How SCOOBY-DOO Rose From the DEAD (Film Retrospective)

it's the fairy man maybe it's real Scooby-Doo Where Are You oh there you are do I really need to introduce to you guys what Scooby Doo is the gang of beatniks have been traveling in their Mystery Machine catching bad guys and masks for over 54 years now never being out of production long in that time this silly little series acting as a very light-hearted Gateway into the worlds of Gothic and detective fiction for generations of people as a franchise it's experienced the highest of the highs and the uh lowest of the lows [Music] there's also this website I found while researching it's an entire Wikipedia dedicated to that one potion scene from Scooby-Doo 2 monsters Unleashed I just wanted to mention that this exists but let me tell you the heights don't get much higher than the original Love Letters to the classic series an underrated part of the franchise history that we'll be looking at today to see if they still hold up and they are the original director VHS Trilogy of films Zombie Island which is Ghost an alien invasion and also scoby Doo and does Cyberchase [Music] at the time of the first film the Scooby-Doo franchise was about 30 years in and was definitely in a low production wise the last truly successful project they had made is the fondly remembered a pup called Scooby-Doo a fun reworking of the show for younger audiences that show had ended back in 1991 leaving an unprecedented seven years without a proper Revival despite this and much to Warner Brothers surprise the series wasn't experiencing much of a degradation and popularity its differing versions were on all the time on channels like Cartoon Network thanks to a solid viewership and the 80s films were a staple of Halloween broadcasting I remember watching Reluctant Werewolf and Ghoul School every year don't Google that last film the uh the internet also remembers it taking notice and performing a cue scar test a film was commissioned to both capitalize on the continued love of the series I'll also having a little a little taste of what returning to the IP would be like financially but rather than going with another TV movie it was the success of Batman mask of the Phantasm surprisingly that made them up the budget and go with a director VHS release the success of those home video Batman films are like Scooby-Doo's still alive today in yearly installments they're rarely good but it's still neat that exists this this this is not okay this needs to stop now the writing team was made up of Scooby-Doo alarms with the main Trio of stenstrom die and Leopold being the masterminds behind the trilogy the direction the team wanted to go with was a darker though not excessively so take on the original series the idea being that time has passed for these characters the same as it has for us watches and we were reuniting for a more mature but still quintessentially Scooby-Doo story for animation duties the job was handed over to mooc a Japanese Studio that at the time carved out a niche making surprisingly well animated Western shows like spawn Men In Black and X-Men evolution [Music] get down close on the board right now just wiped out Tomatoes hey yo look at him go with all the pieces in place and indifferent producers letting them do just whatever the franchise was ready to rise from the dead with its first entry Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island so come along with Scooby and all the gang in their most frightening mystery ever Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island because this time the monsters are real so one of my favorite parts of this film is that we begin by picking up with the gang a few years separated from the Original Series yeah [Music] gone their independent ways with Velma running a small Bookshop Shaggy and Scooby slumming it as airport security this bit is cute and definitely working as a small time reporter with Fred as a cameraman there's something really nice about how the all in good terms and the writers didn't go too crazy with their Futures film is not inventing spaceships and Shaggy isn't a world-class Chef they're all leading normal lives speaking of which Fred decides to surprise a burned out Daphne with a reunion deciding to do a nostalgic road trip together to reconnect and film for a new show so what's coming up by the new season a new series of segments called Haunted America sort of a Ghost to Ghost with Daphne Blake if this setup sounds familiar well it's because writer James Gunn lifted it for the 2002 live action film only much more cynically in fact it's zombie Island's positive character dynamics that really sell this film they do such a good job at communicating to us the history these guys have together which is particularly impressive considering only Fred's voice actor Frank Welker returns from the original shows real talk until Velma this man had always played Fred voicing him since the original 1969 series because whoever that is is the one who's really behind this that's crazy I I love it BJ watt is also here as Velma reprising the role after first appearing in the best crossover ever made [Music] I can't see without my glasses my glasses I can't be seen without my glasses alright Scooby natural comes close we are still largely attempting to do something fresh with the IP here but we first get a nice throwback Montage of the gang dealing with familiar situations establishing the status quo paying homage to it I thought they'd break it later it has a sincere love of its past even when subverting it opposed to Simply pointing out a Trope and saying it's stupid speaking of which if these are main character in this film it's surprisingly Daphne for initially being the most undeveloped character in The Gang events in this narrative revolve around her feelings of monotony bad guys and masks mechanical claws magnets hologram projectors just like the good old days too much like the good old days despite being the biggest success of the team she's also the most dissatisfied with how her life's turned out the story she covers are repetitive and boring and they'll never really resolved in this film or like ever she's outwardly irritated towards Fred's stagnant approach to starting a relationship so while this montage is fun Nostalgia paid for us viewers for Daphne it's just not what she's looking for still not wanting to give up the gang decide to follow a tip from a woman claiming that her island is haunted by the ghost of an old pirate guarding his lost treasure and already this is sounding like a broken record by this point the Gang has caught up with us viewers dramatic irony has just become ironic they're self-aware of the Scooby-Doo formula things might not be as they seem however although the gang can't we are able to feel a difference in this case once they arrive for starters the plantation they visit is not cartunally Gothic it's not a big dracula-esque castle or an abandoned theme park run by one of their many uncles it's quiet and it's eerie the fact it's a plantation alone carries significant unpleasant weight that's not normally