Western Animation / Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy

Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy is the 22nd title in the Scooby-Doo Direct-to-Video Film Series.

In this film, during one of Daphne's Web Videos on her modeling career that had been turned into a question-and-answer session on Mystery Inc.'s experiences, they are contacted by the Dinkley family's lawyer. Despite Velma's protesting, the gang head off to meet the lawyer, learning that Velma is about to inherit the Castle Von Dinkenstein in Transylvania, Pennsylvania. Afterward, the Ghost of Dr. Von Dinkenstein destroys the Mystery Machine. The gang go to the town, which chooses to maintain the feel of 19th-century Germany and is suffering under a curse.

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Scooby-Doo! Frankencreepy provides examples of:

• 555: The internet equivalent; Daphne's website is on the internet domain ".hb" instead of .com or .net, etc.
• And I Must Scream: It's implied that Velma is aware of the terrible things she's doing while she's hypnotized.
• And There Was Much Rejoicing: When the castle explodes and Velma and her friends are believed to be killed by the explosion, everybody in town celebrates. However, it's seemingly only the villains who are happy about the gang's deaths; the townsfolk in general are more happy that the curse is over. One of the town women even expresses sympathy for Velma and her friends.
• Agony of the Feet: Iago gets his foot injured twice, once during an earthquake in the lab and once when Velma steps on it after he protests her plans to harvest Shaggy and Scooby's brains.
• Awesome by Analysis: Fred manages to figure out where in (or rather, under) the castle Daphne's calls for help are coming from by taking into account the moisture and various air factors.
• Ax-Crazy: Velma of all people, after being hypnotized. She even tries to take out Scooby and Shaggy's brains with a chainsaw.
• Bait-and-Switch: Scooby, Shaggy, and Daphne all express that they’re hungry and go to the fair to find some food. This and the eating contest the former two find seems to set up the classic gag of them getting giant Balloon Belly’s from eating too much. Daphne actually ends up having a Temporary Bulk Change once she’s cursed, bulking up a few extra hundred pounds without eating anything. It turns out the "curse" was merely Daphne putting on a dress that inflates her to appear to be her new size.
• Big Eater: Shaggy endears himself to the townspeople with his ability to eat just like they do.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Velma is brainwashed into acting like an insane Mad Scientist for a large chunk of the movie.
• Break the Cutie: Daphne goes into a breakdown when she finds out she's fat after she's given a dress, later revealed to be filled with air.
• The Bus Came Back: While Scooby has sent a villain on the bus with most episodes, four of them (C.L. Magnus, Cuthbert Crawls, Lila and Mama Mione) are back for revenge.
• Continuity Nod:
  • During Daphne's webshow, several actual villains from the gang's past are referenced by name — when shown on screen, they appear as clips from the original series. These villains later turn out to be the villains of the movie, back for revenge.
  • Daphne having a webshow where she talks about her adventures as a mystery-solving teen sleuth references to The New Scooby-Doo era and the '90s-era movies, where she was a freelance investigation reporter and had her own news reporting show about it. Fred being partly involved in the webshow also references how he helped Daphne with her show as the one-man production crew, though this might not mean anything as the other members of the gang are also in the webshow.
  • Velma's "mad scientist" dress is similar to Vanna Pira (minus the spider-web neck collar) from Scooby-Doo! and the Reluctant Werewolf.
  • The attorney found Velma by using "Giggle", the search engine featured in Scooby-Doo! Stage Fright.
  • Velma's sister Madelyn is glimpsed in a flashback (using a scene recycled from Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo).
• Chekhov's Gun: The opening web show introduces up several elements (the original villains mentioned by the gang, and the supposedly fake FBI supersuits for tiny agents) that become important to the reveals at the end of the movie.
• Cue the Flying Pigs: When Shaggy and Scooby say they're not hungry, shots of pigs flying and Hell freezing over and the Fat Lady singing are quickly shown.
• Cut Lex Luthor a Check: As Velma points out in the end of the movie, if the villains had legally sold the natural gas mines to a company or something instead of wasting them on a failed revenge on her and her friends, they each would have made a fortune, thereby accomplishing the goals they had been reaching for with their crimes in the original series.
• Cutaway Gag: Used as running gags, as well as various Description Cuts and Gilligan Cuts — this movie is fond of quickly cutting through events rather than show them in their entirety for humor's sake: unrelated cutaways, images going through the characters' minds, and things currently happening.
