When Mystery Inc. Consisting of Fred (Frank Welker), Dalphne (Mary Kay Berman), Velma (B. J. Ward), Shaggy (Scott Innes) and talking dog Scooby-Doo (Scott Innes) look into a case at a museum, they're assisted in wrapping up the caper with help from horror novelist Ben Ravencroft (Tim Curry). As Mystery Inc. And Ravencroft strike up a friendship, Ravencroft invites the team to his hometown of Oakhaven, Massachusetts where much to Ravencroft's surprise the town has been turned into a tourist hotspot centered around the alleged ghost of Ravencroft's ancestor Sarah Ravencroft (Tress MacNeille) who in history was recorded as a witch but Ben claims was actually a Wiccan healer. As Ben tells the gang of his hope to find Sarah Ravencroft's journal in the hopes of dispelling the notions she was a witch, Mystery Inc. Investigate the alleged ghost haunting Oakhaven.
Following the unexpected success of Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island, Warner Bros. Was eager to get a sequel. As Zombie Island had been a one off experiment, the creative team were largely left on their own as the series had been dormant for quite some time. With the massive success of Zombie Island Warner Bros. Scaled back creative freedom for the sequel with executive mandates to dial back the tone which executives felt went "too dark" in Zombie Island. Warner Bros. Hired screenwriters Rick Copp and David A. Goodman to produce their own draft for Witch's ghost which pretty much went through the standard Scooby-Doo formula but Glenn Leopold of Zombie Island was allowed to re-write the last third of the film to make some level of adjustment and tonal continuity between films. Despite the troubled production, Scooby-Doo and the Witch's Ghost is good even if it doesn't reach the level of Zombie Island.
Like the previous film, Mystery Inc. Is still their same lovable selves with intrepid leader Fred, brains Velma, and lovable cowards Shaggy and Scooby. Daphne is unfortunately a little scaled back in this incarnation as her curiosity and drive was used as a center piece for the plot in the previous film with her "Haunted America" show and her presence is rather diminished by comparison. Tim Curry is fun playing a Dean Koontz/Stephen King esque horror novelist who becomes an ally to the team and there's even some nice chemistry between him and Velma, but unfortunately by the third act his character takes a turn that largely discards much of that build-up in favor of recycling the climax of Zombie Island with considerably less stakes and menace than that film. Like the previous film, Witch's Ghost features some great music, particularly from the fictional band within the film, The Hex Girls who are basically Jen and the Holograms by way of Buffy the Vampire Slayer and are well voiced by Jennifer Hale, Jane Wiedlin, and Kimberly Brooks respectively. The plot of the movie definitely shows signs of the more micromanaged production is there's less of the self-effacing parody of the franchise formula this time around (though Fred has amusing moments regarding villains referring to Mystery Inc as "kids") and the atmosphere and intensity of certain scenes and moments has been dialed up comedically so there's much less menace. The villains in particular no longer have the depth and meance they had in Zombie Island and have been scaled back to more over-the-top "muwhahaha" type villains that have the depth of mud puddles but at least the voice actors do bring energy to them (even if the voice acting sounds overly similar to Mom from Futurama).
Witch's Ghost is a step down from Zombie Island, but not by much. There's still some fun things they do with the characters, Tim Curry is welcome in his supporting performance as Ravencroft, and the music remains great. Unfortunately the plot does show signs of "too many cooks" as the script feels more uneven, there's less of the self-satire from the first movie, and the third act feels massively shoehorned even by the standards of a franchise that has never had water tight logic. I still have an affinity for this entry, but I can't deny its flaws.
