Origins and story in Louisiana The
Scooby-Doo franchise, which by the time of this film's release was nearing its 30-year mark, had entered into a period of diminishing returns in the early 1990s. After the conclusion of the sixth iteration of the series,
A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, the character became absent from
Saturday-morning lineups. In 1991,
Turner Broadcasting System purchased
Hanna-Barbera, the animation studio behind
Scooby, largely to fill programming at a new, 24/7 cable channel centered on animated properties:
Cartoon Network. The advent of cable gave the franchise renewed popularity: rapidly,
Scooby reruns attracted top ratings.
Zombie Island was not the first attempt at a feature-length
Scooby adventure; several
television films were produced in the late 1980s starring the character, such as
Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School. In 1996, Turner merged with
Time Warner.
Davis Doi, in charge at Hanna-Barbera, was tasked with developing projects based on the studio's existing properties. Warner executives suggested
Scooby, given that the property held a high
Q Score, and proposed it could be a
direct-to-video feature film. Most of the script is recycled from Leopold's script for the unfinished
SWAT Kats episode "The Curse of Kataluna".
Casting Casey Kasem was originally set to reprise his role as Shaggy, but Kasem, a
vegetarian, had refused to voice Shaggy in a 1995
Burger King commercial and went on to demand that Shaggy also give up eating meat in future productions. The creative team rejected this, as eating anything was a hallmark of the character. Additionally, production on
Zombie Island had already begun, with the film featuring a scene with Shaggy eating
crawfish. Shaggy was then recast with voice actor
Billy West. Kasem was given a last-minute opportunity to fill the role and redub over West, but he made yet another refusal. Radio personality
Scott Innes voiced Scooby-Doo, as
Don Messick, the character's original voice actor, retired in 1996 and died in 1997;
Zombie Island was subsequently dedicated to his memory.
Heather North was also set to reprise her role as Daphne, but after a day of recording,
Mary Kay Bergman replaced her, while
B. J. Ward, who played Velma in a
Johnny Bravo crossover episode, reprised her role for this film.
Frank Welker is the only actor from the original series to reprise his role, as Fred Jones. Welker had initially worried that the producers would replace him as well, given that the producers believed his voice had gone down an
octave; the voice director kept requesting Welker perform the voice at a higher
pitch. Welker insisted his voice was the same, as Fred's voice is very close to Welker's natural speaking voice. The team went back and viewed early
Scooby-Doo episodes and found that Welker's impression was more or less the same. Bob Miller, of
Animation World Network, suggested that the reruns of
Scooby-Doo aired on Cartoon Network perhaps gave the team a false idea of the character's voice, as the episodes were typically time-compressed (or sped-up) to allow more room for commercials, thus giving all of the show's audio a higher pitch.
Animation Japanese animation studio
Mook Animation were contracted to work on the film; Doi had a relationship with the team at Mook, as they had previously collaborated on
SWAT Kats and
Jonny Quest. Hiroshi Aoyama and Kazumi Fukushima directed the overseas animation, but are not credited on the picture. The film was animated and is presented in standard
1.33:1 full frame format.
Music Composer
Steven Bramson, who is known for
Tiny Toon Adventures,
JAG and the
Lost in Space film, scored and conducted the film. The soundtrack for the film features three songs composed specifically for the film. "The Ghost Is Here" and "It's Terror Time Again", both written by
Glenn Leopold, were performed by
Skycycle. The title track, "
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You!", was performed by
Third Eye Blind. ==Release==