What better way to get into the Halloween season than with a new entry into the long-running Scooby Doo franchise? This claims to be a sequel to the original Zombie Island film, but it's unique enough that it doesn't require that kids (or adults) watch the 1998 film first or have any knowledge about it. In fact, you could just accept the fact that the gang were on this island before and that many years ago they solved a mystery there....as Mystery Inc. is known to do.

In recent years, Warner Brothers has made strange decisions in redesigning the characters and changing the animation style. However, I'm quite happy that the animation and design of this film is very close to the original Scooby Doo cartoons. Frank Welker, AKA: the original Fred, is back, as is Matthew Lillard who, taking over from the late Casey Kasem and Billy West and has been acting as/voicing Shaggy since 2002.

The plot lures you in with what you think will be a pretty straight forward story, as far as Scooby Doo cartoons go, but then it hits you with something entirely different, which I appreciated. Its very funny, entertaining, good for all ages, but still at 80 minutes it felt a little long. It could have been condensed to an hour. Overall, a pretty good entry in the Scooby Doo brand. I give this film a 6 out of 10.

So disappointed. I wasn't expecting much though to be honest. 'Scooby Doo on Zombie Island' and the few films that followed it - 'Scooby Doo and the Witches Ghost', 'Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders' - were actually GOOD. But 'Zombie Island' was far and away the best. They updated the whole Scooby Gang, filled them out a bit, gave them something a little more three dimensional to work with, modern clothes, careers etc. But best of all, was the writing - it was solid, and entertaining and even as a grown up person, I still enjoy watching those movies. So then they go and do THIS. I'm being very generous giving this a 5. It is a typical, cheap, slap up sequel that distorts the original story, has no continuity - it is just plain old lazy. The animation is cheap and tired, the gang are back in their frankly ancient garb again. This is a vastly inferior offering.

Look, Scooby Doo is part of my life, it's like comfort food. I am a fully grown up person now, bordering on middle age. I have small children, and I would follow Scooby and Shaggy off a cliff. Their enormous sandwiches make me laugh every.darn.time even though the gag is so over used. But honestly, don't tarnish a timeless classic by churning out these cheap, poorly written, tired old straight to DVD jaunts that bank on people watching them simply because we love Scooby Doo. Take a good, hard look at the original zombie island film and take notes - THAT is how you keep a franchise like this going. Please, please, no more cheap, badly written, badly animated sequels.

I feel like this is a fair score to give this movie. While it's fun and entertaining, it wasn't a story that needed to be told using the island from Zombie Island. Take the general plot points and a decent movie could've been made without trying to use a familiar movie name just to double down on the nostalgia.

Lure the gang to a tropical island to make a movie. The island was famous for a pirate who landed there to bury his treasure. The island was cursed with some kind of monster. The director found a fancy pendant on site and has been wearing it the whole time. The monsters are after the pendant since it helps lead to the treasure. Most of the same shenanigans happen. And there you go. A decent, stand-alone, scooby doo movie is made.

I also want to point out that zombies literally have nothing to do with anything in this movie. Might as well have called it "Return to Cat Island"... Just please leave the other older movies alone.