Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders

Scooby-Doo And The Alien Invaders is the third in the series of direct-to-video animated films based upon the Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons. It was produced by Warner Bros. Animation (though it had a Hanna-Barbera Cartoons logo and copyright notice at the end).

Premise
Are aliens abducting people in Roswell, New Mexico?

Synopsis
The Mystery Machine is driving through a desert. A sand storm kicks in and Shaggy makes an accidental turn into government property. The sight of a UFO causes Shaggy to lose control of the vehicle and crashes into a cactus. Mystery Inc find themselves on the outskirts of a small town. While Scooby-Doo and Shaggy stay with the van, the rest of Mystery Inc. walk into the direction of a town ahead; they make it to a local diner to ask for directions. While waiting, Shaggy and Scooby fight over a Scooby Snack they find. Shaggy and Scooby then encounter a fictional animal called a jackalope. When they chase it into the mouth of a cave; they see a glow in the distance. Two aliens then approach them from behind and chase them towards a diner.

Shaggy and Scooby run into the diner in panic, claming to have seen aliens. The diner waitress, Dottie, says that they never see the aliens but see strange lights and hear strange sounds at night. The chef, Sergio (pronounced "Serge"), says that a month ago, local cattle vanished overnight without a trace and a lot of people moved away. A man named Lester claims to have been abducted once before, and believes them. He also says that he has pictures; the gang goes to his house to see them, but they turn out to be nothing more than paintings by Lester. Lester then offers to let the gang stay for the night. Daphne and Velma sleep in a bunk bed and Fred sleeps on Lester's couch.

Scooby and Shaggy sleep on the roof, and are abducted. Scooby is the first to see the same two aliens they ran from earlier and wakes Shaggy. The aliens then touch Scooby and Shaggy's forehead while the two of them panic. The Aliens buckle them to beds. The aliens then put wires on them which tickle, Shaggy in the neck and Scooby on the side. Scooby manages to break free from the buckles and runs with Shaggy's bed in while the aliens pursue. Eventually they are trapped and a third alien comes forward with some sort of alien taser, the two black out. The next day the two find themselves in the middle of nowhere. They are awakened by a hippie-chick photographer, Crystal, and her golden retriever, Amber. Scooby and Shaggy fall head over heels in love the moment they lay eyes on them. Crystal and Amber give them a ride back to the diner, Scooby is making more moves than Shaggy. They meet the rest of the gang there with Lester who catch on to them being in love. They were so smitten that for the first and only time the pair have no appetite. When Crystal and Amber leave, Shaggy and Scooby get all washed up for when they can see them again. They go to a mechanic and ask if he can fix their vehicl;, he says he'll look over it. They then meet Max who works at the SALF station; they help him load up oil. Crystal and Amber drive Shaggy and Scooby off to go looking for the Jackalope. Shaggy tries to make the Jackalope seem bigger, with no avail. Scooby picks flowers for Amber who gives him a kiss, Scooby rejoices greatly. When Shaggy tries the same thing a spider get into his shirt and he freaks out, still impressing Crystal towards the end.

