Greetings Ladies and Gents! It is I, The Shaman of Animation back again, and welcome to Week two of Scooby-Doo Month. Last week, we covered Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, a movie in which I said was credited as to spark new life back into Scooby as its success spawned more direct to Video films; one of which we'll discuss today. Strap in folks, today we're looking at Scooby-Doo and The Witch's Ghost.
During one of their mysteries, Scooby and the gang come across famous horror novelist Ben Ravencroft, who invites them to his home town of Oakhaven. Once arriving, the gang find out that Ben's old small town has turned into a tourist attraction. The biggest one being the ghost of The Ancestor of Ben, Sarah Ravencroft, who was wrongfully accused of and executed for being a witch. Now the gang are on a hunt to find Sarah's medical journal in hopes of clearing her name.
While it's never stated that this movie is a direct continuation of Scooby Doo on Zombie Island, I always thought that the two movies along with the two that followed this one as a series of movies that were all connected to one another but took place at different points in time (If that makes sense). So I will be making comparisons as these reviews go on.
The first thing I noticed when watching this film is that while it's still a dark movie by the standards of the Scooby franchise, it's a lighter toned movie when compared to Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island. There are more jokes (Both in dialogue and visual gags), the tension and atmosphere wasn't there as much as it was, and I didn't find the Witch's Ghost (whose name I won't reveal for the sake of spoilers) to be as menacing as the villains of the previous film.
But that's enough with the comparisons for now, let's discuss the story and the key characters involved. Witch's Ghost starts as your traditional Scooby story: There's a guy in a mask causing trouble and the gang have to put that nip in the bud. But the switch up comes from the twist in the last third of the film that changes it from a classic Scooby mystery to a more supernatural/horror film and it adds more layers to it; and the characters introduced leave a big impression on you throughout the movie. Such as the key character of the film Ben Ravencroft who, thanks to the tremendous voice talents of Tim Curry, is a very charismatic character who can go from charming and friendly one second to super hammy the next; and he really steals the show. One of the best created characters for a Scooby movie ever, in my opinion.
On the topic of new characters, let's discuss the three other big characters this movie introduces: The Hex Girls.
From Left to Right: Dusk, Thorn, and Luna
These three girls all have very cool designs and provide the two main songs for the movie: The self titled: "Hex Girls" and the song at the end of the film "Earth wind Fire and Air" (both GREAT songs that are worth listening to). As for their contribution to the film of the movie, other than Thorn, they're just red herrings for the film. Even so, the characters when they're there are entertaining, so much so that they were brought back multiple times in other Scooby series and movies throughout the years.
The last thing of note here is something that could be seen as a negative depending on who your ask. You see, this film attempts to link its events to the seventeenth century (Like colonial Massachusetts and the Salem Witch Trials) and in its attempts of doing that, it got some things historically mixed up, such as for example the use of Wicca. After doing some extensive research (And by extensive research I mean I spent two minutes skimming through pages as I Google Searched Wicca), I found out that Wicca was a religion that was created in the twentieth century, not the seventeenth century, and wasn't a type of bloodline that could be passed down to new generations. I won't really knock the movie for getting this wrong considering I didn't even know of it until I watched it for the sake of this little review/retrospective/whatever you want to call these, but again it is something to note.
Scooby-Doo and The Witch's Ghost is another fun film that shows what happens when the monsters are real (and it's done in a more serious manner). The villains when they're together provide over-the-top yet enjoyable interactions, the voice acting is good stuff, and the animation, while not on the same level of quality of On Zombie Island (In my opinion) is still well and good. This film gets my recommendation.
Till Next Time Folks, I'm The Shaman of Animation and the next time we adventure into the world of Mystery Inc. it'll be for Scooby-Doo and The Alien Invaders.
Till then, Take Care...
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