SCOOBY-DOO AND THE LEGEND OF THE VAMPIRE (2003)

 I THINK I'M GONNA INSTITUTE A RULE THAT EVERY HALLOWEEN COUNTDOWN MUST HAVE A SCOOBY MOVIE IN IT.

  And I'm proceeding as I mean to go on. Somebody, I forget who, got me to watch this Scooby movie by talking it up a lot.  I can't remember who because it's been a good while since then and I'm just watching it now.  Mystery Incorporated travel to Australia to see a rock festival and a landmark called Vampire Rock.  As Velma reads from a book:  "It says the locals call it Vampire Rock because they believe the Yowie Yahoo lives in the rock's caves."  Now, to take the Yowie Yahoo first; he is a legendary ancient Australian vampire.  OK, so far so good.  Now, to take the "locals" -- I have seldom heard worse Australian accents in my life!  I mean, sheesh!  The American voice actors, well-known and accomplished as most of them may be, can't do an Australian accent to save their lives and it's a little distracting while watching the film.  The first 15 minutes or so take place in much to much sunshine and feature nothing spooky so you'll have to be patient.  Finally, when night falls we finally get to the Scooby-Dooishness. 

Shaggy & Scooby have a brief encounter with the Yowie Yahoo who appears at the top of Vampire Rock in a visual swiped wholesale from FANTASIA's "Night On Bald Mountain".  Next we meet the rock group The Hex Girls who somehow already know Mystery Inc.  We learn from the terribly-accented Australian festival promoters that the previous year, finalist rock group

Wildwind disappeared and they think the Yowie Yahoo got them and turned them into vampires.  This year, finalists are starting to disappear again.  So, a word about the 'rock music' that features rather heavily in the film; particularly at the beginning.  It's 2003 ska-punk lite which means it's terrible.  However, when we first meet the Hex Girls, they are performing on stage and their song is actually pretty good.  It must be noted that one of the Hex Girls -- Dusk -- is voiced by the Go-Go's Jane Wiedlin.  Our mystery gang decide to go undercover as a rock group in order to solve the mystery.  Wow, what un-rock 'n' roll costumes they sport, I'll tell ya!  And Freddie STILL manages to keep his ascot.  Jinkies!  While filling their tummies at the concession stands, Shaggy & Scooby are attacked by the vampiric Wildwind bandmembers:  Dark Skull, Lightning Strikes & Stormy Weathers.    In patented Scooby-Doo 'getting-chased-by-monsters-while-rock-song-is-playing, we get a TREMENDOUSLY Veruca Salt/Volcano Girls soundalike song which, by 2003 was already a decade out of date.  And it's REALLY close to the song Volcano Girls, I'm just sayin'.  So far, there's been a lot of 'borrowing' going on in this movie. At this point, the Yowie Yahoo materializes and band-naps another rock group 'The Bad Omens' from the stage with the help of the Wildwind vamps and a tremendous maelstrom/whirlwind.  Velma notices the smoky whirlwind smells like cotton candy.  Eventually, the Hex Girls get swooped up in the Yowie Yahoo's whirlwind and taken to Vampire Rock so the Mystery Inc. gang has to go there and solve the mystery.

SCOOBY-DOO AND THE LEGEND OF THE VAMPIRE is not bad.  It's serviceable for your Scooby fix but, in comparison to the Scooby moovies I've watched in the last few Halloween Countdowns, this has to be the lesser of them.  The (mostly) awful songs and shoddy Australian accents made for some tedium but the Scooby gang mostly rises above it.  These are the days when Casem Kasem was still around voicing Shaggy and, of course, Frank Welker is still doing Freddie & Scooby's voices as always.  Not much is made of the presence of Jane Wiedlin in the cast; she's merely voicing one of the Hex Girls and that's about it.  A lot of the traditional Scooby score is used but re-orchestrated (on synthesizer, it sounds like to me.  The Yowie Yahoo, as stated, is too much of a FANTASIA rip-off but the look of the three Wildwind vampires is pretty cool.  It's only 72 minutes and holds your interest (once it gets started) so it's an inoffensive time-waster.