Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire

Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire is a 2003 American direct-to-video animated adventure film, and the fifth in a series of direct-to-video films based upon the Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons. It was completed in 2002, and released on March 4, 2003, and it was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, but included a copyright for Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc.. It is the first Scooby-Doo direct-to-video film to have the flatter, bright animation style of the What's New, Scooby-Doo? series, departing from the darker shading and effects used in the four prior released films, the first to return to the original format where the monster is not real and the first to return to a lighter tone than that of the prior and darker Scooby made-for-video films. This film served as Joseph Barbera's first solo animated production effort without longtime partner William Hanna (who died on March 22, 2001, due to throat cancer) and is one of two direct-to-video films to reunite the surviving classic 1969–73 voice cast consisting of Frank Welker, Casey Kasem, Nicole Jaffe, and Heather North. Since Don Messick (the original voice of Scooby) died on October 24, 1997, Welker provides Scooby's voice (in addition to voicing Fred Jones). Plot Scooby-Doo and the Mystery Inc. gang solve a mystery on the cruise ship they are on while on their way to Australia for a vacation. After seeing various sights throughout Sydney including Bondi Beach, the gang sees a flyer for a music festival at Vampire Rock and decide to go to the outback to see it. Along the way, they stop and encounter Australian wildlife, and later learn that locals named Vampire Rock after the Yowie Yahoo, a mythological Australian vampire. After arriving and parking the Mystery Machine, they walk into the forest, where Shaggy and Scooby witness the Yowie Yahoo. The gang look around finding the Yahoo's two giant eyes looking at them and a pack of dingoes. They then hear music and walk towards the sound, where they meet the Hex Girls (the band the gang had met before in Scooby-Doo! and the Witch's Ghost and have since become close friends with). They also meet the managers of the show, Daniel and Russell, and Daniel's eccentric grandfather, Malcolm, who is against the festival and warns Daniel about what has happened and drives off. Daniel tells them that most of the performers have left because Matt Marvelous was kidnapped by vampires.