Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders

After having finally seen Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost, we decided to watch Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, at least partly since the first four direct-to-video animated films, produced by Hanna-Barbera, form their own tetralogy of sorts. As I was watching the movie, I realized I had vague memories of seeing at least part of it somehow, though I had only recalled part of a minor subplot involving a jackalope. After seeing the whole thing in its proper context, I didn’t think it was quite as good as Witch’s Ghost, however it held up pretty well on its own merits.

Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost

Note: The following review contains spoilers for Scooby-Doo and The Witch's Ghost.

Following the success of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island in 1998, which reinvigorated the Scooby-Doo brand, a follow-up film was released the following year, Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost, beginning the trend of annual DTV Scooby-Doo films of varying quality. I will admit I wasn’t too aware of this movie when it first came out, however, I decided I had to see it since it seemed to form a set as one of the first four DTV movies based on Scooby-Doo. After finally getting to see it, I found it to be a worthy successor to Zombie Island, though it overall falls just short of the preceding movie’s quality.

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase

After we reviewed Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, we’ve decided to review another direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movie, not only to celebrate its 17th anniversary, but also because we’ve actually owned a copy on DVD since its original release. That particular movie is Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, a movie which represents many firsts and lasts for the Scooby-Doo franchise. I remember liking this movie as a kid, even watching it a few times, but looking back on it now as an adult, it’s more flawed than I had thought.

In a college computer lab run by Professor Kaufman (Tom Kane), two of his students, Eric Staufer (Bob Bergen) and Bill McLemore (Mikey Kelley), are working on gaming projects when a creature, the Phantom Virus (Gary Sturgis), is beamed into the real world from one of the games and tries to attack. The next day, the Mystery, Inc. gang visits Eric to try out a game he made based on their previous adventures, only to find out that the Phantom Virus is still roaming around the campus. The gang manages to find the Phantom Virus, only to be mysteriously beamed into Eric’s video game along with it. If they want to escape the game and figure out who created the virus, they’ll have to confront the Phantom Virus while beating all ten of the game’s levels.

At its core, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase seems to take inspiration from Tron (1982), as both movies involve a human, or group in this case, being beamed into a digital world and having to fight their way back into the real world. Both also involve games in some form, though the games in Tron were based more on physical combat, which Flynn escapes before having to fight the Master Control Program, while Cyber Chase involves Mystery, Inc. overcoming various trials put forth by the various video game worlds they have to complete. While this observation has no bearing on the quality of Cyber Chase, it was one I made during the viewing for this review and I wanted to express it here.

The title screen of the fictional game created by Eric Staufer (Bob Bergen),
featuring Mystery, Inc. in their "classic" attire.

Apart from the Tron inspiration, Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase actually has some interesting ideas, mainly Mystery, Inc. having to fight a non-conventional digital monster that has the ability to control electronics. Additionally, the idea of traveling through a video game world apparently modeled after their previous adventures opens up some unique storytelling possibilities.

Unfortunately, Cyber Chase suffers from some rather lackluster execution. Whenever the Phantom Virus shows up during the game, his abilities aren’t fully taken advantage of and he’s more of a pushover until the final level of the game. On that note, his weakness, a super magnet, is also forgotten until it’s needed during the final level and the movie’s internal rules of the magnet’s strength aren’t completely clear. The Phantom Virus also seems to, for some reason, constantly leave clues as to who his creator is. When we do find out, the villain also does nothing to make themselves seem less guilty, which removes a lot of the tension from the finale. As for the game itself, the movie shows the contents of the first three levels, but then skips six of them in a glorified music video, only to more fully explore the tenth level.

By virtue of its prominence in the latter half, the tenth level of the in-universe game is one of the more interesting, apart from the somewhat realistic aesthetic of the city. It’s here that the more interesting ideas from the movie are more fully realized, including the appearance of some of Mystery, Inc.’s past villains and a more complete showcase of the Phantom Virus’ abilities. However, a majority of the encounter against past villains is shown through a music montage involving plenty of slapstick humor. Looking back on it, I feel the movie could have benefited from spreading out the appearances with previous villains across the game’s levels in order to give them proper screen time.

The Phantom Virus (Gary Sturgis) had potential as a villain, but fell short.

The post-credits sequence, which features Mystery, Inc. talking about their favorite parts of the movie, doesn’t really help with sorting out the internal logic of Cyber Chase, since this sequence not only implies that the characters had somehow filmed the movie, but also includes moments that weren’t even in the final product. I ran with it as a kid, but as an adult it felt more confusing.

