Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island: Difference between revisions

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[[File:Scooby_Zombie_Island_58.jpg|frame|[[Tagline|This time, the monsters are real...]]]]
 
 
{{quote|''Mystery, Inc. is back in business!''|'''Velma'''}}
 
The year is 1997. Most people would have considered that the ''[[Scooby-Doo]]'' franchise had pretty much [[Jumped the Shark|run its course]]. It'd been 6 years since ''[[A Pup Named Scooby Doo|A Pup Named Scooby-Doo]]'' was canceled, and the only things that remained of the franchise included a made-for-TV-movie in 1994 called ''[[Scooby -Doo in Arabian Nights]]'', and reruns of exploits from decades past.
 
Then, out of nowhere, came something totally unexpected. Children and parents everywhere stared in amazement at one thing: a trailer packed into the cassettes of several [[Warner Bros]] films...
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In honor of Daphne's birthday, Fred invites her, Scooby, Shaggy, and Velma to a long-awaited Mystery Inc. reunion. The five of them travel to [[New Orleans]] in order to find real monsters to discuss on Daphne's talk show. After effortlessly exposing several creature impostors, the gang accepts an offer to visit Moonscar Island. The island is home to a French chili pepper plantation owner named Simone Lenoir, and has become the site of several disappearances over the years. While there, our heroes grapple with zombies and voodoo, death becomes a real threat, and the adventure grows legitimately dark and scary for a kid's film.
 
With a warmly received journey into relatively mature writing, ''Zombie Island'' marked a, or ''the'', high-point in the ''Scooby-Doo'' franchise. The film, as mentioned before, is beautifully animated -- moreso than any incarnation before and still unmatched today -- with a literally dark and realistic feel to it. On top of that, it featured a somewhat cynical/mature look at what happened to Mystery Inc. after their adventures were done (which would be touched on again the [[The Movie]], but with less success). Characters were more fleshed out and three-dimensional, especially the newly empowered Daphne. The irrelevant pop songs of past cartoons gave way to Alternative and Metal music. The story appealed to older viewers with honest-to-goodness death as part of the backstory, and the end result for the gang if they didn't win. <ref>Although the back cover mentioned that they ''do'' make it out alive.</ref> And the best part of it all? No contrived story with a guy in a mask... just like the ads promised, [[ThisPunctuated! IsFor! SpartaEmphasis!|they were real. Stinkin'. Zombies]]. Probably the only complaint the movie generated was, "[[Animation Age Ghetto|it's too scary for young]] ''[[Animation Age Ghetto|Scooby]]'' [[Animation Age Ghetto|fans]]."
 
The success of ''Zombie Island'' lead to the creation of three more videos covering mysteries Scooby and the gang would solve as adults. However, while they took many of the same conventions as ''Zombie Island'', they also brought back several of the old ones. For example, in ''Scooby-Doo and The Witch's Ghost'', Daphne returned to being [[The Chick]], the animation wasn't as dark, and there was even an old-fashioned [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]] in addition to the Witch's Ghost. The success of the new movies caused a complete revival in the franchise, bringing ''[[What's New, Scooby -Doo?]]'', and a series of newer increasingly cheaper animated videos to the TV screen.
 
