Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost/Scooby-Doo! and the Alien Invaders Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		4.0
Video		3.5
Audio		4.0
Extras		2.0
Overall		4.0

Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost/Scooby-Doo! and the Alien Invaders Blu-ray Movie Review

Hey, both of these are actually good!

Reviewed by Randy Miller III August 18, 2024

Between 1998 and 2001, four direct-to-video Scooby-Doo animated films were produced by the Japanese studio Mook Animation: Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders, and Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase, which are typically considered by fans to be some of the franchise's finest outings. Those two un-hyperlinked middle children are finally on Blu-ray from Warner Archive and, for my money, are the best of the bunch by a tiny margin. Solidly written with great music, hand-drawn animation, memorable characters, and interesting settings, they're decidedly different from the original 1969 series but every bit as enjoyable.

Both of these 60-70 minute adventures (as well as the other two Mook films) differ from most Scooby-Doo fare in that they feature actual supernatural threats rather than the usual "janitor in a mask". They also feature great voice work for the Mystery Inc. gang by newcomer Scott Innes (Scooby and Shaggy), the ever-reliable Frank Welker (Fred), B.J. Ward (Velma), and Mary Kay Bergman (Daphne), who sadly passed away before the release of Alien Invaders.

Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost (1999) opens in a dark museum where Mystery Inc. is helped out by famous horror writer Ben Ravencroft (voiced by Tim Curry), who seems pleased with the team's efforts and invites them to his hometown of Oakhaven, Massachusetts for fall festivities. Upon their arrival, it appears as if Mayor Corey (Neil Ross, clearly standing in for the mayor from Jaws) has turned the quiet hamlet into a tourist trap, all of it based around the legend of Ben's ghostly ancestor Sarah Ravencroft. Ben's taken aback by this, claiming that she was a clerical wiccan rather than a witch burned at the stake... but as the saying goes, never let the truth stand in the way of a good story. Throw in an all-female eco-wiccan (?) goth band called "The Hex Girls" (led by Sally "Thorn" McKnight, Jennifer Hale) and a pretty great twist around the 40-minute mark, and you've got a terrific hour of Scooby-Doo fun.

Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders (2000) is perhaps a slightly less traditional tale, following the gang when they get stranded in a Southwestern desert town after a possible UFO sighing puts their van out of commission. It's a quiet community but one full of oddball characters including flirty waitress Dottie (Jennifer Hale again), local alien enthusiast and painter Lester (Jeff Bennett), imposing mechanic Buck (Neil Ross), and a group of independent researches led by Max (Kevin Michael Richardson). Shaggy and Scooby luck out by meeting lovely Crystal (Candi Milo), a hippie nature photographer and owner of stuck-up golden retriever Amber, but a number of fenced-off areas and roaming military police means that things aren't what they seem. This is a pretty great adventure in its own right, full of memorable moments, another decent set of twists and red herrings, and even a groovy song break for lovelorn Shaggy.

If you ask me, Scooby-Doo has always been a hit or miss franchise and, like Tom and Jerry, its best period was decades ago during the original run with a few intermittent exceptions. (A Pup Named Scooby-Doo comes to mind.) Without question, both Witch's Ghost and Alien Invaders are also in that upper tier: the hand-drawn animation pays tribute to that classic H-B style while slightly modernizing it, the original scores are very good, the scripts are great with bits of self-referential humor and clever twists and, perhaps most importantly, they don't overstay their welcome. Both for worth a look for different reasons and, as such, it's great to finally have these movies on Blu-ray.

This handy double feature is comfortably squeezed onto a single dual-layered (50GB) disc from Warner Archive with good to very good A/V merits; both films also include a few separate bonus features, detailed below.

Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost/Scooby-Doo! and the Alien Invaders Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Given Warner Archive's track record for visual purity and Warner Home Video's less exacting approach (seen in most earlier Scooby-Doo Blu-ray releases dating back to the original series), I'm gonna go out on a limb and say that these watchable-but-clearly-DNR-scrubbed HD masters were delivered to Warner Archive for encoding and that's it. The lack of film grain and occasionally slightly wonky linework is a clear result of excessive digital noise reduction, which creates a smooth and pleasing image at first glance but one that's unfortunately missing the film texture of its original source. Beyond that obvious speed bump, there's really not much wrong here: no post-production encoding issues look to be present aside from very mild banding and trace levels of posterization, and both films run at a decently supportive bit rate that mostly stays in the low to mid-30Mpbs range. As evidenced by these direct-from-disc screenshots (#1,2, and #6-15 for Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost, #3-5 and #16-24 for Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders), both are in very clean condition with bold color saturation and generally look good aside from that unfortunate use of DNR. So it ain't perfect, but those familiar with Scooby-Doo on Blu-ray should have seen that coming a mile away.

Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost/Scooby-Doo! and the Alien Invaders Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There's better news in the audio department, as these DTS-HD 5.1 Master Audio tracks offer a clean, uncomplicated surround mix that supports the dialogue-driven and occasionally spooky atmosphere. The majority of it is a very front-forward job with clear separation between the left, right, and center channels, with plenty of well-placed discrete cues for location ambience like animals, weather, echoes, and supernatural scares. The original score by Louis Febre (who also wrote the music for Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase but is best known for his work on Smallville) sounds really good too, with a solid dynamic range and a great presence that gives everything more of a theatrical appeal.

Optional English (SDH) subtitles are offered during both films only, not the bonus features listed below.

Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost/Scooby-Doo! and the Alien Invaders Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

This one-disc release ships in a keepcase with split poster-themed cover artwork and no inserts. Each movie gets a few lightweight promotional DVD-era extras, although they show noticeable interlacing and look a little rough.

Scooby Doo and the Witch's Ghost

• Making-Of Featurette (4:48) - Scott Innes, Mary Kay Bergman, Frank Welker, Tim Curry, all three members of The Hex Girls, and other vocal actors talk briefly about the production and their roles, and even musician Billy Ray Cyrus (who sang the theme song) gets in on the fun.
• Music Video (1:10 - Short dance party clips of both the theme song and "Hex Girl".
• Promo Trailer (1:02) - Own it on video cassette and DVD!

Scooby Doo and the Alien Invaders

• Making-Of Featurette (5:56) - A like-minded piece with many of the same contributors... including then-budding pop star Jennifer Love Hewitt, who sang the theme song this time around.
• Promo Trailer (1:00)

Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost/Scooby-Doo! and the Alien Invaders Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

As two of the four turn-of-the-century direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movies produced by Mook Animation (along with Zombie Island and Cyber Chase, the latter of which we never reviewed but I'll be covering that very soon), Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost and Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders are both solid outings and make a great double feature. This one-disc release from Warner Archive is a pretty decent effort that features similar visual merits to the better S-D Blu-rays (translation: good, not great), but the lossless audio pulls its weight and the bonus features -- which are likewise a bit visually questionable -- are fun too. This one's Recommended to fans and first-timers alike.