Ooo-OOOO-ooooh!

It’s the thirteen moooovies of Scoooooby-Doooo!

…ok, not really “the” thirteen movies. There are more, but it just sounds cool, ya know? Scooby, Halloween, the number thirteen… they go together like peanut butter, jelly, and bread! 🙂

To celebrate this spooktacular holiday, I thought I’d share a countdown of my personal favorite Scooby-Doo movies, exactly the sort of spellbinding family fun that is perfect for having ourselves a happy Hooowloween!

Without any further ado, then, let’s get to it! 🙂

13) Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire

The Scooby gang heads down under in the old-style adventure, wherein they face off with vampires who have been kidnapping rock bands in the outback.

At the bottom of my countdown because it is definitely one of the more lackluster Scooby movies I’ve seen. It’s like they took an episode of the old shows and stuffed in a bunch of stuff, including a massive amount of exposition and campy dialogue, in order to prolong it to the bare minimum length for a movie, and it still feels way too long, while the villains’ plot is just plain ridiculous! Oh well. Still less annoying than the tiki one.

I actually only got this one as part of a bundle with one of the other movies on this list. And I did like seeing the Hex Girls again, but, still.

Moving on.

12) Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King

Halloween is the one time of year where you know it’s all fake! …right? Not so much, apparently! When a fraudulent magician manages to get his hands on real magic, Scooby and Shaggy get caught up in it all and sent on an adventure to the land of all the spooky creatures! If they fail, their friends will pay the price.

My only point against this one is that everything about the climax is over and done with far too quickly and neatly after building it up for an hour. Otherwise, it’s a pretty fun little adventure. Witches, fairies, goblins, the Jack-o-Lantern who gets used as the head of the Headless Horseman, and I just love how they got the guy from Princess Bride to play the old, pointy-eared magician! 🙂

11) Scooby-Doo and the Samurai Sword

It’s Scooby in the land of the rising sun! The specter of a fearsome samurai warlord rises from ages past, and the Scooby gang are the only ones who can stop him! But things are not all that they seem to be in this mystery of samurai, dragons, and… robots?

It might be a bit trite and cheesy, perhaps, but still fun, albeit in something of a more long-suffering way. Really, I think they just got the idea to send Scooby to Japan and had fun with it. The mixture of robots, ghosts, and dragons threw me for a loop, but they had some good intrigue going at first.

10) Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!

Arrr, matey! It’s Scooby on the high seas, in the Bermuda Triangle! The Scooby gang goes on a cruise with Fred’s parents, and find themselves, as per usual, embroiled in a spooky mystery! A legendary pirate and his crew come back from he grave, abducting the people on the cruise, including Fred’s own mother! Can the gang unravel the mystery in time to save her, and themselves?

It’s a simple, fun, wacky adventure, complete with a cartoony pirate song! There’s a bit of a twist, too, with more than one layer to this mystery, such that even the ghostly pirates themselves don’t know what’s really going on!

9) Scooby-Doo in Where’s My Mummy

Scooby and the gang are in Egypt (they go all over the globe, don’t they?) this time around! Velma is on an archaeological dig near the famous pyramids when they make a startling discovery. Then, when the rest of the Scooby gang shows up, they find Velma and her people are all in danger from a curse, and their only lead is the mystery of the mummy of an ancient queen that seems to haunt the place.

The mystery is a bit obvious, of course, and it makes me wonder why they didn’t just communicate a little better, but it’s still pretty entertaining to see the gang figuring things out without Velma there to hold their hand. Oh, and one of Fred’s traps finally works! Whoo!

8) Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf

It’s Scooby-Doo meets Wacky Races in this older classic. Dracula has a race to host, filled with classic monsters as its contestants, but his werewolf has gone AWOL! He needs a replacement, and soon, and his attention is drawn to a racer named Shaggy, who comes with Scooby, Scrappy-Doo, and a girlfriend attached. With Shaggy transformed into a werewolf without his consent, the stakes of the game are simple, and high: if he wins, the curse is lifted, and if not… well, best not think about that!

