Scooby-Doo! Pirates Ahoy!

Plot synopsis:
Fred is treating the Mystery Inc. gang to share in his birthday present: a mystery cruise, compliments of his parents Skip and Peggy. While preparing for the ship launch, Scooby and Shaggy have a creepy encounter with a sinister-looking cloaked man, whom the duo are sure is up to no good. The gang meet the hyper Cruise Director, Sunny St. Cloud, and the captain, Captain Crothers. The Captain says they are bound for the Bermuda Triangle, and St. Cloud promises some creepy intrigue. A montage of sloppy "mysteries" that are staged by St. Cloud and Captain Crothers follow, which the gang solves with ease. This peeves the other guests, who have no mysteries to solve now. Soon they rescue Rupert Garcia, a man lost at sea, who tells of an encounter with ghost pirates. The gang naturally assumes that this is a setup to another mystery. He is taken below deck as a man in a jetpack appears from the sky and lands on deck. He turns out to be Biff Wellington, an English billionaire who is known to be fun-loving yet eccentric. He plans to stay on the ship as well.
That night, the gang attends a costume party dinner. The creepy cloaked man appears on stage, who turns out to be Mister Mysterio, a famous hypnotist. Shaggy and Scooby are picked from the audience to demonstrate his powers, but they prove immune to his hypnotism: yet the audience falls under the trance. Mysterio dispels the hypnotism and disappears in a puff of smoke. The creepy fog then engulfs the cruise ship. The ghost pirates wreak havoc, chasing the cruise guests, who all mysteriously disappear. Skip and Peggy are kidnapped, and the pirates retreat back to the galleon and leave (after destroying the cruise ship). At this time, the gang realizes it is a real mystery, and they and Garcia are the only ones left aboard the damaged ship.
With his help, they follow the glowing trail left behind by the galleon and arrive in a secret harbor. There, they find Garcia's old ship, and then are captured by the ghost pirates, who take them aboard their galleon. The pirates are looking to find a meteor of mystic power, which fell into the triangle ages ago and could be pinpointed using Garcia's map. The gang is tied to the mast along with Skip, but there are no other cruise guests around.
The galleon enters the heart of the triangle, and begins to see past ghosts from the triangle: The USS Cyclops, Flight 19, even a sea serpent. Amidst this, the gang manages to escape and explore below deck. They find a lot of modern equipment that was used to project the ghostly images just witnessed. The ship enters an odd ring of rocks, and pulls up the meteor, which glows golden yellow.
The gang then engineer a trap, which fails. The pirates then attempt to re-capture the gang, leading to a trademark Scooby-Doo chase sequence, in which the entire pirate crew are captured by Scooby and Shaggy. Captain Skunkbeard is revealed to be Wellington, and Wally is revealed to be Mysterio. The rest of the pirates turn out to be the cruise guests (including the Captain, St. Cloud and Peggy), shipmates of Garcia, and past conquests of the pirates. Wellington explains that Mysterio convinced him that he was the reincarnation of a pirate years ago, and could use the meteor to teleport back in time. The crew were just hypnosis victims under Mysterio's power. Mysterio's motive was that the meteor itself was pure gold and he was going to steal it to make himself rich. Mysterio, still free, attempts to take the meteor for himself, but is stopped by Scooby.
At this time, a fierce storm hits, and the gang deduces the forces of the triangle want the meteor back, so they drop it back in the water, and some steering by Fred narrowly gets the galleon out of the ring as it crumbles into the sea. The cruise guests use the galleon as a large party boat as they sail back to Miami to drop off the villains to the authorities.

Tags: psychedelic, horror

Review:
Yo ho ho and a whole load of Scooby fun!.
I really enjoyed Scooby Doo: Pirates Ahoy!
and I honestly think it is one of the better movies in the Scooby Doo franchise.
Like any film with pirates, it was fun, colourful and hugely enjoyable, and my only complaints are that it is too short, and I wasn't hugely keen on Frank Welker's Scooby voice, I much prefer Don Messick.
Still, the animation is very colourful, and the music is great.
I loved the plot, about the gang cruising in the Bermuda Triangle, and falling foul of ghost pirates.
The voice acting was fantastic, Casey Kasem is just a hoot as Shaggy, and Dan Castallenetta was excellent as Magician Mysterio.
Ron Perlman was not only charming as Biff Wellington, but deliciously sinister as the villainous pirate captain, and his laugh was quite scary- and I thought Tim Curry's Pennywise's laugh was scary.
All in all, despite a couple of minor flaws, an unexpected delight for Scooby Doo fans, a similar thing I said about last year's Goblin King, and I do recommend it.
8/10 Bethany Cox. Arr, Matey!.
I wasn't so keen on watching this Scooby adventure as it has the shortest running time of all of them so far and I figured that it couldn't possibly have a substantial mystery worth taking an interest in.And while that's true for the most part, they do make a huge effort to keep the viewer guessing by throwing in lots of distractions, more so than any other Scooby adventure.