• Darker and Edgier: In comparison to even the slightly darker than usual tone the previous movies have had — the monster this time actively tries to kill the gang with very direct methods, like blowing up the Mystery Machine or derailing a train. And it turns out to all be a plan to get revenge on the gang by luring them into a trap in order to blow them all up. Also, the main plot is a bit more personal for the main characters, Velma in particular. The PG rating isn't for nothing, people.
• A Day in the Limelight: This is the third Scooby-Doo movie, live-action or animated, that centers around Velma.
• Didn't Think This Through: The villains basically ignore the fact they got a piece of land that's a natural gas deposit and could have easily gotten stinky rich, but they were too focused on their revenge plot against the gang to realize that until they're told to by Velma - after detonating the entire place in a failed attempt to kill the gang. Their last words before being dragged off by the authorities are lamenting how stupid they were for not realizing this.
• Evil Costume Switch: When hypnotized into acting like a Mad Scientist, Velma wears a purple dress and has pink “Bride of Frankenstein”-style hair.
• Expy: Inverted; despite what you may think, Dr. Von Dinkenstein isn't based on Dr. Frankenstein; in fact, quite the reverse. In-Universe, Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein is said to be based on him. So it could be said that Victor Frankenstein is an expy of him.
• False Reassurance: According to an old ad for Creeps and Crawls' law firm, the two lawyers would handle their clients' estates as their own. In their previous appearance, they tried to cheat Colonel Beauregard's beneficiaries out of his estate. Well, they did say they'd treat it as if it were their own...
• Fanservice:
  • Velma's mad scientist costume shows off her figure much better than her sweater.
  • Also the (gypsy?) salesgirl in a peasant-top, miniskirt, and boots (actually Lila, a former 70s band member).
• Fate of the Frankensteins: Velma is revealed to be a descendent of a monster making mad scientist in the vein of Frankenstein. She ends up nearly following in his footsteps thanks to some hypnosis, ready to cut out Scooby and Shaggy's brains for a monster.
• Fictional Social Network: The villains who have been thwarted by the Scooby gang over the years have their own social network, which is where the villains of the story met and began plotting revenge.
• Fly-at-the-Camera Ending: The ending has the Mystery Machine take off when Fred presses a red button.
• Foreshadowing:
  • While seemingly a montage of the gang solving mysteries and Transylvania themed scenes, if you look close the opening credits are framed as a masked person looking over a Stalker Shrine of the gang, and has scenes like a nondescript prisoner making a suspicious call inside of their cell, giving clues that there's a lot more going on here than meets the eye and that the plot is very personal long before it comes out in the plot itself.
  • The opening also foreshadows some of the traps, fake monsters and other things that would show up, like the outfit Shaggy would wear that ends up making him braver through acupuncture needles.
  • Iago, who has been on-board with Velma's experimenting for most of the movie, protests when she tries to cut out Shaggy and Scooby's brains for the monster. He turns out to be a federal agent who went undercover to find the exoskeleton the villains stole for their scheme.
• Freudian Excuse: We get one for Velma's love of mystery hunting: her great uncle's failed attempt to create a monster gave her family a terrible reputation, which drove her to prove that monsters don't exist. When it appears that her uncle might have been onto something after all, she gets a little... obsessed, even before the hypnosis kicks in.
• For Science!: For laughs, Velma flips the classic Mad Scientist For Science! motivation yet somehow manages to hit all the points of it anyway. No, she isn't (initially) recreating her uncle's experiment to finish his work For Science!, she's doing it to prove his theories would never work For Science!. And since it would never work and there's no potential to think of, turning on all the dangerous machinery and getting the hunchbacked assistant to bring her forbidden materials isn't a bad thing. She's not acting obsessed. Seriously. Again, this is still before the hypnosis.
• Freeze-Frame Bonus: Near the beginning when Fred's Answer Cut of driving the Mystery Machine, one of camera shots that flash on the screen is the license plate, which lists its location as Crystal Cove.
• Frothy Mugs of Water: While the villagers are celebrating the supposed deaths of the gang, they partake of Schwanstucker's Root Beer.
• Giving Them the Strip: Fred pins the Baron's cape to a tunnel wall with thrown tools, so the villain leaves it there and runs off. The cape, itself, provides Daphne with evidence that the "Baron"'s costume was recently made.
