The Adventures of Scooby-Doo!

The Adventures of Scooby-Doo! is a 1990 American animated comedy horror mystery film based on the characters created by Hanna-Barbera Productions. It was written and directed by Rob Minkoff in his feature directorial debut, produced by Ron Howard, Richard Donner, Joel Silver and Brian Grazer and executive produced by Steven Spielberg, William Hanna, Joesph Barbera, Samuel Goldwyn Jr. and Robert Zemeckis and it was released by Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Universal Pictures, Imagine Entertainment, Amblin Entertainment and The Samuel Goldwyn Company in the United States on June 21 1991.
Based on Hanna-Barbera's long-running animated television series, Scooby-Doo, it is the first, and so far, only theatrically released animated Scooby-Doo film, although Scooby-Doo! in Where's My Mummy? was theatrically released in select cities of the United States by Kidtoon Films.
It was first released in cinemas in France on September 7, 1990 and then released in the United States on June 21, 1991 and grossed $275.4 million, making it a box office success.
==Plot==
The Mystery Inc. gang is visiting Daphne's old neighborhood librarian, Steven Dixon, who has recently been put in charge of the Cunningham University Library. Once the gang meets up with Dixon, he tells the gang that the library's full of real ghosts. Of course, the gang splits up and Fred sends Scooby-Doo and Shaggy to check the Basement. As the gang are about to split up, Jack Hopkins, an assistant to Dixon who's in charge of restoring old books, shows up and says that the key to the basement is lost. The gang then search out for the missing key while Scooby and Shaggy have a change of plan and look out for ghosts. As Scooby and Shaggy look out for ghosts, they see a fake looking ghost that has key to the basement and Scooby and Shaggy sneak in. Shaggy and Scooby then discover an ancient book called The Book of Terror, a book that can capture spiritual ghosts. Just as Scooby and Shaggy find the book, a ghost shows up and haunts the two. Shaggy drops the book and the ghost gets sucked inside. Shaggy and Scooby, both amazed to what happened, decide to show the book to the others. They meet up with Velma, who lost her glasses while searching for clues. Scooby and Shaggy, finding Velma's glasses while discovering the book, hands them to Velma, and she takes a look at the book. Fascinated, Velma tells Scooby and Shaggy to show it to Daphne and Fred. As they both show Daphne and Fred the book, Dixon walks in and says that the book is a fake because the pages are book receipts and that there's another version of the book that has all the pages missing. The gang then encounter the fake looking ghost that Scooby and Shaggy found earlier and the gang try to capture him. Sure enough, Scooby and Shaggy capture him and the fake ghost turns out to be Jack Hopkins. Velma depicts that Hopkins, being responsible for book restorations, didn't want anyone to find out that he had a fake book of terror made, while he kept the real one for himself. And so, the gang sets off to find the missing pages.
They take care of another assignment at the Clifton Bros. movie studio. In the studio, they meet up with the studio founders, Tommy and Rodney Clifton. The Clifton Brothers tell the gang that the studio's full of ghosts and mummies and a man named Maurice Floyd, an executive at Bluewood Development, trying to buy the studio. The gang split up again to look for clues. As Scooby and Shaggy capture more ghouls, Scooby ends up getting dognapped by a black knight and Shaggy chases after it. Shaggy finds Scooby and Daphne locked up, and Shaggy unlocks their cages with a key. Afterwards, the black knight appears and chases after Shaggy and Scooby. Just then, the black knight ends up in catapulpt and it ends up catapulpting him to a temple pole that ends up collapsing on him. Scooby and Shaggy find the black knight's helmet, but the black knight ends up running away. Velma, Daphne, Fred, and Rodney realize that Tommy is missing, but then they notice the black knight and they all decide to follow it. The gang captures him and the black knight turns out to be Maurice Floyd. Velma depicts that Jack Hopkins must have sent him pages from The Book of Terror to scare away the studio's cast and crew and capture Tommy, knowing that it would force Floyd to sell. Meanwhile, at the JeffersonTech headquarters, the executive chief of the company, Becky Prince, realizes that Floyd has been caught and she and her boss, Scott Jefferson, come up with a new plan.
