Simone appears, and she and Lena use voodoo dolls to trap the gang in the chamber. They transform into werecats ("cat creatures") with the intention of draining the gang's life force to preserve their immortality. The zombies - including Morgan Moonscar - were their many murdered victims (pirates, spice
trader
s, Confederate soldier
s, gangster
s, and tourist
s alike) whose bodies reanimate every harvest moon to alert visitors of the villains.
Velma questions their knowing about Moonscar's treasure, and Simone reveals that back in the 18th century, 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 alive by alligator
s. A vengeful Lena and Simone begged their cat god to curse the pirates, and after the wish was granted, they killed the pirates by draining their lifeforces. The wish, however, came with a price: Lena and Simone were cursed as well, as while they originally intended to just avenge their friends and family, the curse caused them to become werecats permanently, and eventually turned them evil, requiring that they drain life forces to survive. Consequently, Lena lured more people to the island, and they granted Jacques immortality in order to gain a ferry driver to bring them even more life force.
Scooby and Shaggy tumble into the cave, interrupting the ceremony and buying the gang time, which Velma uses to untie herself. She quickly creates voodoo dolls of Lena and Simone to interrupt their draining Scooby and Shaggy. When it seemed they were cornered, the werecats' life force expires, making their bodies disintegrate and breaking the curse
, freeing the zombies' souls to rest in peace. After the zombies' souls disappear, the ghost of the Confederate colonel thanks Scooby and the others for helping lift the curse. Beau is revealed to be an undercover officer sent to investigate the disappearances on the island (to Velma's fascination); Fred and Daphne become a couple again and Daphne offers Beau a chance to guest-star on her show to discuss the adventure, and he accepts offscreen. Upon departing, before Scooby can enjoy a chili pepper
sandwich, he notices Simone's cats, now homeless, coming towards him with their eyes glowing sinisterly, and the screen fades to black with Scooby getting confused.
's Doug
, and Davis Doi, then a writer for Hanna-Barbera's production Dexter's Laboratory
, contributed to the final script. After Don Messick's
death, Scott Innes
replaced Messick as the voice of Scooby Doo. Casey Kasem
refused to reprise his role as Shaggy Rogers after his request for the character to be vegetarian was rejected. Instead, Billy West
provided the voice for Shaggy. Mary Kay Bergman
was cast as Daphne when the character was taken in a new direction. B.J. Ward who played Velma in the Johnny Bravo
crossover episode, reprised her role in this film. Frank Welker
is the only actor from the original series to reprise his role as the 1st man standing.
The film was directed by Jim Stenstrum, who worked as a character designer on numerous previous Scooby-Doo productions, beginning in 1983 with The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show. Hiroshi Aoyama
and Kazumi Fukushima directed the film as well, but are not credited on the picture. The film is based on Glenn Leopold
's unfinished Swat Kats episode "The Curse of Kataluna", and written by Leopold and Davis Doi
. The film and later following two films had a darker tone than the original cartoons, seeing how, to try to bring more attention to the films, the monsters were made real. The film was also dedicated in memory of Don Messick
.
Professional composer Steven Bramson
(who is also known for his contributions with fellow composer Bruce Broughton
on projects such as Tiny Toon Adventures
, JAG
and Lost in Space
) wrote all the music for the feature. The soundtrack for the film features three songs composed specifically for the film. "The Ghost Is Here" and "It's Terror Time Again", both written by Glenn Leopold, were performed by Skycycle
. The title track, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You", was performed by Third Eye Blind
. The film was animated and is presented in standard 1.33:1 full frame format.
on September 22, 1998, and made its television debut a little over a month later on October 31, 1998, on Cartoon Network
. It was released on DVD
on March 6, 2001, and re-released with extra bonus features on February 8, 2005.
. The movie currently holds a rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes
.