Velma, Fred, and Daphne meet the crew of SALF (Search for Alien Life Forms): Steve, Laura and Max. Velma becomes suspicious when she sees dried mud on their boots, since they are in the desert. Later, she decides to take the gang to a canyon where she presumes a river might run. The canyon proves to be dry, but they find mining equipment, and in the caves, gold. Meanwhile Military Police make Shaggy, Crystal, Scooby-Doo and Amber leave the area as it's government property. Crystal then tells Shaggy she is really a government agent and not a photographer. She wants them to go back in. Shaggy and Scooby aren't sure, but when they use their charm on them they agree; Amber licks Scooby's cheek and he just laughs. Shaggy leads them to the cave where he first saw the aliens and saw the jackalope disappear. They quickly hide inside when the MPs come back, but are able to trick them into leaving by pretending that Scooby's tail is a snake. A real snake then scares Shaggy and Scooby into going further into the cave with Crystal and Amber close behind. They also discover the gold, but are then found and chased by the aliens, the gang too. The gang gets trapped in a net while Scooby and the others fall off a ledge after being cornered by the MPs. After the aliens send the MP's after them it's revealed that the aliens are really the SALF crew. They hold them hostage as they explain that they stumbled upon this cave when searching for ground to place another SALF dish. Since it was on government land, they decided not to report it, and plan to keep it that way. They are also revealed to be the aliens who abducted Scooby and Shaggy; the UFO was nothing more than a dressed-up helicopter. Meanwhile the others wake up and find themselves deep in the cave still close to another ledge. When the MPs show up Shaggy and Scooby try to protect them by doing kung fu moves, the MPs aren't afraid. Crystal and Amber then scare them off by revealing their alien selves, but give the boys the credit. The MPs come running to the crew, but when all they see is Scooby and the others they send them back. This time when Shaggy and Scooby do the kung fu moves the MPs grab them and threaten them. Crystal and Amber then reveal their alien selves to all of them and scare the MP's off. Shaggy and Scooby didn't see the change so when they turn around and see them; they run off. The SALF members then try to capture them and as danger draws near Shaggy and Scooby come to the rescue and defeat the bad guys. Crystal and Amber prove to be aliens from 20 light years away, and are dressed as they are because their interpretations of the way humans dressed were derived from 1960s television broadcasts. The UFO that ran Shaggy off the road was actually Crystal's. Crystal and Amber then have to go, they give Shaggy and Scooby a kiss on the lips before leaving in a tractor beam. The SALF crew and the fake MPs are arrested by the Police. Shaggy and Scooby are heartbroken until Velma gives them a box of Scooby Snacks which they didn't find early on, while watching the van.

Villains

 * Alien Invaders/SALF
 * False MP's

Locations

 * Roswell, New Mexico
 * Sergio's Diner
 * Lester's home

Continuity

 * In part of the movie when Shaggy and Crystal are far away talking, he can be heard telling her about his and Scooby's first encounter with the Witch's Ghost from the previous animated movie.

Notes/trivia

 * Jennifer Love Hewitt performed the "Scooby-Doo, Where Are You?" theme song for the film. The track was played when Shaggy and Scooby were being chased by the "aliens".
 * This movie marks the first known instance of Shaggy falling in love, and exploring the possibilities of a romantic relationship (though Shaggy did a have a girlfriend in Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf).
 * "How Groovy", another main movie track, performed by Scott Innes as Shaggy (and in part, Scooby-Doo) saw Shaggy in one of the most rare scenes where he kisses a girl on the lips (Crystal), but it was all just a dream sequence; he does however get a real one near the end of film, making him the first main (human) character to get kissed and on the lips too. Scooby also gets kissed on the lips too by Amber.
 * Alien Invaders is notable for Mary Kay Bergman's final performance as Daphne as this film is dedicated to her. Grey DeLisle would take over after Bergman's passing.
 * SALF (Search for Alien Life Forms) is a reference to SETI, which stands for Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence. This is the collective name for a number of activities people undertake to search for intelligent extraterrestrial life. SETI projects use scientific methods in this search.
 * Steve almost says the famous "And I would have gotten away with it, if it weren't for you meddling kids!" but as soon as he comes to "meddling kids", he is ordered to be quiet by a police officer.
 * When Shaggy says "hey, come on guys, don't ya need to, phone home or something?", he references the movie E.T..
 * Scooby-Doo is proven ticklish when the alien tickles him with the wire when he attaches it to Scooby's side.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches

 * None known.

Inconstitencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities

 * Velma draws attention to the fact that the oil that they helped Matt load into the SALF van is the wrong kind for hydraulics'. How on Earth did she figure that out?? All that the viewers ever saw was gold-labeled cans with red flowers on them. The oil viscosity is never shown. Also, the dried mud that Velma saw on the SALF members' shoes is never seen either before or after Velma mentions it as a big clue that they're up to something!
 * Also, Velma's muddy shoe clue can be explained by the SALF crew venturing into town to buy supplies, for example. Just because they work in a clean facility does not mean that they are confined to it, after all they did encounter one of the crew members at the mechanic shop. This is not a real strong hint that the SALF crew is up to something suspicious.

Home media

 * Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders VHS.
 * Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders DVD.
 * Scooby-Doo! Double Feature DVD, along with Scooby Goes Hollywood.