‘This time the monsters are real!’
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is a 1998 American animated comedy film based on the animated television series Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoon franchise. In the film, Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred reunite to solve a frightening new mystery: They leave for a haunted bayou island to investigate the ghost of Moonscar the Pirate.
The film was released direct-to-video on September 22, 1998, and the feature gained positive reviews in the press as well as commercial success. It is the first in the long-running series of direct-to-video Scooby-Doo films, as well as the first of the first four Scooby-Doo direct-to-video films to be animated overseas by Japanese animation studio, Mook Animation.
Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was the very first time where Scooby and the whole gang sees that all the monsters were real, instead of a person in a costume.
A belated sequel, Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island was released in 2019.
Mystery Inc. are being pursued by a green troll. After an accident with Scooby, he is caught and revealed to be a counterfeiter. This is actually a re-enactment of the now-dissolved Mystery Inc.’s adventures on a television program by Daphne and Fred, who are running a successful TV series (Coast to Coast with Daphne Blake).
Velma has gone on and become the proprietor of a mystery bookstore, and Scooby and Shaggy bounce from job to job, including working in customs at an airport, from which they are fired after eating all the confiscated imported foods. Since their mysteries have all involved mere crooks in monster costumes, Fred decides that Daphne’s show should be about tracking down real ghosts, so he gets the gang back together for a trip to Louisiana.
After encountering a lot of fake monsters, like a nerdy guy in a lobster-man suit haunting a fish factory, an old man disguised as a gargoyle, a holographic ghost and a zombie policeman that turns out to be a woman, the gang finally arrives in New Orleans.
There they are invited by a young woman named Lena to visit Moonscar Island, the home of her employer, which is allegedly haunted by the ghost of the pirate Morgan Moonscar. Although the gang is sceptical (except for Shaggy and Scooby), they decide to go with Lena, on whom Fred has taken a fancy. On the way, Velma informs the gang that Moonscar Island has had many unexplained disappearances over the years… “Rombies!”
“Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is still a Scooby-Doo film. It’s an animated box of fun with jokes, gaffs and hilarious set pieces and a joy to watch for both children and adults. It’s also easily the best Scooby-Doo film I’ve seen with a narrative and story streets ahead the recent live-action films.” Watching the Dead
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