Animation
Animation is the rapid display of a sequence of images of 2-D or 3-D artwork or model positions in order to create an illusion of movement. The effect is an optical illusion of motion due to the phenomenon of persistence of vision, and can be created and demonstrated in several ways...
comedy film
Comedy film
Comedy film is a genre of film in which the main emphasis is on humour. They are designed to elicit laughter from the audience. Comedies are mostly light-hearted dramas and are made to amuse and entertain the audiences...
based on the animated television series Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo
Scooby-Doo is an American media franchise based around several animated television series and related works produced from 1969 to the present day. The original series, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, was created for Hanna-Barbera Productions by writers Joe Ruby and Ken Spears in 1969...
Saturday morning cartoon
Saturday morning cartoon
A Saturday morning cartoon is the colloquial term for the animated television programming that has typically been scheduled on Saturday mornings on the major American television networks from the 1960s to the present; the genre's peak in popularity mostly ended in the 1990s while the popularity of...
franchise. In the film, Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred reunite to solve a frightening new mystery: They leave for a haunted bayou island to investigate the ghost of Moonscar the Pirate.
The film was released direct-to-video
Direct-to-video
Direct-to-video is a term used to describe a film that has been released to the public on home video formats without being released in film theaters or broadcast on television...
September 22, 1998, and the feature gained positive reviews in the press as well as commercial success. It is the first in the long-running series of direct-to-video Scooby-Doo films.
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 ScoobyScooby-Doo (character)
Scoobert "Scooby" Doo is the eponymous character and the protagonist in the Scooby-Doo animated television series created by the popular American animation company Hanna-Barbera...
, he is caught and discovered to be a counterfeiter. This is revealed to be a retelling by Daphne
Daphne Blake
Daphne Anne Blake is a fictional character in the long-running American animated series Scooby-Doo. Daphne, depicted as coming from a wealthy family, is noted for her red hair, her fashion sense, and her knack for getting into danger...
on her television program; after years of unmasking phony ghosts, the Mystery Inc. gang have gone their separate ways, all assuming that since their mysteries have all been people in costumes, more mysteries can't bring anything new. Daphne and Fred go off to start a successful investigative TV series (Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake), Velma
Velma Dinkley
Velma Dace Dinkley is a fictional character in the American television animated series Scooby-Doo. She is prone to losing her glasses. She is usually seen wearing a baggy orange sweater, short pleated skirt , knee socks, and Mary Janes...
opens a mystery bookstore, and Scooby
Scooby-Doo (character)
Scoobert "Scooby" Doo is the eponymous character and the protagonist in the Scooby-Doo animated television series created by the popular American animation company Hanna-Barbera...
and Shaggy
Shaggy Rogers
Norville "Shaggy" Rogers is a fictional character from the American animated television series Scooby-Doo, about the adventures of four crime-solving teenagers and Shaggy's pet great dane, Scooby-Doo. Shaggy is a cowardly slacker more interested in eating than solving mysteries. He is the only...
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 saved for the flights. 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
Louisiana
Louisiana is a state located in the southern region of the United States of America. Its capital is Baton Rouge and largest city is New Orleans. Louisiana is the only state in the U.S. with political subdivisions termed parishes, which are local governments equivalent to counties...
.
After encountering many "men in masks", such as a nerd
Nerd
Nerd is a derogatory slang term for an intelligent but socially awkward and obsessive person who spends time on unpopular or obscure pursuits, to the exclusion of more mainstream activities. Nerds are considered to be awkward, shy, and unattractive...
y-looking guy in a lobster
Lobster
Clawed lobsters comprise a family of large marine crustaceans. Highly prized as seafood, lobsters are economically important, and are often one of the most profitable commodities in coastal areas they populate.Though several groups of crustaceans are known as lobsters, the clawed lobsters are most...
-man suit in a canned shellfish factory, an old man in a gargoyle suit at a graveyard, a ghost which turns out to be a hologram
Holography
Holography is a technique that allows the light scattered from an object to be recorded and later reconstructed so that when an imaging system is placed in the reconstructed beam, an image of the object will be seen even when the object is no longer present...
