Happy Halloween, Scooby-Doo! is the thirty-first in a series of direct-to-video films based upon Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons. It was released on September 15, 2020, as a Walmart movie exclusive, before a general release everywhere on digital HD and DVD on October 6.
After defeating the Scarecrow, Mystery Inc. thinks they've saved Halloween for everyone in Crystal Cove, but the nightmare is not over as the Jackal-Lanterns come to life and attack everyone. With help from Elvira, Mistress of the Dark, and Bill Nye, the gang must overcome this menace before they overrun the town!
Synopsis[]
The Mystery Inc. gang are in a covert operation in Elvira's Halloween of Horrors Parade in Crystal Cove to capture the Haunted Scarecrow. The gang unmasks the Haunted Scarecrow as Dr. Jonathan Crane a.k.a. the Scarecrow, a former escapee convict of Arkham Asylum. While Velma explains how she solved the mystery by tracing a fan mail sent to Elvira by Crane and measuring gas leakage in the air, gas drones carrying fear gas canisters set up by Crane appears in the sky. As everyone starts panicking, Scooby-Doo and Shaggy shoot down the drones by using Halloween candies as projectiles. Before being pulled away by the federal agents, Dr. Crane tells Velma that his drones did not leak, thereby giving a hint that she missed something in her reasoning. Nevertheless, the mystery gang is hailed as heroes by everyone, including the Sheriff for drawing an end to the hauntings.
The gang finds out that the Mystery Machine was severely damaged while chasing Dr. Crane and Fred is visibly upset. Meanwhile, Scooby and Shaggy go to trick or treat as they think the mystery is solved. On the way, they come across a stray disabled drone in a pumpkin patch with "Tot Alli Frame" engraved on it and a truck full of toxic waste. The pumpkins coming in contact with the mixture of toxic waste and Dr. Crane's fear formula turn to animated monsters. Smaller pumpkins start flying and starts chasing Scooby and Shaggy. They quickly return to town and interrupt an ongoing interview of the other Mystery Inc. gang members to inform them about the 'Jackal Lanterns' of the pumpkin patch. Unfortunately, nobody seems to believe them, and they are chided for their actions by Velma.
Fred and Velma are approached by Bill Nye, who gifts them a modernized vehicle named 'Mystery Machine X'. Fred is not so enthusiastic about it as he prefers the old Mystery Machine. The Jackal Lanterns then come into the town and takes a female reporter with them. As Fred and Velma reach her, they see her being eaten and spit out by the Jackal Lanterns' giant master to become another monster herself. The Jackal Lanterns start chasing everybody, resulting in a long car chase. The gang becomes separated into three groups: Fred, Velma, and Bill Nye in Mystery Machine X, Daphne and Elvira in Elvira's car, and Shaggy and Scooby with a father-daughter duo called Mike and Michelle. They come across the Sheriff, who freaks out and is gobbled up by the Giant Jackal Lantern, who is riding on the old Mystery Machine. Velma frees Dr. Crane from the federal agents' truck, but he too is apparently eaten by the Giant Jackal Lantern. This results in the Mystery Machine being destroyed, much to Fred’s depression.
The Mystery Inc. gang comes together with Elvira, Mike, and Michelle and eats Scooby-Snacks to enter Velma's mind palace, an imaginary plane where they recount the night's events. Velma takes a leap of faith where she enters the Giant Jackal Lantern's mouth and comes out unharmed. As it turns out, the Giant Jackal Lantern is actually just a machine and everyone eaten are safe inside. The rest of the Jackal Lanterns are revealed drones, though both the Sheriff and Dr. Crane are missing. The drone engraving found by Scooby and Shaggy is revealed to be "T.O.T. Aluminum Lithium Frame". The culprit is eventually revealed to be Toe Omnitech head Cutler Toe, whose criminal actions was exposed by Mystery Inc. in the past and has been impersonating the Sheriff as part of a revenge plot against them while also after the lithium mine under Crystal Cove after being released from jail. Velma and Daphne find out his location by trailing a hologram of the Jackal Lanterns and help the federal agents find his car. But the escaped Scarecrow, in vengeance for Toe attempting to frame him for the Jackal Lantern attacks, had found Toe first and no trace of either men are found. With everything resolved and the gang being invited to another roadside Halloween celebration, the movie ends with Elvira giving a monologue to the viewers before breaking the fourth wall by revealing a spidery face behind her regular face in an ode to Halloween.
