| Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy | |
| Director: | Paul McEvoy |
| Producer: | Paul McEvoy |
| Starring: | Frank Welker Grey DeLisle-Griffin Mindy Cohn Matthew Lillard |
| Based On: | |
| Music: | Andy Sturmer |
| Editing: | Kyle Stafford |
| Distributor: | Warner Home Video |
| Studio: | Warner Bros. Animation |
| Runtime: | 74 minutes[1] |
| Country: | United States |
| Language: | English |
Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy is a 2014 direct-to-DVD animated comedy horror film, and the twenty-third film in the direct-to-video series of Scooby-Doo films.[2] It premiered on July 27, 2014, at San Diego Comic-Con, and was released on Digital HD on August 5, 2014. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on August 19, 2014.[3]
Velma gets a call from Cuthbert Crawley, a lawyer for her family who tells her that she has inherited her great uncle's castle in the Pennsylvanian town of Transylvania. At his office, Velma turns the offer down, replying that she wants nothing to do with her uncle, puzzling her friends. Crawley understands, but soon reveals there is a curse over the estate and those who fall victim to it will lose what they love dearly. As the gang leaves, the Mystery Machine is soon destroyed by a mysterious figure wearing an iron mask. Crawley reveals that it is a ghost of a Baron, Velma's old ancestor. The Mystery Machine's destruction then leaves behind a warning that advises the gang against visiting Transylvania, but Fred declares that is where they are going to find the person responsible for destroying the van.
Having no other option, the gang travel to Transylvania via an express train. When pressured by the gang, Velma reveals the truth – her actual surname is Von Dinkenstein, and the baron's ghost is likely her ancestor, Basil Von Dinkenstein, who was said to have created a monster, which inspired Mary Shelley to write her novel, Frankenstein. When the train suddenly starts to pick up speed as the gang gets its passengers to safety in the last car, they find the Baron at the front of a train instead of its conductor as he sabotages the train's control panel before disappearing. The gang manage to save the last car, everyone on it and themselves just as the train derails and is destroyed after crashing into a clock tower. As the gang arrive in town, they are introduced to Inspector Krunch, its burgermeister and Iago, who takes them to the castle, where they meet its housekeeper, Mrs. Vanders. They arrive in the Baron's laboratory and find the supposed monster preserved in a block of ice. Perturbed by this revelation, Velma vows to recreate the experiment in order to prove that the monster is fake. As the rest of the gang leave, Vanders shows Velma a machine, which hypnotizes her.
Strange things begin to happen when the gang goes to a festival being held in the town – Daphne is shocked to find that she has suddenly gained some form of obesity after trying on a dirndl at a local clothing store; Shaggy and Scooby win an eating contest, but upon trying on some handmade lederhosen, they suddenly lose their appetites and develop a sense of courage; and Fred continues to mourn over the Mystery Machine – the former two later being revealed to be caused by the Von Dinkenstein curse. Iago then arrives and saves the gang, who soon become threatened by the townspeople, and tells the gang that Velma has gone insane.
When they return, Velma has appeared to have indeed lost her sanity and succeeded in bringing the monster back to life. Shaggy and Scooby decide to capture the monster themselves in light of their newfound bravery, but Velma then sedates the monster and reveals a plan to take Shaggy and Scooby's brains and implant them into the monster, stating the two of them together have almost one complete brain. Things eventually start to become better for the gang – Fred finds a workshop and builds a new carriage-styled version of the Mystery Machine. Daphne discovers that the dirndl has an inflatable suit cunningly built into it, revealing that her apparent obesity was being fabricated. Shaggy and Scooby's lederhosen are torn off, causing their loss of appetite and apparent courage to dissipate; these are later revealed to be the result of injections from Acupuncture needles embedded in the lederhosen. They break free of their restraints and flee, but Velma releases the monster in order to recapture them. When the monster does so, it accidentally hits the lever of the machine that hypnotized Velma, returning her to her usual personality. Iago appears and tells them that they need to leave the castle because it is about to explode as a result of a gas leak. They manage to escape in the nick of time as they fake their deaths.
The gang then lure the burgermeister, Krunch, the gypsy proprietor of the clothing store Daphne visited and Vanders to the express train. They trap them in an express car as the train departs, leaving the locked car behind. Just as the mystery seems to be solved, the monster reappears, which is revealed to be a robot controlled by Iago, who then reveals he is actually Shimidlap, an undercover agent from the United States Department of Defense. He states that one of their exoskeletons was stolen from their research labs and traced to Transylvania, meaning it was used to portray the monster following its theft. It is soon revealed that instead of a culprit, there is actually a conspiracy group of past villains seeking revenge on the gang. Krunch is revealed to be Crawley, who is actually Cuthbert Crawls, the partner of Cosgood Creeps, both of whom attempted to seize the fortune of Colonel Beauregard Sanders. The burgermeister is revealed to be C.L. Magnus, who posed as the ghost of Redbeard, and the gypsy is revealed to be Lila, a musician who was one of the masterminds behind the Mamba Wamba case. Finally, Vanders is revealed to be Mama Mione, who posed as Old Iron Face and that the mask used for the Baron disguise was reused from that persona. The quartet reveal that they have been wanting to take revenge on the gang and, once they discovered the history of Velma's ancestry, they bought the castle in order to lure the gang there and carry out their plot. However, they were unaware that the castle was sitting on a natural gas buildup and that they could have instead made a fortune by selling the property. They are soon arrested once again and the gang celebrate with the townspeople as Shimidlap presents Fred with a fully restored Mystery Machine. After leaving, Velma explains to the gang about how she realized that the Von Dinkenstein curse was only a myth – the only thing they truly cherish is their friendship, since it kept persisting throughout the mystery. The gang then experiment with some new features added to the Mystery Machine.