, and a zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
policeman
Police officer
A police officer is a warranted employee of a police force...
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 (evidently based on Avery Island, Louisiana, which, like Moonscar Island, is an island formed by bayou
Bayou
A bayou is an American term for a body of water typically found in flat, low-lying areas, and can refer either to an extremely slow-moving stream or river , or to a marshy lake or wetland. The name "bayou" can also refer to creeks that see level changes due to tides and hold brackish water which...
s and on which chili pepper
Chili pepper
Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
s are grown), the home of her employer. The island, Lena claims, is said to be haunted by the ghost of a pirate
Piracy
Piracy is an act of robbery or criminal violence at sea. The term can include acts committed on land, in the air, or in other major bodies of water or on a shore. It does not normally include crimes committed against persons traveling on the same vessel as the perpetrator...
named Morgan Moonscar. When she leaves, Fred comments that she is very cute, to Daphne's annoyance. Although the gang is skeptical (except for Shaggy and Scooby, of course), they decide to go along with Lena and visit the island. On the way, Velma informs 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 French
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
America
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
n woman
Woman
A woman , pl: women is a female human. The term woman is usually reserved for an adult, with the term girl being the usual term for a female child or adolescent...
, 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 and Beau, Simone's gardener, whom Daphne says is cute (to Fred's disapproval) even though she was irritated with Fred for saying almost the same thing about Lena. They also meet Snakebite Scruggs, a grungy fisherman
Fisherman
A fisherman or fisher is someone who captures fish and other animals from a body of water, or gathers shellfish. Worldwide, there are about 38 million commercial and subsistence fishermen and fish farmers. The term can also be applied to recreational fishermen and may be used to describe both men...
(after Big Mona, a catfish
Catfish
Catfishes are a diverse group of ray-finned fish. Named for their prominent barbels, which resemble a cat's whiskers, catfish range in size and behavior from the heaviest and longest, the Mekong giant catfish from Southeast Asia and the second longest, the wels catfish of Eurasia, to detritivores...
) and his hunting
Hunting
Hunting is the practice of pursuing any living thing, usually wildlife, for food, recreation, or trade. In present-day use, the term refers to lawful hunting, as distinguished from poaching, which is the killing, trapping or capture of the hunted species contrary to applicable law...
pig
Pig
A pig is any of the animals in the genus Sus, within the Suidae family of even-toed ungulates. Pigs include the domestic pig, its ancestor the wild boar, and several other wild relatives...
, Mojo. The first half of the film plays 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 by Scruggs's warthog
Warthog
The Warthog or Common Warthog is a wild member of the pig family that lives in grassland, savanna, and woodland in Sub-Saharan Africa. In the past it was commonly treated as a subspecies of P...
, Mojo, and end up falling inside a big hole. While trying to get out they accidentally pull down some of the wall they were trying to climb, revealing a skeletal
Skeleton
The skeleton is the body part that forms the supporting structure of an organism. There are two different skeletal types: the exoskeleton, which is the stable outer shell of an organism, and the endoskeleton, which forms the support structure inside the body.In a figurative sense, skeleton can...
arm. A mysterious green fog-like energy appears and envelopes the skeleton, causing it to fall out of earth. The bones are then joint up to mount a complete human
Human
Humans are the only living species in the Homo genus...
skeleton, which then continues to transform, grisly gaining skin and hair, until it finally transforms into the zombie of Morgan Moonscar himself. While trying to escape, Scooby and Shaggy 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 area of the island was a temporary headquarters
Headquarters
Headquarters denotes the location where most, if not all, of the important functions of an organization are coordinated. In the United States, the corporate headquarters represents the entity at the center or the top of a corporation taking full responsibility managing all business activities...
for a Confederate regiment in the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
period.
