Zoinks! A Brief History and Irrefutable Ranking of Scooby-Doo's OG Animated Feature Mysteries

While researching a future article you can expect in the coming weeks, I clearly got the algorithm’s attention, because my feeds have been flooded with Scooby-Doo content ever since. Well, the other night I finally caved and threw on my VHS copy of The Witch’s Ghost to decompress with a hit of nostalgia before bed after a rough day.

While watching, I thought it might be a fun exercise to rank out all the Scooby-Doo movies. That is, until I checked Wikipedia page and saw they’ve made FORTY-TWO of them — and that's not even counting the live action movies or TV specials. So instead, because there’s no way I’m watching all 42 — not even for a whole BOX of Scooby Snax — I'm focusing on just the original 10 direct-to-video and made-for-tv feature-length animated mysteries released throughout the late-80’s to early-2000’s, which are the only ones that matter anyway as far as I’m concerned.

So without further adieu, here is my definitive ranking of the original 10 Scooby-Doo animated movies, backed by IRREFUTABLE SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH — but mostly just my opinion.

Some Slight Scooby Storytime

Okay, I lied. There’s actually slightly further adieu.

Before we begin, I want to provide some context on the point in the Scooby-Doo timeline these movies were made, and what shape the franchise was in. If you want to skip right to the rankings, go ahead, but I think understanding this context is essential to understanding their placement, and why this era of the franchise shines so much brighter than the rest.

The Red Shirt Years

The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo premiered in 1985 as the 7th iteration of the franchise. Hanna-Barbera producers were attempting to capitalize on the Ghostbusters craze at the time by making the monsters real instead of people in costumes. It was also the first time operating with a reduced cast — featuring only Shaggy, Scooby, Daphne, and Scrappy — and marked the first appearance of Shaggy with a red shirt. Partly due to an attempted shift to target Saturday morning cartoons at preschoolers, ABC axed the series after a single season because of its darker tone — a true tragedy, because this iteration is one of my favourites.

From 1986-1988, no new Scooby-Doo series would be produced for the first time since 1975. However, the first three features from our list would see the light of day as part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10, a series of made-for-tv movies featuring the studio’s biggest properties, such as Yogi Bear, The Flintstones, and The Jetsons. These three features carried a similar tone and style to 13 Ghosts, down to the real monsters, red-shirt Shaggy (although his shirt's green in all of the posters), and the reduced cast — though this time also without Daphne. These would also mark the final appearances of Scrappy Doo as a main cast member.

After the network’s attempts to target the preschoolers failed miserably, they would again shift gears and return to their legacy properties, developing A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, which would air for a few seasons from 1988-1991. Due to declining interest and audience fatigue, Scooby-Doo would take a series hiatus for over a decade — which remains to be the longest in franchise history.

The Turner Turnaround

By the early 90’s, Hanna-Barbera had been struggling for a good while already. They’d spread themselves too thin, and eventually their quantity-over-quality approach caught up to them. As animation tools became more accessible, competition grew and HB lost its Saturday morning monopoly. So in the same year of 1991, Hanna-Barbera was acquired by Turner Broadcasting.

Over the next several years, Turner rebranded and refocused the company to produce new shows exclusively for its networks, namely Cartoon Network, which launched in late 1992. In these early years, Turner leaned heavily on the Hanna-Barbera back-catalogue to fill their 24/7 animated programming block — the first of its kind.

In 1994, Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights aired on PBS to universal malaise, further contributing to declining interest in the franchise throughout the early 90’s. However, that same year Scooby-Doo would become exclusive property of Turner. Turner began airing classic reruns of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! and a newfound interest in the series would develop in the younger generation, captured by the magic of the original series.

The Scoobaissance

By now, Hanna-Barbera was basically a subsidiary of Warner Bros. With the chart-topping ratings of Scooby-Doo reruns, executives saw potential in a Direct-to-Video feature for the franchise. So, a team of seasoned animation veterans and Scooby-Doo production alumni were assembled to create what was originally considered an experimental one-off and potential swan song of the franchise. The team was given unprecedented creative control, and flipped audience expectations on their head.