present in the locales they investigate and on top of that the surroundings and music convey an environment that's distant and unwelcoming if there's something all three films excel at it's the atmosphere they lean harder into the series being a horror themed show and while that doesn't mean there's gaw and jump scares more time is invested in building a spooky atmosphere they also modernized some other aspects of the series such as Daphne's ghost hunting show as both narrative drive and character motivation they're not just doing this because um you know what they never gave a reason in the original how were they making money this TV show conceit also adds this analog motif of seeing the supernatural occurrences through the lens of VHS footage a whole year before Blair Witch did it was that stretch I just wanted an excuse to show The Blair Witch parody they did later on it might hurt well is it our fault you wore high heels on a hiking trip at least I try to look feminine I particularly love that they update old running gags and add nods to the original opening they even homage the semi-frequent musical numbers of the original series obviously swapping the late 60s pop music with more contemporary tracks from bands like Third Eye Blind and Sky cycle I'm I'm being facetious uh Terror time is an unquestionable Bop [Music] foreign [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] it's not all perfect though this was the first time they decided to Nix Fred's Ascot for being too dated an error that lasted just just way too long put that back on right now Jokes Aside though there are one too many Shaggy and Scooby eating scenes for the length of the film and while the gothic horror elements are definitely being exemplified the detective work has taken a big back seat both problems are addressed in the next two films at least I think my favorite throwback of all though is the return of the old Scooby Snacks gag since they're no longer made Velma surprises the lads with a box she'd been saving for years only for them to ever gone stale there's something a little sad about that actually the physical representation of how much time has passed it can also be seen as a bit of a commentary on the franchise the old formula was stale and it was time for something new so after an Extended Stay on the island wherein they experience a few unexplainable phenomena they Peg The Gardener as the main suspect a man who Velma has to balance being attracted to and suspicious of try making that spin-off now [ __ ] something else gun would lift for the live action film twice three times in fact let's just burn through these right now we've got velma's suspicious love interest the gang disbands for a few years they reunite for an investigation on an island they are in denial of the real Supernatural events Daphne knows Kung Fu now Shaggy and Scooby have a hot pepper competition Voodoo villain's plan involves stealing souls to live forever oh I see you over there gun show your workout all of this builds to the money shot of Zombie Island still convinced that dealing with a man in a mask Fred approaches a zombie that's appeared and [Music] squo destroyed now they had played around with the idea of introducing real monsters into Scooby-Doo a lot before but this is the first time they had said of what the show had been and how characters from that show would deal with facing the real thing and they do it in the gnarliest way they were allowed to I mean look at this imagery I love it for a number of reasons in fact Let Me Go off-road for a second here in children's writing Theory there's a strict adherence to the monomyth narrative structure stories will be told in three distinct phases departure initiation and return that last stage is seen as particularly important in that Medium representing the regaining of safety and normalcy after enjoying Independence and danger changes presented as temporary for now at least and the adventure as controlled and separate from everyday life it's all part of building children's confidence without breaking their bubbles so to speak Wendy will always come back from Neverland Alice always wakes up Harry Potter gets on the train darthy's back in Kansas Alex Ryder rejoins Jack the kids come out of the Wardrobe and so on and so on for Scooby-Doo the return was represented in debunking the Supernatural it's a man in the mask it all makes sense again ah normal so it's not just the fact we have death and monsters that makes this film a more mature fleshed out ya experience but the fact that it allows the cast and the viewers to remain in that status quo shift by the end maybe even ironically as you'll see as we progress now alone this is a concept you can make a film around it was certainly the main selling point in all of the trailers the true genius of this first film is that it's not just Scooby-Doo meets real zombies when we think we figured out the conceit of this film we're hit with the real twist earlier on we're told the Island's tragic history pirate gang had landed on the shores of this once peaceful Village looking for a place to start their pirate gold the red herring of the film they then uh they feed the villagers to alligators in an actual shocking revelation we see that the hosts of The Island Simone and Lena were there we uttered the curse on the Pirates to destroy them as they had destroyed our Island our wish was granted and had prayed to their Pagan God for Revenge gaining the power to kill the Pirates but cursed to live forever as cat people over the years boats continued to come to our Island [Music] Haitian flourished at least until the Harvest Moon [Music] the two revealed they had lured the gang there as they need to feed on Souls once every Harvest Moon fun fact the use of cat people as monsters comes as a reference to swat cats that old 90s cartoon this was a rough idea that was originally planned for that show by the writers and they kept the aspect on the zombies we saw were never there to harm them just previous victims trying to help and re-watching with that knowledge you can see that clearly it's also when you get a sense of this sheer number of times these two have performed the ritual with the time period of the zombies clones varying wildly I mean real talk the body count of this film is [ __ ] high and I appreciate how mature immoral this is for younger audiences that experience in trauma doesn't give you permission to turn into a monster yourself that victims can redirect the pain inflicted on them towards the wrong direction in fact it kind of reminds me of how when a show will try and give a villain a developed backstory only for Twitter to throw hands and harass the writers like this saying oh this bad guy is actually good uh I digress managing to undo the spell at the last moment we get treated to a villain death scene that'll make even classic Disney blush oh oh why would you do that the sun rises and the Gang leaves a little shaken from their adventure and Daphne a little wiser you know be careful what you wish for kind of way though still acquiring a hot scoop the film ends on a