The gang then heads to The Silver Mountain western theme park. As it turns out, the same guy who was trying to buy the Clifton Bros. movie studio was also trying to buy Silver Hill. The gang meets up with the founder of the theme park, Eddie Cassidy. He tells the gang that the theme park's full of ghouls and all of his employees ran away, except for Lillian Damon, Cassidy's most faithful assistant. The gang split up, once again, to look for clues. Scooby and Shaggy then discover a mysterious woman and they both decide to follow her. Unfortunately, they lost her, but they come across Fred locked up in a jail cell. Fred tells them that he was investigating the cell, then a mysterious woman locked the door behind him, and Daphne went to find Cassidy, but she's been captured. Shaggy frees Fred from the jail cell and Scooby and Shaggy set off to find Daphne. They then come across a mine cart with food in it, and of course, the mine cart sets off. However, Scooby and Shaggy land safely and find Velma. Shaggy shows her a costume hidden in the school and Velma is suspicious about it. They then find Daphne, Fred, and Cassidy spinning around an extremely fast roundabout controlled by a sand ghost. Scooby and Shaggy use The Book of Terror and the sand ghost gets sucked inside. As it turns out, the mysterious woman was Lillian Damon. Velma depicts that Damon used the costumes that were hidden in the school that Shaggy showed to her, and in the school, she found papers from Bluewood Development.
The gang then heads to a spooky bayou. As it turns out, the executives at Bluewood Development just bought the bayou after all the people that lived there ran away from zombies. Once they arrive at the bayou house, they find a satellite pointed at a precise location in the sky. Once again, the gang split up to look for clues. Inside, Scooby and Shaggy find a cauldron of gumbo and do their usual eating. Just then, they hear Daphne being captured, once again, and decide to find her. They find Daphne and Fred being tied up by mercenaries lead by their master sergeant, Joseph Herbertson. The mercenaries spot Scooby and Shaggy and they chase after them. They lose the mercenaries, but they both get separated, as Shaggy trips and falls in mud, and Scooby is left all alone. However, Scooby is found by a Hillbilly named Henry and he helps Scooby look for Shaggy. They end up finding Shaggy locked up in a cage with other zombies. Hillbilly Henry comes up with a plan to send out Scooby to distract the mercenaries while he unlocks the cage. The plan succeeds and they all escape. After they escape, they find Velma. She tells them that zombies have attacked the army trucks and Daphne and Fred are in danger. Scooby and Shaggy use The Book of Terror and the zombies get sucked inside. Daphne then asks why the army's trying to cover up a case of zombies. Herbertson says that the military isn't involved. Him and his old buddies were hired by Bluewood Development to clear out the bayou before it was sold to JeffersonTech, According to Velma's notes, Bluewood Development is owned by JeffersonTech, so they've been selling land to themselves after scaring away the owners. And so, the gang set off to their final destination, the JeffersonTech headquarters, to find the executives from Bluewood.
While driving to the headquarters, Velma says that according to her research, JeffersonTech is using all of the bayou to build giant antennas. To find out why, Fred already called JeffersonTech and arranged for the gang to get on a tour of their facilities. The gang go inside and meet Scott Jefferson. He tells the gang about the new technology that he and Becky Prince are making. Interested, the gang follow Jefferson and Becky. However, Shaggy and Scooby look for clues. While they find clues, Velma, Daphne, and Fred get brainwashed by Becky and she orders them to bring The Book of Terror back to her. Scooby and Shaggy then find a keycard that a scientest misplaced, and they grab it and show it to the others. Eventually, Scooby and Shaggy find Velma, Daphne, and Fred, but they're unable to hear them. Becky tells them that they have been brainwashed by a mind control device called the MindController 9000. She then attempts to brainwash Scooby and Shaggy with the device. Somehow, the device doesn't work on them because their minds are immune. But that doesn't stop Jefferson, as he commands Velma, Daphne, and Fred to seize them. However, Shaggy stops the device by using the keycard and Velma, Daphne, and Fred are back to normal. Jefferson then orders a scientist to seize the gang, but the scientest unmasks himself and it turns out to be Mr. Dixon, who reveals to have a second job as an agent. Dixon attempts to arrest Becky and Jefferson, but Becky runs away and everyone chases after her. They catch Becky, but she uses a fire ghost to kill Mystery Inc. Velma reverses the antennas' polarity so that it would rain on the ghost and Scooby and Shaggy use The Book of Terror one last time and the fire ghost gets sucked inside.
