Scooby-Doo And The Ghoul School

Fun while it lasted.

This was another of the tapes I had when I was young, I used to watch this and The Boo Brothers a lot so how was it on rewatch all these years later? Well it certainly is not one of the grandest Scooby movies but it holds appeal for any fan of this series. Still in Shaggy's red shirt phase him, Scoob, and Scrappy take up the responsibility of being coaches for the eponymous ghoul school where the daughters of famous monsters reside, now the idea of Shaggy and Scooby being teachers for monsters does indeed have potential and while it would have been more fun seeing them teach the girls potions, scare tactics, and host a PTA meeting, knowing their reputation as physical marathoners still checks out. The school has a lot of inspiration from the Addams Family and Munsters with students Sibella who is the daughter of Dracula and weirdly has one of the most sultry voices in animation (Which is a...choice.), Elsa Frankenteen which I have to admit is a cute reference to The Bride in both name and appearance, Winnie the werewolf who's easily the most tomboy of the group, Phantie the banshee giggler who I actually wish we got more of, and little Tanis the mummy who is baby girl of all babygirls and I would die for her and unleash all the ten plagues of Egypt on anyone who upset her. They're all great and have their moments to shine and I don't know what it is but the idea of all the classic monsters being single fathers just puts a smile on my face, we need more single dads in media and any respectable father would cherish their daughters like they do here. I gotta admit though the antagonists are kinda weak, both in the nauseating rival school of military boys and boy don't get me started on the concept of military school but also this odd addition of a powerful witch who wants to use the girls to eliminate their famous papa's. As much as I could care less about the boys the plot really didn't need to go that deep despite a decent climax, and indeed because of that villain introduction this is easily one of the longer Scooby-Doo movies pushing over 90 minutes when most wrap up before even the 80 minute mark. It's paced okay, the animation had a bump up in quality from the current show as this was a TV movie, it has moments of that exquisite fall atmosphere and quite good backgrounds all around, the story is enjoyable, and I got a kick out of the future student lineup you see at the end. What's wild to think about is just one single month after this another TV movie came out The Relcutant Werewolf which is extremely rare even in today's video market, I guess Scooby fans were eating good in 1988 before a severe drought hit for almost the entirety of the 90s which blows my mind to think about and I couldn't be happier I was born at the time I was and got into Scooby-Doo from 1997 or 1998. Thank God for reruns is all I'll say. Of course there's tons more movies and indeed shows I have yet to cover from this wonderful series and it's no mystery this still is my favorite cartoon even after so many greats have been made since. It was fun to briefly talk about and it did gear me up for the full Halloween season in all it's myriad forms. Finals scores I'll give this 2.5 stars, 6.5/10, and the trend will continue as I rise up from my tomb giving out multiple reviews each week of October. Finally it's my time again.