The Best Scooby-Doo Movies of All Time | Wealth of Geeks

Even if you’ve somehow never seen an episode, there’s a very strong possibility that almost everybody’s aware of Scooby-Doo. Whether you’re familiar with the catchy theme song, the colorful weekly villains, or the characters themselves, Scooby-Doo continues to be a series well-loved by audiences on a mass scale.

This continued popularity can be attributed to the likability of the five Scooby-Doo heroes, but a large part of Scooby-Doo’s success has to do with the dozens of TV shows, spin-offs, and movies that have been released over the years, many of which are well worth watching.

To cult classic animated films to live-action adaptations of the hit Hanna-Barbera cartoon, here are some of the greatest films based on Scooby-Doo.

Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island

Reuniting on Moonscar Island after their official disbandment, the members of Mystery, Inc. come face to face with their most dangerous mystery yet, involving ghosts, zombies, and voodoo.

Many Scooby-Doo films have come out over the decades, but Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island remains the piece de resistance of the Mystery, Inc. gang’s investigative outings together. Released just a few short years before the second zombie resurgence oversaturated the genre, Zombie Island does what very few Scooby-Doo adventures manage to do: strike a fine balance between light horror and infectiously riotous comedy.

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase

After getting trapped in a video game, Mystery, Inc. works to battle through each of the game’s increasingly precarious levels, all the while facing off against an omnipotent virtual antagonist known as the Phantom Virus.

If you ask any Scooby-Doo fan their favorite film in the series, nine times out of ten, it’ll be Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase. Inventive in terms of its central mystery, Cyber Chase excels at continuously upping the ante of its main storyline. The “challenge levels” the gang endures are unique, clever, and bursting with creativity, the online antagonist genuinely threatening but still enjoyably kitschy. If that weren’t enough to rope in ardent Scooby-Doo fans, the movie even throws in some classic villains like the Tar Monster and the Creeper.

Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders

Driving across the American desert, Mystery, Inc. receives the shock of their lives when they sight a UFO, prompting them to investigate the alien’s appearance alongside a mild-mannered hippy photographer who Shaggy develops for.

Scooby-Doo is famous for being rooted in numerous horror conventions, the gang going up against the likes of zombies, werewolves, vampires, witches, undead pirates on a regular basis. Every once in a while, though, the gang veers into uncharted territory in science fiction, something that can be most clearly seen with Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders. Channeling the sci-fi horror films of the 1950s, Alien Invaders also does remarkably well layering its abundant mysteries, oriented around Shaggy’s enigmatic love interest, Crystal, who is not entirely what she seems to be on the surface.

Scooby-Doo! and the Loch Ness Monster

Making their way to Scotland to learn more about Daphne’s heritage and familial background, Mystery, Inc. are told by local residents that Daphne’s ancestral castle is haunted by the infamous Loch Ness Monster.

Few mysteries continue to capture people’s attention as fully as the Loch Ness Monster. Capitalizing on audiences’ fascination with the enigmatic nature of this legendary aquatic creature is Scooby-Doo! and the Loch Ness Monster, a dazzlingly funny, stylistically unique Scooby-Doo mystery.

Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost

Invited by a famed horror writer (Tim Curry) to the New England community of Oakhaven, Mystery, Inc. learns first-hand about the town’s supernatural roots when the ghost of a witch arrives, seeking vengeance for her death in the 1650s.

It’s not very often that Scooby-Doo turns its attention to real-world history and legends, but whenever it does, the results are undeniably great. Exploring the subject of the Salem witch trials (albeit loosely and not from an entirely factual standpoint), Witch’s Ghost helped secure the future of direct-to-DVD Scooby-Doo movies virtually from the get-go. (Not to mention the fact it gifted fans the extraordinarily popular fictional band, the Hex Girls, who have gone on to appear in several later Scooby-Doo films and shows.)

Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed

Hailed as heroes by their hometown, Mystery, Inc. (Freddie Prinze Jr., Sarah Michelle Gellar, Matthew Lillard, and Linda Cardellini) face their most formidable threat yet when an evil masked figure uses a machine to turn the costumes of former Scooby-Doo adversaries into real-life monsters.

