My Movie Review on Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island · 3:16pm Jan 21st, 2020
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. So, when I discovered its availability on Netflix, I couldn't resist giving it a shot.
I'm happy to say that it isn't as terrible as I expected. But, it isn't what I'd like to call the best Scooby-Doo installment either.
Among the things I enjoyed about this movie was its 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 make his music so cinematic for a direct-to-video movie, and the song "It's Terror Time Again" was enjoyable enough to upload to your Music App.
Despite this, though, there were 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. 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.
Frankly, I absolutely loathed 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.
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.
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 even had seemed to fall flat, and they lacked the Hanna-Barbera touch. The movie did have a mystery that helped keep things interesting, but at the end of the day...making the monsters real seemed to translate the film into a horror movie more than a mystery, taking away all the fun and making it less than family-friendly. It didn't help that it had a rather dark and intense premise that would give children nightmares.
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 lost, and it did little to capture the spirit of the franchise.
So, I rate "Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island" 3½ out of 5 stars. It's a decent film, but not a great one.
I loved this movie.
I believe Snakebite was meant to be a Red Herring
But fair. I did like they made the monsters real, and the zombies being on the heroes side was a nice touch
5189633
A red herring?
5189647
A Red Herring is a story device that is meant to trick you into thinking he's the bad guy, or someone important, and distracts you from the real enemy.
5189649
Oh. That’s interesting.
🤔Now that you told me, I can’t help but find that to be something that was often used in various other Scooby-Doo installments. However, in a film where nearly every major character plays an important part and helped drive everything forward...Snakebite just seemed so useless and unimportant compared to the others.
You know what I mean?
5189660
I suppose. In a huge film compared to a short episode, some characters do feel more empty than others.
Yeah, I remember seeing it as a kid. I wasn't thrilled.
Could you please be nicer and more sensitive when talking about Mary Kay Bergman? Because about 20 years ago, after suffering from a lengthy depression, she committed suicide and it caused a huge amount grief and sadness to the voice acting community; especially her husband Dino Andrade who came home finding her deceased body on the floor, which undoubtedly traumatized him (he's no doubt still coping with his loss). Personally I felt she a great job as Daphne.
5189682
I know of what happened to Bergman. And as I’ve already said, I loved her work as Daphne in Alien Invaders, which is why I think a lot of what made her performance lacking in this movie is because of the voice direction.
5189649
5189660
I think Bo served that part much better. I always saw Snakebite as more comic relief.
I enjoyed all these direct-to-VHS movies (yes, VHS). There's something to be said about the traditonal hand-drawn animation and the richness of detail in the characters and settings.
If I were to rank them, I'd go:
Cyber Chase
Zombie Island
Witches Ghost
Alien Invaders
When I first watched as a nine-year-old, this movie scared the heck out of me. Scooby Doo on Zombie Island is more like a supernatural horror film than a mystery film making this the scariest Scooby Doo movie ever made, and I love it!
And also, I'm surprised that you didn't mention that Tara Strong--the voice actor of Twilight Sparkle--was in this movie.
5189979
I was aware of that. I just didn’t think it was worth mentioning since my commending of the film’s supporting players includes her too.
5189662
Have you ever seen this movie, by any chance? If so, what do you think of it?
5190163
I haven't seen this yet. And I'm not in the mood to watch something this mediocre.
5189631
5189634
5189665
5189649
5189682
5189693
5189979
I know this review does seem unusual considering the fact that most others deeply enjoy this movie, and I respect that. Frankly, though, I’m just not one of those people.
My only hope is that this review was reasonable and that everyone understands where I’m coming from with it all. I also can’t help but feel surprised that no one commented on what I thought of West’s portrayal of Shaggy, really.
5190166
Okay.
5190171
I'm not mad.
5190171
I know, also, fun fact if you get down to reviewing Witch's Ghost, aside from Ben being a Steven King expy, it apparently gets Wicca wrong, I believe Ben actually returns later on
5190227
They get Wicca so wrong that I, a born and raised Christian kid who never studied/learned of any other world religions, was like "That's not how Wicca works!"
5190171
1. it was just for this one outing
2. Matthew Lilliard
5190256
Like, A. It ain't even that ancient, and B. You can't be "half-Wiccan", it ain't an ethnicity
5189631
Same here! I use to watch this movie alot when I was a little kid!
5190166
It's pretty hilarious.
You hear the screeching Of an owl you hear the wind begin to howl you know there’s zombies on the prowl
5284316
Yay. That song was definitely the biggest highlight of the film, and pretty much one of the only great elements the movie had.
What do you think of the film, by any chance? As well as my review?
5284545
i thought it was a good film, although its hard to decide on a true favorite.