• Goofy Print Underwear: Shaggy's underwear has junk food prints.
• Heroic BSoD: Fred mopes around a lot because the Mystery Machine got blown up. Whenever a conversation leads to the car, it always leads to an Imagine Spot with it blowing up (...increasingly every time it happens).
• Heroic Resolve: Amusingly, Freddy fails to muster up enough heroic resolve to fight the Ghost of Baron Von Dinkenstein for Daphne's sake, but gets enough resolve to beat him in a Curb-Stomp Battle for the Mystery Machine's sake.
• Hoist by Their Own Petard: Twice over the heroes are saved by the actions of the villains. The Brainwashed and Crazy Velma is accidentally un-brainwashed when the person in the monster suit bumped into the spinning wheel machine and reactivated it without knowing, and the only reason Daphne and Freddy don't suffocate to death in a cave-in was because of the inflatable fat suit they tricked Daphne into wearing.
• In-Universe Factoid Failure: The lawyer claims Velma is the youngest of the Dinkleys. This contradicts Scooby-Doo! Abracadabra-Doo with Madelyn (who's taller but younger), with this film's opening scene it even uses a clip from that movie with her in it but then during the credits show a Dinkley family tree without Madelyn. This being because it's a part of the villains' stalker shrine reflecting their error but offers the more clever viewer a clue that something is off. This likely In-Universe clued Velma in as well about the mystery but she doesn't directly call attention to it.
• It's Personal: Twice.
  • Said by Freddy after the Mystery Machine is destroyed.
  • The four villains' plot against Mystery Inc. itself, and thus the whole plot of the movie itself — it's a rare mystery that's about the Scooby gang personally. They note that they had to actually turn away co-conspirators for their plan.
• Kick the Dog: The brainwashed Velma brutally targets Daphne's insecurity over her appearance after she (apparently) becomes fat. It even leads Fred to call Velma a monster.
• Laser-Guided Karma: After being tormented the entire film by the villains creating a monster mystery and destroying things they care about, the gang chases them into a trap with ghostly images relating to their scheme (the Mystery Machine, Daphne's dress/fat suit, Shaggy and Scooby's new outfits with the acupuncture needles, and Velma's floating head ranting about the von Dinkenstein curse).
• Mad Scientist: Velma's great uncle was one, attempting to create an animal-based version of Frankenstein's monster (see Expy). This supposedly runs in the family, as every one of her relatives that came across his notes ended up going mad and trying to take up his work. This also happens to Velma, but in her case it's due to hypnosis.
• Mind-Control Eyes: Velma gets these after she looks into the hypnosis machine. Strangely, they don’t stick to her when she thinks she’s a mad scientist.
• Motive Decay: In their previous appearances, all four villains were motivated by the idea of financial gain. In this story, they're driven by the desire to get even with the heroes who foiled their previous plans, even missing an opportunity to make a lot of money in their passion for revenge. Shaggy lampshades this by making a joke about it, which amuses everyone
  Shaggy: Like, you were so greedy for revenge, you forgot to be greedy for money!
• Mythology Gag:
  • In the intro, a family tree of the Dinkleys is shown, with the members silhouetted. Two members located near Velma look like her parents in Mystery Incorporated, Angie and Dale.
  • The license plate on the Mystery Machine is from Crystal Cove.
  • Daphne's shellfish allergy originated from Mystery Incorporated.
  • If you look closely at the faces on the Scooby revenge page, one of them is clearly designed to be the plaid-shirt tourist who appeared in the background of some of the earliest movies in this series.
• Offscreen Teleportation: Velma was somehow able to catch up to the monster before Shaggy and Scooby. Lampshaded.
  Shaggy: Velma, you got here fast.
  Velma: Yeah. And in this dress, too.
• Oh, Crap!: While running away from the monster, Shaggy and Scooby come into a library; they decide to find and barricade all the secret passages. Once it's finished, they plop themselves on a couch in relief — only to realize a second later that they forgot to lock the door... which is exactly when the monster bursts in.
• O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Velma, even when brainwashed into being an Ax-Crazy Mad Scientist, is quite shocked that Shaggy and Scooby volunteer to bring the monster back to her, without even the temptation of Scooby Snacks.
