- This article is about the film. For the DVD, see Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island (DVD).
This needs a stretch. (Feel free to remove when satisfied of completion.) Needed: Synopsis (Not copied from Wikipedia or any other site). |
Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island is the thirtieth in a series of direct-to-video films based upon Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons. It had its world premiere on July 21 at the San Diego Comic Con International 2019,[1] followed by Digital HD on September 3, and DVD on October 1.
It is a quasi sequel to Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, the original direct-to-video film in the series. Notably, it was released during the 50th anniversary year of the Scooby-Doo franchise, making the film somewhat of an acknowledgement of that milestone, along with the previous DTV release, Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost.
Premise
The gang gets a tropical-themed vacation, which turns out to be on none other than Moonscar Island.
Synopsis
The story begins with the Scooby gang luring a werewolf in a trap and the culprit is Young Man Withers. Soon, after cleaning the Mystery Machine, the gang capture more monsters, (including the Snow Ghost, the Creeper, and the Spooky Space Kook.) who are the entire Withers Family. But, as the gang congratulated themselves,the Mystery Machine went backwards, as Fred gave chase, but it turns out to have been a dream. As it turns out, Fred sold the Mystery Machine, and that They are retired from mystery solving, thanks to the Sheriff from the 13th ghost incident. As Fred decides to come out of retirement after seeing a news report. Shaggy and Scooby refuse, saying that They've been taken For granted in all their mysteries, and has Fred, Daphne, and Velma promise never to solve another mystery. As the gang decide to have a vacation. They see a TV program featuring Elvira, who announces the winner of a tropical vacation, who is in fact, Shaggy Rogers, to the gang's confusion and Shaggy and Scooby's delight.
On the way to the island, via a ferry, Fred, Daphne, and Velma try to keep their promise, as Shaggy and Scooby relax. After arriving, two greeters scaredly tell the gang to "Get Out" as the gang go in a van to the resort. On the way, a clawed figure slashes a palm tree causing it to block the road. forcing the gang to go to the resort by foot. As the van driver stays to repair His van. Arriving at Moonstar Island Resort, which reminded the gang of Moonscar Island, involving the zombies and Cat Creatures. Coming inside the resort, they meet the Hotel Manager, Alan. And the hotel staff, composed of Mona, Linda, Jack and Bugbite Stubbs, who resemble the people the gang encountered. While enjoying the accommodations, a few zombies surprise Scooby and Shaggy who make a run for it and hide in a cabinet, which leads to a cavern, complete with cat statues and monuments.
Soon, Shaggy and Scooby return to the hotel and barricade the door, as a group of zombies approach the hotel. Shaggy and Shaggy give their OK to the others to solve mysteries again, the gang set a trap for the zombies to be caught in. But, the black Were-Cat knocks over a candelabra setting fire to a curtain, which the fire's smoke causes the sprinkler system to douse the fire and melt the zombies' faces, but as it turns out, the zombies were the hotel staff, and That they're really on Moonscar Island which is also a filming location! Alan confesses to the gang that He's a film director, known as Alan Smithee, who wanted to make a scary movie after looking into Velma's unsolved mysteries blog. He also revealed that He sponsored the vacation for Shaggy to win. Of course, Alan had no knowledge of the black werecat. Despite everything that happened, the gang offered to help Alan finish the movie. During the recontinued filming, the gang meet Seaver, a stunt double for Fred, who also shows a monster truck version of the Mystery Machine. then, as the sun was going down, Velma go into the forest wearing night-vision goggles see a clowder of cats' eyes, and runs for it.
After Velma tells the others to make a run for their lives, they see a harmless-looking beige kitten coming out of the bushes out, startling Scooby and a few seconds after Shaggy said there's nothing to worry about, the kitten (fully grown in an instant) turns feral and roared like a tiger, scaring Shaggy as more cats attack. After the movie crew (except Alan and Seaver) hide, three were-cats appear. As the Gang and Seaver run for the ferry, Alan crazily burns it. But, Fred on impulse, rescues the Mystery Machine from being burned with the Ferry. Fred tells the others to get in, but one of the cat creatures try to grab Smithee's medallion, which is in fact, Simone's pendant, but thanks to the gang, they save Alan and the pendant. As the Cats and Cat Creatures pursue them back to the resort. And after a zany chase, The gang hide in the cabinet Shaggy and Scooby hid in, leading them to the cavern where the were-cats tried to drain the gang's life force. They notice that there are a lot of holes in the cave. Which Velma gets an idea. The Three Cat creatures enter a cavern and find the medallion and place it on the pedestal, in the light of the harvest moon, the light is reflected and hits a spot on the ground. The cat creatures dig and find a chest filled with gold coins, which were Scooby snacks covered in Gold foil. Soon, they are attacked by the gang which resemble zombies, scaring the cat creatures in a hole. The gang unmasked the creatures which were in fact, The greeters and the ship captain. Their intention was to find Moonscar's treasure and used cat whistles to control the island cats to deter anyone who were getting too close. Of course, the fourth werecat (the one who attacked the van and tried to set fire in the mansion) is still at large. Then, after the police take the culprits away, Alan despairs that He almost completed His movie.
