For the past few years, Scooby-Doo media has been met with either cool indifference (e.g., Scooby-Doo and Guess Who?) or outright hostility (Velma). So fans of the lovable hound and Mystery Incorporated are likely hedging their bets that Netflix’s upcoming 2027 adaptation, Scooby-Doo: Origins, will bring something new and exciting to the franchise. This isn’t the first time Scooby-Doo has entered a period of stagnation.
Back in 1998, the franchise was approaching its 30-year anniversary and audiences had begun to grow tired of the Great Dane and his mystery-solving pals. A Pup Named Scooby-Doo had gone off the air in 1991 with nothing to replace it but reruns, and by the late '90s, the state of Scoob seemed dire. Instead, that low point became a new opportunity.
With Scooby-Doo in such dire straits, director Jim Stenstrum and writers Glenn Leopold and Davis Doi had plenty of creative freedom to create the franchise’s next adventure: Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. This 1998 animated film arguably saved Scooby-Doo from being put down for good, while turning the zombie genre completely on its head. Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island is set a few short years after Mystery Inc. splits up to pursue new careers.
However, when Daphne — now the star of a reality TV series — says she wants to hunt real ghosts instead of people in masks. Fred — Daphne's one-man crew (join a union already, Freddy) — contacts Shaggy, Scooby, and Velma, and the gang embarks on a road trip to New Orleans. They are soon invited to a plantation on Moonscar Island by Lena Dupree, who lives at the plantation alongside its owner, Simone Lenoir.
According to Lena and Simone, a pirate named Morgan Moonscar haunts the place. Eventually, they discover the island is rife with zombies — and not the kind you can cosplay as. The movie's premise feels a lot like James Gunn and Raja Gosnell's 2002 live-action adaptation, though not quite as crass.
Both films follow Mystery Inc. reuniting after years apart, and each has a supernatural element. But where these movies diverge (beyond the obvious live-action vs. animation differences) is that Stenstrum, Leopold, and Doi arguably took a bigger creative swing with their monsters. In most zombie stories, the zombies are ultimately a destructive force that terrorizes the characters.
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