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Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf

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This article is about the film. For other uses, see Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf (disambiguation).

Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf is a 1988 telefilm produced by Hanna-Barbera Productions for syndication as part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 package.

It is the third and last Scooby-Doo film to be released as part of the Superstars 10 series of telefilms, which was preceded by Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers and Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School. All three Scooby entries in the Superstars 10 series feature Shaggy Rogers, Scooby-Doo, and Scrappy-Doo alone involved with stories that feature real ghosts and monsters, similar to the early 1980s version of Scooby-Doo and Scrappy-Doo.

This film is unique among the others, as it marked the first time Shaggy had a girlfriend, who had a supportive role in the film, as well as, marking the last official appearance of Scrappy-Doo in an animated Scooby-Doo series, special, or film.

Premise[]

Racecar driver Shaggy is turned into a werewolf and forced to compete in the Monster Road Rally held by Dracula in Transylvania. Dracula will only turn him back if he can win the race against all the other monsters who are battling it out to win the Monster of the Year title.

Synopsis[]

Shaggy has become a talented race car driver, where he competes and wins at the Tyler County Race Track.

Every year, classic monsters get together at Dracula's castle in Transylvania for the "Monster Road Rally", an ultimate road race, awarding the winner with the "Monster of the Year" award as well as many other prizes only monsters would enjoy (and one prize—a trip to Hawaii—that none of the monsters want). This year however, Dracula receives a postcard from the Wolfman stating that he has retired to Florida and will not be participating. Lacking one of the most well-known monsters, Dracula fears they will have to cancel the race. Luckily, Dracula's minion Wolfgang notifies him there is another option, namely, to create a new werewolf. After searching an old book for information on whom is next in line to become the next werewolf, it is revealed that it is none other than Shaggy Rogers (or Shah-Gee, as Dracula pronounces it). Dracula sends his horrible henchmen (the mushmouthed, incomprehensible Crunch and the English accented, well-articulated Brunch, together known as "The Hunch Bunch", since both of them are hunchbacked) to America to transform Shaggy into a werewolf and bring him back to his castle.

After a few thwarted attempts, the Hunch Bunch manage to transform Shaggy by exposing him to moonlight while he is at a drive-in movie with Scooby, Scrappy, and Googie in his customized race car. The Hunch Bunch then picks up the car using their batcopter and flies the group back to Transylvania. Here, Shaggy is informed that he was chosen to be the next werewolf and that he must participate in the monster race. Shaggy, wanting to return to his normal life, is displeased with his current situation. Ultimately, however, Shaggy chooses to make a deal with Dracula, and states that he'll only race under the condition that if he wins, Dracula must return him back to his human state, and allow him and his friends to leave. Dracula agrees but secretly begins planning ways to keep Shaggy from winning. After being kept up most of the night, driving the severely detuned "wolf-wagon" in the race, being sent on misleading detours, rescuing Scrappy and Googie from traps, and dodging dangerous monsters and magic spells, Shaggy manages to win.

Dracula refuses, claiming he had his fangs crossed when they made the agreement. Infuriated, the heroes steal Dracula's book on transformation and make their getaway. Dracula chases them in his bat-like car and airplane, where the four narrowly escape Dracula's powerful "Drac-Vac" and his "Munchie-Missiles." In the end, Googie finds a spell in the book to change Shaggy back to normal and the group lives happily ever after (or so they thought). One night, a few days later, the gang all sit down to watch another horror movie, but nobody sees Dracula, Brunch and Crunch creep up to the window.

Characters[]

Main characters:

Supporting characters:

Villains:

Other characters:

  • Tyler County racetrack announcer (only time heard)
  • Miscellaneous Tyler County citizens (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Tyler County racer 1 (only appearance)
  • Tyler County racer 2 (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Wolfie (only appearance)(postcard)
  • Supermarket customer (only appearance)
  • Clerk (only appearance)
  • Mel's Produce driver (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Miscellaneous drive-in theater goers (only appearance)(miscellaneous speaking)
  • Cook (only appearance)
  • Police officer (only appearance)
  • Motorcycle cops (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Alligator (only appearance)(no lines)
  • Repulsa's mother (only appearance)(mentioned)
  • Rich Rattlesnake monster from Texas (only appearance)(mentioned)
  • Villagers (only appearance) (miscellaneous speaking)