Soon, the cats, now docile, enter the cave and dig a spot in the ground, with Scooby helping, and dig up another treasure chest. Alan opens it and sees real gold inside, and declares that He's done with movie business, declaring His retirement as He carried all the gold. Soon, after the gang declares that They'll continue solving mysteries, the sheriff arrives and berates the gang for solving mysteries again, but relents, allowing Mystery Inc. to return. As Shaggy and Scooby along with the six cats who dug Moonscar's treasure eat the gold foiled Scooby snacks. in a mid-credits scene, Elvira tells the viewers about the movie, "Zombie Teenagers and the Island of Doom". Including a trailer and outtakes.
Characters
Main characters:
Supporting characters:
- Alan Smithee (only appearance)
- Seaver (only appearance)
Villains:
- Werewolf (only appearance)(no lines)(dream only)
- Vampire (only appearance)(no lines)(dream only)
- Mummy (only appearance)(no lines)(dream only)
- Swamp monster (only appearance)(no lines)(dream only)
- Truck driver beast (only appearance)(no lines)(dream only)
- Snow Ghost (no lines)(dream only)(cameo)
- Creeper (no lines)(dream only)(cameo)
- Spooky Space Kook (no lines)(dream only)(cameo)
- Witherses (only appearance)(no lines)(dream only)
- Riverboat Wraith (only time mentioned)
- Werecats (no lines)(flashback only)
- Simone Lenoir (no lines)(flashback only)
- Lena Dupree (no lines)(flashback only)
- Jacques (no lines)(flashback only)
- Cat creatures (only appearance)(Ferry captain and two accomplices's disguises)
- Ferry captain (only appearance)
- Ferry captain's accomplices (only appearance)
Other characters:
- Waitress 1 (only appearance)(no lines)
- Newscaster (only appearance)
- Patron 1 (only appearance)
- Joan (final appearance)(cameo)
- Patron 3 (only appearance)
- Elvira (only appearance)(cameo)
- Waitress 2 (only appearance)(no lines)
- Sheriff (final appearance)
- Chris (no lines)(flashback only)
- Snakebite Scruggs (no lines)(flashback only)
- Moat Monster (no lines)(flashback only)(Mr. Beeman's disguise)
- Mr. Beeman (no lines)(flashback only)
- Morgan Moonscar (no lines)(flashback only)
- Simone Lenoir's cats(no lines)
- Zombies (no lines)(flashback only)
- Lena Dupree lookalike (only appearance)
- Simone Lenoir lookalike (only appearance)
- Jaques lookalike (only appearance)
- Snakebite Scruggs lookalike (only appearance)
- Wolfie (photograph)
- Shaggy Werewolf (photograph)
- Settlers (no lines)(flashback only)
Locations
- Museum (dream only)
- Swamp (dream only)
- Airfield (dream only)
- Malt shop
- Mississippi (mentioned)
- Louisiana
- Chris set (flashback only)
Objects
- Sandwiches
- Ketchup
- Gavel
- Television set
- Prop skull
- Prop human skeleton
- Drum kit
- Suitcases
- Scooby's sunglasses
- Grandfather clock
- Scooby Snacks
- Hamburgers
- Muffins
- Hot dogs
- Hot dog buns
- Oranges
- Bananas
- Banana peels
- Pineapple
- Watermelon
- French fries
Vehicles
- The Mystery Machine (fantasy)
- Airboat (fantasy)
- Mystery Machine (monster truck)
Suspects
Suspect | Motive/reason |
---|---|
Suspect | Motive/reason |
Culprits
Culprit | Motive/reason |
---|---|
Ferry captain and two accomplices as the cat creatures | To find Morgan Moonscar's treasure. |
Cast
Frank Welker | Scooby-Doo Fred Jones |
---|---|
Matthew Lillard | Shaggy Rogers |
Grey Griffin | Daphne Blake |
Kate Micucci | Velma Dinkley |
David Herman | Sheriff |
Janell Cox | Sister Withers Cat person |
John Michael Higgins | Alan Smithee |
Dave B. Mitchell | Driver Ferry captain |
Roger Rose | Lead cat person Narrator |
Cassandra Peterson | Elvira |
Travis Willingham | Seaver |
Continuity
- Fred dreams of catching the Spooky Space Kook and the Snow Ghost, who originally appeared in the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episodes Spooky Space Kook and That's Snow Ghost, respectively.
- The Mystery Machine was sold in the previous DTV, Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost. This happened because the Sheriff (also from the previous DTV), barred Mystery Inc. from solving more mysteries.
