Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

Like I said several times before, I grew up watching Scooby-Doo. I loved the 20-minute long episodes but I loved even more the movies because they were longer and you know how kids are, the more the better. As much as I loved them though, Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is the only one I still remember after so many years as it's always been my favourite and the only one I rewatch multiple times a year. 

In this film, the Mystery, Inc. gang has gone their separate ways as they got tired of unmasking criminals: Daphne (voiced by Mary Kay Bergman) and Fred (voiced by Frank Welker) have started a successful television series; Velma (voiced by B.J. Ward) is the owner of a mystery bookstore; Shaggy (voiced by Billy West) and Scooby (voiced by Scott Innes) are custom agents at the airport. For Daphne's birthday, Fred reunites the whole gang for a trip to Louisiana for Daphne's show. After many disappointing adventures, they meet Lena (voiced by Tara Strong), a local girl who invites them to her haunted house on Moonscar Island.

The plot is way more intriguing, complex and developed than it is in any other Scooby-Doo movie I've seen. It has unique and interesting twists and turns that will keep you guessing and engaged --even if you've seen the film already and therefore know that the twist at the end is coming. And it's quite refreshing not seeing the Mystery, Inc. gang unmasking somebody at the end.

As for the characters, I liked how the career the writers picked for each member of the Mystery, Inc. is believable and suits each one of them perfectly, especially Shaggy and Scooby as contraband-sniffing inspectors at the airport. The script also allows the main characters to be more rounded and dimensional than they usually are. The supporting characters are pretty interesting and engaging too, but that's more on the cast than it is on the writing. Mark Hamill does a wonderful job as Snakebite Scruggs, a creepy, ill-natured fisherman, and Jim Cummings is delightful as Jacques, the nice ferryman.

Warner Home Video

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island's best quality though is its ability to combine horror and comedy. Sure, it's not the scariest film ever made, but it's pretty scary and creepy for a Scooby-Doo flick, especially for kids. And the comedy is very nice. It's the typical comedy as in every other Scooby-Doo movie or episode, but the jokes work and there are more of them that aim at adults.

The animation is very good too. It's not Disney or Pixar good, but it's colourful and pretty charming, and the designs the zombies and other creatures have are pretty creepy looking.

Daphne & Velma (2018)

As I mentioned multiple times in the past, I'm quite a fan of Scooby-Doo and as such, I'd watch anything Scooby-Doo related, even direct-to-DVD movies that nobody has ever heard of, like Daphne & Velma. 

As you probably guess from the title, the film follows teenage Daphne Blake (Sarah Jeffery) and Velma Dinkley (Sarah Gilman) before they teamed-up with Scooby-Doo and the gang. Daphne is a popular kid with a web-show where she discusses aliens and supernatural stuff, Velma is her (internet) best friend. When Daphne moves to Ridge Valley and starts going at Velma's high school, Velma doesn't even speak to her, but, as something weird starts to happen to the school's brightest kids, Daphne and Velma investigate the mystery.

The first problem with Daphne & Velma is that it lacks a proper storyline. Other than using the "high school kids being hypnotized and turned in some sort of mindless zombies" things (sorry, but I'm recovering from food poisoning and words are not my forte right now), which, by the way, has been used in so many movies, the overall plot is incredibly simple, predictable and ridiculous, not to mention how little engaging it is.

Then we have the characters. Other than hair colour --which is the result of either a really bad dye job or a really bad wig-- and awful taste in clothes, there's nothing about this Daphne that resembles of the cartoon Daphne. Nor of the other live-action movies Daphne. Here, she is a one-dimensional character with no personality. Not to mention that, for some reason we don't deserve to know, she is half white half black.

Warner Home Video

Same goes for Velma. Other than her distinctive look, there's nothing about her that resembles the character I loved in the cartoon. What angers me the most is that the filmmakers had the chance to create a backstory for these two characters but they just threw it away. The rest of the characters in the film are just as terrible.

The acting is pretty dreadful too. Both Sarah Jeffery and Sarah Gilman do a terrible job as Daphne and Velma respectively, as they give pretty bland and childish performances.

The action is just as poor as everything else but it's with the special effects that Daphne & Velma really hits bottom, they are cheap as f**k.