Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School (1988) - Not really great, but enjoyable for what it is

Scooby-Doo movies are pretty much a dime a dozen. There have been so many that it's kind of sickening. That is not to say that all of them are bad, but even Scooby-doo fans can admit that a lot of them are soulless, and pointless, cash-grabs that bank on the nostalgia of a long over-milked franchise. However, even so not all the direct-to-video Scooby-Doo movies are terrible, and I'd say Ghoul School is one of those exceptions.

Released in 1988, Scooby-Doo and the Ghoul School was a made-for-television movie that clocks in at one hour and thirty-two minutes. It was the fourth Television Film, preceded by Scooby-Doo Meets the Boo Brothers. Even though this was a made for TV movie and released in the late 80s, it seems to have a fair-sized following online, but is it worth the following?

The plot focuses on Shaggy, Scooby-Doo and the little runt Scrappy as they take up a new job at a girl school as gym teachers. However, when they get there, it turns out that it's also a ghoul school, hence the title. The trio help the girls get in shape for a volleyball tournament, but all the while, an evil witch is watching them and plotting something evil.

The movie let's you know from the get-go that this isn't really going to be that serous. It opens with a fourth wall break. It's not really funny, and that sets the tone for the movie honestly. Most of the humour in this movie is bad puns and cartoony shenanigans. I personally enjoy me some bad pun-ishment, but the wordplay in the movie wasn't clever. The vampire girl, Sibella, keeps making bat puns and saying "Fang-tastic", and only a handful of the bat puns were cute. The little Mummy girl, Tanis, is the center of a lot of wrapping puns for another example. This is most of the humourous dialogue, there's no real clever wordplay or punchlines, and the puns get old fast.

As for the cartoony shenanigans, well, this is a late 80s production. While the artstyle is well detailed, a lot of the psychical impact is left out of the film, making a lot of these more a set-up without a punchline.

The animation itself is fine for this time period. I think a few shots and cels might have been reused, but I couldn't name them off the top of my head.

Character is another thing that isn't done great with this movie. Outside of a couple characters, I couldn't really name a personality trait of any of the characters. Shaggy and Scooby are typical Shaggy and Scooby, they're cowardly and silly, but they ultimately end up doing the right thing in the end. Scrappy is Scrappy and that's all I can say about him, outside of his little rap at the end of the film, yes, I'm not joking. The only characters I can really say have personality is the mummy girl, Tanis, and the ghost girl Phantasma. Tanis actually has a goal in the movie, but that gets resolved quickly, and Phantasma... well, Phantasma is a lot of fun. It's clear she's having fun with what she does, as most of what she does is laugh and run around. I think she's become a fan favourite character, and it's not hard to see why. It's funny because I remember having a crush on Sibella when I was a child.

The villains are pathetic, Revolta and Creeper have a decent plan, and are threatening at first, but at the end of the movie, they stand around while the girls escape, and when they chase after them, some rogue spell shoots them out of the air. The one thing I hate more than a pathetic villain is a decent villain that goes out like a chump. There is also this cadet school, but lord help me if I could remember them. They really only serve to made the volleyball subplot function and come back in the climax to save the day.

With that said, at no point did I ever end up hating the movie. I found the girls to be charming, the backgrounds well detailed and the scenarios to be enjoyable. Outside of the ending with Scrappy's rap song, there was very little to really dislike about this movie. It had an interesting set-up, charming characters and scenarios and a fairly decent villain to start.

I guess I am giving it some leeway because this is a late eighties production, and it would be a few years before Animaniacs would come out to give the finger to the strict censors. Still though, I would love to see this get remade. Maybe as a spin-off show where Shaggy and Scooby still coach the girls, and maybe add in a few more, like maybe a zombie girl, a demon girl. There is a lot of potential for something pretty great here, but as is, the movie isn't bad. It's enjoyable for what it is, and I do think that it has earned some kind of following, although considering what would come of the Scooby-Doo movies, there have been a lot worse.

Fun and Fancy Free (1947) - Not one of Disney's better classics

Between the release of Bambi in 1942 and Cinderella in 1950, the Walt Disney company was releasing many movies that were simple collections of other shorts. These were known as the package films and included films such as Melody Time from 1948 and The Adventures of Ichabod and Mr. Toad the following year. Of these package films, the two that I remember growing up with the most were Melody Time and Fun and Fancy Free.

Fun and Fancy Free was released in 1947 and contained two shorts with bridge segments starring Jimney Cricket. These bridge segments are not very entertaining to watch, and that sadly sets the tone for the movie. The opening segment with Jimney Cricket is only watchable because it features the only decent song in the entire movie. Then it transitions into the first story, before going back to Jimney Cricket going to a party hosted by Edgar Bergen. These segments with Edgar Bergen are the most entertaining part of the movie, as Edgar and his puppets often make humorous quips towards each other and the story they're telling.

The two stories in this movie are "Bongo" and the infamous short "Mickey and the Beanstalk". Neither story is really entertaining. I remember skipping over the Bongo short a lot as a kid, even now I really didn't like it. I did not find Bongo to be engaging a character, the world to be engaging, outside of another horrifying forest scene, and I find the songs to be, like much else in this story, not great. I don't even remember any of the songs, outside of one, and when I say I remember that song, I mean that I remember it existed. It's like that ugly sweater you have in your closet, you remember it exists, but you don't really remember what's on it. You put it on and then you remember why it wasn't worth remembering. Bongo is not a really entertaining short and it kind of makes sense that most VHS covers of this movie leave him off the front cover and focus on Mickey and Jimney.

"Mickey and the Beanstalk" is also not highly entertaining, but it becomes the most entertaining part of the movie because of Edgar Bergen and his puppets. The narration becomes one of the only amusing parts of the movie, but without the narration I can not really see this short staying in anyone's mind for very long. The only scene that I think people remember this short for is when Donald goes crazy and tries to kill a cow with an axe. It is a well done scene, but I personally felt as though the forest at night from the Bongo segment was creepier. Disney has a thing for making their most horrific scenes take place in a forest or woodland. Other than that, the short isn't really memorable outside of Willie the Giant, a character that I don't believe has been used since Mickey's Christmas Carol in 1983.

Fun and Fancy Free is not a terrible movie, it's not ungodly boring like The Black Cauldron was or as bad as any of the direct-to-video sequels. The movie's biggest crime is simply not being very entertaining to watch. While Edgar Bergen brings some entertainment value to this movie, there isn't a whole lot else to enjoy with this movie. The shorts that they put into this movie are not entertaining on their own, and the bridge segments aren't that entertaining either. I would personally skip this movie unless you really want to say that you've seen them all.