Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost

Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost is the second in a series of direct-to-video animated films based upon Hanna-Barbera's Scooby Doo Saturday morning cartoons. It was released on October 5, 1999, and it was produced by Warner Bros. Animation (although with a Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. copyright). Like a number of direct-to-video Scooby-Doo animated films released in the late-1990s and early-2000s, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost features real ghosts instead of simple bad guys in masks. The videos sold well and received generally positive reviews in the press.

Premise
The Mystery Inc. gang travel to a New England town called Oakhaven after being invited by horror writer Ben Ravencroft.

Synopsis
Ben Ravencroft, a famous horror writer of whom Velma is a big fan, assists the Mystery Inc. gang in solving a case at a museum. Afterwards, Ben invites the gang to his home town of Oakhaven. But when they arrive there, they find that the town has been built up by its mayor into a tourist attraction, complete with a replica of the town in the 17th century and a supposed ghost of a witch who haunts the town. The mayor and pharmacist Mr. McKnight explains that the ghost is of Sarah Ravencroft, a relative of Ben's, who was persecuted as a witch by the town in the 1600's. But Ben says that Sarah was actually a wiccan who used natural herbs to heal people, and even has a diary of all her patients that Ben wants to find to prove her innocence. Scooby and Shaggy find what appears to be a shoe buckle, and then go to a local diner for food, owned by the friendly Jack.

Ben, Fred, Daphne, Velma, and many visitors stay out late in order to see the witch, but do not. But Scooby and Shaggy are chased by the fireball-throwing witch, and run into Ben and the gang returning home. The gang finds some broken branches at the scene, as well as a local goth girl rock band named the "Hex Girls", comprised of Luna, Dusk, and Thorn. The gang then split up; Fred and Daphne follow the Hex Girls, Velma and Ben explore an old barn, and Scooby and Shaggy follow the Mayor. Fred and Daphne see Thorn doing some sort of ritual, and become convinced that the Hex Girls are actually witches. Velma and Ben find a cherry picking truck in the barn. Scooby and Shaggy see the Mayor talking to and giving things to many of the townspeople. They then run into the witch again, who chases them past to Mayor and into Velma and Ben. Velma then tells the Mayor that she has a plan to catch the witch.

The Gang, Ben, and the Hex Girls meet in the woods. The witch appears and gives chase, but is captured by Daphne and Fred. The witch is revealed to be McKnight, who is Thorn's father. Velma then locates the truck among the trees. She explains that the truck lifted the witch and made her appear to fly, and also deduces that many townspeople were in on the trick, including Jack and the Mayor. Ben scolds the people involved for exploiting Sarah's good name for their benefit. Back at Ben's house, the gang apologize to the Hex Girls, and Thorn explains the ritual was just to improve her vocals, and that she is actually 1/16th wiccan. The Mayor and McKnight then arrive, explaining that they had to use the witch to boost the towns economy because of lack of tourists. They then say that they did find the head marker for Sarah's grave, but still don't know where the grave is located. Velma then remembers that the buckle Scooby found is that same one one Sarah's diary in a painting Ben has.

The gang, Ben, The Hex Girls, McKnight, and the Mayor go to the spot where Scooby found the buckle. Scooby digs deeper, and discovers a chest. A excited Ben opens the chest to find not a diary, but a spell book. He then explains to a horrified Mystery Inc. that Sarah was indeed a witch, and that he created the case at the museum in order to meet the gang so they could find the book for him. Becoming insane with his new magical powers derived from the book, Ben captures McKnight, The Mayor, and the Hex Girls before resurrecting Sarah. But Sarah's ghost rejects Ben's idea of ruling the world together, and instead wants to destroy it. Horrified by this, Ben attempts to imprison Sarah back in to book, but she says only a wiccan can return her. Velma then gets an idea, and frees Thorn and asks her to read the spell, and sends Scooby and Shaggy to get the book. The gang tries to get the book many times, but Sarah keeps turning pumpkins, trees, and even a turkey into monsters to stop them. Eventually, the gang obtains the book, each throwing it to another person when they get captured, until it reaches Thorn. Thorn reads the spell, sending the witch and Ben, whom she grabbed hold of at the last second, back into the book. A burning branch falls on the book, disintegrating it. The gang then free the others, and the witch's monsters turn back to normal (except for the enormous turkey which the town can now use as a tourist attraction). Later that night the Hex Girls (and the gang) give a concert to the townspeople and the tourists.

