Scooby-Doo And The Witch’s Ghost/ Scooby-Doo And The Alien Invaders (Double Feature) [Blu-Ray]

Director: Jim Stenstrum

Cast: Scott Innes, Mary Kay Bergman, Frank Welker (VOICES)

Release Date: August 13, 2024

A Review By: Kevin Lovell

Disc Rating: 7/10

Synopsis:

The world’s most lovable mystery-solving dog, along with best friend Shaggy and the rest of the gang, bring on the laughs and adventures in these two beloved feature-length frolics. In Scooby-Doo and The Witch’s Ghost, Scooby, Shaggy and co. get tied up with bumbling mummies and monster turkeys when famous fright-writer, Ben Ravencroft, invites the gang to his hometown for the Autumn Harvest Festival. There, they learn that Ben’s ancestor, Sarah, haunts the place, and they set out to uncover the ghostly Ravencroft secret that will prove her either a good-hearted healer or a spell-casting witch. In Scooby-Doo and The Alien Invaders, Scooby, Shaggy and the Mystery, Inc. are stranded in a desert town where they soon discover a plethora of flying saucer buffs, secretive scientists and less-than-friendly extraterrestrials! But after aliens chase and beam them aboard a UFO, clues to the mystery of the alien invaders lead the gang from a top-secret government research base to a huge network of caves hidden under the town, the race to crack the case redefines the term “far out” in this hilarious space-capade.

Scooby-Doo and the gang return to Blu-ray for another exciting animated double feature that the entire family can enjoy together. You can also read our review of the recently released ‘Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island’ & ‘Scooby-Doo Return to Zombie Island’ Double Feature Blu-ray HERE!

First in ‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’ Scooby, Shaggy, Fred, Velma and Daphne head to the Autumn Harvest Festival festivities thanks to an invite from popular mystery writer Ben Ravencroft which is supposedly being haunted by Ben’s own ancestor Sarah. When the gang and others witness the hauntings first hand, they kick into mystery-solving mode to get to the bottom of it.

Then in ‘Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders’ the mystery incorporated gang become stranded near a military installation in the middle of the desert where they witness an apparent alien aircraft nearby. Even so the group is hesitant to believe the stories, at least until Shaggy and Scooby are abducted and witness the beings first hand before being discovered by a kindhearted hippie woman and her dog that the two quickly fall head over heels for.

‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’ is directed by Jim Stenstrum who does a solid job at the helm of the animated feature guiding along the fun and thrills. The film’s voice cast includes Scott Innes as Shaggy and Scooby, Mary Kay Bergman as Daphne, Frank Welker as Fred and B.J. Ward as Velma rounding out the voice cast of the gang. Also featured are Tim Curry, Kimberly Brooks, Jennifer Hale, Jane Wiedlin, Bob Joles, Tress MacNeille, Neil Ross and Danny Mann who do a nice job of contributing to the fun.

‘Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders’ is also directed by Jim Stenstrum who once again does a nice job guiding along this animated feature and all of its out of this world excitement. The Scooby gang features the same collection of stars offering their voices and includes Scott Innes as Shaggy and Scooby, Mary Kay Bergman as Daphne, Frank Welker as Fred and B.J. Ward as Velma, while also starring Jennifer Hale, Mark Hamill, Jeff Bennett, Candi Milo, Neil Ross, Kevin Michael Richardson, Audrey Wasilewski and Danny Mann who each provide solid voice performances in their roles.

‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’ and ‘Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders’ followed the fan-favorite ‘Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island’ and were released in 1999 and 2000 respectively, with both new animated films following a similar animation style and story formula as Zombie Island and both offering some real, dangerous stakes for the gang to confront, plus of course some folks in masks as well (I mean, it’s still Scooby-Doo after all). They each do a great job of finding a capable balance of the more generic Scooby formula and more realistic (and in some cases supernatural) content that offers fans plenty of what they know and love along with some slightly more exciting and dangerous threats on top of it.

Both films are a lot of fun and capably serve up all of the goofy fun, laughs, chills and face-stuffing excitement that fans crave from the franchise, while also taking things in a few unexpected directions along the way; at least for those of you who may not have previously seen these solid animated movie installments, something any Scooby fan that hasn’t will probably want to make a point of rectifying whenever possible. They may not be quite as marvelous as ‘Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island’ but both aren’t far behind by any means and it’s safe to say that ‘Witch’s Ghost’ and ‘Alien Invaders’ are still two of the more beloved and rewarding animated installments in the Scooby movie universe and still deliver the goods more than twenty years after the initial releases of each.

VIDEO:

The Warner Archive Collection Double Feature Blu-ray release of ‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’ & ‘Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders’ features a full 1080p High Definition presentation with the original 1.33:1 aspect ratio on both films. The video presentations look great as a whole and deliver clean, crisp and richly detailed presentations from start to finish. Both films offer impressive detail throughout noticeable on characters, monsters, ghosts and aliens, along with the various outdoor and interior settings which all look sharp, clean and quite spectacular down to nearly every animated line.

There has been some question of DNR used on the films for this release and while admittedly there isn’t a great deal of film grain noticeable on either, they don’t look over polished and glossy like some films do when overdone. Personally I had no qualms with either presentation and both look beautifully colored and detailed, not to mention by far the best either movie has looked on disc (or VHS) previously. Overall, these are great high definition video presentations that breathe some gorgeous new life into these animated gems and aside from the diehard fans intent to be upset by the lack of grain, the majority of fans should be truly excited by these upgraded presentations.

AUDIO:

The Blu-ray release features a 5.1 channel DTS-HD Master Audio Soundtrack for both animated movies. These multichannel soundtracks are a nice treat in their own right and both provide clean, crisp and rewarding soundtracks that should have fans thrilled. They both take advantage of all five available channels repeatedly in order to send music, vehicle, chase and action effects along with other tidbits throughout the various speakers whenever fitting, although ‘Alien Invaders’ seemed to offer more standout surround elements such as spaceships flying overhead that move from the front speakers to the rear and other more noticeable and aggressive surround elements, although that’s not to say that ‘Witch’s Ghost’ is lacking or absent of any surround activity either. Neither film’s soundtrack suffers from any noticeable issues throughout, while all of the dialogue and effects remain clean, sharp and fully audible at every turn. Overall, these are solid 5.1 DTS-HD MA soundtracks that deliver nicely throughout and shouldn’t disappoint.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

The Warner Archive Collection Double Feature Blu-ray release of ‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’ & ‘Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders’ includes a few extras for each title which I’ve broken down by film below.

‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’ includes a ‘Making Of’ Featurette (running approximately 5 minutes in length), along with a ‘Music Video’ (running approximately 1 minute) and a ‘Promo Trailer’ for the movie (approximately 1 minute).

‘Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders’ features a ‘Making Of’ Featurette (running approximately 6 minutes) and a ‘Promo Trailer’ for the film (1 minute).

*Please note that the above images are taken from the Blu-Ray and resized. They will additionally suffer quality loss as a result of .jpg compression. Larger versions of each image can be viewed by clicking on the image. All images and content included on this Blu-Ray release are the property of their respective owners.

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Disc Rating: 7/10

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‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost’ & ‘Scooby-Doo and the Alien Invaders’ are Now Available to Own on Double Feature Blu-ray from Warner Archive Collection

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You can Purchase the ‘Scooby-Doo and the Witch’s Ghost/ Alien Invaders’ Blu-ray Double Feature on Amazon HERE!

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