Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders

You know what I missed with the last two Scooby-Doo installments? The mystery aspect of... well, the Mystery Inc Team. In SD on Zombie Island (1998) and SD and the Witch's Ghost (1999), the mystery was sort of pushed to the background in favor of good visuals and more of a straight-up horror story. Which was good, don't get me wrong. But I was starting to miss an actual mystery, where the gang finds clues and someone (usually Velma) puts them all together for some sort of crazy flashback-filled final reveal. The two previous films had twists, to be certain, but the Mystery Team wasn't so much in the business of solving mysteries as just kinda witnessing them. There was no string of clues to follow, just weird shit happening and the gang just trying to get the fuck out. With Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000), writers Davis Doi and Glen Leopold have attempted to bring the mystery back to the Mystery Team.

The gang is embarked on some sort of road trip (hey, that's what ex-hippies do, man) when they get caught up in a freak sandstorm out in the middle of the desert at night. After taking a wrong turn and getting thoroughly lost, the gang spot something in the sky through the windows of the Mystery Machine. Is it a UFO? Just a jet? Something else? No one is entirely sure what they saw, but they are pretty sure that the van's radiator is shot, and they're going to have to hoof it into the next town. While Fred, Daphne, and Velma head into the town for an interesting night of tales of alien activity from the locals, Scoob and Shag stay back to guard the van. The cowardly duo decide to skip the alien stories and go straight for the experience, as a pair of hideous green aliens with huge segmented heads show up and chase them into town.

So, the gang decide to investigate, seeing as how they're stuck in this podunk town until the one mechanic decides to get around to fixing their van anyway. Fred, Daphne, and Velma decide to investigate the local federal installation, a SETI-like project called SALF (Search for Alien Life Forms). Meanwhile, Shag and Scoob get caught up in a whirlwind of events, including being abducted by the hideous aliens, and investigating the glow from a mysterious cave along with Crystal, a hippie-esque nature photographer, and her dog Amber. Unsurprisingly, both Shag and Scoob fall head-over-heels for their female counterparts, even forgoing food in their love-drunk state. But as events come together, Shaggy must come to grips with the fact that Crystal may not be who she says she is. Are the aliens real? And what do the SALF engineers have to do with everything? What about those two shady looking military policemen that seem to pop up everywhere?

The animation here is, if anything, even better than the two previous films. While the Japanese animation crew has maintained the modern-looking computer animation, they've managed to retrofit it, to give it a certain retro stylistic flair without sacrificing quality. More than any other SD film so far, this one looks and feels the closest to the original series, and to me that's a good thing.

Once again, Casey Kasem declined to reprise his role as Shaggy, but Scott Innes has only gotten better with some practice. His imitation of Kasem's Shaggy was so spot-on that I had to check IMDB before I was sure who the voice was. And speaking of vocal talents, I think we need to recognize Frank Welker here. He has been the voice of Fred from the very beginning, a span of over 30 years at the time of Alien Invaders' release. Throughout, Fred has been understated. Kinda the square to Shaggy's groovy dude. But honestly, Fred really shined in this film, delivering most of the movie's wry humor. Well, Fred got a little help from a really weird and really hilarious musical montage sung in an off-key warble by Shaggy. And on a sadder note, Alien Invaders is the last SD film to feature Mary Kay Bergman as the voice of Daphne. Bergman, who was also the original voice of almost every single female character on "South Park", took her own life in November of 1999.

Alien Invaders is a cool, fun, Saturday morning type of Scooby Doo flick. So make some pancakes and have a seat. Enjoy.

Storyline & plot: 6/10
Cinematography & effects: 7/10
Music & mood: 6/10
Performances: 7/10

The Reverend says: 6/10