Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire 720p - (2012 Lang: English)

A genuine musical adventure romp

Hahaha! For the first musical Scooby Doo adventure, it is a fun romp! The first song, Done with Monsters, is a perfect mix and definitely something you would expect from Shaggy. It is amazing how Frank Welker still manages to sound like a teenager (Fred), even as he is singing. Mindy Cohn makes Velma have too much of a squealer voice, though. The other notable song, Scooby and Me, is definitely hilarious and entertaining. I love to just pop the DVD in and watch the just the songs again. In terms of plot, pretty interesting, although I felt sorry for van Helsing, who was just trying to get by. The graphics are good, loving the new cartoon style, mix of new and old. Pretty good for a boring Sunday afternoon.

Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire is a 2012 direct-to-DVD animated musical comedy horror film, and the seventeenth entry in the direct-to-video series of Scooby-Doo films. This installment is notable for being the first of the films to be a musical. The film was released to rent through Amazon Video and iTunes on December 22, 2011. It was released on DVD and Blu-ray on March 13, 2012. It premiered on Cartoon Network on March 3, 2012.

The film begins with an introductory song by Tulie, a bayou dweller, who tells the story of Valdronya and the Mystery Inc. Gang. After solving the mystery of a Cockroach Monster that terrorized a factory, Fred, Daphne, Velma, Shaggy, and Scooby decide to take a well-deserved vacation. Velma drives everyone to Chauve Sourie Ville, a small town that is hosting a vampire festival called "Vampire Palooza." They meet Lita Rutland, the festival organizer, who explains that tourism is down and the festival is losing funds. They also meet their host, Vincent Van Helsing, who runs a vampire museum and is an aspiring author, although his books are not selling. Mayor Jasper Poubelle, an anti-vampire agitator, is also stirring up trouble by protesting the festival. Mr. Van Helsing takes the Gang back to his museum and shows them various jewelry and a glass-faced casket containing the inert body of Valdronya, a centuries-old vampire.

The Gang and Van Helsing attend a performance by a troupe of vampire actors. The troupe leader Bram, who catches the eye of Daphne, announces the group will perform a vampire resurrection ritual. To everyone's surprise, their incantation proves successful, and the resurrected Vadronya appears on the stage before flying away. Back at the museum, the gang discovers the jewels missing and the body gone, although the tomb is still sealed. Out on the festival grounds, they find Lita Rutland wants to profit from the publicity of the vampire appearance. She tells a phony story about being attacked that gets on the news. Mayor Poubelle also gets a media exposure benefit for his anti-vampire crusade. They check out the trailer of his organization and discover he plans to run for Mayor, and is using the vampire story to increase his notoriety. On the way back, they are attacked by Valdronya. He clings to the top of the Mystery Machine and reaches in through the skylight. Daphne tears off a piece of fabric from his sleeve, and Velma forces him off the car by running through a very low tunnel.

That night, Shaggy and Scooby are attacked by Valdronya and chased into the swamp. There they meet Tulie, who reveals he invented a pair of hover shoes, but the plans were stolen by vampires, and he was forced to flee into the swamp. Meanwhile, Fred, Daphne, and Velma discover the fabric from Vadronya's costume is from modern material. Van Helsing, however, says the clothing has been changed over the years, but the body is still the original vampire. Daphne decides to question the troupe and meets with Bram. When she turns down his offers of affection, with a promise of immortality, he kidnaps her to become the bride of Valdronya.

Daphne alerts Fred via text message, and Fred, Velma, and Van Helsing travel into the swamp to stop the marriage ceremony. On their way, Van Helsing is pulled from the ship and disappears; when Fred and Velma investigate they instead find Shaggy and Scooby. The actors tie Daphne by the hands between two trees, and they tell her they expect to be rewarded with immortality if they give her to Valdronya as his bride. The monster appears to claim his bride, and with a swirl of green mist he sends the actors to sleep, telling them that when they awake they will be immortal. Daphne also succumbs to the mist and in a trance she agrees to the wedding. Valdronya arrives, but Shaggy and Scooby distract him. In the ensuing chase, Valdronya's costume is blown away by Scooby and Shaggy's airboat's propeller, and the Vampire is then captured by Fred.

Valdronya is unmasked and revealed to be Van Helsing. He wanted to stage a vampire wedding to create his own new tourist attraction, and to sell more books. He used a combination of the stolen rocket shoes, knockout gas, and holographic projections to create the monster effects. The hands that dragged him away were just a machine he prepared in advance. He created the fake story about the Vampire's clothing when he thought the Gang was getting close to him. The actors were duped into thinking he was a real vampire who could grant them immortality, so they helped him. The Sheriff arrests Van Helsing and the actors. Bram makes an appeal to go on a date with Daphne after he gets out of prison. She coldly rejects the idea because she never dates actors.

As a big Scooby Doo fan, I enjoyed Scooby Doo and the Music of the Vampire. Of the Scooby animated movies, I do prefer Witch's Ghost, Zombie Island and Goblin King, and this is perhaps my least favourite of the movies to use the Mystery Incorporated-like animation style. However I still enjoyed it, I liked the animation style which was like a combination of the classic Scooby Doo and the What's New Scooby Doo style, and while it takes some time to get going the story was interesting with an ending that was a lot of fun if not entirely unexpected as I knew who it was halfway through.

The dialogue is witty, and the voice work is absolutely great, with only a little too squealy Mindy Kohn disappointing(slightly). Frank Welker is terrific as always, Matthew Lillard had big shoes to fill and does admirably being very goofy and likable and Jeff Bennett is both menacing and makes us feel sympathy for him. Valdronya is a very convincing villain, with an imposing look and a Dracula/Maldor the Malevolent-like voice that gives the chills. Now to the stuff that I wasn't so crazy about, apart from Mindy Kohn and some of the story taking time to get going.

I personally think the film could've been shorter, with a couple of scenes that could've been either shortened or cut I wouldn't have felt that the pacing was a little uneven with a couple of parts in the middle dragging. The songs I was mixed on; the best were Done With Monsters, which was clever and very spirited vocally, Scooby and Me, which was hilarious and Do You Want to Live Forever, especially for the dancing. The rest were forgettable, Valdronya Returns had a strong hint of deja vu almost as if it was trying too hard to be another villain song(can't quite put my finger on which) and I can't remember any of Vampire's Bite and Vampire's Dance, and didn't move forward the story much.

Overall, a decent film and an interesting enough change of pace, but I have seen better from Scooby.