Scooby Doo: Return To Zombie Island (2019)

Scooby Doo: Return To Zombie Island (2019)

Directed By: Cecilia Aranovich Hamilton & Ethan Spaulding

Starring: Matthew Lillard, Frank Welker, Grey Griffin, Kate Micucci

Synopsis: Scooby-Doo and his gang win an all-inclusive holiday and embark on a trip of a lifetime to a tropical paradise. Their destination however, turns out to be Zombie Island and the gang soon learns that their trip to paradise comes at a price.

Review: I can safely say when this was announced I was kind of excited. I remember when Scooby-Doo: Zombie Island was initially released and picking up a copy on VHS, it would still be my personal favourite Scooby-Doo movie. So as this was announced I had to go and check it out and see if it lived up to the first one.

The opening of the movie was pretty cool and we got a glimpse at some past ‘ghosts’ the gang had come across before, it was a nice throwback. The magic between the gang was still there and solid as ever and the script was pretty good too, especially the Scooby and Shaggy exchanges. Most importantly the animation for the characters was superb, sometimes they change the characters up and not for the best. But here they are just up to date versions of the ones we love, I couldn’t fault it.

Frank Welker who has voiced Scooby-Doo from 1969, Grey Diselle who has voiced Daphne from 2002 and Matthew Lillard who has been the voice of Shaggy since 2010 and newcomer to the voice of Velma Kate Micucci who has only been in the role from 2016 provide the voices of our Mystery Gang. Welker stands out especially as his voice doesn’t seem to have changed from the original series, it would be hard to picture the Scooby-Doo universe without him lending his voice to Fred.

The movie itself plot wise is fun having the gang return to Zombie Island without knowing it at first. There are some cool twists and turns that happen throughout which I wont go on to spoil, it’s a great fun filled adventure, but measured against the Scooby-Doo: Zombie Island, it doesn’t match up at all and falls quite flat mainly lacking the horror, suspense element that Zombie Island had. It was probably one of the more darker Scooby-Doo movies and featured real monsters instead of people in disguises. As a standalone adventure it works quite well and is fun to watch, My two children loved it.

I always do look forward to a new Scooby-Doo movie and with having Return To Zombie Island and The Curse Of The 13th Ghost (a movie centred around the 13 Ghost Of Scooby-Doo TV series) I wonder what’s next maybe revisit another classic and have ‘Return Of The Witches Ghost’? Whatever it maybe I will look forward to watching it with my children.