Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) Review

 Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998) 7/10

[I originally wrote this for a Halloween marathon a few years ago lol]

Happy Halloween everyone. For the first movie for my marathon today, I decided to revisit a childhood classic: Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was first released on September 22, 1998 with the directors being Kazumi Fukushima and Hiroshi Aoyama. A bit of a trivia for the series: Zombie Island saved the franchise. I won’t go into too much detail and if you’re interested I can link the video explaining this, but thanks to this movie’s success, Scooby-Doo was revitalized, and in turn, the franchise kept pumping out more shit. Anyway, back when I first saw this movie, I was actually kinda scared of the film. All the zombies and cat people scared me to bits. Watching the movie now, it was more mild entertainment than actual horror. Let’s jump into it.

Our story follows the iconic cast of characters: Fred, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne, and Scooby-Doo. After every mystery that they have solved being fake and people in masks, the gang got bored of the whole thing and eventually went their separate ways. Daphne became a reporter, constantly investigating these scary mysteries with Fred being her producer. Velma opened up a bookshop that specializes in mystery novels. Shaggy and Scooby got a job at an airport searching for contraband food. After Daphne reveals on a talk show that her next plan is to investigate and discover real hauntings in the US, Fred calls up the gang. While scouting leads in Louisiana, the gang hears about a haunted house on Moonscar Island. While here, the gang learns that these are actual hauntings and there are real life zombies here. Slowly discovering the truth of the island owner Simone Lenoir and other mishaps, they will soon learn about a dark secret about the island.

This is probably the best Scooby-Doo plot out there (I have not seen Mystery Incorporated, so I’ll not be comparing it to that). This time around, all the ghosts, zombies, and other monsters are real, which is a nice change of pace for the series. I will say that everyone was completely rude to Simone and her house. They first arrive at the island, without asking permission first, destroying her garden, eating everything on the island, destroying her kitchen and a bunch of other stuff, and just being constant nuisances. If it weren’t for her whole ritual, I’m positive she would’ve had them kicked off at the first sign of trouble. Like take Velma for instance. After the first haunting in the kitchen, she returns to investigate the wall and starts chipping at it. “Oops I guess I got carried away”. You are destroying her wall. Like jfc I would’ve killed her. Anyway, I do like the whole werewolf voodoo ritual thing going on.

Art direction is easily the movie’s strong suit. The movie looks good for a fucking Scooby-Doo movie and for late 90’s as well. Everything is all dark and gloomy and I love how the backgrounds are all painted with detail. The character designs for everyone are great. The animation studio Mook Animation did a great job here. The music is great too. The background music is forgettable but the songs they used for the montages are great. It screams early 2000’s rock which is perfect for the film.

Overall, it’s a decent film. Not the best thing ever, but what would you expect from Scooby-Doo? It is, however, a childhood classic, so it’s hard to hate it. It’s great for children and an easy watch. If you haven’t seen the film, go watch it. It’s a little over an hour long but worth checking out at least once.

Thanks for reading and I’ll see you later with the next film.

This Zorgak, signing off.