Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9736 in DVD
• Released on: 2003-06-30
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Formats: Animated, PAL
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 73 minutes

Special Features
English
Region 2

Synopsis
Scooby-Do, Shaggy, Velma, Daphne and Fred head off to investigate a pirate ghost. But soon the team are up to their necks in zombies and strange creatures.

Customer Reviews

FUN AND SUSPENSEFUL
Scooby Doo on Zombie Island is the best direct-to-video Scooby-Doo yet

Plot: After years of uncovering phony phantoms and ghosts the gang has split up. Fred (Frank Welker) and Daphne (Mary Kay Bergman) have their own television show documenting their past mysteries. Velma (B.J. Ward) owns her own mystery book shop and Shaggy (Billy West) and Scooby-Doo (Scott Ines) work at an airport. For Daphne's birthday they get back together to try to find real monsters for her T.V. show. Along the way they meet Lena (Tara Charendoff) who tells them about the haunted house she works at on Moonscar Island and invites them over. They except and once there they meet Simone (Adrienne Barbeau). As day leads into night the gang discovers the haunting's may be true.

The Good News: They say the first is the best and this one really proves that true. There is really a lot to like here and not a lot to dislike. This may surprise a lot of people, but this film is really suspenseful. The final half hour really represents this. It had me on the edge of my seat and is filled with lots of twists and turns. The animation also shines here, but I don't want to give anything away. The first ghost sighting is creepy and provides a few chills, actually all the ghost sightings prior to the climax are very unearthly and leave you with a set of chills. The idea of it suddenly becoming cold before the ghosts attack is an old one, but this proves it can still work. The addition of voodoo is thrown into the mix, but it just adds to the film instead of lowering it. The music also adds to the film and gives it a creepier edge. The all-star cast provides a ton of great voices and I have to mention that the great Adrienne Barbeau is in this. The addition of real monsters was nice and provided a lot of great opportunities. The film moves along a fast pace and it is never boring. It also has a high re watch ability factor.

The Bad News: There could have been a few more ghost attacks and the jokes could have been funnier.

Conclusion: If you're a Scooby fan you'll eat this up and it provides more entertainment than a regular Scooby-Doo episode so others will also find a lot to like here too. Recommend.

Scooby Doo Returns
This DVD marked the return of Scooby Doo and launched and whole new set of Scooby Doo feature length adventures for a new generation of fans and then What's New Scooby Doo on TV.
This time they have new music and a new storyline and this time the monsters and ghosts etc. are really real no maskes, no fakes, no robots etc.
Velma, Daphne, Freddie, Shaggy and not forgetting Scooby take on the case of Zombie Island and they discover more than even Velma suspected.
Freddie and Daphne's dress sense has changed but Shaggy and Velma and Scooby haven't changed this DVD should enjoy all true fans and this DVD gives two classic episodes so a great buy.

Scooby rebooted
`The ghost is here and its always a fake/Crooks in a suit protecting something/Oh give us the truth/- It's a fake..'

The refrain, from one of the songs from Hanna-Barbera's enjoyably revisionist cartoon feature, gives the game away as much does a false hand or mask: that this is growing up time for those who watched the series before, as much as it is for the fictional characters. Scoobie-Doo, Daphne, Fred, Shaggy and Velma, the members of `Mystery Inc.', were fixtures of children's television during the 70's. (So much that some cultural historians have referred to that age group of viewers as the `Scooby-Doo generation'.) Their show presented an unvarying formula of mild scares, broad comedy and a reassuring resolution.

In `Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island' the intrepid teenage investigators are revealed once again pursued by a monster who, once again, allows Shaggy and Scooby their so-frightened-its-funny routine. And when the monster is felled, and its mask is removed, it is naturally revealed to be none other than the real estate agent Mr Beeman, whose final words are said in time honoured fashion: `..and I would have got away with it too, if it wasn't for that dog and you meddling kids'.

