It's an out-of-this-world adventure as the Scooby gang wins seats on a space tour ship. But when a hostile creature shows up, are they equal to this alien threat?
The film is the 23th installment of the Scooby-Doo Direct-to-Video Film Series.
This film contains examples of these tropes:
- Abhorrent Admirer: Clark Sparkman hints toward being attracted to Velma, much to her displeasure. Initially, anyway.
- All Up to You: Daphne fills the role of being the one who has to save the day at the film's climax.
- Always Someone Better: Velma suddenly fills this role as Daphne scored better on the pre-launch exam. She spends the bulk of the movie sniping at Daphne over being bested, then this is subverted when Shannon Lucas says she switched Daphne's exam score—with Shaggy! She did this in an attempt to fracture the gang by having Velma and Daphne at odds with each other.
- Artistic License – Physics: When the artificial gravity is turned off in the moon base, all the characters start floating. In reality, the moon does have gravity, so the characters should have become lighter, but not weightless.
- Art Shift: The art becomes more cartoony when the gang are adding their own touches to Ridley's Alien Invasion story.
- Ax-Crazy: In a rather sociopathic twist for this franchise, the Big Bad's Evil Plan is to maroon everyone on the moon, then blow them all up so that she can be the only survivor.
- Big "WHAT?!": Everyone had this reaction when Shannon revealed that Shaggy got the highest score on the test.
- Bring My Brown Pants: When Shaggy and Scooby see the Alien looming over them, the indicator lights on their suits - which displays when they need to empty the waste compartment - turn red.
- The Chessmaster: Shannon's Evil Plan was thought up months in advance, with every variable controlled and most contingencies planned for - including the heroes solving the case.
- Crush Filter: When Hudson becomes attracted to Ridley, the camera zooms in, the lighting changes, and she seems to shake her hair.
- Driving Test: The film begins, and ends, with Daphne learning how to drive. And not quite succeeding at it, either.
- Engineered Public Confession: The gang was able to record Shannon's confession before they leave on the ship and once they returned to Earth, they played their confession out loud to everyone.Shannon: And just to be certain you never leave, I've planted thermal charges like this one throughout the complex. You can't put a price on this sort of fame. Besides, returning as a hero will bring me all the money I could ever want.
- Failed Attempt at Drama: H.A.M. does this frequently by playing dramatic music after someone does a shocking declaration, which only makes the rest of the group awkwardly stare at him.
- False Friend: Shannon begins the movie by palling around with and complimenting Daphne, but by the end it appears that it was all (or mostly) an act to create tension between the members of the team, which it did for a while (mostly between Velma and Daphne.)
- Geeky Turn-On: The fact that Ridley can understand his Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness is what makes Hudson start to fall for her.
- Hair Flip: Daphne and Shannon keep flipping their hair.
- He Knows Too Much: Preemptively. Shannon knows that Mystery Inc will probably uncover her plot, so she planned all along to prepare for it - by leaving anyone who could tell anyone of her plans to die in space.
- Hidden Depths:
- Football star U-Boat, nicknamed for his rough style of playing, is quite the singer.
- Shaggy becomes quite profound and philosophical when he's very hungry. He's also the one who really got the highest score on the pre-launch test.
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Velma says that "everybody needs to calm down" and then begins squeeing when the boarding is announced.
- Ridley obsessively believes in aliens and that they're dangerous, but when Mystery Inc. each narrate what they believe the Alien is all about and what to do, Ridley reacts as Surrounded by Idiots.
- Inadvertent Entrance Cue: Shortly after Velma snarks that Sly Baron would probably arrive wearing a suit of money to show off, he arrives...wearing a suit of money literally.
- Innocently Insensitive: Fred accidentally offends two astronauts by reminding them that their mission occurred "before [he] was born."
- It Has Been an Honor: At the end, as the danger increases, the astronauts tell Fred that it's been an honor working with him.
- It's All About Me:
- Shannon's motivation for dressing up as the alien: she believes that nobody deserves to go into space but experts like her and is insulted when Sly Baron offers the opportunity for everyday people to do it safely. While there could possibly have been a bit of Well-Intentioned Extremist to this, her vanity becomes really obvious when she realizes Mystery Inc could uncover her plots - at which point she changes plans from "engineer an alien attack to frighten people out of going to space" to "maroon and/or kill everyone on the moon and return the sole survivor, so she can get all the fame from the 'failed' expedition."
- Sly Baron himself, however his is portrayed more comical. He's self-absorbed to the detriment of everyone around him, which includes carelessly leaving his brother to live on the moon for years without contact simply to create an enormous ego-project dedicated to himself. He takes credit for everything, even though he barely ever does anything, and his Establishing Character Moment even has him show up in a suit made of money just to show off his wealth. Summed up in an exchange late in the movie.Sly (about to be marooned on the moon): You're just going to leave me here?
Hudson (standing behind him, also about to be marooned): <pointed cough>
Sly: Oh, right. You're just going to leave me here with these people?