nice note the island is allowed to rest after years of tragedy unsettled it overall Zombie Island is a very impressive project considering the circumstances as mentioned it's not perfect they really could have done something more with the fisherman than what they did which was nothing but it's damn impressive a very solid project I showed this film to my fiance who has literally never seen anything Scooby-Doo related before foreign [Music] not only did she really dig it she was surprised at how likable the gang was kind of convinced by cultural references that they were just boring Side characters to the dog and others agreed the film did really well surprisingly well not only was this a really good animated film but it was the first new Scooby-Doo material in seven years and people noticed it helps that the film also received the largest promotional push WB had ever done for an animated film at a estimated 50 million or 88 million in today's buckaroos why they didn't just put it in cinemas I don't know you will see that the studio seemed to be in serious denial that people still liked this dumb dog and his group of freaks not to spoil the rest of the video but I do consider Zombie Island to be the best of the trilogy one of the best films based on an animated kids show ever it's a great Halloween watch and a cozy night and it warms my little peanut brain to see something that both holds such clear reverence for the childhood favorite while also successfully elevate it into something new I mean real talk it's crazy to me that Cyberchase has gone on a Blu-ray release but Zombie Island hasn't it doesn't make sense also the DVD is the only one in the collection I bought with no cover I mean what's that about the [ __ ] is this anyway with Zombie Island a resounding success a sequel was a no-brainer only on video Mysteries as old as mankind witchcraft talking dogs wrong where it's the all-new fully animated movie Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost ghost Titans are specialty I'm a hex boy and I'm going to put a Spell on You Scooby-Doo and the heck Girls the second in our Trilogy made and released a year after the last even though I consider Witch's Ghost to be not that far behind Zombie Island in terms of quality its production was significantly rockier the first film was seen as a one-off experiment something WB commissioned almost on a whim as such the creative team had a lot of autonomy that shines through in the final project which is Ghost however is a follow-up to a big success my eyes were on the team more Cooks squeezing their way into the writer's room more people trying to get an easy credit that looks good there was a lot of tension because of this not only did the Zombie Island team feel insulted that making such a hit was rewarding them with less control there was also unsurprisingly a lot of tug of war regarding the use of scary material You know despite the more mature tone being one of the first film's biggest source of praise the tension was so bad that Leopold left the franchise after its release still let's get into it and see how they did I refuse to acknowledge the absolutely dire cover of the theme by Billy Ray Cyrus we're skipping it so immediately we sadly start to see the old formula begin to peek its head back into the franchise it's still the same older gang from before but the ghost hunting show angle has just been dropped completely which sucks because I loved it he's also no longer a wrap around the plot that element of them being reunited they're just back to traveling around at random maybe you should try getting a job good road trip Vibes this time at least the gang arrived in a small town called Oak Haven just in time for their Autumn Festival we're very much taking what works from the backdrop of the last film and sticking with it because once again we have this quaint isolated setting with a history that gives it a dark undercurrent this case being the burning of accused witches though we can already feel the writers being held back a bit as we're only told about it rather than shown Ben's ancestor who was persecuted as a witch way back in 1657 unjustly persecuted Sarah Raven was a medicine woman who practiced natural healing and was unfairly accused because of her eccentric ways just like the Salem Witch Trials the gang are here after being invited by Ben Raven crafter famous horror Arthur think Stephen King but without the child the mostly going they're mostly going because Velma is a huge SIM for Tim Curry but you know who isn't Scooby-Doo the film branches off the previous Eerie Southern Louisiana Vibe with a spooky New England feel perfect for the theme of witches and ghosts very sleepy hollowesque real talk all these films are so goddamn cozy not knocking digital animation of course some amazing things are being done with it nowadays but I just don't think they'll ever quite recapture that feel traditional animation head I would love to grab a coffee and read in velma's Bookshop or eat gumbo in The Gangs van in Louisiana not long after being an okay even do they hear that the town's being haunted by the ghost of Ben's ancestor a woman burnt alive by the town for being a witch though instead of being scared and leaving as they usually would in the original show the townspeople are cashing in hard deciding to take on the case despite the mayor's protests we actually see a nice increase in detective work ah young love for you I appreciate that we get more clues than we did in Zombie Island and we spend a lot more time on the investigative legwork for instance they all go their separate ways and follow different leads and suspects to figure out what's been going on this mayor's one busy guy it's here that they meet the Hex Girls they go th band who pretend to be vampire witches for the stage personas like hey girls [Applause] Mommy make it dirty I don't see it set anywhere but I always thought of them as a throwback to when Hanna-Barbera would throw bands into a lot of their cartoons they did it so many times now if you know anything about this film you know about this band I don't think they were talked about much when the film first released but they had a boom in popularity on the internet years later mostly due to Thirsty dudes but also from people who genuinely like the designs and their songs [Music] it would even appear in an episode of Mystery Inc the only other appearance to this date the Hex Girls have appeared many times throughout the years for this film they're here to be red herrings to provide the soundtrack diegetically to eventually be the deus ex machina to fix everything and to even add to the Romantic tension between Fred and Daphne left over from the last film Thorn seems like the leader let's follow her are you sure you're not just stuck on Thorn Freddy as characters they're the Swiss army knife of plot devices speaking of red herrings it's not long before it's revealed that the gang were actually right unlike last time there isn't any ghost the whole thing was a hoax set up by the town to increase revenue for the festival capitalizing on both Ben's Fame