The success of ''Zombie Island'' lead to the creation of three more videos covering mysteries Scooby and the gang would solve as adults. However, while they took many of the same conventions as ''Zombie Island'', they also brought back several of the old ones. For example, in ''Scooby-Doo and The Witch's Ghost'', Daphne returned to being [[The Chick]], the animation wasn't as dark, and there was even an old-fashioned [[Scooby-Doo Hoax]] in addition to the Witch's Ghost. The success of the new movies caused a complete revival in the franchise, bringing ''[[What's New Scooby Doo]]'', and a series of newer increasingly cheaper animated videos to the TV screen.
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{{tropelist}}
* [[Actually Pretty Funny]]: Simone's reaction when she finds out Shaggy and Scooby tried one of the Moonscar Island peppers. Normally she's annoyed at them, especially Scooby when he chases her cats. Here even she finds their food antics amusing especially when they react badly to the Peppers.
{{Quote|'''Simone:''' I wasn't exaggerating when I said they were the hottest peppers in Louisiana.}}
* [[Agent Scully]]: Fred takes his sweet time accepting the possibility that ''real'' zombies and ghosts are pursuing them.
* [[Anti-Villain]]: {{spoiler|Simone and Lena}}. Both [[Sliding Scale of Anti-Villains|Type II]].
* [[Be Careful What You Wish For]]: {{spoiler|Simone and her servant Lena prayed to cat gods for the power to protect their island from pirates. The gods granted them such power, but also cursed them to turn into [[Catgirl|Cat Girls]] during the harvest moon}}.
** One could also argue that Scooby and the gang suffered this trope after Daphne expressed desires to meet real monsters.
* [[Betty, Veronica and Archie Switcheroo]]: Fred is implied to be in a relationship with Daphne long after the gang broke up, serving as her cameraman. They meet Lena in New Orleans, who invites them to visit a real haunted home on Moonscar Island. Daphne becomes jealous when Lena starts flirting with Fred, and she seems to be the Veronica to Lena's [[Nice Girl]] and [[Supreme Chef]] Betty. {{spoiler|Lena is a demi-mortal werecat who lured the Mystery Inc. gang to the island to feed on their souls, and her flirting with Fred was an act. She admits he's cute after capturing him, but not cute enough to spare.}}
* [[Big Damn Movie]]
* [[Big Eater]]: Scooby and Shaggy, duh.
* [[Casting Gag]]: Possibly the casting of Adrienne Barbeau ( {{spoiler|Catwoman}} from ''[[Batman: The Animated Series|Batman the Animated Series]]'') as Simone Lenoir. Also a double whammy as she's playing a character on an Island Surrounded by Zombified Pirates. Just like [[The Fog]].
* [[Cats Are Mean]]: Scooby has an ongoing rivalry with Simone's cats. {{spoiler|Also, Simone and Lena are really [[Catgirl|Cat Girls]] who gain immortality by stealing visitors' souls}}.
** [[The Stinger]] shows that Scooby and Simone's cats eventually made peace.
* [[Character Development]]: Daphne retains her more pro-active personality from ''[[The 13 Ghosts of Scooby -Doo]]'', and takes it a step further by never once really being a [[Damsel in Distress]] (at least, not when others weren't in as much trouble as she).
* [[Chekhov's Gun]]: The cloth Velma uses to clean her glasses. Later, {{spoiler|Simone and Lena use the cloth to power a Velma voodoo doll}}.
** Fred's ascot serves a similar purpose in this movie.
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* [[Dolled-Up Installment]]: The movie was adapted from the story of an unmade episode of ''[[Swat Kats|SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron]]''.
* [[Expy]]: In one of the direct to TV animated videos made several years later, ''Pirates Ahoy'', they blatantly reused the design for Captain Moonscar for their main pirate monster.
* [[Family-Unfriendly Death]]: The death of the {{spoiler|cat people}}. Also the death of the former inhabitants of Moonscar Island. Being forced to go into a lagoon where alligators just wait for their meal? Charming.
* [[Family-Unfriendly Violence]]: In ''Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island'' there are a few examples of this, one zombie has his head ripped off and two get cut in half.
** Earlier than that, the guy in the monster suit in the intro gives Fred a nasty gash on his back.
* [[Foreshadowing]]: ''Zombie Island'' has several signs linking to the end of the mystery, including one in one of the chase sequences, where {{spoiler|a Zombie gives Shaggy a vine to pull Scooby out, at first, it looks like just a gag involving the whole "monster helps them to save themselves", but it foreshadows that the Zombies are not as evil as they're made out to be}}.