And despite it's brief running time it does manage pack in a fair amount of characters and guest voices, so in a sense they give more AND less.The Mystery Inc. gang head off on a tropical cruise for Fred's birthday but things turn sinister when they pick-up a drifter floating in the water.
No one believes his tale of ghost pirates (they're on a "mystery cruise" and are becoming quite jaded to the novelty), but only when said pirates show up do they gradually accept that it's real.There's a few more in-jokes than normal in this one too.
And while I usually hate in-jokes it's forgivable, and perhaps welcome, in a Scooby-Doo mystery.
I am aware that the infamous Bermuda Triangle was the focus of a lower-wattage mystery in the third season of Scooby-Doo back in the early 70s, but this one is considerably better.It looses points for being short, but it's still a worthy mystery..
An Honest Review.
It hurts!!!!
It hurts!!!!
Turn it off it hurts!!!!!
OK, so it's not THAT bad, but there are parts of it that do make you feel like you're Linda Blair, strapped to a bed, and getting doused with holy water.So much of it is a big old FAIL that it's hard to believe they released it as a movie and not as, well, a throw away episode of one of the shows.Just run away from this one..
One of the Best Scooby Movies.
(2006) *** (out of 4) Scooby and the gang are invited on a cruise by Fred's parents but soon the ship is taken over by dead pirates.
They kidnap Fred's parents so the gang must go after them and try to learn why they've come back from the dead.
When reviewing these Scooby movies I have to keep in mind not only my opinion but that of my three-year-old son.
His opinion of this movie is that it quickly became his favorite of the series and each time I asked which one he wants to watch it's this here.
In fact, I think we're working on about fifteen times in a row he has selected this one so obviously kids should love it.
I've seen the film on a number of occasions with him and I do think it's one of the best out there.
The actual story here is a very good one and I really liked how they took the pirate theme and mixed it with zombies as well as the entire Bermuda Triangle thing.
The animation is top-notch from start to finish and also shows a lot of imagination.
The actual look of the pirates is without question the highlight of the film as the detail in the costumes and their look is great.
This one here also features a lot of famous names doing vocal work including Tim Conway, Arsenio Hall, Freddy Rodriquez, Ron Perlman and Kathy Najimy.
SCOOBY-DOO!
SCOOBY-DOO!
PIRATES AHOY!
PIRATES AHOY!
will certainly entertain fans of the series and kids should really enjoy it as well..
Better than I thought it would be.
I can honestly admit that I don't like "What's New Scooby-Doo" at all, as well as the direct-to-video Scooby movies from 2004 to the present.
The last two direct-to-video Scooby movies were not that good.
They mostly focused more on Fred, Daphne and Velma, rather than Scooby-Doo himself(who is actually my favorite character!).
However, this movie is a slight improvement over the last two.
It's still basically an extended-length episode of "What's New Scooby-Doo," but not much like "Aloha Scooby-Doo!" or "Scooby-Doo in Where's My Mummy." In this installment, Scooby-Doo is given more attention and screen time than the last two in the series!
He also has plenty of dialogue, too.
When I noticed this as I was watching, I couldn't believe it!
The only flaw is, as usual, Frank Welker's Scooby-Doo voice (you know, like Brain from "Inspector Gadget!") I sure hope this isn't Casey Kasem's last time he does Shaggy's voice, what with Scott Menville (aka Robin from "Teen Titans," Larry and Steve from "Rugrats," etc.) starting to do a horrible Shaggy impersonation.
However, it's not like Daphne, who sounds a bit like Vicky from "The Fairly Oddparents," and Mindy Cohn providing Velma's newer, slightly dark-sounding voice.
However, I thought Fred's parents were pretty goofy (I loved the running gag with their camera flash temporarily blinding people!), and there was that crazy tour guide who reminded me of Ms. Frizzle from "The Magic School Bus." However, they STILL didn't use the old "Castle Thunder" sound effects, like the last three movies!
I mean, they used it on a couple of episodes of "What's New Scooby-Doo" and on "Loonatics Unleashed," and since pirate movies tend to have thunderstorms in them, this would've been perfect for it!
But I also enjoyed seeing references to classic Scooby villains (not Redbeard, thankfully, but Captain Cutler, the Ghost Clown and a werewolf from an older episode).
Also, I am very grateful that they didn't use the gawd-awful new designs from "Shaggy and Scooby-Doo Get a Clue." That would've sucked!
But I am still find it weird they keep using the old 70s Hanna-Barbera logo at the end of the movies.
I will say it again: HANNA-BARBERA DID NOT PRODUCE THIS MOVIE!
It was all TERMITE TERRACE!
Nonetheless, if you liked "Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase" or are just a fan of the new series, you will like this then..
One of the best...?.