Songs

 * Main article: Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (soundtrack)

Villains

 * Sarah Ravencroft
 * Ben Ravencroft
 * Witch's Ghost/Mr. McKnight (redeemed)

Locations

 * Unnamed city or town
 * Museum of Natural History
 * Unnamed city or town
 * Oakhaven, Massachusetts
 * Puritan village
 * Oakhaven Restaurant
 * Ben Ravencroft's mansion
 * Barn 1
 * Hardware store
 * Molly Parken's Bed and Breakfast
 * McKnight home
 * Shed
 * Barn 2

Continuity

 * Ben finds out about Mystery Inc. from seeing them in the paper after solving the Moat Monster case which happened in a flashback in the previous film.
 * Daphne wears the same purple suit she wore in the previous film.
 * This is the second film to make reference to a possible romantic relationship between Daphne and Fred. She asks him why the two of them are always splitting off from Shaggy, Velma, and Scooby and going off alone. Fred hesitantly begins to answer, but is distracted by the Hex Girls approaching. This a nod to the original series, where they would often pair off together most often than not. A romantic relationship between the two had already been alluded to in the gang's guest appearance in the Johnny Bravo episode, Bravo Dooby-Doo.

Notes/trivia

 * Billy Ray Cyrus sings the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You? theme song in the museum chase scene.
 * Ben Ravencroft's name seems to be a play on H.P. Lovecraft, a horror writer. His character could be a reference to modern horror author Stephen King, who lives in New England.
 * The scene at the end with the gang playing along with the Hex Girls is a nod to what the original Scooby-Doo series was supposed to be before the idea was changed. Originally, the show was going to be about a group of teens who are in a band with their dog that travel around performing while solving mysteries. The instruments the gang plays are the same ones they were going to play in the show which even included Scooby on the bongos.
 * This is the first appearance of the Hex Girls; they return in Scooby-Doo! And The Legend Of The Vampire and the What's New, Scooby-Doo? episode, The Vampire Strikes Back. Their appearance and personalities have been greatly toned down to be less frightening.
 * This is Tim Curry's first appearance in a Scooby-Doo movie. His second role was in Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King, where he played the titular Goblin King.
 * Interestingly, Curry's characters have opposite character arcs. Ben starts off as someone who appears to be an ally to the gang, but is then revealed to be one of the movie's two "big bads" at the beginning of the third act. At the beginning of the other movie it appears that the Goblin King is going to be the "big bad", but in the third act it's revealed that he's not so bad after all (although that's a matter of perspective).
 * This marks Scott Innes's debut as the voice of Shaggy, taking over from Billy West from the previous film.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * When Thorn says "Hurry!" when Velma and Daphne are untying her, Dusk, and Luna from the yarn, her mouth doesn't mouth.

Inconstitencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * Shaggy calls the curator "Professor" while Velma calls him "Doctor".
 * Ben seems unconfortable hearing about his own stories from Velma. Even if this was apart of his act, he still wrote them all.
 * It seems odd that Ben would discover the gang's Moat Monster case from a newspaper report, a case that's supposed to be a few years old. Even including the fact that Daphne had brought it up in her TV interview it still wouldn't make the papers because it was just from her memories; however they have got their cases in the paper before so it's possibly the flashback of was actually years ago and he was just finding the right moment to find Mystery Inc., although it's implied to not be that long ago.
 * That could be a reasonable explaination if it weren't for the issue of their clothes. Daphne and Fred both wear the new outfits introduced in the previous film when they should be wearing their original ones, making it appear as if that case had been retconned as one of the newest cases.
 * This could all be due to the fact that at the end of the previous film when the gang and Detective Neville would back up each other's stories that werewolves and zombies, etc. were real. From an in-universe point of view it could be assumed that no one believed them, but from the writer's perspective (considering both films have the same principal crew) it would be a continuity trap. The point of the last film was to bring them "back together", not make them famous or even professional. In fact, Daphne's whole role of a TV journalist/presenter is dropped which was presumably the whole point of even giving her the more professional wardrobe to begin with.
 * While Wicca is a nature-oriented religion that did not appear until the 20th Century, nature-oriented spiritual healers could very well have existed in the 1600s. Additionally, being a religion, Wicca is not passed down through bloodlines (that would be like someone saying they have "Catholic blood" or being "1/16th Catholic").
 * Velma is correct in stating that the modern-day word for witch comes from the word wicca. However wicca is a masculine Old English word that means sorcerer, meaning that wicca and witch are technically synonyms.
 * Hopefully the gang actually informed Dr. Dean of his currupted security guards.
 * If Sarah Ravencroft is a ghost, how is it possible for her to get wet or for the bucket to get stuck on her head?
 * With the exception of Scooby's bongos, the rest of the gang's instruments aren't heard. Possibly they were drowned out by the Hex Girls' own music.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost VHS.
 * Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost DVD.

Quotes
"(Shaggy sees three girls coming toward them) Girls. Yeah, rirls. (both make themselves look handsome by pulling their full stomachs as being buff, and Shaggy makes his hair a different style as a romantic look) Like, hi girls. Hi. (Shaggy and Scooby look frightened as they see their vampire-like fangs, then yell and run as the Hex Girls can be heard laughing)"

- Shaggy & Scooby and Thorn, Dusk, and Luna

"(Shaggy throws a bucket of water on Sarah Ravencroft) What was that? Like, you're not melting, it worked in The Wizard of Oz."

- Sarah Ravencroft and Shaggy