I’ll also mention at this point that Cyber Chase contains quite a bit of slapstick humor by comparison with Zombie Island, which had more subtle jokes incorporated into the dialogue. In spite of this, there is a little bit of clever Scooby-Doo meta humor that addresses how Mystery, Inc. normally splits up while looking for a monster.

While not free of errors, the animation of Cyber Chase is smooth and holds up pretty well. The darker color palette introduced in Zombie Island has all but disappeared, leaving a noticeably brighter color palette against a world that’s still depicted pretty realistically. Considering the visual differences between Cyber Chase and later Scooby-Doo direct-to-video movies, Cyber Chase could be viewed as a transition between different interpretations of the franchise and different animation styles.

Story aside, the voice acting of Cyber Chase is well-done, with each of the actors lending the appropriate voices and energy to the characters. The soundtrack is also solid, though lighter in comparison with Zombie Island, which lends further credence to the idea that Cyber Chase is a stylistic transition. As is tradition, Cyber Chase features a version of the main Scooby-Doo theme, this time sung by three members of the B-52s, specifically Cindy Wilson, Kate Pierson, and Fred Schneider. This is accompanied by two original songs, “Hello Cyberdream,” written by Richard Lawrence Wolf and performed by David Nicoll and Wes Quave, and “Double Double Joint,” an instrumental written and performed by Richard Lawrence Wolf.

While both “Hello Cyberdream” and “Double Double Joint” are catchy, the former isn’t completely listenable out of context like “The Ghost is Here” and “It’s Terror Time Again” from Zombie Island. What doesn’t help is that the lyrics of “Hello Cyberdream” seem to more or less describe what’s happening onscreen during the montage in which it's used.

As with Zombie Island, Cyber Chase represents many firsts and lasts for Scooby-Doo. Cyber Chase is the final film in what’s considered the “dark era” of Scooby-Doo animation, which consists of the first four direct-to-video features and is marked by a generally darker color palette, more realistic tone and real monsters. As such, this is also the last film to have Mystery, Inc. in their attire from Zombie Island, returning to their “classic” attire from then on.

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase features a brighter color palette
while keeping the more realistic appearances of Mystery, Inc.;
L-R: Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes), Shaggy (Scott Innes), Velma (B.J. Ward),
Daphne (Grey DeLisle) and Fred (Frank Welker).

On the voice acting side, Cyber Chase is the last time that Scott Innes voices both Scooby and Shaggy, though he has come back from time to time for commercials and games, the final time that B.J. Ward voices Velma and the first time that Grey DeLisle voices Daphne following the passing of Mary Kay Bergman.

Perhaps most notably, Cyber Chase is considered the last official Hanna-Barbera production, since afterwards, Warner Bros. would fully absorb the studio following the passing of William Hanna, to which Cyber Chase is dedicated. This film is also the first Scooby-Doo production animated entirely digitally, as opposed to animation cels, and is also the last movie to be animated by Japanese studio Mook DLE.

Appropriately enough, Cyber Chase is also the only Scooby-Doo film to receive a tie-in video game, which released on the PlayStation and Gameboy Advance the same year, 2001. Although we have yet to play either version, I’ll note that our DVD copy came with a handful of tips for playing through the game, although it’s disappointingly pretty basic information. On a much less important note, our DVD copy is also so old that it still has a 16-years expired coupon for Frigo Cheese Heads String Cheese.

One more minor note about Cyber Chase regards the Creeper (Scott Innes), a villain who appears during the final act and the only one actually from the original cartoon, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! As with other Scooby-Doo media, this film continues the misconception that the Creeper has no dialogue apart from repeating his own name. However, in the original episode in which he appears, Jeepers, It’s the Creeper, he actually repeats the word “Paper” in reference to an incriminating photo of his identity.

The Creeper (Scott Innes) as he appears in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase.

While Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase is very flawed on an objective level, especially with regard to its storytelling and internal logic, it’s still an enjoyable movie. I might personally attribute this to nostalgia, since I loved watching it as a kid for being one of the few pieces of media to represent video games in a more positive light, but I won’t really fault anyone for enjoying this film unironically. I would recommend this more to Scooby-Doo fans looking to relive their childhood or people who are going through a Scooby-Doo kick and are willing to watch something flawed, yet entertaining.

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

If you’ve been alive for the last 20 or so years, you’re no doubt familiar with Scooby-Doo, one of Hanna-Barbera’s most successful franchises, in some form or another. Since the original 1969 cartoon, Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!, the iconic group of meddling teenagers and their Great Dane spawned numerous spin-offs and TV movies into the present day, although production of Scooby-Doo material had stagnated over time, with the various series and specials relegated to re-runs. However, the 1998 home video release of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island proved popular enough that it more or less revived the franchise, which lead to the production of further spin-offs and yearly direct-to-video features, with no signs of stopping anytime soon. We’ve decided to take a look at Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island in honor of its 20th anniversary to see how well it holds up today.