If you don't like the What's New Scooby-Doo?
series, you probably won't like this much.
I'm pleased to say I love the series, and this film was one of the best I've seen.It's Fred's birthday, and his parents have invited him and the rest of Mystery Inc. along on a 'Mystery' cruise, but are suspicious travellers joining them?
As the title suggests, pirates are not far behind - and they're of the ghostly variety.The recent Scooby-Doo films (from 2000 onwards) combine quality animation and great voice acting.
What I've come to expect from Scooby-Doo films is the storyline involving real ghosts or magic of some sort, like 'Scooby-Doo and the Goblin King'.
What on earth was that film all about?
Pardon me for being a party pooper, but isn't that sort of completely the opposite of what Scooby-Doo is all about?
Scooby-Doo is about finding a logical explanation; finding clues and using intuition.
It's like a watered down version of Miss Marple; small mysteries that the audience can try and solve before the gang do.
The mystery in this film, and one of the main reasons why I liked it so much, has a logical explanation.
It's just like old times with the gang - like a real episode.This film is for all ages too.
The colourful animation and slapstick should appeal to younger viewers - though they usually miss most of the dialogue.
If you're older, you'll be able to appreciate it - because it sure needs appreciating.
It involves much more Scooby than most of the other films, but each member of Mystery Inc is represented equally and all are hilarious - I mean, isn't Daphne usually the picky, whiny one?
One of the funniest scenes is down to her.
And Fred is beautifully protective of his 'Fred-ness'; many moments are fan based jokes, which I must say I felt very special to be able to understand.I know this is different from the old Scooby-Doo series, but I can't help thinking that this is much, much funnier and so much better put together; the animation is so smooth.
The facial expressions are, well, expressive, and the gang are so much more lovable this way; they're silly and human (even Scooby, if you think about it) and it's a breath of fresh air to watch a mystery that seems to make some kind of sense (another hint that this isn't just for kids - they never understand the story line anyway).Again, let me say that if you don't like the new Scooby-Doo, then you probably won't want to try this.
But if you think that Mystery Inc. are supposed to be funny, endearing and above all, logical, you may as well give it a go.
So, What's New Scooby-Doo?
A pretty good straight to DVD film, that's what..
Just to plain.
No matter what I will always love Scooby-Doo even if the cartoon leaves me feeling dry, this one wasn't all bad.
Right from the beginning I was sceptical about this one, it just seemed off.
The movie follows a concept I've always been fascinated with; the Bermuta triangle, but it just lacks the interest I was hoping for, it only has a few good jokes, it feels a bit to dragged out, and it's just way to predictable I knew the whole mystery about 20 mins in, it's a very straight forward cartoon that lacks twists and turns.
Regardless of the flaws I found it an OK movie, with an interesting plot and great voice over actors.Scooby and the gang are off to set sail on a tropical mystery themed cruise where they find a mysterious cast away who speaks of a terrifying experience he has had in the Bermuda triangle, where his crew has been abducted by ghost pirates.
The gang at first think it is just a part of the mystery themed cruise but they soon realize the cast away speaks the truth and the passengers, the crew all get taken away by the ghost pirates, but this time it's personal as Fred's parents have been taken.
The gang is on the case.Let me first off by saying once again I was very pleased by the great talent of the voice over cast.
This is one of the biggest reason why this cartoon was merely OK, but also it turned out to be its biggest flaw, you'll see about 20 mins in.
Once again we have Frank Welker as Fred and Scooby-Doo, Grey Delisle as Daphne, Mindy Cohn as Velma, and of course Casey Kasem as Shaggy, who all once do a fabulous job.
Joining the great voice over cast we have Ron Perlman as Captain Skunkbeard/Biff Wellington, Dan Castellaneta as Mr. Mysterio/Woodenleg Wally, Edie McClurg as Peggy Jones, and Tim Conway as Skip Jones.
They all do a wonderful job but in the end it gives the entire mystery away as soon as it starts which left me feeling stale about the whole thing.The storyline the movie follows I found was interesting but I feel it could have been a much better cartoon if they had to go with aliens instead of pirates for the Bermuda triangle but regardless I found it mildly interesting just because it was the Bermuda triangle.
The storyline really lacks twists and turns there is only one which is the ending which can be seen a million miles away, there is only a few jokes, and it just seems to dragged out which I hate seeing in a Scooby-Doo cartoon.
I feel they could have easily expanded on the mysteries surrounding the Bermuda triangle.All in all an OK cartoon.
If you are a Scooby-Doo fan you should at least give it a go once and maybe you will love it, everyone has their own opinions, but in the end for me the only good things were the voice over actors who also made me feel sour about the whole cartoon, and the interesting concept of the Bermuda triangle which could have been explored more.
So make sure you really consider renting or buying Scooby-Doo Pirates Ahoy and give it a whirl at least once.Overall score: ***** out of ********** **1/2 out of *****