* [[Forgotten Birthday]]: Inverted. At the beginning of the reunion, Daphne tells her friends that she got so caught up in her work, she didn't realize her birthday had arrived until everyone else showed up to surprise her.
* [[Genre Shift]]: From a straight ''Scooby-Doo'' story, to a supernatural horror mystery film.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: When Scooby and Shaggy are outside enjoying a picnic Shaggy shares one of Moonscar Island's trademark peppers with him. The whole scene looks like something out of a stoner comedy with the pepper in place of drugs. When it opens, we see Shaggy's pupils contract and his eyes water as he breathes rapidly, before it's revealed he's reacting to the pepper.
{{Quote|'''Shaggy:''' Like your turn pal.}}
* [[The Greatest Story Never Told]]: After Fred drops the camera into quicksand, the gang fears that no one will believe their adventure occurred. They realize {{spoiler|Simone's only surviving servant Beau}} can act as a witness, but even he doubts anyone will believe them.
* [[Heel Face Turn]]: It happened to {{spoiler|Morgan Moonscar and his crew after their deaths. The above [[Foreshadowing]] entry makes clear that they ''don't'' want to kill the gang: in spite of being real zombies, they want to scare them away from the area (which was ironically a much more noble version of what most of the series' previous villains wanted to do).}}
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* [[Oh Crap]]: Several characters, several times throughout the film. One in particular that stands out is Fred when he finally gets it that the zombies really are real, and really are trying to kill them {{spoiler|...or not. The zombies are actually trying to scare them away so the ''real'' villains won't sacrifice them to their cat god}}.
* [[Our Zombies Are Different]]: ''Very'' different. Not the [[Night of the Living Dead|flesh-eating kind]] or the [[Return of the Living Dead|brain-eating kind]].
* [[Pet The Dog]]: {{Spoiler| Jacques may have been an evil cat creature, but he did have a moment of concern for Shaggy and Scooby when they fell overboard. Whether it's because they're greedy for souls to eat or because the gang might leave if they got killed no one knows. Maybe because he takes his ferrying seriously. Either way, he did try to rescue them when they fell.}}
* [[Played for Laughs]]: The back cover claims that even though the monsters are real, the movie will be Scooby's funniest adventure yet. While the movie takes the concept of Scooby meeting real monsters very seriously, especially in comparison to such TV movies as ''[[Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers]]'', there ''are'' some gags, of course, so [[Your Mileage May Vary]] over whether or not that synopsis's claim is true.
* [[Pragmatic Adaptation]]: Many would even contest that this is ''the best'' Scooby-Doo story ever. Hands down.
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* [[Sir Not-Appearing-In-This-Trailer|Lady Not Appearing On This Cover]]: Poor Daphne got cut off when this movie got packaged together with ''Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders'', and the cover designers had to fit ''both'' posters on the front.
* [[Stab the Scorpion]]: After much criticism from Velma, Beau picks up a large rock and it looks like he's going to hurt her with it. Instead, he throws it in front of her, revealing that she was about to step in quicksand. She thanked him, but she ''still'' sees him as a suspect.
* [[Serial Killer]]: {{spoiler|The zombies turn out to be people being sacrificed/killed by Simone, Lena and Jacques}}.
* [[Start of Darkness]]: {{spoiler|As told via [[Flash Back]] by Lena and Simone - they originally gained dark powers to get vengeance the pirates that destroyed their home, but the price of the power turned them to evil.}}
* [[Theme Tune Cameo]]: Fred whistles the theme song to ''Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?'' at one part.
* [[Time Skip]]: The movie begins with a flashback of a routine mystery, then progresses several years after the disbandment of Mystery Inc. Daphne hosts a popular talk show, Fred produces her show, Scooby and Shaggy work as security at an airport, and Velma owns a store selling mystery books.
* [[Took a Level Inin Badass]]: Sure, she would lose them in the next few movies, but ''Daphne''.
* {{spoiler|[[Undercover Cop Reveal]]: Beau, although, although not in a way that matters to the plot.}}
* [[You Meddling Kids]]:
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[[Category:Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island]]
[[Category:Scooby-Doo (animation)]]
[[Category:Film]]