- The gang originally came to Moonscar Island in the first DTV, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island.
- Velma's Big Blog of Mysteries has an unsolved section (labeled as "Unsolved Caper: Werewolf / Reluctant") that refers to the werewolf form Shaggy took in the TV film Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf.
Notes/trivia
- The first malt shop waitress's model is reused from Faith's from the DTV Scooby-Doo! Legend of the Phantosaur.
- The film Elvira was going to show after announcing the vacation winner, was called Predator Jones.
- Though Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island was produced using traditional hand-drawn animation, the flashbacks seen in Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island were recreated using computer animation to resemble the original sequences.
Cultural references
- Cassandra Peterson/Elvira hosts a similar program as she does in the real-world. Peterson also played a similar parody of herself called Drella Diabolique in the DTV LEGO Scooby-Doo! Haunted Hollywood.
- The director's name, "Allan Smithee," is an inside joke to Hollywood directors who use that pseudonym to disavow their work/association with it.
Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches
- In one of the flashback scenes, the Mystery Machine is not the news van that was used in the original.
- While Alan was videotaping the cats' attacking the crew, the cat before attacking him was brown, but was a gray when doing it.
- When the six cats enter the cavern, there were two orange cats, but not a gray one to be seen until the cats gathered at the spot where Moonscar's treasure is buried.
Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities
- In Fred's dream of the "good old days," he and the gang are much more menacing then they are in real life. Not only do they seem to get a perverse pleasure out of chasing down bad guys, but some of the culprits look like they actually fear the gang.
- The ending of the previous DTV release strongly implied that the gang would go back and regain their reputation to prove the Sheriff wrong, all of which is ignored in this film.
- The Sheriff says they should treat themselves to a vacation, which they do almost 100% of the time anyway.
- It's unknown if Elvira knew the anonymous sponsor and was keeping it hidden to her audience, or her show actually accepts and provides vacations from people without making a background check on them.
- It's never revealed what type of contest Shaggy was supposed to have entered, nor does he show any memory of having entered one. It seems like it's just comes up out of the blue. The gang are also surprised by being brought back to Moonscar Island/Moonscar Mansion, as if they were given no previous insight to where they were heading. They just put their lives in the hands of some contest they just happened to see on TV.
- In Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Simone Lenoir's mansion wasn't a hotel open to the public, therefore didn't require a guestbook, but this film dictates the opposite, and that Alan Smithee reused it at Moonstar Island Resort, just with the pages having been ripped out, to further fool the gang into thinking they're not at the same mansion.
- Flashbacks are shown of the gang's previous time on the island, but Velma regularly rants about not believing everything she saw and attributes the experience to hallucinations brought on by swamp gas. Moreover, this would mean that what they faced previously resulted in an unresolved/unsolved mystery. While she acted similarly in Curse of the 13th Ghost, Velma's defiant ignorance is somewhat justified in that context as she did not witness the events that led to the hunt for the 13th Ghost. In this case, though, Velma was originally a witness to the events and this movie relies on flashbacks of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. This makes her appear overly irrational just for the sake of not wanting to face the facts of what really happened, which could've been used as character development in acceptance.
- Because the gang have regressed from adults back to teenagers over the course of other direct-to-video releases since Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, several plot elements in the original film must be retconned, including some fairly unconvincing changes. For example, Daphne being the host of her own show is changed to her being on a school project, which for some reason gained interest from Chris, the talk show host.
- There was a real cat person among the fake ones which was left a mystery, as if to leave it open ended for the audience to make up their own minds if the cat people are real or not. However, it was clearly established in the original film that the cat people were real, thus making the addition of a mystery cat person both redundant and somewhat out of step with the prior film's events.
- Beau Neville does not appear in flashbacks or have an actor counterpart, making him the only character from the original movie not to be in this movie in some way.
In other languages
Language | Name | Meaning |
---|---|---|
French | Scooby-Doo ! Retour sur l'île aux zombies | Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island |
Home media
- Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island DVD (Walmart exclusive) released by Warner Home Video on September 3, 2019.
- Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island DVD released Warner Home Video on October 1, 2019.
- Scooby-Doo! Retour sur l'île aux zombies (Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island) DVD released by Warner Home Video on September 11, 2019.
Gallery
Videos
Images
Quotes
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References
- ↑ NEWSDESK (July 1, 2019). "WARNER BROS. HOME ENTERTAINMENT PRESENTS WORLD PREMIERES OF BATMAN: HUSH, TEEN TITANS GO! VS. TEEN TITANS, LEGO® DC: BATMAN – FAMILY MATTERS, SCOOBY-DOO! RETURN TO ZOMBIE ISLAND AND A SHAZAM! DOCUMENTARY". The Fanboy Factor. Retrieved July 2, 2019.
External links
- Buy in HD from Amazon.com