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 gag
Running gag
A running gag, or running joke, is a literary device that takes the form of an amusing joke or a comical reference and appears repeatedly throughout a work of literature or other form of storytelling....
s). However, they burn their mouths by eating too much spice. Both of them rush to the lake to refresh themselves, when suddenly the sinister green energy which previously reanimated Morgan Moonscar's corpse reappears and deposits itself into the soil of the lake, causing a big army of zombies to reanimate and emerge from the lake to attack them. Due to Shaggy's bad driving skills, the Mystery Machine sloughs in a muddy bank, forcing him and Scooby to flee on foot. Fred, Daphne and Velma go to look for them, but bump into Beau. They split up. Fred and Daphne argue a little, both disliking the other's love interest and trying to prove they are the suspect. Fred and Daphne find Scooby and Shaggy (Daphne accidentally uses martial arts on them as she felt something was on her back) trying to escape as they discover an unconscious zombie (this zombie passed out due to Daphne's martial skill). Fred thinks this is just "another man in mask", but rips the zombie's head off. It turns out that the island is home to real zombie
Zombie
Zombie is a term used to denote an animated corpse brought back to life by mystical means such as witchcraft. The term is often figuratively applied to describe a hypnotized person bereft of consciousness and self-awareness, yet ambulant and able to respond to surrounding stimuli...
s. Scooby, Shaggy, Fred and Daphne separate. Fred and Daphne hear Lena's screams and run to save her. Fred trips down on a stone and the camera falls into a quicksand
Quicksand
Quicksand is a colloid hydrogel consisting of fine granular matter , clay, and water.Water circulation underground can focus in an area with the optimal mixture of fine sands and other materials such as clay. The water moves up and then down slowly in a convection-like manner throughout a column...
pond, which it sinks into. Fred and Daphne reunite with Velma and Beau (Velma started to grow suspicious on Beau because "he is never nearby when something strange happens around" and decided to accompany him wherever he goes). Scooby and Shaggy discover wax
Wax
thumb|right|[[Cetyl palmitate]], a typical wax ester.Wax refers to a class of chemical compounds that are plastic near ambient temperatures. Characteristically, they melt above 45 °C to give a low viscosity liquid. Waxes are insoluble in water but soluble in organic, nonpolar solvents...
-made dolls with the looks of Fred, Velma and Daphne and play with them, causing the real versions to do the same (in a classic voodoo
Louisiana Voodoo
Louisiana Voodoo, also known as New Orleans Voodoo, describes a set of underground religious practices which originated from the traditions of the African diaspora. It is a cultural form of the Afro-American religions which developed within the French, Spanish, and Creole speaking African American...
doll trick), but the play is interrupted by bats and the zombies. Fred, Daphne, Velma and Beau come back to Simone's mansion and discover a secret passage under the main staircase. 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 heading into the chamber are Simone's (meaning she wasn't "dragged", she walked down that tunnel) and starts to question Lena about Simone's "kidnapping".
Simone appears, and she and Lena use voodoo dolls to trap the gang in the chamber. They transform into werecats ("cat creatures") with the intention of draining the gang's life force to preserve their immortality. The zombies - including Morgan Moonscar - were their many murdered victims (pirates, spice
Spice
A spice is a dried seed, fruit, root, bark, or vegetative substance used in nutritionally insignificant quantities as a food additive for flavor, color, or as a preservative that kills harmful bacteria or prevents their growth. It may be used to flavour a dish or to hide other flavours...
trader
Merchant
A merchant is a businessperson who trades in commodities that were produced by others, in order to earn a profit.Merchants can be one of two types:# A wholesale merchant operates in the chain between producer and retail merchant...
s, Confederate soldier
Confederate States Army
The Confederate States Army was the army of the Confederate States of America while the Confederacy existed during the American Civil War. On February 8, 1861, delegates from the seven Deep South states which had already declared their secession from the United States of America adopted the...
s, gangster
Gangster
A gangster is a criminal who is a member of a gang. Some gangs are considered to be part of organized crime. Gangsters are also called mobsters, a term derived from mob and the suffix -ster....
s, and tourist
Tourism
Tourism is travel for recreational, leisure or business purposes. The World Tourism Organization defines tourists as people "traveling to and staying in places outside their usual environment for not more than one consecutive year for leisure, business and other purposes".Tourism has become a...
s alike) whose bodies reanimate every harvest moon to alert visitors of the villains.
