Welcome to the Galactic Theater, where we'll explore the works of master manipulators of light waves, examine the themes brought to play, and critique the final products of months of hard work.
This review does not represent the opinions of the general public. It reflects my personal thoughts and opinions on the movie.
That said, on to the review!
For the living, death is a bereavement, a separation from loved ones. It is a time of grief and pain, not soon forgotten. But for the dead...is it truly the end? And what if the dead don't know that they've died? What if they're clinging--for good or ill--to the life they left behind?
Reporter Daphne Blake misses her friends Fred, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby-Doo. She misses all the mysteries and adventures she had with them. But what she doesn't miss--what caused her to change professions from sleuth to reporter--were the continual disappointments that each mystery caused. Despite all the reports of ghosts and hauntings, of monsters terrorizing a building, of witches running amok, not one of them turned out to be a true story. Instead, they were all elaborate hoaxes designed to scare off interlopers while allowing criminals to carry out their schemes. So for the third season of her syndicated news show Daphne wants to do something different: track down and find real ghosts and hauntings for her audiences. And for Daphne's birthday present, Fred arranges for a reunion of the gang as they set off for New Orleans, known for its creole cuisine as well as its superstitions and well-publicized hauntings.
But as disappointments mount, Daphne and Fred locate a lead to a possible true haunting: Lena, the cook at the plantation house on Moonscar Island. She says--and Velma's research supports her--that Moonscar Island has a history of hauntings and real ghosts. So the gang heads into the Louisiana bayou, braving rough waters, crocodiles, and ornery fisherman to get to Moonscar Island. No sooner do they arrive than the hauntings begin, staring with ghosts writing a clear warning on the wall of the kitchen. Scooby and Shaggy, in their usual displays of cowardice, are all for leaving immediately, but Daphne can't wait to get started with her reporting.
That, however, is only the beginning of the night's terrors. Shaggy and Scooby head off on a picnic lunch that turns into a panic-stricken dash through the swamp when--after first being chased by a huge boar--they witness the raising of a zombie. Then there's another ghost, followed by a horde of zombies rising from the earth as well as the water. And before the night is through, they'll all wish they'd never heard of Moonscar Island.
First off, let me say that this movie follows the original series line. None of that "13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" or other off-shoot series involved, although those did actually involve real ghosts and stuff. No, the movie adheres quite firmly to the realism of the original series, where there were no such things as real ghosts, only very good hoaxes and stuff. So, if you set aside what you know from those other series, you have a very good setup for the gang to actually find real ghosts. The skepticism that Fred and Velma show for the most part is definitely genuine, and of course Shaggy and Scooby are in a constant state of terror.
I don't know if there is an actual Moonscar Island in the Louisiana Bayou, but that's because I haven't bothered to look it up myself. If there isn't, then the writers over at Warner Bros. and Hanna-Barbara did a good job of creating a historically convincing basis for the Moonscar spice plantation. I mean, settlers and pirates, Confederate soldiers and plantation owners, are all part of the history of the South, with the bayou being one of the most reasonable places for all of these to exist. On the other hand, if there is a real Moonscar Island, then I trust the writers to have not tampered too drastically with the truth and history.
As with any Scooby-Doo mystery, there were false leads here and there as well as an amazingly limited number of suspects. Then again, given that the whole thing was built up around the premise that there would be ghosts involved, I don't think it was so unreasonable that there wasn't necessarily a real crime to solve. It was nice, however, to see Velma picking up clues right and left the way she did during the original series. And to see Scooby and Shaggy making straight for the food at every chance they got. Perhaps the parts that most surprised me were Daphne's surprisingly strong stance on ghosts. As I recall, in the original series Daphne was the one more inclined to fearfulness and timidity in the face of danger and more ready to side with Shaggy and Scooby. Fred was about the same, although his continual eating was a big take-off from the original character. Of course, if the food Lena was preparing was really that delicious, then it's perfectly understandable.
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island isn't necessarily a horror movie, but it's a big change from the original series. It has the ghosts and zombies (hence the name) to qualify it for at least a hint of horror, but you have to remember that this is Scooby-Doo we're talking about and not the X-Men or Spider-Man, where magic and spirits would be more commonplace and the more horrific the better. As a result, the scares are minimal yet all the more enjoyable because of the continual mix of humor and characters of the original series with the terror and suspense.
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