Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island
Promotional poster
Directed by	Jim Stenstrum
Written by	Glenn Leopold Davis Doi
Screenplay by	Glenn Leopold
Produced by	Cosmo Anzilotti
Starring	Scott Innes Billy West Mary Kay Bergman Frank Welker B.J. Ward Adrienne Barbeau Tara Charendoff Cam Clarke Jim Cummings Mark Hamill Jennifer Leigh Warren Ed Gilbert
Edited by	Paul Douglas
Music by	Steven Bramson
Production company	Hanna-Barbera Cartoons
Distributed by	Warner Home Video
Release date	September 22, 1998 (1998-09-22)
Running time	77 minutes
Country	Template:Film US
Language	English

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.

The film bears noticeable similarities to the 2002 live-action film, Scooby-Doo, in which Mystery Inc. split up but later reunite to solve a mystery involving real monsters. A similar storyline is the central plot of this film.

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, 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 nerdy-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 bayous and on which chili peppers 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 American 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 gags). 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 zombies. 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 traders, Confederate soldiers, gangsters, and tourists 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 alligators. 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 come to the rescue interrupt the ceremony, 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. In a post-credits scene it is revealed that Scooby no longer has a instinct of chasing cats as he gives them a saucer full of milk.

Featured Villains

• Lena Dupree: She is a beautiful young woman born in 1606. She was a settler who made her home on Moonscar Island with her cousin and mistress Simone Lenoir. Lena and Simone both witnessed the murder of the other settlers by Morgan Moonscar and his crew. The women then took to voodoo with vows of revenge. They cursed themselves into transformations of Werecats by the cat goddess. They killed all the pirates by draining their life force and forcing their spirits to wander the island for eternity, returning to the lifeless bodies every Harvest Moon. After that, Lean and Simone were cursed by the Cat Goddesses' dark magic and were forced to consume the life force of those unlucky enough to be drawn into their clutches, and they also must drain the souls before the Harvest moon or else they will die. Lena is finally destroyed after she and Simone fail to drain the life force from Mystery Inc.

• Simone Lenoir: A beautiful, French American woman born in the early 1600s and later employer of Lena Dupree. She is also the Leader of the Werecats and the indirect cause of the Curse of Moonscar Island. In her lifetime, she was one of a group of settlers that attempted to make the island their home. After her settlement was destroyed in a raiding from Morgan Moonscar, she and her servant girl, Lena, delved into the dark arts and invoked a curse on themselves 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.

• Jacques: A man whom Lena and Simone offered immortality to in exchange for him tricking people to the island whom the three could drain energy from.

Cast

• Scott Innes as Scooby-Doo
• Billy West as Shaggy Rogers
• Mary Kay Bergman as Daphne Blake
• Frank Welker as Fred Jones
• B.J. Ward as Velma Dinkley
• Adrienne Barbeau as Simone Lenoir, the owner of the manor and the main antagonist of the film. She is also a werecat.
• Tara Charendoff 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 Clarke as Detective Beau Neville, a police detective who works undercover as a gardener at the manor. He later befriends Mystery, Inc.
• Jim Cummings as Jacques, the ferry owner, who is a werecat.
• Mark Hamill as Snakebite Scruggs, a grouchy fisherman whose goal is to catch Big Mona.

Production

The film's screenplay was written by Glenn Leopold, of Nickelodeon'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. Heather North was unable to take the role of Daphne Blake and was replaced by Mary Kay Bergman. B.J. Ward who played Velma in the Johnny Bravo crossover episode, reprised her role in this film, as Nicole Jaffe, Pat Stevens, and Marla Frumkin were unable to take the role. 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.

Release

The film was released on VHS 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.

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?. The movie currently holds a rating of 86% on Rotten Tomatoes.

External links

• Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island at IMDb
• Template:Amg movie