Velma questions their knowing about Moonscar's treasure, and Simone reveals that back in the 18th century, she and Lena were part of a group of settlers who wanted to make the island their home. One night, during the Harvest moon
Harvest moon
The Full Harvest Moon is the full moon that occurs closest to the autumnal equinox.-Appearance:All full moons rise around the time of sunset. In general the moon rises about 3 minutes later each day...
, 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 alive by alligator
Alligator
An alligator is a crocodilian in the genus Alligator of the family Alligatoridae. There are two extant alligator species: the American alligator and the Chinese alligator ....
s. A vengeful Lena and Simone begged their cat god to curse the pirates, and after the wish was granted, they killed the pirates by draining their lifeforces. The wish, however, came with a price: Lena and Simone were cursed as well, as while they originally intended to just avenge their friends and family, the curse caused them to become werecats permanently, and eventually turned them evil, requiring that they drain life forces to survive. Consequently, Lena lured more people to the island, and they granted Jacques immortality in order to gain a ferry driver to bring them even more life force.
Scooby and Shaggy tumble into the cave, interrupting the ceremony and buying the gang time, which Velma uses to untie herself. She quickly creates voodoo dolls of Lena and Simone to interrupt their draining Scooby and Shaggy. When it seemed they were cornered, the werecats' life force expires, making their bodies disintegrate and breaking the curse
Curse
A curse is any expressed wish that some form of adversity or misfortune will befall or attach to some other entity—one or more persons, a place, or an object...
, freeing the zombies' souls to rest in peace. After the zombies' souls disappear, the ghost of the Confederate colonel thanks Scooby and the others for helping lift the curse. Beau is revealed to be an undercover officer sent to investigate the disappearances on the island (to Velma's fascination); Fred and Daphne become a couple again and Daphne offers Beau a chance to guest-star on her show to discuss the adventure, and he accepts offscreen. Upon departing, before Scooby can enjoy a chili pepper
Chili pepper
Chili pepper is the fruit of plants from the genus Capsicum, members of the nightshade family, Solanaceae. The term in British English and in Australia, New Zealand, India, Malaysia and other Asian countries is just chilli without pepper.Chili peppers originated in the Americas...
sandwich, he notices Simone's cats, now homeless, coming towards him with their eyes glowing sinisterly, and the screen fades to black with Scooby getting confused.
Featured Villains
- Simone Lenoir: A beautiful, French American woman born in the early 1700s and later "employer" of Lena Dupree. She seems to be the lead Werecat and the indirect cause of the Curse of Moonscar Island. With Lena, she delved into the dark arts and invoked a curse on herself and the island. While they originally intended to avenge their friends and family, this curse turned the two into Werecats permanently and forced them to consume the life force of victims every Harvest Moon. She and her underlings finally meet their end when they did not harvest the needed amount of energy in the time allowed. The bodies of Simone, Lena, and Jacques turn into skeletons and implode in a cloud of dust.
- Lena Dupree: She is a beautiful young woman born in the mid- to late 1700s. She was a settler who made her home on Moonscar Island with Simone Lenoir. Lena and Simone both witnessed the murder of the other settlers by Morgan Moonscar and his crew. Their cat god granted them the ablilty to become cat creatures to destroy the pirates, but were cursed in the process. As a cute young woman, Lena lures visitors to Moonscar island for her, Simone, and Jacques to drain. She is finally destroyed after she and Simone fail to drain the life force from Mystery Inc.
- Jacques: A man whom Lena and Simone offered immortality to in exchange running the ferry to bring vicims to the island.