During the credits, the gang (including Bill Nye) helps Fred rebuild the Mystery Machine from what happened earlier in the film.
On July 5, 2020, Syfy announced the film with the debut of a trailer.[1] It was directed by Maxwell Atoms with Sam Register as producer.[2]
Continuity[]
The Sheriff from the twoprevious DTV movies comes back and is revealed to have been the villain all along, having him be a culprit of an old case of the gang (which happened off-screen). This came with literal flashbacks to those two movies during the reveal, giving a conclusion to this "trilogy".
The members of the gang are called "young adults", which means they are 18 or over. This means that the events of this film take place at least a year after Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost.
Velma's attitude in the previous two films is also explained, thus giving a conclusion to her arc.
When Velma was interviewed, she said "We've been doing this forever, since we got a pup named Scooby-Doo", which refers to them starting solving mysteries from a very young age as the Scooby-Doo Detective Agency.
Scarecrow first appeared in the Scooby-Doo! Team-Up stories Who's Scared? and A Super Friend in Need. He later made a cameo appearance in the DTV Scooby-Doo! & Batman: The Brave and the Bold. Despite not being references to those encounters, the movie doesn't contradict them either since Mystery Inc. seemed to have already been familiar with him. Crane didn't seem to know the gang's members' names until later in the movie but he didn't have much of an interaction with them in his previous appearances.
Bill Nye first appeared in the Scooby-Doo and Guess Who? episode Space Station Scooby, making this the first modern show that has a direct connection with a DTV.
Daphne calls Fred, "Frederick Herman Jones". The middle name was first addressed in the DTV Aloha, Scooby-Doo!
Shaggy mentioned "having solved three cases with Phyllis Diller until they found out". They found out that either it was Daphne in disguise or that Daphne was slowly trying to take over her life. While it most likely refers to the former due to the personality adopted by Daphne in this film, it could be taken as the latter and have it be a direct reference to the The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode A Good Medium is Rare, in which they do solve a case with Phyllis Diller.
Elvira asks Daphne if she has done circus work before, to which she replies "Not officially for a circus, no." This either means that she did it for fun or that she did do it for a circus, but not officially. While it most likely refers to the former due to the personality adopted by Daphne in this film, it could be taken as the latter and have it be a reference to the few times in which she did do some circus stunts, some of those include the Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! episode Bedlam in the Big Top, and the DTV Big Top Scooby-Doo!
Red Herring, a recurring character from A Pup Named Scooby-Doo, makes a small cameo and his truck is seen during the chase scene.
Notes/Trivia[]
Fred mentions having solved the case of "The Ghosts of the Three Stooges". They did meet the actual Three Stooges in the The New Scooby-Doo Movies episodes, Ghastly Ghost Town and The Ghost of the Red Baron.
Fred screaming over the destroyed Mystery Machine is a reference to the final scene of the movie Planet of the Apes.
How Mystery Inc. got The Mystery Machine back after Fred sold it in Scooby-Doo! and the Curse of the 13th Ghost is unexplained. However, it is likely that he got it back and won’t sell it ever again.
Cultural References[]
The final credits scene parodies the 1931 movie Frankenstein with Fred declaring "It's Alive!".
At one point, the Mystery Machine X is seen being driven by the Jackal-Lanterns.
During the battle with the Jackal-Lanterns, Elvria's loses one of her black high-heeled shoes, the left one. Daphne subsequently retrives it, however it now appears to be a right shoe.
When Shaggy tells Daphne "You gotta make candy to earn candy" she uses a pencil with her phone.
Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! • Shining Star • Scooby D • It's a Mystery • Bump in the Night • Grow Up • Here We Go • Thank You (Falletin Me Be Mice Elf Again) • Don't Wanna Think About You • Boom Shack-A-Lack • Whenever You Feel Like It • Man with the Hex • Freaks Come Out at Night • Words to Me • Thinking About You • Friends Forever • Play That Funky Music • Love Shack • Summer Feelings • On Me • I Fly
