Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island facts for kids
Quick facts for kids Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island |
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Promotional poster
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| Directed by | Jim Stenstrum |
| Produced by | Cos Anzilotti |
| Screenplay by | Glenn Leopold |
| Story by | Glenn Leopold Davis Doi |
| Starring |
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| Music by | Steven Bramson |
| Editing by | Paul Douglas |
| Studio | Hanna-Barbera Cartoons |
| Distributed by | Warner Home Video |
| Release date(s) | September 22, 1998 |
| Running time | 76 minutes |
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is a 1998 direct-to-video animated mystery comedy horror film based on Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo Saturday-morning cartoons. In the film, Shaggy, Scooby, Fred, Velma, and Daphne reunite after a year-long hiatus from Mystery, Inc. to investigate a bayou island said to be haunted by the ghost of the pirate Morgan Moonscar. The film was directed by Jim Stenstrum, from a screenplay by Glenn Leopold.
Popularity for Scooby-Doo had grown in the 1990s due to reruns aired on Cartoon Network. The channel's parent company, Time Warner, suggested developing a direct-to-video (DTV) film on the property. The team at Hanna-Barbera consisted of many veteran artists and writers. Much of the original voice actors of the series were recast for the film, although Frank Welker returned to voice Fred Jones. It was also the first of four Scooby-Doo direct-to-video films to be animated overseas by Japanese animation studio Mook Animation. Rock bands Third Eye Blind and Skycycle contribute to the soundtrack.
Zombie Island contains a darker tone than most Scooby-Doo productions, and is notable for containing real supernatural creatures rather than people in costumes. The film was released on September 22, 1998, and received positive reviews from critics, who complimented its animation and story. The film is also notable for being the first Scooby production featuring the entire gang (sans Scrappy-Doo) since The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries episode A Halloween Hassle in Dracula’s Castle, which premiered on ABC on October 27, 1984. The film was aided by a $50 million promotional campaign, and sponsorship deals with multiple companies. Sales of the film on VHS were high, and it became the first in a long-running series of DTV Scooby-Doo films.
Two decades after the film's release, Warner Bros Animation developed a sequel, Return to Zombie Island, released in 2019.
Contents
Plot
The five members of Mystery, Inc. go their separate ways after becoming bored of mystery solving because culprits are always people in costumes. Daphne Blake, along with Fred Jones, starts running a successful television series, Velma Dinkley owns a book store, and Shaggy Rogers and his dog Scooby-Doo bounce around jobs when their hunger inevitably gets them fired. Determined to hunt down a real ghost rather than a fake one, Fred contacts the others, and the entire gang is brought back together for Daphne's birthday. They embark on a road trip scouting haunted locations across the U.S. for Daphne's show.
After encountering a lot of fake monsters, the gang arrives in New Orleans, Louisiana, fed up by this time. A young woman named Lena Dupree invites them to visit her workplace at Moonscar Island, an island allegedly haunted by the ghost of the pirate Morgan Moonscar. Although skeptical, the gang decides to go with Lena. On the island, they meet Lena's employer Simone Lenoir, who lives in a large Southern home on a pepper plantation. They also meet the ferryman Jacques and Simone's gardener Beau. Shaggy and Scooby encounter the ghost of Moonscar, who becomes a reanimated corpse, and the gang gets several ghostly warnings to leave. Despite this, they stay overnight, still skeptical. Shaggy sees another ghost, one of a Confederate colonel warning them to leave.
That night, Shaggy and Scooby are chased by a horde of zombies. Velma suspects Beau while Fred and Daphne capture a zombie. They believe it is a mask until Fred pulls its head off, revealing that the zombies are real. As the horde chases them, the gang gets split in the chaos and Daphne accidentally causes Fred to drop his video camera in the quicksand, losing film evidence for their show. In a cave, Shaggy and Scooby discover wax voodoo dolls resembling Fred, Velma, and Daphne. Playing with the dolls, they involuntarily control the gang's actions with the things they make the dolls do, leaving the gang confused. Shaggy and Scooby drop the dolls and flee when they disturb a nest of bats.
The rest of the gang and Beau discover a secret passageway in the house. Lena tells them that the zombies dragged Simone away. The passageway leads to a secret chamber for voodoo rituals, where Velma confronts Lena about her lie: the footprints in the passageway were Simone's, as she had walked to the chamber as opposed to being dragged away. After trapping the gang with the voodoo dolls, Simone and Lena reveal themselves, along with Jacques, to be evil werecats. Simone tells them that 200 years ago, she and Lena were part of a group of settlers on the island who worshipped a cat god. When Moonscar and his crew invaded the island, they chased the settlers (except for Lena and Simone) into the bayou, leading them to be eaten alive by alligators. Having escaped the carnage, the two prayed to their cat god to curse Moonscar; their wish was granted and they were transformed into werecats. They killed the pirates, but later realized that invoking the cat god's power had also cursed them, so every harvest moon, they drain the souls of victims lured to their island to preserve their immortality. Jacques became their ferryman to bring them more victims as he wanted to have immortality. The zombies are actually their previous victims who awaken every harvest moon and try to scare people away in order to prevent them from suffering the same fate.
Shaggy and Scooby disrupt the werecats' draining ceremony. The gang free themselves but the werecats surround them. However, it is too late; the time for the ceremony has passed. The werecats crumble into dust, freeing the zombies' souls to finally rest in peace. Beau reveals himself to be an undercover police officer who was sent to investigate the numerous disappearances on the island. Daphne asks Beau to guest-star on her show, and they all leave the island in the morning.
Voice cast
- Scott Innes as Scooby-Doo
- Billy West as Shaggy Rogers
- Mary Kay Bergman as Daphne Blake
- Frank Welker as Fred Jones, Simone's cats, Owl & Zombie
- B. J. Ward as Velma Dinkley
- Adrienne Barbeau as Simone Lenoir
- Tara Strong as Lena Dupree
- Cam Clarke as Detective Beau Neville
- Jim Cummings as Jacques, Morgan Moonscar & Plantationer
- Mark Hamill as Snakebite Scruggs & Airport manager
- Jennifer Leigh Warren as Chris
- Ed Gilbert as Mr. Beeman
Sequel
A direct sequel, titled Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, had its world premiere at the San Diego Comic-Con on July 21, 2019, followed by a digital release on September 3, 2019, and a DVD release on October 1, 2019.
Images for kids
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Bayou Lafourche in Louisiana
See also
In Spanish: Scooby-Doo en la isla de los zombis para niños
