Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King (2008)

 Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King (2008) ****/*****

With spooky season right around the corner, join me as we venture into the realm of "The Goblin King". 

For those keeping track, this is the 12th movie in the long running DTV series that launched in the year 1998. 

Scooby-Doo and Shaggy must go into the underworld ruled by the Goblin King in order to stop a mortal named The Amazing Krudsky who wants power and is a threat to their pals, Fred, Velma and Daphne.

                                                              

Okay gang, we've made it this far and our sanity is still intact. I think. This will be a first time viewing for me, as I have somehow never seen this Halloween themed Scooby adventure. Hopefully it will be entertaining. 

And it was highly entertaining, and a fun spooktacular romp through the realms of the supernatural. This is definitely going into my watchlist of annual Halloween episodes/specials. 

I loved every minute of this silly spectacular that is a celebration of all things Scooby and a nod to the Superstar 10 movies.  This is the first straight up fantasy movie for the series, and it is made all the better for leaning into the supernatural/fairy tail genres and tropes. 

This movie made me love the franchise even more, which I didn't think was possible. I really, really loved this movie. 

The plot is simple, straightforward and easy to follow, with only 1 twist at the end that explains why the Goblin King made the deal with the sleazy magician. 

The animation was solid, definitely at the level of TV special presentation, the music, the voice acting, and the script all came together for a perfect Halloween special that is fun for the whole family.  

Speaking of the voice cast, this thing is just packed with heavy hitters from over 60 years of pop culture history. There's not a weak link among them,  they all played their parts to perfection. The only 2 voices I didn't recognize were the 2 buffoonish shadow goblins, which I should have recognized. The duo are from one of my favorite early 00's sitcoms. 

Jay Leno is always going delight me when he shows up, and he delivers the goods here as a sentient Jack-O-Lantern Who in no way wants to team up yet again with the Headless Horseman for Halloween. 

I cannot say enough good things about this Scooby movie, it's just perfection to me. 

For once, I enjoyed the entirety of the soundtrack. Once we move past the title sequence, which again features the worst of Thomas Chase Jones tendencies, he pulls out his A game for the rest of the score. The songs are also quite fun, with performances from Wallace Shawn and Jim Belushi.

Song	Credits	Performed by	Character performance by
"Who's at the Door"	Music by Thomas Chase Jones Lyrics by Joe Sichta and Sandra Frame Written and produced by Thomas Chase Jones	Wallace Shawn	Mr. Gibbles
"Bump in the Night"	Music by Thomas Chase Jones Lyrics by Joe Sichta Written and produced by Thomas Chase Jones	Randy Crenshaw Casey Kasem	Various monsters Shaggy
"Goblin Oogie Boogie"	Music by Thomas Chase Jones Lyrics by Joe Sichta and Thomas Chase Jones Written and produced by Thomas Chase Jones	James Belushi Background vocals by Molly Pasutti	Glob
"Moocher Durge"	Written and produced by Thomas Chase Jones	N/A	N/A

      

The most impressive  thing about this movie is the voice cast, just look at the supporting players. It's a veritable who's who of pop culture history. Thom Adcox is the only name I am not familiar with. Russi Taylor is a Disney voice acting legend. 

Cast

Mystery Inc. (No change)

Frank Welker - Fred, Afterworld Express Conductor and Scooby-Doo

Casey Kasem - Shaggy
Mindy Cohn - Velma
Grey DeLisle - Daphne, Cat Witch and Honeybee

Supporting Cast

Hayden Panettiere - Fairy Princess Willow      Dot in "A Bug's Life" and Claire Bennett in "Heroes"
Wayne Knight - The Amazing Krudsky           Seinfeld, 3rd Rock from the Sun, Space Jam, Toy Story 2 

Wallace Shawn - Mr. Gibbles                           Toy Story, Princess Bride, DS9, Young Sheldon
Jay Leno - Jack-O'-Lantern                               We're Back, A Dinosaur's Story, Collision Course
Tim Curry - Goblin King, Werewolf                 Stephen King's It, Rocky Horror, Clue, Loaded Weapon  
Jim Belushi - Glob                                            According to Jim, Mr Destiny, Red Heat, 
Larry Joe Campbell - Glum                              According to Jim, Dogman, 
Lauren Bacall - Grand Witch                            To Have and Have Not, The Shootist, 
Thom Adcox - Sparkplug                                   Young Justice, Twisted Tales of Felix The Cat. 
Russi Taylor - Owl Witch and Tiddlywink        Minnie Mouse, Webby, Huey, Dewey, & Louie

Casey Kasem will return one last time as Shaggy in "The Samurai Sword".  

Big shout out to the Scooby-Doo Wiki

Wikipedia

And IMDB

Updated Rankings 

Zombie Island Alien Invaders Goblin King Chill Out, Scooby-Doo! Where's My Mummy? Pirates Ahoy! Monster of Mexico Witch's Ghost Aloha, Scooby-Doo Loch Ness Monster Cyberchase Legend of the Vampire