Scooby Doo on Zombie Island: A Horror Film for Kids

Noticing a few weeks ago that a whole heap of Scooby-Doo content was added to Netflix, I was pretty excited, since Scooby-Doo was undeniably my favorite television show as a kid. However, they didn’t just add two of the shows (What’s New Scooby-Doo? and Mystery Incorporated respectively), they also added arguably the best of the Scooby-Doo films: Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. Though it remains a great film for children (it’s actually a great film for safely exposing kids to the horror genre without going full force), it’s by no means perfect, and the film definitely shows age and even an occasional lack of foresight in regard to the story. So, watch now as I attempt to be vaguely objective with a film that I very much love.

 

This shot basically makes the movie, and despite being PG zombies they're still pretty scary, especially for kids.

I assume that almost everyone has seen or at least heard of Scooby-Doo, but I’ll give a brief summary of the basic ideas of the show. The entire show revolves around its formulaic approach, in which a group of four young adults and their talking dog go around solving mysteries. Somehow these mysteries always include some sort of monster, but through detective work, traps, and sheer dumb luck on the part of the comical Shaggy and his dog Scooby-Doo the gang always catches the monster (which is always actually a person). Zombie Island is very much a standout in this regard, as it plays largely within the confines of the formula of the show while breaking its conventions at nearly every turn. Outside of the introduction (which is peak Scooby-Doo), the gang starts the film split up, and throughout the film they are rarely all together. Each group of Daphne and Fred, Velma, and Shaggy and Scooby essentially have their own experience of the mystery (on top of being generally more equal in their contributions), though this is in accordance with the formula of the show. It’s not a huge point, but it creates this feeling of uncertainty in the story, like this is a new chapter in the gang’s story. They meet the monsters pretty far in the movie as well, when usually they would meet their foe during the introduction of the episode, and in a rare occurrence there are two groups of monsters. However, the real claim to fame of the film is that both groups of monsters, zombies and cat people, are in fact real, and it’s played to great effect provided that one is familiar with the tropes of Scooby-Doo. It is, in fact, probably the most striking and memorable part of the film, especially for those of us who were children when we saw it. Even though we had seen death and injury in media before, few things are as unsettling as the insulating bubble of Scooby-Doo’s harmless frights being pierced by real danger. It’s not just the threat of danger, the gang actually comes pretty close to being killed, which is really dark for a series whose entire main cast is the gang. Besides this darkness of the story however, it’s a standard Scooby-Dooadventure, with the usual comedy, red herrings, and mysterious happenings. The only major fault I can really find is that the film doesn’t seem to address the idea of who is or isn’t a “baddie” very well. It presents the two women and ferryman (whose relation to the two is never made clear other than he has the same powers as them) as the bad guys, which while they undeniably are, the film handwaves the actions of certain groups of the zombies, namely the pirate Captain Morgan Moonscar. Despite the fact that he and his pirate band attacked the two women’s village, rounded up the villagers, and forced them into the bayou to be eaten by crocodiles, he’s treated as a victim, which he is as well. In both groups of monsters, Zombie Island had the opportunity to surprise again and tell a story in which both the were-cats(?) and zombies (in certain cases) are both victims and villains. It’s already interesting in that little of the actual story of Moonscar Island revolves around the gang, so this is somewhat disappointing.

It's actually pretty nice that the members of the gang seem individually more competent, though Shaggy and Scooby remain the lovable, cowardly, gluttonous fools that they've always been.

However, while Zombie Island remains a unique and interesting story as part of the Scooby-Doo canon, its presentation holds up less notably. The 2-D animation that defined cartoons until recently still looks pretty good, and interestingly all the colors look like they’ve been put through a slight sepia color filter. It’s not distracting or particularly notable, though it definitely gives the film something slightly different (less cheerful and zany) color-wise from the rest of the shows and films. The voice acting however does show age, and despite the talent behind it (Mark Hamill voiced a minor character), there’s something about the sound quality that I found mysteriously grating. Shaggy and Velma were the standouts in this regard, and I’m not sure why it’s this way, it just is. Maybe there was some sort of mistake with the mixing or recording, but at this point I’m just wildly theorizing. There’s also the ubiquitous montage to metal music that seemed to appear in Scooby-Doo movies at around this time, and it’s lovably cheesy. There’s three if memory serves. Besides those points however, there’s remarkably little I have to say or struck me about Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island’s presentation. Apart from some things like the feature length and the color scheme, it’s very much like any other episode of Scooby-Doo, though with higher production values of course.

To be honest, I'm not sure why their cat goddess demands that they drain life in order to extend their lives. What connection do cats, the moon, and level drain even have to each other? Whatever the case, it's still spooky.

I suppose it’s silly to even wonder if this film is still worth watching because it certainly still is, I mean come on, it’s Scooby-Doo! It’s a hit of pure nostalgia that conjures up images of evenings sitting on the couch, mac and cheese in hand as your parents are out on a date. Obviously, there’s not any real complexity to the story, just a campy and spooky adventure of a group of friends. It’s a great film too to break up the rhythm of standard children’s films, acting sort of like a shark cage to the horror genre, exposing kids to scares while keeping them safe. Truly a timeless children’s film, a strong recommendation, though I’m very much biased in this regard.

Next up is a game I never expected to finish, but somehow managed to over the course of a weekend.