The `meddling kids' however, have grown up, along with their audience. Far from being a closing sequence, Beeman's downfall is shown at the start of this film, as Daphne Blake, now a reporter with her own show `Coast to Coast', replays an earlier adventure of the team on a chat show. An Oprah-like hostess elicits the truth. Since the old days, it turns out that Daphne is not the only one who has gone her own way. Fred (still with the boyish good looks) is the producer on her show, Velma has opened `Dankley's Mystery Bookstore' whilst, in a ludicrous twist, Shaggy and Scooby have become contraband sniffers for customs. The team in short, has broken up, their independence an indication of distancing and maturity.

Daphne's desire to find genuine spooky occurrences for her show's second season is the motivation for the famous team to reform. Their Mystery Machine now a source of nostalgia. But there's an awareness that all of the past `hauntings' have been fakes, which brings an air of frustrated realism. Fred is the cynic, saying that `there's always a logical explanation for these things'. And remembering 300-odd shows that have been before, the viewer must perforce agree with him. There's a symbol of this new mood of disillusionment, in the box of Scooby Snacks given by Velma to Scooby and Shaggy just before they set out. The biscuits are stale.

Speeding to New Orleans, the rest of Mystery, Inc. find Fred's rational view to be correct. Every ghost, it seems, is fake. Daphne is left to gloomily contemplate the lack of any real supernatural encounters. As she admits, all they have found so far have been `guys in masks, mechanical claws and hologram projections', `Just like the good old days' adds Velma ironically. The group's precipitous meeting with the mysterious Lena then, who promises them a real haunted house, is a turning point.

At first, their investigation of Simone and Lena's haunted house seems to be following the same path. Scooby-Doo discovers cats to chase, and he and Shaggy find food to scoff (including some Cajun peppers - literally `hard to swallow'!) But there's a suspicion of romance between Freddy and Lena, and change creeps still further over the film as ghastly events, connected with the pirate Morgan Moonscare, defy rational explanation vexing Velma. For once, the suspicion is that Scooby-Doo and the gang are up against the genuine article. Freddy is at the heart of much of this. (A subtle indication of his new role is when, getting dressed, he impulsively discards his trademark Ascot.) From sceptic, he is forced to believe - an intellectual process central to the success of many adult horror films.

At the heart of `Zombie Island' there's a remarkable scene which epitomises the film's new world-view. The group succeed in discovering the recumbent body of a zombie. Ready for the all-important `unmasking the janitor' scene Freddy tries to pull off the supposed mask. Yanking at the head, he ritualises the process of exposure with suggestions of who the zombie will prove to be, itemising the suspicious characters they have encountered: `.. it's the gardner. It's the fisherman. Maybe the ferryman. Maybe animatronic.. ' Alas for Freddy, the zombie's entire head comes off, and then is promptly reattached as the creature wakes. For once they are faced with the genuine article - a seismic shift in their ghoul-chasing careers.

In previous Scooby-Doo outings, the viewer is reassured by assuming that the evil will be explained away. On Zombie Island this safety net is suddenly removed, and the adventure approaches a level of supernatural unease that the television series failed to achieve - leaving the Scooby-Doo fan in new territory.

The following zombie attack and the discovery of the voodoo cat-cult provide an exciting enough conclusion. In accord with the general air of rediscovery, Scooby and all find that, this time, `the zombies are the good guys'. There's a new song played too, reflecting with some justice that `It's terror time again' as events proceed.

All in all this is a pleasant surprise, the film reflecting a timely and refreshing reinterpretation of the Scooby-Doo franchise by Hanna-Barbera. The films which followed: ` Scooby-Doo and The Witches Ghost' (1999), `The Alien Invasion' (2000), `Cyber Chase' (2001) continue this change, but `Zombie Island' was the creative breakthrough. Values are higher than the TV series, as one might expect given the higher budget and the involvement of a Japanese animation team. A must for fans!