Cast
- Scott InnesScott InnesScott Innes is an American author, songwriter, voice actor, and radio personality.He became known as the new voice of Scooby-Doo in the Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies made between 1998 and 2001. From 1999 to 2001, he also voiced Scooby's best friend and owner Norville "Shaggy" Rogers...
as Scooby-DooScooby-Doo (character)Scoobert "Scooby" Doo is the eponymous character and the protagonist in the Scooby-Doo animated television series created by the popular American animation company Hanna-Barbera... - Billy WestBilly WestWilliam Richard "Billy" West is an American voice actor. Born in Detroit but raised in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Billy launched his career in the early 1980s performing daily comedic routines on Boston's WBCN. He left the radio station to work on the short-lived revival...
as Shaggy RogersShaggy RogersNorville "Shaggy" Rogers is a fictional character from the American animated television series Scooby-Doo, about the adventures of four crime-solving teenagers and Shaggy's pet great dane, Scooby-Doo. Shaggy is a cowardly slacker more interested in eating than solving mysteries. He is the only... - Mary Kay BergmanMary Kay BergmanMary Kay Bergman was an American voice actress and animation voice over teacher, who was the lead female voice actress on South Park from the show's 1997 debut until her death and was best known as the official voice of Snow White for the Walt Disney Company starting in 1989 with the Snow White...
as Daphne BlakeDaphne BlakeDaphne Anne Blake is a fictional character in the long-running American animated series Scooby-Doo. Daphne, depicted as coming from a wealthy family, is noted for her red hair, her fashion sense, and her knack for getting into danger... - Frank WelkerFrank WelkerFranklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
as Fred Jones - B.J. Ward as Velma DinkleyVelma DinkleyVelma Dace Dinkley is a fictional character in the American television animated series Scooby-Doo. She is prone to losing her glasses. She is usually seen wearing a baggy orange sweater, short pleated skirt , knee socks, and Mary Janes...
- Adrienne BarbeauAdrienne BarbeauAdrienne Jo Barbeau is an American actress and the author of three books. Barbeau came to prominence in the 1970s as Broadway's original Rizzo in the musical Grease, and as Carol Traynor, the divorced daughter of Maude Findlay in the sitcom Maude...
as Simone Lenoir, the owner of the manor and the main antagonist of the film. She is also a werecat. - Tara CharendoffTara StrongTara Lyn Strong is a Canadian actress, voice-over artist, singer, who is best known for her voice work in cartoons.-Early life and career:...
as Lena Dupree, a cook who works for Simone. She takes a liking to Fred and but turns out to be a werecat, much to Fred's dismay. - Cam ClarkeCam ClarkeCameron Arthur "Cam" Clarke is a prolific American voice actor and singer, well known for his work in animation and video games. Clarke is well known for providing the voices of Leonardo in Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles and Shotaro Kaneda in the 1989 original English-dub of Akira. He often voices...
as Detective Beau Neville, a police detective who works undercover as a gardener at the manor. He later befriends Mystery, Inc. - Jim CummingsJim CummingsJames Jonah "Jim" Cummings is an American voice actor who has appeared in almost 100 roles. He has appeared in classic animated movies such as Aladdin and The Lion King, as well as taking on roles in more current films, such as Bee Movie, Princess and the Frog, and Winnie the Pooh.-Personal...
as Jacques, the ferry owner, who is a werecat. - Mark HamillMark HamillMark Richard Hamill is an American actor, voice artist, producer, director, and writer, best known for his role as Luke Skywalker in the original trilogy of Star Wars. More recently, he has received acclaim for his voice work, in such roles as the Joker in Batman: The Animated Series, Firelord...
as Snakebite Scruggs, a grouchy fisherman whose goal is to catch Big Mona.
Production
The film's screenplay was written by Glenn Leopold, of NickelodeonNickelodeon (TV channel)
Nickelodeon, often simply called Nick and originally named Pinwheel, is an American children's channel owned by MTV Networks, a subsidiary of Viacom International. The channel is primarily aimed at children ages 7–17, with the exception of their weekday morning program block aimed at preschoolers...