and the legend of his murdered ancestor [ __ ] [ __ ] when I talked about too many people trying to have a hand in this project this was one of the larger points of contention I get the vibe the new people WB forced in didn't even watch the first film because they wanted the story to end here reasoning oh Scooby-Doo you can't not have it be fake besides it's less scary this way these writers were not without power so the plot points stuck still the OG's wisely understood how anticlimactic that would be and circumvented the plan by rewriting the script to add on a third act taking place after this Revelation saving the entire picture in my opinion the whole film Ben ravencroft has been whining about finding his ancestors book to clear her name she even kept a journal of all the patients she cured with her herbal remedy handmade Nails horseshoes farm equipment how about a book but never found anything that book could finally prove Sarah's innocence know how long I've been searching for Sarah's Journal that's all we found no bones no book I get a fainted book shut off and a nice example of that increased focus on detective work was shown that a buckle found earlier was in fact the book seal pointing them where to dig it up you probably didn't piece that together but the fact you could have is what's important so like Zombie Island it's time for the big twist unsurprisingly the character Voice by Tim Curry turns out to be the nasty bad man it's a spell book you don't hire this voice and not make it say crazy [ __ ] and Sarah's blood runs in my veins I guess that makes me a warlock I could also go off theorizing what's canon in Scooby-Doo considering the ReUse of the 13 Ghosts chest design for the book but I'll spare you it's just a nice long reference when Ben turns bad it's like the Cuffs are off for the animators they really go ham I like a lot of the first two thirds what it lacks in bombast and scares it makes up fall with charming character interactions and a genuine air of mystery it is this last act though the one that the team went over Productions had to make where it really feels like a film-worthy plot there might be something to be said about how the commentary on the mistreatment of wiccans is kind of erased when it's revealed that the victim actually was an evil witch had the film actually ended with the Villagers just exploiting the memory of a dead innocent woman for profit yeah the car message probably would have been stronger but I can't hate that this is here kind of being antithetical to the film's Barrel probably came from it being a sneaky addition after the fact but it's just so much fun it does go on a bit too long and is significantly more comical than the last film especially this big turkey I didn't get a lot of laughs out of him but it adds a much needed climax to the film ravencoft may not be as memorable as the zombies or the cat people but God damn is Tim Curry having so much fun it's hard not for it to rub off on you ha ha ha ha this is in front of your silly little Mysteries you can't solve me so easily in a perfect world they probably would have merged these two endings into something that was a bit more complementary and coherent but I think the team did really well especially considering the behind the scenes troubles after a nice scene of the gang working together to get the book to Thorn The Witch Is sealed back in her prison Ben is also sucked off and burned and no one seems to care last last five but like it would have been a hot fast seller damn the film then wraps up pretty quickly with the mayor lamenton that they now need a new attraction you still have the Hex Girls oh no offense girls but I think we need a bigger attraction burn cue cute goofy goth rock song and we're at the end [Music] [Music] I feel like I might have been a bit more critical this time but the film is still very much worth a watch they balance the stuff they weren't allowed to carry over from Zombie Island as best as they could making it a Tamer but pretty interesting follow-up it's not got the same depth to it as the last film or even Alien Invasion has which actually might be why people gravitate towards the pure sex girls so much the true villains are kinda forgettable but despite no numbers existing the quality must have been reflected in the sales again as it was yet again successful enough to repeat the formula a third time coming this fall you will notice an eerie greenish glow your heart will beat faster your palms start to sweat suddenly you know they are among us it's the all-new movie Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders coming all 2000. it's just the beginning [Music] Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders it was the first film to shake up the car team with Leopold leaving and being replaced by writer Falk who had acted as a model supervisor in the first two films now speculation on my end but I feel like the 10th situation of Witch's Ghost probably played a role here which is ironic because the team reports that pressure actually eased up considerably for Alien Invaders still the changes definitely felt I even get the vibe that Leopold might have been the main one pushing for those scarier more mature elements as neutered as they had become in which as ghost still Alien Invaders is not a bad film after the last two Gothic homages it's cool to see this production team tackle the conspiracy x-files-like genre the franchise had never really gone into but which fits it like a glove the films are getting lighter and lighter as they go on though culminated in the next film Cyberchase which drops the effort entirely which is funny because mother and the others Alien Invaders is for some reason advertised like it's a straight up horror now if Zombie Island was Daphne's film and Witch's Ghost velma's film then Alien Invasion is definitely Shaggy and Scoobies you don't get a film Fred now already that sets up the film for some problems while the faces of the franchise Scooby and Shaggy are the comic relief the story is traditionally driven or focused on one of the other three it's perfectly possible to focus on comic relief in narratives it's been done before especially if the goal is to reveal depth you didn't initially know was there but it is harder Look Away Daphne we all promised each other that we would never speak of him not ever hurdles of getting invested in them Beyond jokes in them not wearing out the welcome with more screen time the usual stuff Monsters Unleashed of all films was surprisingly almost able to pull this off it kinda they really shouldn't have cut this scene [Music] me neither in any case we start this time in the middle of the Nevada desert instead of the usual slow build approach to setting the tone we start extremely abruptly with the gang suddenly ambushed by a UFO you can't say they're wasting time I really enjoy the design of the spaceship the Sci-Fi elements in general are not really a style I see often Echoes of mooc's time with the Men in Black Series shining through here and we still have that cozy element of Americana road trips seeing the