Perhaps only marginally better than its live-action predecessor (2002’s Scooby-Doo), the main reason Scooby-Doo 2 is worth seeing is for wonderful homages to the original series. Complete with supporting appearances from beloved villains like Captain Cutler, the Tar Monster, and Miner Forty-Niner, it’s the ultimate live-action love letter to the classic Scooby-Doo show.

Scooby-Doo

Two years after falling out, the members of Mystery, Inc. (Prinze Jr., Gellar, Lillard, and Cardellini) reunite by chance on Spooky Island, a tropical theme park whose owner (Rowan Atkinson) believes is plagued by actual ghosts.

Admittedly, the first live-action adaptation of Scooby-Doo is far from perfect – it’s too innuendo-laden for younger audiences, yet somehow too childish to hold older audiences’ attention for very long. For all its abundant flaws, the film does a generally good job presenting a mystery worthy of its original counterpart, as well as openly mocking one of Scooby-Doo’s most notorious weaknesses: the gratingly obnoxious Scrappy-Doo.

Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold

Invited to join the elite ranks of the Mystery Analysts of Gotham City, Mystery, Inc. joins forces with Gotham’s resident detective, Batman, to unmask a new villain known as the Crimson Cloak.

Scooby-Doo and Batman are no strangers to the occasional crossover, the Mystery, Inc. gang having starred opposite the likes of the Harlem Globetrotters and the Caped Crusader alongside the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles themselves. Naturally, it shouldn’t be altogether surprising seeing them side-by-side here. After all, who wouldn’t want to see Gotham City’s Dark Knight interact with his polar opposites in Mystery, Inc.?

Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School

Mistakenly taking a job as gym teachers at a prep school for paranormal creatures, Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy do their best to instruct the young girls at the academy.

The Ghoul School’s most glaringly obvious flaw is Scrappy-Doo, the infamously annoying sidekick to his uncle Scooby that made Jar-Jar Binks look about as lovable as R2-D2, by comparison. Yet not even Scrappy can take anything away from The Ghoul School, one of the initial made-for-TV movies released under the Scooby-Doo bannerhead.

Big Top Scooby-Doo!

Looking into a case involving jewelry store robberies committed by a pack of werewolves, the members of Mystery, Inc. go undercover as circus performers in Atlantic City, hoping the guise is enough to lure in the true parties responsible.

On paper, there’s possibly no better backdrop for a Scooby-Doo film than the circus. Far from falling into the same pit they’d already dug with evil clowns, though, Big Top Scooby-Doo! manages to tread new ground in the series, especially through its inclusion of werewolves (a classic villain in the horror canon).

Aloha, Scooby-Doo!

Arriving in Hawaii for a competitive surfing contest, Mystery, Inc. becomes embroiled in a mystery involving an ancient spirit trying to drive the tourist community away.

Hawaii is an island steeped in mystery and fascinating local legends. That being said, including it as a setting for a Scooby-Doo film was a logical choice. Rather than focusing too heavily on the mythology of Hawaii alone, Aloha, Scooby-Doo! excels at relying on its urban tall tale and a humorous representation of surfer culture in general.

Scooby-Doo! in Where’s My Mummy?

Accidentally uncovering the tomb of Cleopatra, Mystery, Inc. do their best to stop a gang of greedy treasure-hunters from desecrating the tomb in search of plunder, triggering an ancient curse in the process.

Like Hawaii, Egypt seems like it would make for the ideal setting for a Scooby-Doo film, what with its long history of mummies, curses, and ancient, booby trap-laden tombs that have been abandoned for centuries. Feeling almost like the Scooby-Doo version of 1999’s The Mummy, Where’s My Mummy? is an effortlessly fun, lighthearted exploration of its Egyptian setting, ending with a refreshing (and surprising) twist reveal.

Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!

Crossing into the fabled Bermuda Triangle aboard a luxury cruise ship, Mystery, Inc. encounters a haunted pirate ship filled with ghostly buccaneers who are scouring the seas for a long lost treasure somewhere in the Triangle.

As with the two aforementioned movies on this list, Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy! benefits from its unique setting and implementation of historical lore. Set against the backdrop of Bermuda – complete with its history of shipwrecks, plane crashes, and other mysterious happenings – Pirates Ahoy! is an incredibly enjoyable nautical adventure on par with the gang’s battle against Ghost of Redbeard.