Of course, this endeavor turned out to be a resounding success, leading to the development of three additional DTV features before Hanna would die of throat cancer in 2001, and the company would be fully absorbed by Warner Bros, marking the end of the Hanna-Barbera era.

The first live-action Scooby-Doo adaptation would be released in 2002, along with the premiere of What’s New, Scooby-Doo? — the first Scooby-Doo series produced since 1991. Now under the complete control of Warner Bros, two more retro-style DTVs would be released in 2003, reuniting the surviving cast of the original series, before making the shift to the What’s New cast and style for subsequent films, which exceed the scope of this list.

Now, without another shred of adieu, let’s dive into these rankings.

Scooby-Doo and the Totally Objective, Peer-Reviewed Rankings

#10 - Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights (1994)

Peliplat - 53% (10) | Letterboxd - 48.8% (10) | IMDB - 53% (10) | Rotten Tomatoes - 46% (10)

As if there was any question: Arabian Nights sits comfortably at the bottom, and it’s barely even worth discussing. By every metric, it deserves last place, and could very well be in contention for the same spot if we were doing the entire 42-film catalogue.

Pros:

• Fun character crossovers from other Hanna-Barbera cartoons

Cons:

• Looks like hot poop

• Barely any Scooby or Shaggy

#9 - Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico (2003)

Peliplat - 63% (T-8) | Letterboxd - 62.2% (8) | IMDB - 63% (9) | Rotten Tomatoes - 50% (9)

Monster of Mexico is fine by most standards, and I’d still consider it to be better than most of what's been released since, but it’s also a signifier of the end of the Scooby-Doo renaissance and its descent back into formulaic mysteries.

Pros:

• Final appearance of the original cast

• El Chupacabra

Cons:

• Pretty generic

#8 - Scooby-Doo and the Legend of the Vampire (2003)

Peliplat - 64% (7) | Letterboxd - 64.8% (6) | IMDB - 64% (8) | Rotten Tomatoes - 60% (8)

It almost feels criminal to put Legend of the Vampire so far down on this list, but it’s up against some stiff competition. If this were a list of the 35 post-Hanna-Barbera produced features, it would probably sit comfortably in the top 5. The story does end in a somewhat unsurprising reveal, but at the same time — given the contents of the previous four entries — it was almost a surprise that the monsters WEREN’T real this time.

Pros:

• Hex Girls

• Rockin Tunes

Cons:

• Predictable Ending

#7 - Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (1988)

Peliplat - 67% (6) | Letterboxd - 61.6% (9) | IMDB - 67% (7) | Rotten Tomatoes - 62% (7)

Reluctant Werewolf had a stranglehold on me as a child — perhaps because it was the only one we owned on VHS at the time. Are you telling me an offroad racecar derby featuring a cast of cinema’s most famous monsters isn’t an awesome idea? I do wish they’d kept better consistency with Ghoul School, considering it only came out a year prior and features many of the same monsters with vastly different character designs.

Pros:

• Awesome Character & Vehicle Design

• Vanna Pira & Dracula’s Commentary

Cons:

• Googie

• The Hunch Bunch

• Scrappy

#6 - Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000)

Peliplat - 68% (5) | Letterboxd - 68.2% (4) | IMDB - 68% (5) | Rotten Tomatoes - 63% (6)

Alien Invaders has some of the most iconic imagery of this Scooby-era, and the love story is unmatched, but several aspects hold it back. A lot of the foreshadowing is too obvious, and they use the same mystery structure as Witch’s Ghost, except this time the REAL monsters are actually the GOOD guys.

Pros:

• Crystal & Amber

• Lester the Alien Fanatic

• Cool alien designs

Cons:

• Obvious mystery

• Recycled plot structure

#5 - Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers (1987)

Peliplat - 69% (4) | Letterboxd - 63% (7) | IMDB - 69% (4) | Rotten Tomatoes - 72% (3)

Boo Brothers is bursting with creativity, and has a lot of moving parts. For one, we have the Boo Brothers themselves, who are pure gag machines, and aren’t even the bad guys! Instead we have a hodge-podge of various characters — The gorilla, the sheriff, the headless horseman, the skull ghost, the hillbillies, Farquard, Shaggy’s Uncle’s ghost — all at odds with our heroes and each other, making for some hilarious narrative chaos.

