Scooby-Doo The Movie (VHS, 2002)
Scooby-Doo The Movie is a 2002 live action adaptation of the TV series by the same name, with an all-star cast coming together to solve another case. The movie begins with them unmasking the Luna Ghost before the team is fragmented by long running tensions, before being unknowingly reassembled a few years later as they’re invited to ‘Spooky Island’ where guests are acting very strange.
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Each member of the Scooby gang tries to unearth the mystery themselves, before all roads lead to the castle and they’re tormented by deathly amusement rides. After escaping, Scooby himself is later drawn to the woods by one of the demons that inhabits the island, the culprits that have been possessing the bodies of those visiting - and soon Velma, Daphne and Fred have been taken over too.
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Shaggy manages to free their souls, though they get placed into the wrong bodies initially, but once righted they hatch a plan to revert things back to normal and interrupt the ceremony where Scooby is soon to become a sacrifice, after becoming ostracised from his best friend who didn’t believe his fears. They triumph in the end and it’s revealed that the criminal mastermind is in fact Scrappy-Doo, who has taken the true owner of Spooky Island hostage, masquerading inside a robot copy of him. All the demons perish as it was earlier learnt sunlight is their weakness.
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I hadn’t seen this film for years when I picked up this VHS copy at a carboot sale, but it’s an absolute classic and brings back alot of nostalgia for me. This truly is the definitive Scooby-Doo cast - Linda Cardellini is my favourite Velma ever and Sarah is just wonderful as Daphne, alongside her husband Freddie and the incredible Matthew Lillard as Shaggy. The Haunted House scene is one of my favourites, and I think the CGI for the time with the protoplasmic heads and the demons was really epic.
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There are a few things about the film as an older viewer now that don’t sit right for me; many of the things that make the island ‘spooky’ are just elements of other cultural practices that make white people uncomfortable like shrunken heads and voodoo, which is made a mockery of. There were definitely ways to emphasise the atmosphere of the place without using these tropes but it’s something many films employ.
