Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost

I started watching the original show when I first got the Cartoon Network, and as soon as I found out that they were making movies separate to the usual formula of fake villains, I just had to check 'em out.

Don't get me wrong; Zombie Island was cool too, but this one in particular is by far my favorite.

This has got to be one of the best of these movies simply because of the fact that the gang faces off against a conjured ghost... it also sheds some much-needed light on the differences between wiccans and witches.

Not only is the plot a draw, but the music was pretty cool too. The Hex Girls were pretty killer for an animated band.

All in all, I really enjoyed this movie. I even look for it every October.

9/10

This is very good. The animation is great, so beautifully done the backgrounds were,the story is neatly-set up, and this is the movie with the best voice talent. The only criticism with the movie is the song "wind, earth, fire and air" as the lyrics are rather uninspired. Tim Curry does a fantastic job in one of his most entertaining voice overs, especially when Ben is revealed evil, and Curry is allowed to show off his impeccable villainous side. The ending is quite good, and the Hex Girls are great. The ghost is 400 years old, so the language is obviously going to be different, comprehend. This is one of the best Scooby Doo movies, better than What's New Scooby Doo? anyway. Watch out for Goblin King and Zombie Island too. In case you haven't noticed, most of my reviews are positive, because I want to be encouraging about the films I've seen, and evaluate the problems also. 9/10. Bethany Cox

In this follow up to "Zombie Island", Velma finally gets a shot at romance when she and the gang meet Ben Ravencroft, a horror author with a shady family history - was his great, great, great grandma a witch of a wiccan? Well, someone's terrorizing his home town - is it a genuine witch or are the towns people trying to pull a scam? Do those creepy Vampire Singer girls have anything to do with it? The usual gags and calamity ensue.

In addition to Velma's love story, another innocent observation is made about Fred & Daphne - namely that Fred is always pairing himself with Daphne when the gang splits up. Shaggy finally shows interest in women, which later becomes a big factor in "Alien Invaders". Shaggy also appears to be shorter here than he used to be; he was always the tallest of the bunch but now appears to be hunched over. Must be the new animation.

But this is really about Velma and her long ignored need for love and affection (hinted at when she got all giggly around the rugged detective gardener at the end of "Zombie Island"). Never before has Velma ever had this kind of treatment in an animated Scooby feature, and odds are she won't get it again. And backing her up is the usual gang and good animation. Probably not for little kids though.

When Mystery Inc. Consisting of Fred (Frank Welker), Dalphne (Mary Kay Berman), Velma (B. J. Ward), Shaggy (Scott Innes) and talking dog Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes) look into a case at a museum, they're assisted in wrapping up the caper with help from horror novelist Ben Ravencroft (Tim Curry). As Mystery Inc. And Ravencroft strike up a friendship, Ravencroft invites the team to his hometown of Oakhaven, Massachusetts where much to Ravencroft's surprise the town has been turned into a tourist hotspot centered around the alleged ghost of Ravencroft's ancestor Sarah Ravencroft (Tress MacNeille) who in history was recorded as a witch but Ben claims was actually a Wiccan healer. As Ben tells the gang of his hope to find Sarah Ravencroft's journal in the hopes of dispelling the notions she was a witch, Mystery Inc. Investigate the alleged ghost haunting Oakhaven.

Following the unexpected success of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Warner Bros. Was eager to get a sequel. As Zombie Island had been a one off experiment, the creative team were largely left on their own as the series had been dormant for quite some time. With the massive success of Zombie Island Warner Bros. Scaled back creative freedom for the sequel with executive mandates to dial back the tone which executives felt went "too dark" in Zombie Island. Warner Bros. Hired screenwriters Rick Copp and David A. Goodman to produce their own draft for Witch's ghost which pretty much went through the standard Scooby-Doo formula but Glenn Leopold of Zombie Island was allowed to re-write the last third of the film to make some level of adjustment and tonal continuity between films. Despite the troubled production, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost is good even if it doesn't reach the level of Zombie Island.

Like the previous film, Mystery Inc. Is still their same lovable selves with intrepid leader Fred, brains Velma, and lovable cowards Shaggy and Scooby. Daphne is unfortunately a little scaled back in this incarnation as her curiosity and drive was used as a center piece for the plot in the previous film with her "Haunted America" show and her presence is rather diminished by comparison. Tim Curry is fun playing a Dean Koontz/Stephen King esque horror novelist who becomes an ally to the team and there's even some nice chemistry between him and Velma, but unfortunately by the third act his character takes a turn that largely discards much of that build-up in favor of recycling the climax of Zombie Island with considerably less stakes and menace than that film. Like the previous film, Witch's Ghost features some great music, particularly from the fictional band within the film, The Hex Girls who are basically Jen and the Holograms by way of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and are well voiced by Jennifer Hale, Jane Wiedlin, and Kimberly Brooks respectively. The plot of the movie definitely shows signs of the more micromanaged production is there's less of the self-effacing parody of the franchise formula this time around (though Fred has amusing moments regarding villains referring to Mystery Inc as "kids") and the atmosphere and intensity of certain scenes and moments has been dialed up comedically so there's much less menace. The villains in particular no longer have the depth and meance they had in Zombie Island and have been scaled back to more over-the-top "muwhahaha" type villains that have the depth of mud puddles but at least the voice actors do bring energy to them (even if the voice acting sounds overly similar to Mom from Futurama).

Witch's Ghost is a step down from Zombie Island, but not by much. There's still some fun things they do with the characters, Tim Curry is welcome in his supporting performance as Ravencroft, and the music remains great. Unfortunately the plot does show signs of "too many cooks" as the script feels more uneven, there's less of the self-satire from the first movie, and the third act feels massively shoehorned even by the standards of a franchise that has never had water tight logic. I still have an affinity for this entry, but I can't deny its flaws.

I'm 21 and I admit, I watch Scooby Doo videos, ok? Good then. Well, I gotta say this is one of the better ones in the video series. The voices are awesome, including Tim Curry as Ben Ravencroft, who is a horror writer that the gang meet. He is going back to his hometown for the Autumn Fest, and he invites the gang along, Velma being one of his biggest fans. They learn about one of Ben's ancestors named Sarah Ravencroft who was marked a witch. Her ghost is supposedly haunting the city, and it makes for a very big festival near Halloween. The usual Scooby stuff happens here. Shaggy and Scooby are big chickens and try to stay away from the action, and they eat a ton of food at the local diner. For a cheap Scooby Doo movie released only on video, it has a really entertaining plot, and a surprise ending. You think it's all over and done with, and then you get an ending that you never expect. It's a good movie, and the voices are done really well.