• Platonic Declaration of Love: Velma explains that she knew the curse had to be a fake because the exact words of the curse stated that everyone involved would lose what they cared about the most and then suffer utter destruction. However, none of the things the villains took from the gang (confidence, beauty, the joy of eating, logic) fit the description of what's most important to them.
  Velma: We love each other the most!
• Rage Against the Reflection: In anguish about her ruined beauty, Daphne throws something at one of the mirrors. It breaks, revealing a secret passage, which she investigates.
• Revenge Before Reason: The villains. They come into the possession of a piece of land sitting on top of a natural gas deposit and, rather than sell the land for an enormous amount of cash, they decide to use the gas in an elaborate trap to blow up Mystery Inc. Velma lampshades this. They start mumbling for not thinking of it themselves.
• Right for the Wrong Reasons: Velma keeps trying to blow off and ignore the attorney attempting to reach her at the start because she simply believes he's a scammer and not worth the trouble, but ultimately has to relent. He is a scammer, even if the estate he's trying to give her is very real, because he wants to kill her and the rest of the gang with it.
• Runaway Train: One of the ways the monster tries to kill the gang (before ultimately setting the engine on fire) — which is scarily effective. Several of the train cars even fall off the train before the gang gets the passengers to start running towards the front car. And of course, there is Stuff Blowing Up among derailing.
• Running Away to Cry: At the climax, both Daphne and Fred run away to have a breakdown in private after being reminded about what they've lost. It leads to Daphne finding the Baron's secret lair and Fred finding a lot of things that he uses as defensive weapons when attacking the Baron.
• Running Gag: Freddy having increasingly over-the-top flashbacks to the Mystery Machine blowing up whenever its so much as mentioned. Every time, the explosion gets more and more exaggerated, until it ends with the entire planet blowing up.
• "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: Played with a bit differently. While the Evil Plan involves a fake monster, it's not because the culprits are trying to scare people away — it's a trap for Mystery Inc. themselves, and the mystery was concocted specifically because they wouldn't be able to resist it. The movie also plays with the formula a bit, in that the movie focuses primarily on what would normally be the side-plots and makes little attempt to hide who's behind the plot by the end of the movie. There isn't even a formal unmasking — the audience finds out who they are after it looks like their plan succeeded, and then the gang and the authorities catch up with them while they're trying to escape. While they are unmasked, it's specifically to show that they're old enemies disguised as other people, after the identity of the monsters have already been revealed.
• Sherlock Scan: When Fred hears Daphne screaming thanks to the noise carrying through an air vent, he triangulates the sound, the density in the air and even a brief taste test of the moisture off the vent to accurately guess that she's in some sort of subterranean caverns beneath the castle.
• Shout-Out:
  • Velma's "mad scientist" dress is also similar to Morticia Addams, Elvira and Vampyra, along with having the same hairdo as the Bride of Frankenstein.
  • A Terminator reference appears toward the end — Velma says, "Come with me if you want to live."
  • One of the train passengers resembles J.P. Ghastly III from Gravedale High, another Hanna-Barbera cartoon. Unlike Scooby-Doo, the rights to Gravedale High belong to Universal rather than Warner Bros..
• The Smart One Turns Traitor: Velma acts as an antagonist while brainwashed.
• Stuff Blowing Up: Quite a bit of stuff exploding, most notably the Mystery Machine at the start.
• Überwald: Transylvania, Pennsylvania, which is actually invoked by its townspeople, who are ethnic Transylvanians, somewhat similar to the Amish to quote the movie.
• Vanity Is Feminine: Daphne's "curse" is becoming unattractive.
• Vomit Discretion Shot: Shaggy, getting sick, leans over the side of the train. Then the scene cuts to a green liquid pouring out of a tap, then back to Shaggy.
• The Von Trope Family: Velma's family's original name was Von Dinkenstein.
• Whole-Plot Reference: To Frankenstein, naturally — particularly the famous Universal film version. As Velma's plot is similar to its premise, there's a lot of reference to Young Frankenstein as well — particularly in the humor. Which in turn makes the plot also a reference to Son of Frankenstein which the prior movie parodied.
• You Meddling Kids: After being captured, one of the villains says they'd have gotten away with their revenge against "you meddling kids" if not for "you meddling kids".
• You Monster!: Parodied; Fred calls Velma a monster after she insults Daphne and hurts her feelings.

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