What Needs to be in Scooby-Doo Return to Zombie Island

As confirmed here and here they are making a sequel to Zombie Island, one of my favorite movies.  In fact, it was my first ever DTV Wonders review.  This makes me think of what a sequel needs to do to recapture the adventure, the tear jerkers, the excitement, and the mystery of the original.

I was not excited about this movie, but the fanbase was. Then the trailer came out.  Here it is.  It did nothing for my excitement, and it left the online fanbase less than pleased.

It looks like they will go back to the island and deal with more zombies or cat creatures there, and I hate this idea.  Putting new supernatural threats lessens the happy ending.  Did they remove the cat creatures and stop their kill count of at least 250 people (most certainly way higher) just for another group to continue it? Does this mean a happy ending is  just that they have to do this again 21 years later, 42 years later, and 63 years later?

Then I thought of this simple question, what does Zombie Island have that almost all Scooby-Doo works lack. Is it that the villains are real?  No one holds the works with just Shaggy, Scooby, and Scrappy in high regards which featured them running from one dimensional real and boring monsters, thus that is not it.  I thought about the best parts of the movie (Moonscar’s introduction, “It’s Terror Time Again,” driving to the island, and the climax), and I realized this movie has in hordes something Scooby-Doo almost never has, relatable and complex villains.

The villains are what set apart Zombie Island from the rest of Scooby-Doo, and none of them are still alive for a sequel.  They all are sympathetic and/or relatable. The main two villains have dealt with loss, taken their grief up with a higher power, been consumed by vengeance, and they are unable to stop the evilness it brought them.  For the anti-villains the pirates made some horrible mistakes, and now their motives are very ambiguous allowing the audience to see them in multiple ways.  Are they just motivated to get vengeance on the cat creatures and saving Mystery Inc is just a side result?  Are they just wanting to get to the afterlife and saving Mystery Inc is just a side quest?  Are they trying to atone for their past sins and trying to save Mystery Inc no mater how much it results in them getting judo thrown?  Some fans want these questions answered in a sequel, but I do not.  We are Scooby-Doo fans, and we can solve mysteries.  The other zombies are more clearly heroic, yet they are dealing with the horror of getting caught in the middle of a struggle between pirates and pagan monsters, and this mirrors when we get caught in struggles between higher powers that we cannot escape.

The character who seems to end this thought is the most purely evil character, Jacques, but he also has a sympathetic motivation.  Like many of us he is scared of death. This drove him to become a killer that brings his biggest fear to everyone he meets.

Unfortunately I do not think the new movie gets this based on the designs.  This is the zombie in the trailer

Compare this to the zombies in the older movie.

This design makes them look human with the alternating red and white eyes being a major part of the horror (and that one appears to be pregnant). The newer design looks more like the tar monster.

For Return to Zombie Island the creators already have their main characters, some side characters ready, a setting, and they need to recreate the essence of the first movie, the villains.  They need to replace them by bringing them back in an amazing way or make new villains with humanity.

Spoilers for “Scoobynatural” and Mystery Inc. ahead.

Time to analyze where the rest of the franchise has three dimensional villains, as most of them are simply after money.  In “Scoobynatural” and many other episodes the main antagonist has sympathy and is portrayed as right (with mixed results, as they still tried to kill the main characters). The difference is these characters are usually the main antagonist, not the main villain.  Little boy is the problem for most of the episode, but in the end they deal with and defeat greedy man doing a real estate scam.

Mystery Inc has the best case of replicating Zombie Island, but its villains were as a whole very different.  It had three very complex villains, The Freak of Crystal Cove, Mister E, and the conquistador.  All three of them could be with the Zombie Island characters and feel in place.  The conquistador would be a zombie who actively helps the cat creatures, because he deserves the punishment of being a zombie.  The Freak of Crystal Cove would be treasure hunting while avoiding the cat creatures and be fine with anyone else being caught… until one of his only loved ones is in danger, and he then sacrifices himself in contrast to Lena and Simone wanting vengeance for their loved ones.  Mister E would find a way to profit from the disappearances, but he would eventually realize it has gone too far and try to stop it but not after it is too late.

 

“Sometimes the only way to save the environment is to destroy the environment.”

The problem is the other villains are very different. They are two dimensional evil (with an occasional exception). The show normally had a very evil character who was humorously evil due to their current job not paying enough or a very comical reason.  That quote above was a villain’s motivation, and it was hilarious, not scary.  The final episodes are about facing the evil entity and Pericles who each have no redeeming attributes.  Fred’s parents become villains, and they are just horrific.

Each of the best Scooby-Doo works has something to separate them from the crowd.  For Mystery Inc it is the mood, for the original series it is the hidden depths, for Legend of the Phantosaur it is the characterization, for What’s New it was the settings.  For Zombie Island it is the humanity.