After solving cases for years, the Mystery, Inc. gang grow bored of mystery-solving and go their separate ways. Daphne (Mary Kay Bergman) and Fred (Frank Welker) have started a successful TV series, Velma (B.J. Ward) becomes the owner of a bookstore and Shaggy (Billy West) and Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes) are fired from an airport security job after consuming food designated as contraband. After Daphne expresses a desire to see everyone again, Fred gathers everyone together on her birthday to go on a roadtrip while filming her newest show, which involves finding locations that are actually haunted. Their search leads them to a remote home in New Orleans on Moonscar Island. While the gang is initially skeptical about how haunted the island is, they gradually discover that this time, the monsters are real.

(L-R): Fred (Frank Welker), Velma (B.J. Ward),
Shaggy (Billy West), Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes) and
Daphne (Mary Kay Bergman) reunite to film Daphne's new show.

Compared with most other versions of Scooby-Doo, Zombie Island has a more realistic atmosphere and more mature storytelling. The film explores what happens to Mystery, Inc. after they become adults and it’s interesting to see their lives with varying degrees of success before they regroup to relive their glory days. As part of this more mature direction, the story features actual deaths and the gang encounter real monsters, mainly the titular zombies. There is also more of an effort to give the characters depth, including a hint of romantic interest between Fred and Daphne that gets explored to some degree during the plot. This interpretation of the Scooby-Doo mythos is one of the more intriguing ones because the audience gets to see the gang reacting to a fairly rare situation and the story manages to successfully take the source material more seriously. There’s also a little humor to balance out the horror, mostly through subtle jokes about the franchise, such as a visual gag where Shaggy opens a suitcase to reveal multiple sets of his classic wardrobe.

While the story is able to stand the test of time, there are minor faults. For one, the character Snakebite Scruggs (Mark Hamill) doesn’t serve much of a purpose outside of saving Shaggy from a group of alligators and expressing bitterness towards the presence of “tourists” on his fishing grounds. Additionally, since Zombie Island came out in 1998, the setting features outdated technology, mainly a non-digital video camera, that would feel out of place in any other time period.

What helps the movie hold up today is the still-impressive traditional animation. The animation of Zombie Island is more fluid and detailed than most other Scooby-Doo productions before and since and features a darker color palette that fits in well with the atmosphere. Naturally being direct-to-video means that this movie would have a higher budget than a standard TV series, but even then, it seems to top many of the other direct-to-video Scooby-Doo films of recent years.

The detail helps the animation hold up today.

Zombie Island also stands out with its choice of music. Where previous versions of Scooby-Doo used pop music, this movie goes for a harder alternative sound with original tracks “The Ghost is Here” and “It’s Terror Time Again” performed by Skycycle, along with a cover of “Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!” by Third Eye Blind. The original tracks add to the mood of the scenes they’re used in and are also memorable tracks in their own right, especially “It’s Terror Time Again.” The voice acting is also done well, as even though not all of the original voice actors returned for this project, the featured line-up captures the feeling of their respective characters.

On the subject of the voice acting, Zombie Island holds the honor of having the first permanent recast of the voice actors used within the franchise. Following the death of Don Messick, to whom Zombie Island is dedicated, Scott Innes became the voice of Scooby-Doo; Casey Kasem declined to reprise his role as Shaggy unless the character would be depicted as a vegetarian, so Shaggy is instead voiced by Billy West in a one-off role; Mary Kay Bergman replaced Heather North in the role of Daphne and B.J. Ward replaced Nicole Jaffe as Velma. In contrast, Frank Welker was the only original cast member to return and still continues to voice Fred.

I can’t really end this without addressing an interesting bit of trivia regarding the origins of Zombie Island. The reason the plot unfolds the way it does is that apparently, the script borrows elements from an unfinished episode of SWAT Kats: The Radical Squadron called “The Curse of Kataluna”, also written by Glenn Leopold, who wrote Zombie Island.

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is easily one of the better examples of the Scooby-Doo franchise. The darker and more realistic atmosphere, consistent tone, incredible voice acting and mature writing all help this movie stand the test of time. While I would recommend this movie to anyone even remotely familiar with Scooby-Doo, as it’s still perfectly enjoyable for adults, I would advise parents to keep in mind that the subject matter could be genuinely frightening for small children.