Pros:

• The Boo Brothers

• Hilarious & well-paced

Cons:

• Boo Brothers should have had a more central focus to earn the title

• Scrappy

#4 - Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase (2001)

Peliplat - 63% (T-8) | Letterboxd - 71.8% (3) | IMDB - 71% (3) | Rotten Tomatoes - 67% (5)

Cyber Chase was the final DTV feature produced by Hanna-Barbera, and the first to forego classic cel animation in favor of going full-digital. It’s an aesthetic move fitting the theme, even if not my specific taste. The final level is the perfect send-off for this classic era — paying respects to the iconic monsters from Scooby-past, and inspiring the premise for the live-action sequel: Scooby-Doo 2: Monsters Unleashed.

Pros:

• The Virus

• Red Shirt Shaggy Cameo

Cons:

• Flat digital coloring

• Could have done a little more with some of the video game levels

#3 - Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)

Peliplat - 74% (2) | Letterboxd - 66.6% (5) | IMDB - 68% (6) | Rotten Tomatoes - 69% (4)

I’ve got a real soft spot for Ghoul School. It’s easily the best of the 80’s entries thanks to its diverse cast with unique character designs and their charming personalities. It’s full of great sequences like the volleyball game, the meeting of the parents, and the third act gets pretty darn spooky, carrying the heaviest stakes out of anything from its era.

Pros:

• Matches

• Revolta & The Grim Creeper

Cons:

• Should have been an entire series

• Scrappy

#2 - Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost (1999)

Peliplat - 73% (3) | Letterboxd - 74.2% (2) | IMDB - 73% (2) | Rotten Tomatoes - 76% (2)

Witch’s Ghost faked us out with a good old double-twist, and didn’t give it all away so easy like Alien Invaders did. I also love how the movie takes its time building up before exploding into the action-packed finale. Plus, it was our first introduction to The Hex Girls, the eco-goth girlband that stole our hearts. The tunes are rockin', the magic is poppin', and the good times are just not stoppin'.

Pros:

• HEX GIRLS!

• Memorable New England setting

Cons:

• NOT ENOUGH HEX GIRLS!!

#1 - Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island (1998)

Peliplat - 83% (1) | Letterboxd - 77% (1) | IMDB - 77% (1) | Rotten Tomatoes - 80% (1)

Yeah, we all knew it was coming. Unequivocally, Zombie Island is the reigning king, and anyone who says otherwise is simply a contrarian. Zombie Island took the established characters, aged them up, gave them a makeover, and added drastic depth — much of which was even carried over to their 2002 live-action counterparts. It revitalized the entire franchise, and is the main factor as to why Scooby-Doo is still being produced yearly to this very day.

Pros:

• Everything

Cons:

• None

The Numbers Don’t Lie

Remember that part I said about scientific research? Well it really just meant looking at a handful of different ratings sites (Peliplat, Letterboxd, IMDB, Rotten Tomatoes) and weighing the scores against mine. Overall, the data is pretty consistent, with a few minor exceptions:

Surpirisingly, the aggregate rankings matched my personal rankings almost to a T. Nearly every placement was exactly the same as I’d laid them out, with only Boo Brothers and Cyber Chase being flipped on a 0.25-point difference, and Reluctant Werewolf and Legend of the Vampire being perfectly tied.

So there you have it, folks — the mystery of the top 10 animated Scooby-Doo movies from 1987-2003 is officially solved.

Are there any post-2004 animated Scooby-Doo movies worth checking out besides Camp Scare (because it’s already on my radar) or Loch Ness Monster? (because I’ve seen it, and everyone already knows Nessie is actually just a whale’s penis flapping in the breeze — obviously).

Do you agree with my rankings? Which animated Scooby-Doo movie is your favourite?

Let me know in the comments!