Locations[]

Objects[]

Vehicles[]

Cast[]

Don Messick Scooby-Doo
Scrappy-Doo
Casey Kasem Shaggy Rogers
Shaggy Werewolf
Hamilton Camp Count Dracula
B.J. Ward Googie
Repulsa
Rob Paulsen Brunch
Frank Welker Tyler County racer 1
Crunch
Pat Musick Vanna Pira
Jim Cummings Frankenstein
Cook
Web Man
Genghis Kong
Joanie Gerber Dreadonia
Woman at store
Short witch sister
Ed Gilbert Dr. Jackyll
Mr. Snyde
Brian Mitchell Bonejangles
Alan Oppenheimer The Mummy

Songs[]

Song Credits Performed by
"Werewolf Rock" Credits Performed by

Full credits[]

The following credits are how they are displayed on-screen (or as close as possible).

Opening credits[]

Closing credits[]

Continuity[]

Notes/trivia[]

  • Reluctant Werewolf marks the last major appearance of Scrappy-Doo. He would not be featured again until the 2002 live-action film Scooby-Doo, in which he plays the antagonist. Due to this, he it was likely the reason he was not on the home video cover art, in any of the commercials, mentioned in the description, or on the DVD menu, as if he wasn't in the film at all.
    • Although he would go onto to feature to a large degree in other forms of media in the early 1990s, such as being co-star of a video game, and continued to travel with Mystery Inc. in the early issues of Archie Comics' Scooby-Doo.
  • The 2002 VHS reissue and DVD covers shows Shaggy with his traditional green t-shirt instead of the red one he wears in the film (see photo gallery below).
  • In the 2019 direct-to-video Scooby-Doo! Return to Zombie Island, Velma has a blog about the events of this movie being an unsolved case, including images of Shaggy's werewolf form, although it's not mentioned how she obtained these.
  • During the race, Scooby accompanies Shaggy, while Scrappy stays with Googie, in a manner similar to The New Scooby and Scrappy Doo Show when Scrappy would often team up with Daphne, leaving Shaggy and Scooby by themselves.
  • This is the second of two Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 TV movies to be digitally colored and composited (as opposed to using hand-painted cels), and the only Scooby-Doo installment in the series to do so, using Hanna-Barbera's in-house computer system (the actual animation was done by Wang Film Productions in Taiwan, whom also previously worked on Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School, and Fil-Cartoons, Inc. in the Philippines).
  • Some of Sven Libaek's music score from Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School is reused in this movie.
  • Iwao Takamoto's niece Bwana Takamoto worked on the character designs for this film. Considering that her uncle had already designed Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy, she likely designed Googie, Shaggy Werewolf, and all the original monster designs including The Hunch Bunch.
  • The local Transylvanian television station has the call letters KRUD, as seen on Dracula's video camera, fitting the silly gruesome theme.
  • The Blu-ray release of this film includes the following message before the film, giving insight into the production process for early Hanna-Barbera digipaint films.

    SCOOBY-DOO AND THE RELUCTANT WEREWOLF was one of two of the "Superstars 10" telefilms Hanna-Barbera produced using an early form of digital ink and paint, and was output to a final 1" videotape master, with no film protection of any kind. This presentation has been up-converted from its original analog standard definition master to digital High-Definition, with every effort made to improve the visual quality of the program.

Miscellaneous[]

Cultural references[]

William Hanna cameo

William Hanna's cameo in the audience.

