Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was the first and best direct-to-video, feature-length Scooby-Doo adaptations. After a five year hiatus from the canceling of A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, 1998 saw this film which may be responsible for starting the reemergence of Scooby-Doo that has continued with numerous films and TV series's, Scooby-Doo: Mystery Incorporated being the latest and greatest since Where Are You!
 |
| References kids don't understand. This show summed up |
I've fancied myself a Scooby-Doo fan since I was a child. Although the original show, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! predates me by a sizable margin, I watched it more than I watched Dragonball Z and I largely blame it for my horror obsession later in life. To this day, I still enjoy the show, whenever I can catch it on Boomerang, for it's deep roots in horror and it's humor (although I've found anything outside of the pilot series to be less redeeming). Despite that, the spin-off movies were great by my recollection, so I decided to revisit Zombie Island.
The movie starts with a classic chase through a gothic castle involving a Creature from the Black Lagoon lookalike. But as it turns out, it's just Daphne recalling the story during a talk-show. The characters are obviously more grown up now and we're quickly informed that the team has long-since split up. Daphne now hosts a show assisted and directed by Freddie, Velma runs a horror book shop and Shaggy and Scooby are baggage checkers at an airport.
 |
| Remember: This was pre-9/11 |
Daphne, bored of the hoaxes and costumes, desperately wants to find genuine, haunted houses. Fred decides to reunite the team and they set off unmasking ghosties "like old times".
Just when the gang is convinced they'll never find a legitimate story, they're invited to a bayou island that's hauntings are apparently the real deal. From then on, it's like a classic, light-hearted horror movie. They're told many times that the island is dangerous and that often people disappear, along with a few cryptic tales about the island's history but that only excites them further.
As the classic horror movie plot development goes, things start to get weird pretty soon but get creepier and creepier until you have an egregious pirate zombie attacking you. During this act, Fred and Velma busy themselves by trying to unravel the mystery but there's an underlying notion that maybe this case isn't some guy in costumes but something more...
 |
The movie does occasionally sport some moments that are a little too childish, some of the acting is sub-par and this movie's enjoyment is probably limited to fans of the show but I think what's good about the movie overrides that.
Besides the fact that it's animated well, (interestingly done so by a Japanese studio called Mook Animation. I think just a tad of anime style carried over), it's humour and charm combined with a horror plot that's better than some legitimate movies I've seen, which boasts surprising twists actually make this a pretty rewarding watch. It's hard to rate this movie fairly just because I love Scooby-Doo, so it's a little biased, but I think it's veritably good. It's kind of hard to find, but if you ever do, give it a watch.
No comments:
Post a Comment