Becky is then taken away to jail, and all the mysteries are solved. The film closes with Shaggy celebrating by eating a box of Scooby Snacks, but Scooby uses The Book of Terror to grab the box from him.
==Cast==
*Don Messick as Scooby-Doo
*Casey Kasem as Shaggy Rogers
*Frank Welker as Fred Jones
*Heather North Kenney as Daphne Blake
*B.J. Ward as Velma Dinkley
*Tress MacNeille as Becky Prince
*Barry Bostwick as Steven Dixon
*Hamilton Camp as Jack Hopkins
*Peter Cullen as Tommy Clifton and Scott Jefferson
*Charles Fleischer as Rodney Clifton
*Roddy McDowall as Maurice Floyd
*Joe Alaskey as Eddie Cassidy and Mercenaries
*Brad Garrett as Joseph Herbertson
*Pat Buttram as Hillbilly Henry
*Janet Waldo as Lillian Damon
*Hal Smith as Ghosts
*John Stephenson as Mummies and Security Guard
*Jeff Bergman as Zombies and Watchman
*Pat Musick as Actress
*Phil Proctor, Jim Cummings, and Jess Harnell as Jefferson Tech Scientists
==Soundtrack==
A soundtrack album was released by Walt Disney Records in 1990, featuring music composed and conducted by John Williams. All the songs in the movie were taken from the second season of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and performed by Austin Roberts while the newly-written song "Go the Distance", which was written by Alan Menken and David Zippel and performed by Michael Bolton, appear in both the soundtrack and in the end credits of the film while intentionally became a #1 hit single at the same time. The song and score itself won 2 Academy Awards for Best Original Score and Song. The track listing is as follows.
#Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!
#Daydreamin'
#Love The World
#Seven Days a Week
#Recipe for My Love
#Tell Me, Tell Me
#Mystery Inc. (instrumental)
#Looking for Clues (instrumental)
#Catching The Monster (instrumental)
#Unmasked (instrumental)
#Hillbilly Henry (instrumental)
#Fire Ghost (instrumental)
#Mystery Solved (instrumental)
#Go The Distance by Michael Bolton (end credits)
#Credits (instrumental)
==Reception==
===Critical response===
Critics praised the animation, voice acting, and storyline while the richly textured and classical orchestral music recieved universal acclaim.
The film won 4 Academy Awards for Best Picture(which was the first and only animated film to do so), Best Director, Best Original Score and Best Original Song (for Go the Distance).
====Box Office====
The film opened in the United States and Canada on the same weekend as Dying Young, The Rocketeer and Where Angles Fear to Tread. Opening at #1 on its opening weekend, the film made $275,450,358 at the North American box office, making it financially successful.
==Home media==
The Adventures of Scooby-Doo! was first released on VHS and Laserdisc on September 24, 1991 by Walt Disney Home Video. Then it was re-released on VHS on March 2, 1999 and the first time made its DVD debut on June 4, 2002 by Walt Disney Home Entertainment. The Region 1 DVD and VHS are in full screen only, while the Region 2 DVD release presents the film in its original 2.39:1 widescreen aspect ratio.
==Trivia==
*This is the first theatrical Scooby-Doo film and also the first to be released by Walt Disney Pictures and produced in a 2.39:1 widescreen "scope" aspect ratio.
*The plot is very similar to the Scooby-Doo video game, Scooby-Doo! Mystery Mayhem.
*This is the first Scooby-Doo movie to not feature Scrappy-Doo since Scooby Goes Hollywood.
*The gang wears more sophisticated and professional clothing in this movie.
*This was the last appearance of Shaggy's red t-shirt until Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase.
*This is the first appearance of Velma, Daphne, and Fred since The New Scooby-Doo Mysteries.
Category:Scooby-Doo
Category:Hanna-Barbera films
Category:Hanna-Barbera animated films
Category:Hanna Barbera Movies
Category:Warner Bros. films
Category:1990 films
Category:Rated G Movie Spoofs
Category:Rated G
Category:G-rated films
Category:G-Rated films
Category:Films produced by William Hanna
Category:Films produced by Joseph Barbera
Category:Movies
Category:Animated comedy films