Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf is a 1988 telefilm. This is the third full-length film to feature the Scooby-Doo characters, and was the last to be released as part of the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 series of telefilms, which included two other Scooby-Doo films, Scooby-Doo meets the Boo Brothers and Scooby-Doo And The Ghoul School.
All three Scooby entries in the Superstars 10 series feature Scooby-Doo, Shaggy Rogers and Scrappy-Doo alone involved with stories that feature real ghosts and monsters. Scooby-Doo and the Reluctant Werewolf also features the only appearance of Googie, Shaggy's blonde girlfriend.
The film also marks the last official appearance of Scrappy-Doo in an animated Scooby-Doo series, special, or film.
Racecar driver Shaggy is turned into a werewolf and forced to compete in the Monster Road Rally held at Dracula's Castle. 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
Every year, all of the classic Hollywood monsters such as Frankenstein's monster, The Mummy, and Dr. Jekyl/Mr. Hyde, gather at Count 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 an 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 uses the book to change Shaggy back to normal and the group lives happily ever after. That night, the gang all sit down to watch another horror movie, but nobody sees Dracula, Brunch and Crunch creep up to the window.
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 character Vanna Pira is an obvious spoof of Vampira, the character name of actress Maila Nurmi (1922-2008).
This is the last time Shaggy wears his red t-shirt and blue jeans from The 13 Ghosts of Scooby-Doo. The outfit was later worn by his cyber counterpart in Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase to differentiate between the two since the real Shaggy had gone back to his original look of a green top and brown pants.
The DVD cover shows Shaggy with his traditional green t-shirt instead of the red one he wears in the film (see photo gallery below).
Despite the fact that Scrappy is in this movie, he is 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. This is most likely due to Scrappy's unpopularity and the fact that he was the villain in the 2002 film.
Animation mistakes and/or technical glitches
When Shaggy finally turns back human, and Googie hugs him, Shaggy becomes two when he turns around.
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.
Oddly, Shaggy makes Scooby & Scrappy sleep outside his room, while in other appearances he & Scooby don't see any qualm of sharing the same bed.
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.