's Doug
Doug
Doug is an American animated sitcom created by Jim Jinkins and co-produced by his studio, Jumbo Pictures . Doug centers on the surreal and imaginative exploits of its title character, Douglas "Doug" Funnie, who experiences common predicaments while attending middle school. The series lampoons...
, and Davis Doi, then a writer for Hanna-Barbera's production Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory
Dexter's Laboratory is an American animated television series created by Genndy Tartakovsky and produced by Cartoon Network Studios . The show is about a boy named Dexter who has an enormous secret laboratory filled with an endless collection of his inventions...
, contributed to the final script. After Don Messick's
Don Messick
Donald Earl "Don" Messick was an American voice actor best known for his work for Hanna-Barbera. Perhaps his most well-known voice creations include Scooby-Doo, Papa Smurf, and Dr. Benton Quest....
death, Scott Innes
Scott Innes
Scott Innes is an American author, songwriter, voice actor, and radio personality.He became known as the new voice of Scooby-Doo in the Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies made between 1998 and 2001. From 1999 to 2001, he also voiced Scooby's best friend and owner Norville "Shaggy" Rogers...
replaced Messick as the voice of Scooby Doo. Casey Kasem
Casey Kasem
Kemal Amin "Casey" Kasem is an American radio personality and voice actor who is best known for being the host of the nationally syndicated Top 40 countdown show American Top 40, and for voicing Shaggy in the popular Saturday morning cartoon franchise Scooby-Doo.Kasem, along with Don Bustany and...
refused to reprise his role as Shaggy Rogers after his request for the character to be vegetarian was rejected. Instead, Billy West
Billy West
William Richard "Billy" West is an American voice actor. Born in Detroit but raised in the Roslindale neighborhood of Boston, Massachusetts, Billy launched his career in the early 1980s performing daily comedic routines on Boston's WBCN. He left the radio station to work on the short-lived revival...
provided the voice for Shaggy. Mary Kay Bergman
Mary Kay Bergman
Mary Kay Bergman was an American voice actress and animation voice over teacher, who was the lead female voice actress on South Park from the show's 1997 debut until her death and was best known as the official voice of Snow White for the Walt Disney Company starting in 1989 with the Snow White...
was cast as Daphne when the character was taken in a new direction. B.J. Ward who played Velma in the Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo
Johnny Bravo is an American animated television series created by Van Partible for Cartoon Network. The series stars a muscular beefcake young man named Johnny Bravo who dons a pompadour hairstyle and an Elvis Presley-like voice and has a forward, woman-chasing personality...
crossover episode, reprised her role in this film. Frank Welker
Frank Welker
Franklin Wendell "Frank" Welker is an American actor who specializes in voice acting and has contributed character voices and other vocal effects to American television and motion pictures.-Acting career:...
is the only actor from the original series to reprise his role as the 1st man standing.
The film was directed by Jim Stenstrum, who worked as a character designer on numerous previous Scooby-Doo productions, beginning in 1983 with The New Scooby and Scrappy-Doo Show. Hiroshi Aoyama
Hiroshi Aoyama
is a Japanese Grand Prix motorcycle road racer. He is the older brother of former 250cc and World Superbike rider, Shuhei Aoyama.In his six seasons in the 250cc World Championship, he raced Honda and KTM machinery in an Aprilia-dominated class. He took eight victories and never finished lower than...
and Kazumi Fukushima directed the film as well, but are not credited on the picture. The film is based on Glenn Leopold
Glenn Leopold
Glenn Leopold is one of the writers who worked at Hanna-Barbera Productions. He worked as Story Editor/Writer in many of Hanna Barbera Productions. Leopold worked as a writer on shows like Scooby and Scrappy Doo , The Flintstone Kids, and The Snorks [2]. Leopold was also one of Story Editors of The...