If I have one complaint about this one… it feels pretty long! Seriously, they take forever just to turn Shaggy into a werewolf, then to get him working with Dracula, and then the racing really takes forever! On the bright side, the Hunch Bunch can be surprisingly amusing, as are Dracula’s antics as he attempts to sabotage Shaggy, kind of like in the Loony Tunes! 🙂

7) Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School

Another older classic, wherein Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy sign up to coach at an all-girls school, hoping for some delicious, free grub in the bargain. Little do they suspect that it’s a school full of the daughters of classic monsters like Dracula, Frankenstein, and the Wolfman! If they manage to survive that, and a competition with the boys’ military-style school next door, they’ll still have to rescue the girls from the plot of a witch lurking in the shadows!

This was the very first Scooby movie I ever saw, so it holds a special place in my heart. I mean, you just never forget your first, ya know? 😉 I still laugh when Dracula and the other monsters go are so sweet and caring towards their daughters, and then absolutely terrifying towards Shaggy and Scooby. Oh, and the little dragon, Matches, is one of my most favorite adorable and deadly creatures ever!

6) Chill Out, Scooby-Doo!

Scooby and the gang are absconded off to the Himalayas this time, where lie hidden fortunes and the mysteries of eternal youth, and where lurks the yeti, aka the abominable snowman!

The mystery has one of the cuter resolutions I’ve seen, and I enjoy the recurring guest star from a previous movie. The greedy professor makes for a nice, if obvious, villain, and the monster hunter is hilariously over the top. And poor Daphne, always getting her trips to Paris cut so short, haha!

5) Scooby-Doo and the Cyber-Chase

Think they’ve gone everywhere, yet? Well, now Scooby and the gang are headed into cyber-space! When some friends are threatened by a computer virus that can take physical form, the gang gets sent into a game based on their own previous adventures. The only way out is to beat the game… and they have no extra lives!

The answer to the mystery is, once again, fairly obvious, but the adventure is cute and fun. The callback of some of their most famous villains from the original show is cool, and it’s great seeing the Scooby gang interact with the digital version of themselves.

4) Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders

First contact was never so spooky! Passing through the Nevada desert, the gang stumbles onto the mystery of UFOs and strange lights and noises at night. Are their really aliens in town, and what do they want?

Some of the best Scooby movies mix real monsters with fake ones, and they give the characters something interesting and personal to do, like Shaggy getting an out-of-this-world girlfriend! Gotta love it! 🙂

3) Scooby-Doo and the Loch Ness Monster

Aye, it’s off to the highlands of Scotland, now, to face what is arguably the most famous cryptid in the entire world! Joining Daphne’s cousin for the occasion of the Highland Games, the gang encounters none other than the Loch Ness Monster!

It manages to tell a fun, interesting little story, with not one but two monsters in action, in addition to giving an explanation as to why Daphne is so danger-prone. Yet it treats the subject matter with a certain respect, where no one is doing anything for evil reasons, and alluding to the idea of the monster being fake… or is it? 😉

2) Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost

An encounter with a world-famous horror author takes the Scooby gang to a small, New England town, which is said to be haunted by the ghost of a witch. As they delve into the mystery, they find that almost nothing is as it seems, and what they uncover could well threaten not only the town, but the entire world.

Hot on the heels of my number one pick, this one had an excellent story with an unexpected twist (both a real and a fake witch’s ghost!), a dramatic reveal, beautiful scenery and music, and characters who felt genuinely human. Not to mention the introduction of the Hex Girls! 🙂 It only comes in second because my number one pick was the one whose coattails it rode in on. 😉

1) Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

“This time, the monsters are real!”

Years after they went their separate ways, the Scooby gang gets back together as Daphne, a reporter now, hunts for real ghosts. Their search takes them down to Louisiana, to New Orleans, and there they encounter a mysterious beauty who tells them they can find what they’re looking for on the island she lives and works on. They go, little suspecting the true mystery, and danger, they are entering into, as the dead rise from the swamp.

This was the one that kicked off the resurrection of the animated franchise some two decades ago. It has the best-crafted story, in my opinion, with good music, scary monsters, and the characters feel the most like genuine people in a supernatural experience. It’s great fun! 🙂

Small wonder they just made a  sequel for it!

…wait, what? They did? Scooby-Doo Returns to Zombie Island?

Hmmm, interesting! 😉

And that’s my Scooby movie countdown! It was pretty fun putting it together, and I am certain that at least some of these can still prove fun for the whole family! 🙂

On that note, have a Happy Halloween!