Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island | September 22, 1998
""Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island"" is a 1998 American direct-to-video animated mystery comedy horror film based on the Scooby-Doo franchise. 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 pirate Morgan Moonscar. The film was directed by Jim Stenstrum and written by Glenn Leopold.
Scooby-Doo's popularity surged in the 1990s thanks to reruns on Cartoon Network. The channel's parent company, Time Warner, proposed developing a direct-to-video (DTV) film based on the franchise. The team, in collaboration with Hanna-Barbera and Warner Bros. Animation (which was in the process of absorbing Hanna-Barbera at the time), consisted of many veteran artists and writers. Although many of the original voice actors from the series were replaced, Frank Welker reprised his role as Fred Jones. This film is also notable for being the first of four Scooby-Doo direct-to-video films animated overseas by Japanese studio Mook Animation. Rock bands Third Eye Blind and Skycycle contributed to the film's soundtrack. The film was dedicated to Don Messick, the original voice of Scooby-Doo, who passed away in October 1997.
Zombie Island has a darker tone than most Scooby-Doo works and is notable for featuring actual supernatural creatures rather than people in costumes. The film was released on September 22, 1998, and received positive reviews for its animation and story. It is also notable for being the first Scooby-Doo work to feature the entire gang without Scrappy-Doo since the episode "A Halloween Hassle at Dracula’s Castle" from "The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries," which aired on ABC on October 27, 1984. The film was supported by a $50 million promotional campaign and sponsorship deals with several companies. It sold well on VHS and became the first in a long-running series of direct-to-video Scooby-Doo films. The film made its television debut on Cartoon Network on October 31, 1998.
The sequel, "Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost", was released in 1999, and 20 years after the film's release, Warner Bros. Animation released an independent sequel/reboot, ""Return to Zombie Island"", developed by a different creative team, in 2019.
Mystery Inc. disbands due to boredom with solving mysteries involving monsters that are always people in costumes. Daphne Blake starts a successful TV series with Fred Jones, hunting for real ghosts instead of fake ones. After some time, Fred contacts Velma Dinkley, Shaggy Rogers, and his dog Scooby-Doo to reunite for Daphne's birthday. They embark on a road trip across the United States to explore haunted locations for Daphne's show but encounter more fake monsters. Upon arriving in New Orleans, Louisiana, they accept an invitation from Lena Dupree to visit her workplace, Moonscar Island, which is said to be haunted by the ghost of pirate Morgan Moonscar. Skeptical, the gang agrees. On the island, they meet ferryman Jacques, Lena's employer Simone Lenoir, and Simone's gardener Beau. Shaggy and Scooby encounter Moonscar's ghost, and the gang receives multiple warnings from ghosts to leave but remains skeptical.
That night, Shaggy and Scooby are chased by a horde of zombies. Velma suspects Beau, and Fred and Daphne believe the zombies are human perpetrators, but Fred discovers they are real when he pulls off a zombie's head. As the zombies chase them, the gang splits up, and Daphne loses the film evidence for her show when Fred drops the video camera into quicksand. In a cave, Shaggy and Scooby find wax voodoo dolls resembling Fred, Velma, and Daphne and inadvertently control their friends while playing with them, disturbing a bat nest.
The gang and Beau discover a secret passage in the house, and Lena claims the zombies took Simone. The passage leads to a secret room for voodoo rituals, and Velma exposes Lena's lie by pointing out Simone's footprints. After trapping the gang with the voodoo dolls, Simone and Lena reveal that they and Jacques are evil cat people. Simone explains 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 pirates invaded the island, they drove the settlers into the bayou to be eaten by alligators, but Simone and Lena escaped. They prayed to the cat god to curse Moonscar, transforming into immortal cat people. They killed the pirates but later realized that using the cat god's power had cursed them. Since then, every harvest moon, they lured victims to drain their life force to maintain their immortality. Jacques was hired to help with their scheme, and the zombies and ghosts awakened every harvest moon to scare people away to avoid the same fate.
Chased by Jacques, Shaggy and Scooby disrupt the cat people's life-draining ritual, allowing the gang to free themselves. The cat people surround them, but as the harvest moon passes, they turn to dust, and the zombies' spirits find peace. Beau reveals he is an undercover police officer sent to investigate the island's disappearances. Daphne asks Beau to appear on her show, and they leave the island in the morning.
