Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School

Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988)

*** (out of 4)

Good feature has Scooby, Scrappy and Shaggy going to a "school" that is attended by famous monster's children. At this female school they play an annual volleyball game against a military academy and Shaggy has been hired to make them winners. The first sixty-minutes of this feature are absolutely delightful with all sorts of laughs but sadly it really runs out of gas and barely makes it to the end. At 90-minutes it just runs way too long and the second portion of the film has a fairly weak story involving someone at the school trying to take it over with a new kind of evil. I thought the final thirty-minutes really dragged in spots and nearly ruined the entire film but the first part is just so good that horror fans should really enjoy it. I thought some of the best moments involved the monster children and the nice homages to previous movies. We get Count Dracula's daughter, a mummy, a werewolf and Frankenstein's daughter who is made up to look like the Bride and of course she's named Elsa (Lancaster from the 1935 film). We also get some pretty good jokes once the parents show up and of course they're enough to scare Shaggy and Scooby. Fans of the TV show should really enjoy this and monster fans will also have a good time with the creatures on hand.

"Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School" is an extremely entertaining and funny film for anyone who likes the humorous and funny "Scooby-Doo". This is a great and funny cartoon television flick. This is a great cartoon film that the family should enjoy. This is a great and funny film and I give it a 10 out of 10!!!!

I've heard people dissing this movie, but I don't agree. I loved this movie as a child, and even now (I'm 19) I still enjoy it. Sure, the whole gang isn't there, but that's fine. I was never a hardcore fan of the series, but this movie is fabulous. The "little ghouls" are adorable and lots of fun. Matches, the "pet" dragon of the boarding school, is really great, and the friendship he develops with Scrappy is nice to see. The beginning to the movie is actually really funny, and the exercise scene (don't ask, you'll just have to see it yourself!) that follows soon after always puts a smile on my face. It all starts as a misunderstanding that results in Shaggy and Scooby meeting monsters they (gasp!) aren't afraid of... and, of course, some new villains that *are* quite scary. All in all, this is a really entertaining watch. I love it, and gave it an 8 out of 10.

It was a joy to see Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy true to character. Shaggy's clothes--and the Mystery Machine--appear as they premiered in "The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo" (1985-1986), providing continuity. Glenn Leopold weaves a multi-character story with traditional Hanna-Barbera charm. I think it would have made more sense to include Daphne, but it still lives up to Scooby-Doo cannon established from 1969 to the late 1980s. A must-see for true fans!

I saw this TV movie a few times when I was a kid and, from what I remembered, it was a pretty good movie (where Scooby Doo, Shaggy and Scrappy Doo visits a haunted school and attempts to save its kidnapped students) that captures the some of the humor and spirit of the original cartoon series.

The animation was bright and the plot was actually somewhat intriguing, making you eager to know that the events unfold. Although Fred, Daphne and Velma were absent from the movie, Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy did deliver some great fun and laugh-out-loud comedy. After the conventional theme of villains disguised as ghouls and goblins in the series, it was interesting and noteworthy to see this movie contain real ghostly creatures and real witches as villains, such as the villainess Witch Revolta.

There are corny moments here and there, but this is a cartoon and is still better than some of the more contemporary cartoon counterparts of the 2000s and beyond.

Grade B