If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

This movie tries so hard to be funny, yet it falls flat every time. Just another example of recycled ideas repackaged with women in an attempt to appeal to a certain audience.

Through painfully honest and emotional moments, the movie becomes irresistibly relatable

In this more contemporary Scooby Doo movie, the Mystery Inc. gang, having separated and acquired new careers, reunites on trip to Louisiana for Daphne's television show. They run into fun, ghostly adventures - just like the old days.The animation in this movie was very colorful and the plot was somewhat suspenseful, making the story elements, especially that of the zombies. It was great seeing Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy and Scooby all banding together again to solve the mystery; you can tell that the humor, jokes and dialog have a more hip and modern touch to it.While a pretty fun and entertaining movie, it doesn't have that unique flavor of the classic Scooby-Doo series. It was interesting and noteworthy, though, to see this movie contain real supernatural forces. It's worthy to see - younger kids would enjoy this.Grade B-

This is my absolute favorite Scooby Doo film released after the early 90s gap of no Scooby movies. To start off, the animation is well above par. There are beautiful hand-drawn scenes without the loads of computer editing and digital auto-correct painting we see in many shows today. A lot of time and money was put into the visuals. The characters really get into their personalities, both the voice acting and the animation, but the animation even more so. Classic animation principles such as "exaggeration" and "squash and stretch" are utilized to great effect in this film. The voice acting is done very well, with a special appearance from Cam Clarke, who many cartoon addicts will also know as the classic voice of Leonardo from the old Ninja Turtles series. One major and unfortunate disappointment is that Shaggy eats meat in this film and so Casey Casem (Shaggy's original and familiar voice actor) wouldn't do the voice acting for Shaggy in this film. Really though, how could he not eat meat in the South? It adds to its historical and geographical accuracy for me and what was needed to be done was done. Young viewers who haven't been to the South will learn a thing or two about southern food, that's for sure. Anyway...The soundtrack is one worth noting. I adore Steve Bramson's work, as well as the other various rock bands who play some 90s alternative rock for the film. I actually got around to emailing the composer and he mailed me back, saying: "My score to Scooby Doo on Zombie Island is also one of my favorites. Thanks for your interest in my work. As to background-that could be a long answer! l'll just say that I've been around music my whole life and absorbed from everything I've heard over these many years. As far as the theme goes, and I assume you mean the lyrical one (there's also a couple of other darker ones), I attribute that lyricism to my early years playing a lot of jazz and in so doing learning all of the classic songs, all of which had such great melodies. More specifically, I think I derive a lot of inspiration from the project itself: watching the video, getting into the story and mood. Somehow this translates to a musical idea and I'm off to the races! Certainly for Scooby Doo, I was drawing on the clichés of old horror movies and tried to have fun with that." Bramson composed music for the old intense TV show JAG and won the "Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music Direction And Composition". Pretty big name for a cartoon, needless to say. Lastly, the plot is interesting and engaging but not historical at all. There were no colonies like the one depicted in the South around the 1800s and the idea of the fictional deity referred to in the film seems to be stolen from an episode of the classic show, season three, "Make A Beeline Away From That Feline". Apart from not being historical though, there are many interesting twists and turns that keep the viewer engaged. It's simple enough for a child to follow but potentially intriguing to a wider audience as well. Humorous antics between Shaggy and Scooby add a nice contrast to the slightly dark theme at hand. There is more violence in this film than probably any other Scooby Doo cartoon combined, so something to keep in mind if you have very young children. It would have easily received a PG rating and some have even suggested PG-13. Y7 seems like the most appropriate rating to give it though.Anyway, I hope this is helpful and as you can probably see, I love this movie to death, even now that I'm in college. Some films pass the test of time and for me, this one has.

A must see for any Scooby fan. Capturing the essence of the thirty plus year old source material was a very hard to do, but they did it! My favorite was Frank Welker as the first, the last, and the only voice for Fred Jones in the series! With the majority of the original cast no longer with us, it's great to always have Frank voicing Fred. The opening is very touching. You can't even hear the age in his voice! He sounds just as youthful and natural as the rest of the cast! Seeing the gang separated after moving on with their lives and finally reunited was heart warming. It was reminiscent of close friends from high school, that post college, we only speak over the phone or via Facebook. The story was well written. The dialogue as well. It has some scary imagery that may give little kids nightmares. The detail on the monsters is quite something. Overall, as I said before, it's a must watch for Scooby fans. I would say age 7 to infinity!

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)*** (out of 4) At the start of this feature the gang has broken up and gone their separate ways. Daphne has become a TV personality who is tired of people dressed as monsters so she goes out looking for the real thing. She calls the group back together as they go to New Orleans and head to a mysterious island with zombies. This Scooby-Doo features is one that kept me entertained but at the same time my three-year-old seemed to be bored through the first forty-minutes or so. I will admit that the start of the film is mostly dialogue driven and I understand why he wasn't really getting into it but that changed towards the final thirty-minutes when his favorite things, the monsters, came into play. I found the entire film to be entertaining, including the opening stuff even though it was mostly just dialogue. The film manages to be very entertaining as I liked how the group wanted to find "real" monsters and just not people dressed as them. Another good thing is the animation, which is extremely well done as are the vocal performances. Fans of the TV show and movies should find this one entertaining.