  • The chaotic races are a parody of Hanna-Barbera's Wacky Races.
  • The car Shaggy and Scooby drive resembles a Volkswagen, like Herbie, the car from the Love Bug movies.
  • The "wolf wagon" is also the name of a car that is also driven by a werewolf who lives with a group of similar comical Universal-styled monsters in The Groovie Goolies Show (for which writer Jim Ryan also wrote). The werewolf in this show is even named Wolfie, like the werewolf that retired earlier in the film.
  • In the Tyler County race, Hanna-Barbera co-founder, William Hanna, makes a cameo in the audience.
  • Some of Count Dracula's lines, including "TO THE MOON!" and "BANG! ZOOM!", are a nod to Jackie Gleason's household character Ralph Kramden from The Honeymooners.
  • The character Vanna Pira is a spoof of Vampira, the character name of actress Maila Nurmi (1922-2008), as well as Vanna White, who became Wheel of Fortune hostess in 1982.
  • The Grimness Book of Records is a parody of The Guiness Book of Records (now known as Guiness World Records).
  • The music playing at the party once Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and Googie arrive is the beat to "Gleep Glorp" from another Superstars 10 movie Rockin' with Judy Jetson.
  • The ghostly mirages which Googie warns Shaggy twice about "not being real" seem to be a nod to 1986's Windaria. In both films, the protagonists are warned to ignore the frightening sights as they drive vehicles through them.
  • Three years prior to this film, Michael J. Fox starred in the film Teen Wolf. Both comedy films feature a young man changing into a werewolf.
  • Also three years prior, Disney's The Black Cauldron contains similar montages of a castle and "king/sire" dynamics between the main antagonists.

Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches[]

  • When Mr. Snyde first transforms into Dr. Jackyll, the latter retains Snyde's skin coloring.
  • Shaggy's eyes turn white when he looks down at Scooby after he told Shaggy about Brunch and Crunch attempting to turn him into a werewolf.
  • When we first see the "Monster of the Year" trophy when Vanna Pira is showing off the prizes, it's colored silver. But later on, when she hands the trophy to Shaggy after the race, it's colored gold.
  • At times, Scrappy-Doo is colored the same darker shade of brown as Scooby-Doo, most notably at the start of the "Werewolf Rock" song, when the gang is looking at the phonograph playing the song,
  • When viewed on certain displays or monitors without overscan, in some shots of characters in a vehicle, the drawing of the vehicle is cut off near the bottom, revealing part of the background.
  • Scooby's dog tag colors had switched for a few frames, at the end of the movie where he scares Shaggy and Googie with a werewolf mask.
  • When Shaggy finally turns back human, and Googie hugs him, Shaggy briefly splits into two people when he turns around.

Inconsistencies/continuity errors and/or goofs/oddities[]

  • The narrator/racetrack announcer at the beginning repeatedly calls Googie, "Goo."
  • While it can be assumed, it's still unclear whether or not all the scenes in America are set in Tyler County.
  • Throughout the film, Scooby's fingers vary from four to five.
  • When the cook at the drive-in theater snack bar asks Shaggy what he wants, Shaggy is in his werewolf form, but the cook does not seem to notice, and he acts surprised when he first hears Shaggy's hiccup-induced transformation into his human form. It isn't until the cook gives Shaggy his order when he finally realizes Shaggy is a werewolf and panics.
  • Oddly, Shaggy makes Scooby & Scrappy sleep outside his room, while in other appearances he and Scooby don't see any qualm of sharing the same bed.
  • When Scooby, Shaggy, Scrappy and Googie get trapped in the cage, the bars are wide. Scrappy could've easily walked through the bars since he's small enough.
  • When Shaggy and Scooby try to escape from the castle, Scrappy ties the bedsheets to the bedpost so they can abseil down the tower. But, moments later, Shaggy scrambles back through the window after spotting the crocodile and the sheets have disappeared.
  • Mr. Snyde/Dr. Jackyll is first seen when Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy, and Googie are lying on platforms. He doesn't appear again until the Monster Road Rally.

In other languages[]

Language Name Meaning
Greek Ο Scooby-Doo! και ο Απρόθυμος Λυκάνθρωπος Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf
Turkish Scooby-Doo: Kurt Adam Scooby-Doo: Werewolf

Home media[]

  • US Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf VHS released by Worldvision Home Video in 1991.
  • US Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf VHS released by Warner Home Video on March 5, 2002.
  • US Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf DVD released by Warner Home Video on March 5, 2002.
  • US Hanna-Barbera's Superstars 10: The Complete Film Collection Blu-ray Disc released by Warner Archive Collection on February 27, 2024.
  • US Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf Blu-ray Disc released by Warner Archive Collection on February 27, 2024.

Quotes[]

Scrappy-Doo: Don't worry, Uncle Scooby, we still love ya, even if ya are a wacko.


Shaggy: Oh, boy. Like, what a pickle. Here I am, a werewolf, and stuck in a castle full of moron monsters.


Dracula: Wait. You haven't tried a finger sandwich. Made with real fingers.

Gallery[]

External links[]

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