- Jerkass to One: Inverted; despite being a self-aggrandizing blowhard to everyone else, Sly Baron does truly care about his little brother Hudson deep down, and missed seeing him for so many years.
- The Knights Who Say "Squee!": Fred, Shaggy, and Scooby go crazy over some of the celebrity passengers.
- Lampshade Hanging: After everyone gets knocked out when debris hits them, Velma mentions, "But they're all wearing helmets."
- Leave the Camera Running: Many jokes are left to hang after the execution, with no animation or sound, just the characters staring blankly after something has been said.
- Left the Background Music On: H.A.M. has a habit of playing music and sound effects that suit the situation.
- The Load: Averted. Several characters are this most of the time. By the conclusion, everyone has made contributions that saved everyone's lives and exposed Shannon.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: Shannon turns out to be a rare case of a franchise culprit who ensures that she can get away with her plan even after being unmasked, by having the gang and the other visitors sealed in the complex. Which is set to be blown up by thermal charges.
- Only a Model: There's a miniature version of the ship Hudson constructed on the sly.
- Only Known by Their Nickname: Shaggy. His name tag reads "S. Rogers" instead of "N.note Rogers".
- Overly Long Gag:
- The Mystery Gang each narrating what they believe about the Alien to Ridley.
- Multiple people coming out of elevators and saying, "The alien. You caught the alien.".
- Daphne flipping her hair after suggesting it was a source of Velma's jealousy.
- Everyone getting hit by debris in spite of wearing helmets whenever they volunteer to pilot the escape ship.
- Real Men Wear Pink: Football star "U-Boat" likes to sing.
- Running Gag: Fred being much more boneheadedly clueless than usual and endlessly annoying the heck out of the two veteran astronauts.
- Sesquipedalian Loquaciousness: Hudson and Ridley both know how to speak in long words.
- Shout-Out: In general there's a lot of sci-fi references found in this production.
- The Alien is designed much like a Xenomorph from Alien.
- The "alien hunting specialist" is named Ridley, and is a clear parody of Ellen Ripley, but named from Ridley Scott. She also makes the Vulcan salute at one point.
- Hudson is named after a character from Aliens (but otherwise has zero similarities to said character). Also, a pair of robots are used in the manner of the heavy lifter that Ellen Ripley used in that film.
- Shaggy says, " One small step for dog, one giant leap for me," a la Neil Armstrong.
- Shaggy mentions watching a show with a gremlin on a plane wing, like the famous Twilight Zone episode "Nightmare at 20,000 Feet".
- Shaggy and Scooby dancing on the moon to the Blue Danube Waltz is a call back to 2001: A Space Odyssey.
- During Ridley's Imagine Spot about the Alien's plans, it's wearing a wrist-mounted computer with runic script.
- Also at one point Daphne suggests that the reason astronauts have never seen aliens before could be because they use cloaking technology, mentioning that she saw it in a movie once.
- Having Mark Hamill and Malcolm McDowell among the cast also counts.
- The style of the end credits scroll is likely meant as a Homage to pioneer filmmaker Georges Méliès, creator of A Trip to the Moon.
- Singing Voice Dissonance: U-Boat, a bulky man with a deep voice, has a soprano singing voice.
- The Sociopath: Shannon has to be one of the most monstrous Scooby-Doo antagonists in the franchise, wanting to kill a bunch of people just to ensure that space travel is dangerous and only a place for experts like her.
- Super-Scream: The Alien has a sonic screech attack.
- Tap on the Head: During the climax, a Running Gag has Hudson, Sly, Clark, Shaggy, Scooby, U-Boat, H.A.M., and Ridley get knocked out by chunks of I-beam the moment they suggest they should be the one to pilot the ship, while Velma and Daphne react with increasing incredulity.Velma: But they're all wearing helmets!
- Tempting Fate:
- When Shannon reveals that they planted thermal charges throughout the complex, Velma asks "How many can there be?" Next scene shows that they placed them everywhere.
- Velma and Daphne try to prevent it by exclaiming a Little "No" when U-Boat is starting to repeat that he will pilot the...
- This Looks Like a Job for Aquaman: Shaggy and Scooby get a moment to help save the day when an entrance is blocked by boxes of food.
- Unrobotic Reveal: H.A.M. is revealed to not be an android, but a flesh and blood human actor.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: By the standards of the franchise, the alien stalking the moon already gave a sense of tension...then came the reveal that Shannon, the true villain of the piece, is revealed to want the Mystery Inc. killed outright alongside other distinguished guests.
- Worf Had the Flu: Previous films and series show that Daphne is perfectly able to drive.
- You Are Better Than You Think You Are: Velma encourages Daphne to fly the ship by saying that while Shannon may have faked the test scores, the scores don't matter; what does matter is anything that Daphne puts her mind to.
- You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Velma has this small reaction when Hudson, Sly, and Clark get knocked out in succession.Velma: You can't be serious.
