Scooby fans it's that time again another Scooby-Doo movie has just been released and honestly there was alot of hype surrounding this movie. Even before it was officially confirmed there was alot of people talking about it and if you've seen the name you'll know why that's the case and i'm going to let you all know right now this review will contain spoilers and so here is my review of Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island.
I honestly wish I could tell you what the plot of the movie is but outside of the premise of the gang going on vacation there is no plot to speak of what so ever. That's honestly the first time i've ever had to say that about a Scooby-Doo movie since even the worst movies have some sort of plot to them but here all there is is the premise and that's it and for a sequel to the most beloved Scooby-Doo movie of all time that's not exactly something you should be proud of.
As the regular characters we have Frank Welker as Scooby-Doo and Fred Jones , Grey Griffin as Daphne Blake , Matthew Lillard as Shaggy Rogers , Kate Micucci as Velma Dinkley. Together they are joined by Janell Cox as Cat Person and Sister Withers , David Herman as Jack and Sheriff , John Michael Higgins as a dead Hollywood in joke , Dave B. Mitchell as Driver and Ferry Captain , Roger Rose as Lead Cat Person and Narrator and Travis Willingham as Seaver.
Now there is one name which you horror fans will know but i;ve left this person of the cast list because i'm going to talk about them when we get into spoilers. As for what I thought about the acting the regular cast members are honestly really enjoyable in this movie I don't know if they recorded there lines together for this movie but for some reason the chemistry between the actors was there in this movie and the guest cast did a fairly solid job as well.
The animation for the film was done by Digital eMation who have handled the animation for the last few movies now and I have to say that they are getting better. That being said tho the art style still looks freaking weird to me I don't know why they chose to have the characters looking like plastic but it just doesn't work at all but the overall quality of the animation including the limited CGI is honestly pretty decent but it's not as good as it could have been.
You would have thought that since there producing a sequel to what many consider the best Scooby-Doo movie that some more effort would have been put into the story and the animation. While there is some effort put into the animation since it does look like a movie there's none put into the story and because of that I found my self several times asking what the story of the film is because there just isn't one to speak of at all.
SPOILERS START HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Ladies and gents the one name that I missed of the cast list is the one name that you'll get if your a die hard horror fan. It's Cassandra Petersen as Elvira i'm not even making this up and I have to admit when I saw her name in the cast list I was curious because I had to see how they did Elvira since if you know who Elvira is you'll know she's not exactly a kid friendly character and a little bit of me was a little bit worried that they make her more kid friendly.
Luckily tho they actually don't I can't find a picture of her in this movie so that's why i'm using one from Mistress Of The Dark. So you'll just have to trust me when I say that they made her look exactly the same as she does right now and I will admit they did tone down the b**b jokes which I kind of expected since Scooby-Doo is a kids franchise and Cassandra Petersen is honestly really good in the short time that she's on screen she only has like two scenes one of which is a mid-credits scene but she's good in both of those scenes.
Now I have something to admit i've never seen Zombie Island I did plan to see it just before this movie but I forgot when this movie was coming and so haven't seen it. I can tell you tho that if you are a fan then your going to hate this movie because they retcon the hell out of the opening because Daphne actually says that she was just interning at the TV station instead of actually working there and they show her in that films get up.
The film as you'd expect is full to the brim with references to the previous film and all it did was remind me to at somepoint watch that movie. Don't worry if you haven't tho because they spend at least five or ten minuets going over the whole film and I mean the whole film excluding what the gang were doing before the mystery tho and it just makes me wonder who this film was made for because no kid is going to buy this movie because it has the word Zombie in it and the adults who watched the first one and buy this one will already know how the first one goes so that scene is utterly pointless.
Now with a name like Return To Zombie Island you'd think that there would be zombies in this film which is a fair assumption. However you'd be wrong because the zombies in this movie are actors and that's not just me making this up the film actually outs them as actors and what's worse is the names of the actors sound similar to the names of key characters from the first movie so the zombie part of the title now makes no sense what so ever.
Now just because I didn't see the first one doesn't mean I don't know somethings about it like I know that there are cat people in the movie. Those cat people do kind of make a return I say kind of because there outed as just people in a mask so they just got rid of the two biggest things from the first movie like holy hell is this movie actually trying to make it's fanbase mad because it's doing a really good job of doing so.
Just incase you guys didn't get the dead hollywood joke I made before it's because the character in question is actually called wait for it Alan Smithee. Which for those that don't know is a name that several well known and respected film makers would use when ever they made a bad movie and didn't want there names tarnished by it but it's a name that's been long dead for well over ten years now so it makes me wonder why they decided to use it and to make it even more of a joke the character in question is a film director.
Now in a Scooby-Doo movie you expect there to be a mystery be it good or bad you expect it to be there. Well get ready to have those expectations dashed because there is no mystery at all in this film in fact the only decent mystery they had going that being why the zombies are back and since the announcement of Shaggy winning a contest to the island was suspicious is all wrapped up in the first forty minuets of the movie and the movie is an hour and twenty minuets long and so they quickly try and throw something together but by that point it's to little to late.
Now there are at least two good jokes in the movie which for a comedy isn't a good thing even with those two good jokes one of them is only funny if you know the history of the Alan Smithee name. The other good joke is Velma slowly going crazy without solving a mystery which is honestly really funny but even so having two good jokes in an hour and twenty minuet movie is not a good thing at all.
SPOILERS END HERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Overall this is a really bad movie not only is a bad sequel but it's a bad Scooby-Doo movie and I have to wonder why the hell this has an 8.2 on IMDB this film gets a 3 out of 10 from me.