Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School

I saw this TV movie a few times when I was a kid and, from what I remembered, it was a pretty good movie (where Scooby Doo, Shaggy and Scrappy Doo visits a haunted school and attempts to save its kidnapped students) that captures the some of the humor and spirit of the original cartoon series.

The animation was bright and the plot was actually somewhat intriguing, making you eager to know that the events unfold. Although Fred, Daphne and Velma were absent from the movie, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy did deliver some great fun and laugh-out-loud comedy. After the conventional theme of villains disguised as ghouls and goblins in the series, it was interesting and noteworthy to see this movie contain real ghostly creatures and real witches as villains, such as the villainess Witch Revolta.

There are corny moments here and there, but this is a cartoon and is still better than some of the more contemporary cartoon counterparts of the 2000s and beyond.

Grade B

"Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School" would come of as one of the lame TV movies they make nowadays, but due to fantastic voice-acting, catchy characters, and an unorthodox(if not expectable) plot{volleyball game, WTF?] this becomes a movie for fans of the original SD series, Casey Casem fans, or for the newer 'What's new, Scooby Doo?' fans to see what it's elder counterparts were like. The drawbacks are continual graphic hiccups and outtakes they never edited out, Lack of sense in few places(Only five girls in a private school?, and lame villain(Mistress Revolta). Also, for a movie based on three people who absolutely fear monsters, they seem to take a liking to the girls in the film. Also, fan films on the website YouTube prove that the girls in the film and the film itself are cult classics.

Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)

*** (out of 4)

Good feature has Scooby, Scrappy and Shaggy going to a "school" that is attended by famous monster's children. At this female school they play an annual volleyball game against a military academy and Shaggy has been hired to make them winners. The first sixty-minutes of this feature are absolutely delightful with all sorts of laughs but sadly it really runs out of gas and barely makes it to the end. At 90-minutes it just runs way too long and the second portion of the film has a fairly weak story involving someone at the school trying to take it over with a new kind of evil. I thought the final thirty-minutes really dragged in spots and nearly ruined the entire film but the first part is just so good that horror fans should really enjoy it. I thought some of the best moments involved the monster children and the nice homages to previous movies. We get Count Dracula's daughter, a mummy, a werewolf and Frankenstein's daughter who is made up to look like the Bride and of course she's named Elsa (Lancaster from the 1935 film). We also get some pretty good jokes once the parents show up and of course they're enough to scare Shaggy and Scooby. Fans of the TV show should really enjoy this and monster fans will also have a good time with the creatures on hand.

What made me laugh more and more is that little pis$ed off dragon. It made the movie as far as I'm concerned. The movie took a while to get going, but it grew on me......but I'm easily entertained. In the realm of kids movies, I'd probably give it a 6/10. Definitely enjoyable.

It is not perfect and it is not the best Scooby Doo movie, in my opinion that's Witch's Ghost, but Ghoul's School is I think better than people say it is. I admit I hated this movie when I first saw it as I thought it was corny and lame and the fact that I was going through a Scrappy-hating phase probably didn't help either. I watched it again, and like with Reluctant Werewolf which I also hated at first, I am glad I gave it a chance.

It has its flaws mind. The pacing is draggy in spots, Scrappy while not as contemptible as he can be is still rather annoying and I really could have done without Scrappy's rap, then again I have a dislike of rap in general so maybe I'm biased.

That said, the animation is not too bad really, there are some lush backgrounds and a majority of the characters are well drawn. The incidental music is decent, and the jokes, script and puns are funny, perhaps corny in parts but the original show wasn't always sophisticated humour either and that worked. The story is a departure from usual Scooby Doo fare but it does hold interest, and has a lot of entertaining parts especially the party with the ghoul girls' parents, the match between the girls and the boys and any scene with the villainess of the piece Revolta.

And I liked the characters, Scrappy you either love or hate, but Scooby and Shaggy are delightful as always and their antics are just as wildly funny as before. The pet dragon is a very nice addition, and almost makes the movie, and I liked the ghoul girls too, Sebella is my favourite as she is quite beautiful and has this seductive element to her. Revolta who looks as awful as she sounds is an intriguing villainess, her motives aren't exactly original, but she does have some great lines, a sinister presence and a chilling voice. Finally the voice acting is well done, especially Don Messick and Casey Kasem who never fail to bring a smile to my face as Scooby and Shaggy.

So overall, it isn't brilliant, but it's better than people give credit for. 7/10 Bethany Cox