Last year it was Zombie Island, so this year let's take a look at another great Scooby Doo movie where Tim Curry invites the gang to investigate his ancestor's ghost!
Just like Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, the movie begins with the gang working a case, hiding as museum displays while the curator locks up for the night.
Shaggy warns and startles the old man after noticing two mummified vikings step out of some sarcophagi, and the creatures chase him and Scooby, only for a man hidden behind a tapestry to trip them as the others join in. As the curator arrives with a pair of security guards, Velma recognizes the tapestry mystery man as horror writer Ben Ravencroft (Tim Curry). He unmasks the men, two disgruntled archaeologists, and explains he noticed them behaving suspiciously while he was researching for his next novel, so he waited. To Velma's amazement, he knows all of them, and invites the gang to join him on his annual return to his hometown of Oakhaven, Massachusetts. Once there, he is appalled to discover Mayor Corey (Neil Ross) has created the "Puritan Village" tourist site, with his ancestor, Sarah Ravencroft, as the main attraction. One man, Mr. McKnight (Peter Renaday), is selling T-shirts with a ghostly image. Ben explains she was a wiccan healer wrongfully burned as a witch. He's been searching for her journal for years with no luck; the mayor found nothing during construction, and Scooby finds only what seems to be a shoe buckle in the dirt. Corey takes Scooby and Shaggy to a restaurant run by Jack (Bob Joles) to gorge themselves, while Ben takes the others to his studio and explains Sarah's nature. Velma describes how wiccans were misunderstood in the past, and Ben says he searched for Sarah's book around an oak tree in town matching one from a painting of the woman, but found nothing, That night, the gang and tourists are disappointed when no ghost shows up, but Shaggy and Scooby encounter it after running from three strange girls. Claiming the town will pay, the ghost hurls fireballs at the two, who turn a corner and run into the others, only to have to show them where they encountered the ghost. Velma discovers dust on the road where they were chased, and Fred and Daphne note broken branches from a straight line of the tops of nearby trees. Some nearby lights leads the group to a concert from the eco-gothic "Hex Girls," Thorn (Jennifer Hale), Luna (Kimberly Brooks), and Dusk (Jane Wiedlin), the town band who scared Shaggy and Scooby before they saw the ghost. With the group's smoky performance getting Fred and Velma's attention, the group has their first bunch of suspects as they explore investigate the "ghost" sighting, but much like Zombie Island, they're going to discover a much more sinister plot.
I watched this movie a lot as a kid and always loved it, but this time around I feel like I noticed even more to enjoy.
First off, the art is strikingly gorgeous, with fantastic designs for the characters and a lot of the backgrounds, which look amazing. One of my favorite moments artistically in the movie comes when the group joins Benin travelling to Oakhaven. While they drive, we get to see some beautiful trees in the background, transitioning from healthy greens to beautiful reds, and we see the change in building style as they leave the big city for a small town. This isn't too surprising, considering this movie follows the amazingly designed Zombie Island, which it's also in the same universe as, but it's impressive. There were also some impressive moments with the first "ghost" we see in the movie, a green being that hurls fireballs while flying. Though the group is able to unmask the witch, what it took to get her going is pretty impressive, and the effects really work. A lot of the more dazzling moments come courtesy of everyone's favorite wiccans, the Hex Girls, as they spin in undewr the moon and stage lights while performing. As the lead performer, Thorn gets the majority of these moments, with great shots where the light is shining and her hair and pose are dazzling. Speaking of the Hex Girls, I was of course excited to see them again, as I think it's fair to say everyone fell in love with them years ago after their first performance. They rock their introduction scene introducing themselves by name, which also serves to make them suspects by making them seem to be practicing witches. Later on, there's their classic "Earth, Wind, Fire, and Air" that people fell in love with, showing their true peaceful, nature loving goals. After this point, be warned I'm going to be talking about later parts of the movie, so there will be spoilers, even if this is an old movie.
There were quite a few jokes in this movie I didn't remember, and a few I think I just found funnier than I did as a kid.
The majority of them came at the end of the movie, when Ben is trying to revive Sarah (Tress MacNeille) and after she is back and rampaging. The first one comes right after Ben gets his powers, and Shaggy decides the gang needs to get away and busts in driving the Mystery Machine. Velma, wanting to stop Ben, says they need to get Sarah's book away from him, and Shaggy responds with "The book? Like, can't we just wait for the movie?" I probably didn't notice this joke as much as a kid, but especially now in a world full of adaptations and remakes, this made me laugh a lot. Later on when Sarah is chasing Scooby and Shaggy, there is a point they mock her for sending a turkey after them until she makes it larger. And finally, a smaller moment was when she floats into a doorway Shaggy and Scooby are at, so they slam the door in her face, and when she finally catches them, Shaggy tries to save his canine pal by throwing a bucket of water in her face. Confused and unimpressed, she simply asks "What...was that?" and Shaggy stutters out that she's not melting like he saw happen in The Wizard of Oz. Sarah is only in the movie for about 10 minutes, but she sticks in your memory, and Tress MacNeille is as impressive as ever in her performance. The way she asks Shaggy what he's doing when he throws the water on her had me laughing hard, as she sounds as bored as she could possibly be. She's the perfect person to pair with an evil Tim Curry, as both of them have fantastic villainous cackles, and she perfectly suits the revenge-seeking witch. Something I also found funny, but this time odd, is with the ending, how quickly the gang recovers from what they've been through. I suppose I should've expected it, considering this is in the same world where they learned zombies can be real. It was something I'd never thought about, however: the gang watches Ben get sucked into a book with his evil witch ghost ancestor. Just about 30 minutes earlier, they'd been fans and friends of this man, yet as soon as this happens, they and even the Corey and Mr. McKnight, are making jokes and more focused on finding a new way to bring money into the town. One minute it's a guy getting sucked into a book, which then gets set on fire, then minutes later it's "Okay guys...I think it's time for a concert."
Looking back now, I notice how obvious a clue the "shoe buckle is," given the timing of Ben also talking about Sarah's journal, but hindsight is 20x20, of course.
This, combined with the strange ending, do nothing to ruin my enjoyment for this movie; I'd say they enhance it. I now find the ending to be pretty funny along with the Hex Girls concert we get, and the buckle reminds me of a phrase I heard for setting up plot devices: If you have a gun in the third act, set it up in the first. These movies do change from typical Scooby formula in that what seems to be a normal mystery actually has supernatural elements to it. But it's not like we hadn't seen this sort of thing before, considering shows like The 13 Ghosts of Scooby Doo, Scooby Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf, etc. If you loved movies like this as a kid and haven't seen them in a while, I highly recommend revisiting them this Halloween. I had an absolute blast watching the movie, and having the story come flowing back into my mind, albeit with a few things forgotten.
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AuthorI love the entertainment side of things. Video games, tv shows, superheroes and movies are my passion and I'd love to get the news out for things I enjoy. My contact page has links to my social media, so if you enjoy what I have to say, likes, shares, comments, and follows are always greatly appreciated! Archives
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