My Movie Review of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (Reconstructed & Re-Analyzed) · 8:26pm May 20th

This is a completely modified version of my review on “Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island”. Along with presenting a greater sense of reconstruction to correct grammatical errors and all that sort of thing, this also presents a combination of my thoughts on the film both when I initially reviewed and re-analyzed it later the same year.

Some things were also modified to match how I feel about the movie in the present time. And as with the 2017 live-action “Beauty and the Beast” film, I didn’t give “Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island” a rewatch in preparation, mainly since my first time experience with it has pretty much stuck with me all these years.

Take a look:

Aloha, my pals.

This is your friendly film, TV Show, and episode reporter here with another review.

Today, for my 9th analysis on an installment of the Scooby-Doo franchise, I'm gonna give you my take of "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island".

Here's the summary of it:

After a one year hiatus from mystery solving, Scooby-Doo and his human pals, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne, and Velma reunite to investigate MoonScar Island, which is said to be haunted by the ghost of Morgan MoonScar, the pirate.

Wanna know the biggest twist with this mystery?

THE MONSTERS ARE REAL!!!

Before I get into what I think of this film, I'd like to be honest about something:

I primarily steered clear of this movie due to thinking that it would be terrible, and because it looked too scary for my taste. Especially after seeing a trailer that pretty much seemed to give the whole rundown of it all. However, I found myself interested in giving this movie a shot based on its popularity and the positive comments I've been reading, particularly because people were constantly calling it “the best Scooby-Doo film ever made”.

At one point, I discovered its availability on Netflix. And when I did, I couldn't resist giving it a shot.

Coming from a guy who saw this movie for himself…

Sadly, I didn’t think “Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island” was as great as its reputation let on. I mean, it wasn’t as terrible as I expected, but it’s not what I'd like to call the best Scooby-Doo installment either. Frankly, there were only a few things about it that I liked.

Among the things I enjoyed about this movie was the animation.

I loved how the animators were obviously making great use of their budget and were really extending themselves, giving the film an impressive look for a direct-to-video release. I especially enjoyed the animation used with the settings, and the light that would cast itself down to bring the zombies to life.

The music composed by Steve Bramson was another one of the film's most compelling elements.

It truly amazed me how Bramson was able to give his music a cinematic quality, especially for a direct-to-video movie. Plus, "It's Terror Time Again" was a song that I found to be enjoyable enough to listen to whenever I want.

Despite this, there were too many things about the film I was far from fond of.

For instance, I found myself having mixed opinions on the voice acting and characters.

I will definitely say that I enjoyed the developments of Fred, Daphne, and Velma throughout this film, and Shaggy and Scooby really put a smile on my face. For his first reprisal of Fred from the classic installments of the franchise, Frank Welker did a phenomenal job at proving that he owns the role. Plus, the film's supporting players sounded like they were having a great time portraying their characters.

But, I wasn't exactly fond of the performances of Scott Innes, Billy West, Mary Kay Bergman, and B.J. Ward as Scooby, Shaggy, Daphne, and Velma in this film, largely because they sounded too whiny. On one hand, I grew up with Bergman's work as Daphne in "Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders" and Innes's and Ward's work in that film and "Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase", so I think it must've had something to do with the voice direction. The same can pretty much be said about Welker's performance as Fred, as unlike other installments, his performance sounded whiny too.

Frankly, I absolutely despised Billy West's portrayal of Shaggy. I thought that he certainly tried his best, but every time I heard Shaggy's voice, I couldn't help but note that he had this extremely annoying squeak that was far from tolerable, which was enough to affect his comedic-timings too. Considering the fact that I noticed a similar situation with his work as Bugs Bunny in “Space Jam”, I think Billy West is the first voice actor in which I’m not a particularly big fan of, and the fact that he barely has much of an impressive range hardly does him any favors.

Also, while I did mention that Scooby and Shaggy put a smile on my face, they didn’t make me laugh as much compared to other installments. In this particular movie, they appeared to be reduced to one-dimensional comic-reliefs who are hardly given anything interesting or important to do.

Snakebite Scruggs turned out to be a pointless character in the long run, if I may say. He was interesting, and Mark Hamill did a great job portraying him. But, when it turned out that he had little to do with the overall mystery, it became apparent his only purpose was to curse the heavens about tourists every time Scooby and Shaggy got in his way. And yes, I know that just about every Scooby-Doo installment has a large host of characters in one story for Scooby and the gang to meet, but when you're making a movie...you have to make sure each character has a sense of purpose and meaning for being in the story, and Snakebite Scruggs hardly had any of that. Not to mention the other supporting characters ultimately turned out to be forgettable additions to the franchise. I can’t even remember who the villains were, and even when I’d look up their names, they gradually turn into a forgotten memory.

Finally, the direction by Jim Stenstrum, the screenplay by Glenn Leopold, and the story by Leopold and Davis Doi, weren't exactly what I'd call a delicious Scooby snack.

As a comedy, the film seemed to offer little in the way of humor. Whatever jokes that the film had seemed to fall flat like a person doing a belly flop, and they lacked the Hanna-Barbera touch and wit that often made Scooby-Doo enjoyable.

The movie did have a mystery that helped keep things interesting, but at the end of the day...I almost can’t help but wonder what mystery the gang was supposed to solve in the first place. There were hardly any clues or leads given in order for everything to come together, and as the film progressed, things ultimately became less interesting. And that’s even despite the filmmakers’s attempts to make this motion a far from boring experience.

On top of that, when the real monsters started coming into the picture, everything suddenly seemed…lost. The entire movie was reduced to being a generic horror film with the Mystery Inc. gang just running around everywhere, and the way the whole “Monsters being Real” thing was executed gave too much of a "Yay, that's right. In your face" sort of feeling.

In whatever case, it was like the filmmakers were throwing darts at a target but were constantly unable to make a bullseye. The ambitions were there, yet the filmmakers weren’t able to successfully bring them through in a good way.

In the end, "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" isn't what I believe to be the greatest Scooby-Doo film ever made. Everything appeared to be in place, and the team behind it was obviously quite ambitious and willing to take risks. But yet, the purpose and meaning behind the film seemed to be missing, and it did little to capture the spirit of the franchise. All in all, it's actually what I believe to be one of the most mediocre Scooby-Doo installments. Hugely overrated too.

So, I rate "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" 2½ out of five stars.

And before anyone asks...

Yes, I plan on doing the same thing with other films I previously gave a re-analysis of. "The Lion King (2019)" is definitely at the top of my list, that's for sure.