gang sleep in the van and the use of jackalopes to build on local mythology I'm also a sucker for old school alien sound design if you've got a theremin then I'm on your dick faster than Sonic deep throat in the chili dog I told you I'd say it shaken up and in denial the gang take refuge in a small desert Town talking with the locals they're told Tales of aliens that have been harassing the civilians and the local government research station nearby called South which I'm choosing not to believe is an elf reference remember elf he's back in pod form so around this point you can appreciate how elastic Scooby is this time they've amped it up for the physical comedy and I really like this too do you have any proof that you were abducted yeah I got pictures oh paintings so you really feel how the tones lighter than ever before but not jarringly so it's not as eerie and unwelcoming as the Bayou nor does it have that dark history bubbling up but it's replaced with the more lonely and wondrous vibe that can be elicited when you're in the desert by yourself at night it's pretty groovy up here yeah it's nice ain't it ain't it while resting up Shaggy and Scooby are actually abducted by aliens and experimented on in a scene that actually does start kind of creepy foreign here is one of the major issues we're 15 minutes in and you've probably already figured out who these aliens are after a long night of having their Crystal coves zonked watch me swing right in the pair wake up in the middle of the desert by a traveling hippie photographer and her dog with the mystery part of the film being very condensed here's where the real meat of the story actually lies the pudding romance Shaggy and Scooby develop with these two oh oh while it's very typical ground we're covering it's nice to see Shaggy humanized in this way as I said you really need to explore some further sides of a character if you're gonna make the walking punchline succeed as a lead and while we're kind of doing the bare minimum here it's still sweet to see this almost childlike approach to romance they both have but for music after four actual bangers in the first two films Alien Invaders drops the ball the first one is unbearable cheese personified than I knew I knew everything would be groovy but with Crystal's design itself being a throwback to the show's original time period animating this whole fantasy in a style reminiscent of 60s animation was a really nice touch while the film series is starting to feel like it's running out of steam it still has a lot of heart put into it from the staff and it's coming through the gang reunite and have a quick catch up oh salts pancakes spread you absolute Psychopaths they share their story but of course even though the gang have seen zombies furries witches ghosts and an actual UFO yesterday they don't believe them besides they're more interested in the crush these two have developed dog lover as per usual the gang decide to split up and look for Clues with Fred Daphne and Velma going over to South while Shaggy and Scooby Go off simping into the desert animation wise the film is as strong as the others but I finally really step up the Vistas in the background some of these are actually really beautiful and that wasn't a small chance that the film would look considerably more dull than the last two being set in the desert or not but it's the best looking one and it's actually a shame that the mystery is so obvious as the film continues witch's ghosts focus on detective work with more viable suspects this could have been the best mystery of the three back in the valley Crystal reveals that she is the weirdest stressed government agent there's ever been they are interrupted by two government officials who tell them to leave [Music] friend as a matter of fact I don't oh good upon inspecting the area more closely they find a series of tunnels with a lot of digging equipment Q one more Chase sequence uh although the song this time is super weird kinda like a ninja turtle made a soft rock song about aliens [Music] to get a human race [Music] a bit of a step down from Sky cycle and heck Girls speaking of stepping down so you figured it out huh it wasn't hard no [ __ ] the aliens are finally revealed to be the members of self this whole time turns out they had found gold in these caves and they were trying to scare people off from finding it aka the plot Zombie Island used as misdirection I would have thought staging a hoax in order to continue their funding would have been more appropriate but what are you gonna do they started all the alien stuff to hide the noise of them dig in which also feels like trying to put out a fire by setting off a volcano looking at all three we've gone from a truly left turn reveal to a surprising third act tonal shift to just yeah I mean who else would it have been the fact there are three aliens alone rules out the car mechanic and Crystal the fresh energy we started with is unfortunately just about used up now however we're not quite done yet like before we have one last twist as Shaggy's girlfriend turns out to be it comes a little too late in the game though there are some actually subtle hints throughout the film The Twist of the monster being real after The Fakes are unmasked is repeated from Witch's Ghost but the consequences of this are way less impactful with 10 minutes left we just get a JCB fight and then it's time for Crystal to say goodbye to Shaggy have to go now my Planet needs me big drip where are you going huh a gelatinous genderless blob By Any Other Name right novel we're definitely checking the Supernatural is real fox very last minute this time the last time the animated films will actually ever do that as Cyberchase will re-establish the Scooby-Doo Loop permanently thanks to that help from Mulder's wet dream the South team are all arrested and sentenced to life in prison with no trial wow okay and we're already at the end the gang drive off to many many many more adventures and the film comes to a close alien Vaders has this reputation as being the first bad one I don't think it's bad by any means though the atmosphere is still very impressive the animation is still solid stuff and the gang's chemistry is as cute as ever that's a very brave thing to do Scooby thank you welcome I also appreciate the pure sass Fred has this time that scoob a talking dog well imagine that she's wonderful [Music] nothing personal you just know too much yeah that's always our problem so yeah it's got problems but despite them I think I might actually enjoy it a bit more than Witch's Ghost what it's liking in subtle gothicism it's making up for it with more charm that said we are ending our journey on a standard if Charming little Adventure [Music] all right okay you win all right I'll watch it I'll watch cyber chains are you happy now it's the all-new movie Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase coming to video cassette and DVD October 2001. [Music] the last of the mooc films the last launch on VHS the last to be directed by stenstrom I originally didn't cover this film because it kind of exists