Review of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

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In this new movie it is the 90's. The whole gang are grown up with their own careers. Daphne is a reporter who has her own talk show. Freddie is a writer who produces her show, they are also dating. Velma owns a mystery bookstore. Shaggy is still exploring his career path. Scooby Doo still likes eating those scooby snacks. They take the mystery machine to New Orleans to find a real haunted house on a mysterious Bayou. They find that the ghosts and Zombies haunting the island are real! They must solve the mystery of Zombie Island.

I grew up with Scooby Doo in the late 70's and the 80's. It is great to see Scooby Doo making a comeback in the 90's. The characters are still funny. I like it that they are not stuck in a 70's timewarp. The characters are grown up with careers. They wear 90's cloths and listen to 90's music. The music goes with the action in the movie. This is a great movie for anyone who has grown up watching Scooby Doo.

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Scooby-Doo and the gang are back, in the first of a new series of direct to video Scooby-Doo Movies. This time, the gang is dealing with some real horrors.

After years of finding nothing but crooks in masks, the gang gives up on ever finding any REAL ghosts. So, much like in the live-action movie (only this one came first), Mysteries, Inc. splits up. Shaggy and Scooby get jobs as customs agents, but are fired when they can't help themselves and eat all the contraband food. Velma opens her own Mystery book store, sorta reminiscent of what Ray did in Ghostbusters 2. And apparently Fred and Daphne couldn't pull apart from each other. Daphne became the star of her own investigative TV series, with Fred as her adoring Producer and one man crew.

As Daphne's Birthday approaches, she plans to start a special theme on her show, Haunted America! Daphne intends to search the country for REAL ghosts, starting in atmospheric New Orleans. As a birthday surprise, Fred gathers the old gang back together and Mysteries, Inc. is back in action! For a while they have no luck though. They are still finding nothing but men in masks. Until they run into a beautiful girl named Lena, who claims to live on a REAL haunted island. From there on, things get REALLY scary.

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is full of great laughs and scares, and a great story too, one that isn't dumbed down for little kids. The gang is totally updated, and yet Daphne still looks gorgeous! And for those of you who have always wanted to see some romance between Daph and Freddie, well, here you go! The first in a great new line of videos that every Scooby-Doo fan should enjoy, unless you're hung up on the masked criminal stuff. I for one am glad to see things go REAL for a change! And the Scooby-Doo gang has never been so well animated! Pick up a copy today! I can't wait to replace my VHS with the DVD!

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For some time Scooby Doo was all but retired and made a brief comeback with "Laughalympics." In 1998, the original Scooby Doo gang would reunite to make this phenomenal movie. But do beware. PG 13 would probably be a more appropriate rating for this movie. It goes to levels Scooby Doo never before went. And while well done, it would probably be a good idea for parents to screen it first and then decide if it is appropriate for children.

Well, that said, this Scooby movie is quite arguably Scooby's greatest movie. To make sense of Scooby's long retirement, there is a flashback with Scooby and the gang solving yet another mystery. Some time passes, and the gang has went their seperate ways. Daphne and Fred have a television show and decide they want to see some real ghosts. Except for Fred, the voice casting is different. But they did a good job of finding voices that at least resembled the original voices. (If it's any comfort, the original voice cast would eventually reunite for the 5th and 6th movies.)

Moving on, the gang does get back together, and they head towards New Orleans in hopes of seeing some real ghosts. (2 of the 5 parties are of course reluctant. Guess which 2.) Down in Louisiana, they find some more cases of just 'bad guys in masks.' Later they meet Lena who flirts with Fred and offers to show them her employer's (Simone's) haunted house. They also meet Jaques who seems nice enough and the gardener who does not seem so nice. After Scooby fights with Simone's cats, Simone is understandably annoyed, but she agrees to let the gang in. Soon afterwards, we see some things that appear to indicate the presence of ghosts, but as any Scooby fan knows, there might be a rational explanation, and if so, what is the motive?

Scooby and Shaggy offer some comical moments with their too healthy appetities. Soon afterwards, clues start appearing that would make us suspect that some real ghosts are involved, but there is some room for doubt. One thing about this Scooby movie is that the expansion from 30 minutes to 90 or so is a good one. It gives us time to remeet the gang, and time to wonder if the ghosts are real or not, and enjoy some welcome suspense as well. Of all Scooby's adventures, this is one of the LEAST contrived and predictable.

Another thing you will notice in this Scooby movie is a surprisingly intense soundtrack. (And I had NO problem whatsoever with that!) In a typical Scooby fashion, the gang gets separated and the horror unfolds. This is one ending I won't give away. But I will say true horror unfolds as we find that surprises shock us for a moment, but then make sense upon discovery. The explosion of misleads enables us to say: "Oh! No wonder!" In all honesty, this movie is more frightening than a lot of so called horror on the market. And perhaps the most frightening moment in this movie is when the 'villain' explains the events that preceeded that of the movie. Good writers seem to know that recognition is often the most horror filled aspect of a story.

Again, I consider this a strong contender for Scooby's greatest movie, but do be warned. It may very well be too much for young children.

Honest reviews on Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

I watched Scooby as a kid and my daugther, who is 4, loves the gang now. So I purchased this movie and thought it would be great for a Friday evening. This is not like any other Scooby movie, the monsters are real and there is considerable violence (deaths that occur on screen or are implied). It had several very scary parts that are typical in horror movies. On the other hand, usually I am bored by my daughter's TV shows, the plot was engaging and I was even a little frightened, I give it 3 stars but it should be 1 star as a young child's movie, and 4 to 5 star for a pre-teen and adult.

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Yeah, the monsters this time are real and that is a nice change from the old tv series. I was pleasantly surprised at just about everything. The animation, the direction, the story, the voices, it was all excellent.

Now I would not show this to any kid under ten, but I dont think that is the target audience. This movie is more mature and entertaining. Its just plain fun to revisit these old characters now as an adult.