Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase
Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase | |
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Directed by | Jim Stenstrum |
Written by | Mark Turosz |
Produced by | Davis Doi (supervising) Joseph Barbera Jean MacCurdy Kathryn Page |
Starring | Scott Innes Frank Welker Grey DeLisle B.J. Ward Joe Alaskey Tom Kane Bob Bergen Mikey Kelley Gary Sturgis |
Edited by | Joe Gall |
Music by | Louis Febre Richard Wolf |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | Warner Home Video |
Release date |
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Running time | 89 minutes[1] |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase is a 2001 direct-to-video animated comic science fiction mystery film, and the fourth in a series of direct-to-video animated films based on Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons. It was released on October 9, 2001. It features the Mystery, Inc. gang, which includes Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Freddy, Daphne and Velma. As is the case with all Scooby-Doo-related projects, the film is produced, starting in 2000, by Warner Bros. Animation, yet carries a Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. copyright and logo.
It is recognized as the last "official" Hanna-Barbera production, as Warner Bros. had fully absorbed Hanna-Barbera Productions after the passing of founder and creator William Hanna. It is the fourth and final Scooby-Doo direct-to-video film to be animated overseas by Japanese animation studio Mook Animation. This movie, along with Aloha, Scooby-Doo!, was part of the first Scooby-Doo re-release on Blu-ray on April 5, 2011. This was also the first movie to feature Grey DeLisle as the voice of Daphne Blake after the death of Mary Kay Bergman in 1999.
A video game based on the film was released by THQ in 2001 for the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. This is the first Scooby-Doo video game to be on a sixth generation handheld. The Scooby-Doo movies would not feature real supernatural creatures again until Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King.[2]
Plot
In a college computer lab run by Professor Kaufman, two of his students; Eric Staufer and Bill McLemore are working when a virtual creature - the Phantom Virus - comes out of a new game based on the Mystery Gang's past adventures and tries to attack. The next day, Mystery, Inc. themselves come to the college and learn from their friend Eric, that the virus had assumed a lifelike form thanks to an experimental laser which is able to transmit objects into cyberspace, and is now rampant across the campus. The gang goes on the hunt for the Phantom Virus, where the virus chases Scooby and Shaggy through the college. Unfortunately, the whole gang, including the virus, somehow gets pulled into the game after 'someone' activates the laser. Left with no other choice, the gang fight their way through the ten levels of mystery and adventures to complete the game in order to escape it, with the goal of finding a box of Scooby Snacks to complete each level. Their efforts are impeded on each level by the Phantom Virus. The first level is on the moon, second is in the Roman Colosseum, third is in the dinosaur age, fourth is under the sea, fifth is in a (shrunken) backyard, sixth is in ancient Japan, seventh is in ancient Egypt, eighth is in a medieval fantasy setting, and the ninth is in the North Pole.
After a while, they finally reach the game's tenth and final level, where they meet their virtual counterparts (who resemble themselves from previous series, with the exception of Shaggy and Scooby). They team up to confront the Phantom Virus, who wreaks havoc across the final level and summons his friends-various villains from the gang's past including the Creeper, Jaguaro, Gator Ghoul, the Tar Monster and Old Iron Face. To make matters worse, all the monsters are real. The climax takes the two gangs to an amusement park, where they fight off the creatures and attempt to retrieve the last box of Scooby Snax. During the fight, they use magnets to fight the virus, whom they discover is severely weakened by magnetic forces. Cyber-Scooby distracts the virus long enough for the real Scooby Doo to retrieve the Scooby Snax, beating the game, deleting the monsters and the Phantom Virus once and for all.
The real gang bids farewell to their virtual selves and head home. Back in the lab, the gang reveals that they now know the culprit, who turns out to be Bill (who is a baseball fan, a trait exhibited by the Phantom Virus at numerous points within the game). Bill is arrested by Officer Wembley and confesses that he created the virus to scare Eric away and take all the credit for inventing the laser; he was outraged when Kaufman chose Eric's video game design over his, despite Bill being at the college two years longer, and he felt more deserving to win the cash prize at the science fair. Kaufman then protests that students alike are all equal. Bill was the one who beamed the gang into the game, hoping they wouldn't survive because he was afraid that they would find out that he created the virus. The gang and Eric play the new Scooby-Doo game, during which Scooby interacts with the gang's virtual counterparts once again by feeding Cyber-Scooby some Scooby Snax.
The post-credits scene includes the gang telling what their favorite parts of the movie are.
Voice cast
- Scott Innes as Scooby-Doo, Shaggy Rogers, Cyber-Scooby-Doo, Cyber-Shaggy, Creeper
- Frank Welker as Fred Jones, Cyber-Fred, Gladiator Lion
- Grey DeLisle as Daphne Blake, Cyber-Daphne
- B.J. Ward as Velma Dinkley, Cyber-Velma
- Joe Alaskey as Officer Wembly
- Bob Bergen as Eric Staufer
- Tom Kane as Professor Kaufman
- Mikey Kelley as Bill McLemore
- Gary Sturgis as Phantom Virus
- Glenn Shadix as Tar Monster (uncredited)
- Michael Brandon as Skeleton Gladiator (uncredited)
Home media release
Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase was released October 9, 2001 for both VHS and DVD formats. The film was re-released on Blu-ray on March 29, 2011. This was the first animated Scooby-Doo film to be filmed in the high-definition format.
Follow-up film
Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire was released on March 4, 2003.
References
External links
- 2001 films
- 2001 animated films
- 2001 direct-to-video films
- 2000s American animated films
- American mystery films
- Warner Bros. direct-to-video animated films
- Warner Bros. Animation animated films
- Warner Bros. direct-to-video films
- Films featuring anthropomorphic characters
- Films about video games
- Science fantasy films
- Scooby-Doo films
- Virtual reality in fiction
- Films directed by Jim Stenstrum