outside of the first three across the trilogy we've seen the old formula slowly creep its way back in and that Innovative darker tone slowly drain away Cyberchase is the culmination of all of this while it's a project that's still doing some pretty weird things worth talking about it represents the reset button being hit and hit hard it's the series going back to normal and why you may ask well as mentioned Witch's Ghost production was pretty fraught with executive meddling and while Alien Invaders seem to offer some hope to the team that this was a one-time issue Cyberchase would have more pressure than ever before for instance to prevent being circumvented again like in Witch's Ghost a contracted writer was forced in by the studio very late into Cyberchase production this meant that not only did they have barely time to animate his changes there was no time to get creative about it no surprise third act this time to save the film I'm totally empathetic for their frustration these are staple figures in the series they've had massive success and now they're having to answer to someone with zero animation experience having to even argue and fight to veto ideas that were literally impossible to animate and it really is a shame as stenstrom's original pitch for the film sounds like it was pretty surreal and kind of wacky for instance in an example of meta comedy all of the cyberspace sections were originally planned to be live action I can only imagine how that would have looked with Leopold already gone Cyberchase just pushed things too far Dai stantrum and Volk all left the franchise too the Brain Trust that had revived the franchise and garnered critical praise was now officially dead though we don't know anything about it they had already planned a fifth film that was more in line with the first two but they were just fully convinced they were not going to be allowed to make it how they wanted um we got legend of the vampire instead [Music] now I am worried great so why did the studio give them a pass for Alien Invaders and then suddenly come down harder than ever before it's kind of hard to tell Studios can be fickle and sometimes even act randomly one difference I did notice however is that Alien Invaders was the last full project to be made while William Hannah was still alive Cyberchase itself is dedicated to him now I don't really believe a 90 year old executive producer actually had that much input in these films but The Changing of the Guard might have just introduced a more heavy-handed approach to overseeing projects in fact in the wake of his death WB did absorb the studio into itself and even removed the classic Hanna-Barbera logo at the end of their cartoons still that's just the way it sometimes goes let's get into the actual film one last time [Music] oh it's a cyber chase I guess the other films had big title reveals and exciting set pieces to kick things off but this time it's just [ __ ] yeah you know you know what you're watching more than the others this doesn't feel like a movie it feels like an episode of what's New Scooby-Doo now that show was fine but come on [Music] and they progress Eric sorry Professor Kaufman there's still something wrong with the program to any more experiments what are you joking I'm sorry there's just there's no way to find this guy intimidating I'll kind of like the yellow features they're a nice touch but he looks like a freakazar villain he is the bad guy for the film The Human doodle continuing Alien Invaders brevity the film once again foregoes any wrap around or setup in favor of just getting right to the point it's so impressive that Eric received a grant for his computer project in this case being the gang visiting an old friend who's recently got an attention for his VR game he made based on their adventures in the original TV show they're taking this uh very well considering he did not ask permission to do this now let's address the elephant in the room the first thing you probably already noticing the unfortunate decrease in animation quality you can still see the ghost of the style the trilogy once had but the colors are more saturated shading is very basic backgrounds are simpler to say the least and characters are moving considerably more rigidly now most people chalk this up to it being one of mooc's early digital projects haven't first cut their teeth on season one of X-Men evolution [Music] that certainly explains things like issues with the colors however the biggest contribution has to be the fact that thanks to those last minute writing decisions a significant portion of the animation had to be outsourced to an unknown studio just to meet the deadlines and you can really tell which ones I mean [ __ ] out I would have quit too the voice cast is as strong as ever at least outside of Matthew lillode Shaggy these are still the voices I associate with these characters though this is unfortunately the last time we'll be hearing Scott inners and BJ Ward we're also missing any guest voices no Tim Curry is all of more camels this time which is a real shame what's the matter Velma don't you like the new improved Ben Raven craft we do have a loop in the thirds voice as this hatman I just wanted to mention Lupine III okay all right all right I'm sorry I won't keep harping on about the animation but what the hell did they do to Daphne she looks like an inflatable sex doll using paper overlays is a nice attempt but God I mean look at this it looks finger painted you can feel the artists trying to get their talent to show through the technology the lab technicians show off their Willy Wonka Tron machine they've invented they've been using it to zap objects into cyberspace to make game development time go quicker I mean I mean this has got to be a better use for that well there's no virus in my baseball game and it's more entertaining those really cool cool and around this scene is when I noticed the sheer frequency of sound effects I feel like the trying to counter the reduced frames This Time by creating the illusion of movement through sound design want us to be virus man if it's just a computer virus anyway while in this lab the gang are sucked into the video game and the rest of the film revolves around them trying to escape oh oh oh here it comes funny yeah hell yeah remember when everything was doing this at the time God we were so impressed with the fair rhythm of CGI oh innocent times I want to go back throw a switch or something and get them out the game doesn't work that way they did before so now we're here you could argue that the whole cyberspace angle is science fantasy and thus continuing the spirit of introducing Fantastical elements but I can't say it's doing much for me feels less like an evolution and exploration of the genre as the first three did and just more doing a gimmick it also has that distinct early 2000s problem of trying to represent video games but never actually feeling like them not unlike those old Fox kids video game bumpers if anyone else remembers those as a kid I really wanted to play this in fact it almost feels like they originally