's unfinished Swat Kats episode "The Curse of Kataluna", and written by Leopold and Davis Doi
Davis Doi
Davis Doi is an animator director and producer known for directing Dinotopia: Quest for the Ruby Sunstone as well as the Care Bears videos....
. The film and later following two films had a darker tone than the original cartoons, seeing how, to try to bring more attention to the films, the monsters were made real. The film was also dedicated in memory of Don Messick
Don Messick
Donald Earl "Don" Messick was an American voice actor best known for his work for Hanna-Barbera. Perhaps his most well-known voice creations include Scooby-Doo, Papa Smurf, and Dr. Benton Quest....
.
Professional composer Steven Bramson
Steven Bramson
Steven Bramson is a professional composer who has been nominated for two Primetime Emmy Awards, and has won one Daytime Emmy Award and three ASCAP Awards. He has written music to George Lucas' Young Indiana Jones and the CBS series JAG. Bramson’s music has been played in New York City and London....
(who is also known for his contributions with fellow composer Bruce Broughton
Bruce Broughton
Bruce Broughton is a film, video game, and television soundtrack composer who has composed several highly acclaimed soundtracks over his extensive career, including American music classics such as "Homeward Bound," "Silverado", "Tombstone," and wonderfully lyric music for "Miracle on 34th...
on projects such as Tiny Toon Adventures
Tiny Toon Adventures
Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures, usually referred to as Tiny Toon Adventures or simply Tiny Toons, is an American animated television series created by Tom Ruegger and produced by Amblin Entertainment and Warner Bros. Animation. It began production as a result of Warner Bros....
, JAG
JAG (TV series)
JAG is an American adventure/legal drama television show that was produced by Belisarius Productions, in association with Paramount Network Television and, for the first season only, NBC Productions...
and Lost in Space
Lost in Space (film)
Lost in Space is a 1998 American science fiction film starring Gary Oldman and William Hurt. The film was shot in London and Shepperton, and produced by New Line Cinema. The plot is adapted from the 1965–1968 CBS television series Lost In Space...
) wrote all the music for the feature. The soundtrack for the film features three songs composed specifically for the film. "The Ghost Is Here" and "It's Terror Time Again", both written by Glenn Leopold, were performed by Skycycle
Skycycle
Los Angeles-based alternative rock band Skycycle was led by singer/songwriter Steve Isaacs. He formed Skycycle with guitarist Sven Shenar, bassist Kelly Castro and drummer Rob Brown.- Albums :Skycycle released a self-produced demo tape named Siren in 1997...
. The title track, "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You", was performed by Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind
Third Eye Blind is an American alternative rock band formed in the early 1990s in San Francisco. The songwriting duo of Kevin Cadogan and Stephan Jenkins signed the band's first major label recording contract with Elektra records in 1996 resulting in two multi platinum albums. The band's lineup...
. The film was animated and is presented in standard 1.33:1 full frame format.
Release
The film was released on VHSVHS
The Video Home System is a consumer-level analog recording videocassette standard developed by Victor Company of Japan ....
on September 22, 1998, and made its television debut a little over a month later on October 31, 1998, on Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network
Cartoon Network is a name of television channels worldwide created by Turner Broadcasting which used to primarily show animated programming. The channel began broadcasting on October 1, 1992 in the United States....
. It was released on DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
on March 6, 2001, and re-released with extra bonus features on February 8, 2005.
Reception
The videos sold well and received generally positive reviews in the press, leading to a series of future direct-to-video Scooby-Doo feature films, and a new television series, What's New, Scooby-Doo?What's New, Scooby-Doo?
What's New, Scooby-Doo? is the ninth incarnation of the Hanna-Barbera Saturday morning cartoon Scooby-Doo, and a revival of the original show Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!. It was the first time the franchise was revived in over a decade. The animated series was developed and produced by Warner Bros....
. The movie currently holds a rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
.