planned to do a time travel film but for whatever reason had to pair it back in any case the Gang has to beat each level in order to leave standard stuff for this kind of setup Scooby-Doo inventing the izakai genre 20 years ago thanks for that oh but there's a hitch while beating the game they're being chased by the Phantom Virus oh oh oh on more than one occasion you can unfortunately make out the background peeking out from under the upper cells this is an issue caused when the layers are misaligned with the aspect ratio I gotta imagine that these are due to those rushed outsourced shots same for those backgrounds too I noted the finger painted tier ones early but some others are perfectly fine it's jarring we'll go from this genuinely nice Egyptian background to actual stretched and compressed jpeg tier backgrounds uh it might be a little early for a celebration gang God so this is the loop for the rest of the film with the whole setting being this lab we're forgoing the Americana road trip Vibes for the first time and with the bright colors and the cyberspace levels there's not any gothicism either even the big throwback in the third Act is an operating theme park rather than a spooky abandoned one which just feels like a big oversight with all of that in mind how's the mystery element then the last of the car pillars the ghost likes baseball so it's the guy who likes baseball you're in the major leagues now let me introduce you to the home team let's play ball oh my God I get it yeah we're we're pulling a Sherlock there's not really any mystery this time detective work is suddenly gone after a nice building up of it in the last three films in fact the whole film is essentially one long chase scene so it's also a lot less interaction between the gang in general this one really feels skewed to a much younger audience than before you creepy thingy [Music] creepy thingy [Music] like not just younger than the relatively mature Zombie Island younger than even the original show you really feel that new writer so much of the gangs back and forth is dedicated solely to Exposition which just wasn't an issue before so while running through the levels we somehow get a song that's the most aggressively 2000s one yet not to be overly negative though the last third of the film does focus on an admittedly neat idea not being the gang meet in older versions of themselves and real versions of their past monsters you get out of here gun I'll give him a pass for this one they legit did way better in Monsters Unleashed the idea in Cyberchase is great but the choices are really odd I mean they've got creeper which is good he's kind of the quintessential Scooby-Doo villain and I've always thought Monsters Unleashed made some kind of mix-up and show Zombie by accident but then we have gator ghoul old iron face jaguaro I mean where's Captain Cutler where's the 10 000 volt ghost and how did both of these films do my boy space cook so dirty still gotta give them props with coming up with the idea I do love it's just another film was able to do it better and with a nice large selection of them it's revealing we've ever faced this here it's like five of five of us for the audience to get invested in the gang meeting their older selves if this was the Zombie Island versions I mean yeah that could be fun I particularly would have enjoyed seeing the cynical proactive Daphne Mito marble blase older self but by this point they've pretty much regressed into being the same characters they used to be less look how far we've come and Mar there there are two dogs now a couple of Ascot jokes gotta have that and we're done oh my God Prince Shaggy in his red shirt is a bit of a nice deep cut reference but I also feel they had to do it because otherwise they just look exactly the same time for that second so [Music] but but where are the lyrics [Music] uh well time to wrap this one up they Connor the Cyber virus and managed to outsmart him get it that's cyber Scooby and that's old school stop explaining job done really wasn't hard the gang meet with themselves for one last goodbye before returning home I guess this is goodbye oh [ __ ] I'm gonna cry Ben is arrested for sabotaging the game out of jealousy and the Gang have lunch that's the ending I didn't mention before but I loved the endings of the other three movies a lot from the peaceful Sunrise releasing the tension that hung over the Bayou to the high energy celebratory concert in Witch's Ghost to the surprisingly touching ending to Alien Invaders it's not till this film that I really appreciated how they all hit different tones but nailed their closings this ending feels underwhelming it's like it's going through the motions job done let's have a hamburger which does fit the rest of the film's issues it's a very frivolous Affair which can be fine but it also lacks the incredible amount of charm Alien Invaders had my fiance who was surprised at how much she enjoyed the first three had one thing to say about this one as the credits rolled against stock carnival music well that was soulless I wouldn't go that far myself I think there is effort and Care put into the film but it's just buried deep by executive meddling and a technological shift they weren't ready for I think that's most clear at the very very end the film has this really long and odd after credit sequence with the cast talking about their favorite parts of the movie Adventure them all being scenes we've never seen before now my initial thought was that this was just buying time and padding out the film but then if that was the case why stick it here after it's all over and what's with all these shots they keep using I think these Stills are actually concept storyboards from cut scenes they're definitely composed as such it backs up my theory that these are scenes cut from the original draft or even half completed before the new writer came in and changed so much I find it very telling that these short tidbits have way more personality for the gang than any of the preceding events [Music] that's not what I was going for like the finally allowed to stop explaining [ __ ] endlessly and be real characters and I'm fully convinced that the original ending had cyberscoop come out of the real world not that underwhelming lunch scene it's a nice thought that for how much the team was messed around and their project tampered with they were able to squeeze in at least a little bit of what they had originally wanted at the very last second and because of that I find it hard to be too harsh even though this is a bad film I know a lot of people look back fondly on Cyberchase but even as a kid I knew something was off with this one we watching all fall films with adult eyes it was really great being able to define the many elements of what was making them so special and it was truly surprising to see basically none of them present in this one but I don't want to get all Angry reviewer though it's just a bad cartoon end of the day Scooby-Doo certainly has plenty of those you're pushed in your lock scoob and if you ask a little hasslevania Jr if he liked Cyberchase he'd probably say yes but I wonder whether he'd say that just because he liked video games and the film had video games in it you know you wouldn't revisit this one during Halloween oh oh oh and the DVD comes with this original song you'll find out find armbritsee [Music] God I'm so sorry Sky cycle please please come back oh no it's a morgue all those patients that disappeared they're dead so you've listened to me ruminate on this silly dog shofar 58 minutes 53 seconds 11 milliseconds but I've Loved this franchise ever since I was a little [ __ ] so to make sure the Nostalgia goggles aren't involved I've gotten troughs over here from truff's stuff given her thoughts after having watched the trilogy for the first time ever [Music] frame of reference at all for the whole Halsey until very recently and I suspect in the in the Fallout from Velma that some of you might also be in the same boat the more I think about it the more convinced I am that Mindy Kaling is playing 4D chess with us to get us to watch all these older adaptations pop culture throughout the last 20 to 30 odd years might have you believing that something being Scooby-Doo is an insult synonymous with childishness with dreary quote-unquote mysteries for little kids born in the 1950s and cheap animation to boot but watching this Trilogy starting with Zombie Island had me understanding at long last why this IP has such an appeal it is not possible to understate just how lovable the gang is in these films they're not just accessories to the dog and the dog himself isn't an annoying gimmick in the slightest within the first few minutes of the trilogy we see how much each member of the gang cares for one another even though years have passed another strength of the gang that comes through in the trilogy is their diversity yes yes I know I know I see them I know they're all white I see them I know each one of them is a very different kind of person is what I mean you have your well-meaning slight himbo and Fred you're curious skeptic in Velma your high-flying dreamer and Daphne and your lovable goofball gluttons in Shaggy and Scooby even if he had them all look exactly the same they've got clearly defined personalities that come through not because we're told that velma's clever or that shaggies a bit scattered but because their personalities are strong enough that they all come through in the way each member of the gang responds to the same mystery unfolding in front of them take even one of the gang out and each film's plot would have gone quite differently not only do they all love each other but they all work in tandem damn they're just cute we've been levitated before and there's always a magnet or wires somewhere no wires here Fred this just gets better and better maybe from where you're standing that's enough by itself which is partly why I think Scooby-Doo's original cheap animation didn't hinder its massive popularity but these films are beautiful there is no scene that comes to mind where the artists and animators phoned it in it may not be the best animated thing ever but it doesn't need to be it's still visually engaging the backgrounds are gorgeous and hand crafted and the atmosphere palpable especially in as well as the art though the plants themselves are loving tributes to the original Scooby-Doo status quo as hasselvania has already said departing from this status quo is important in creating this sense of the gang growing up in more ways than one because so many generations of people grew up with the gang the monsters being real is a fun adventure itself given how atmospheric these films are but it's like the Gang has had their standard hijinks kicked up a notch now that there are bigger Stakes all in all this Trilogy of films has made me want to go back and look through the history of Scooby-Doo as a whole because of her straight to VHS adaptation like this is such a cluster of bangers maybe shows like be cool or Mystery Inc also carry at least a hint of what makes this IP so well loved so if you've also never watched any Scooby-Doo like I hadn't I think these films are a great place to start so here we are at the end of our journey the director DVD films would continue on and on and on I know a lot of people really like Cyberchase the fourth of films but from the tone to the animation to the story it's clearly a huge step away from this original trilogy and into the format the yearly DVD movies would adopt for the next 22 years though I've only dipped into them a little bit I've heard largely nothing but good things in particular I think it's really fun they made one to finally give 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo a proper conclusion the series that infamously only ever showed 12. and hell they actually gave us more Courage the Cowardly Dog content 21 years after that show ended that show is such a great re-watch by the way it really holds up I'll have to watch that film soon [Music] Cyberchase isn't just fondly remembered it was another big hit in that way it was kind of the last straw it just didn't make sense to not be capitalizing on the franchise more than yearly VHS films the show would finally return with what's New Scooby-Doo a true to the original series that did pretty well and teed up the first live-action movie a film which as I already mentioned borrows heavily from these ones to um less of a success I'm not sure I'd say the trilogy saved the franchise I don't think something as big as Scooby-Doo was ever going to stay dead it's forever burned into the cultural Zeitgeist indicated Alone by the parodies upon parodies upon parodies I tell you what I think Shaggy must be very bitter because he's obviously invested a lot of time in teaching that dog to talk and it just can't but it was a surprise jolt to its sleeping Farm it kind of made me people realize what an endearing gold mine they were sitting on and it continues to this day for better and for worse this goofy ass dog is going to outlive us all and I'm okay with that foreign level lots of luck like what did you say school go on then let's do a quick ranking uh one two three thanks so much for watching this video I still have two massive projects in the works coming up and this was meant to be a nice normal video to put out in the meantime but I guess long form videos are just in my blood with everyone rightfully dunking on Velma as well I also felt pushed to move this video up and talk about why the series was so good and white people do get so upset when it's not treated right speaking of which what is your favorite iteration of Scooby-Doo I'd be really interested in hearing everyone seems to have their own specific choices usually based on when they were bought I'm always down there in the comments annoying people so I guess I'll see you there until next time um Stay Stay spooky [Music] [Music] Scooby-Dooby-Doo [Music] and it's always [Music] it's fake another cool attacks

Channel: HassledVania

Views: 22,075

Keywords: Velma, Scooby Doo, Zombie Island, Witchs Ghost, Cyber Chase

Id: 3fStjh4zzII

Length: 66min 29sec (3989 seconds)

Published: Fri Mar 17 2023