- Sibella, the daughter of Count Dracula (and who's also implied be a dhampyr).
- Elsa Frankenteen, the daughter of Frankenteen Senior.
- Phantasma (called "Phanty" for short), the daughter of the Phantom (a ghostly analogue of that Phantom).
- Winnie, the daughter of the Wolf Man.
- Tanis (named after an ancient Egyptian city), the daughter of the Mummy.
However, despite the girls being (literal) monsters, they actually prove to be very friendly and sweet-natured, to the point of where Shaggy and Scooby ultimately warm to them and seem to hardly even notice that their students are monsters. Aside from the girls enrolled at the school, other residents include the headmistress (and possible founder) Miss Grimwood, pet dragon Matches (about the same size as Scrappy), a nameless octopus butler, a floating white hand and Legs (a spider that's roughly the same size as Matches and Scrappy). Miss Grimwood soon commences gym class, with the intent to train the girls for their upcoming volleyball match against the boys of the neighboring Calloway Military Academy (who have always beaten them through cheating).
As if teaching at a school of cute monster girls isn't stressful enough for the cowardly Shaggy and Scooby, the girls' fathers visit during the school's annual Halloween Open House, and while initially friendly to the duo, they warn them against letting any harm come to their daughters as they're leaving. As an additional plot twist, Revolta, the self-styled Witch of the Web, and her minion, the Grim Creeper, plan to kidnap the girls and enslave them, with the help of her spider bats. If she gets hold of the girls, she will make a potion that will make them permanently evil.
Of the films based on the "Scrappy Decade" in the Scooby franchise, this is the most fondly remembered—not so much for our heroes than for the cool monster girls. It was frequently broadcast during the early days of Cartoon Network, often with the other two Superstars 10 installments on Halloween.
Thirty years later, the Grimwood Girls would be featured in a crossover episode of OK K.O.! Let's Be Heroes, with the original voice actresses for Sibella, Elsa, and Phanty reprising their roles.
This direct-to-TV movie includes examples of:
- Affably Evil: The Well Dweller is rather playful, and lets Shaggy, Scooby, Scrappy and Matches escape after they play ball with it.
- Affectionate Nickname: The girl ghouls all have different words for their fathers. Sibella uses "Daddy", Winnie uses "Papa", Elsa uses "Dada", Phantasma uses "Father", and Tanis uses either "Mummy" or "Mummy Daddy".
- All-Ghouls School: As one might expect from the title, the plot follows our heroes working at a school for monsters.
- Always Someone Better: Before Shaggy and Scooby were hired as gym teachers at Grimwood, the cadets from Calloway Military School beat the Grimwood girls at the annual volleyball match every single year. But this trope is ultimately subverted once it becomes clear that the boys have only won via cheating. And the girls beat them in the plot's timeframe thanks to Scooby accidentally sabotaging their cheating devices.
- Ambiguously Absent Parent: It's never explored who the girls' mothers are, as only their fathers are ever seen or mentioned throughout the film. Since Sibella's implied to be a dhampyr, it's possible that her mother's a human.
- Artistic License – Physics: Phantasma in general, demonstrated at her first appearance: she drifts in through a wall and then begins playing an organ. Justified by her being a ghost.
- Attack! Attack... Retreat! Retreat!: When Matches steals the cadets' practice volleyball, the boys charge in to take it back. Once they realize Matches can breathe fire, however, Tug orders the cadets to "advance to the rear... and step on it!"
- Bait-and-Switch: This is why Winnie is first to be brainwashed. She successfully escapes Creeper by slashing him and then running into a cabin, but the cabin is full of spider-bats who magically enchant her head with brainwashing headphones, which was the Grim Creeper's plan all along. The brainwashed Winnie then does this to Phantasma, and the two of them in turn do this to Elsa and Tanis. Although the latter two figure out something's wrong from Sibella's shrieks, both are captured anyway.
- Bait-and-Switch Comment:Col. Calloway: I just want to say that no matter what happens on the volleyball court this afternoon... YOU'VE GOTTA WIN!
- Barefoot Cartoon Animal: Winnie is a werewolf who goes barefoot.
- Beware the Nice Ones:
- Sibella, Dracula's polite, friendly and supportive daughter, is able to nearly fight off the spider-bats when the others couldn't.
- Tanis, the Mummy's daughter. She's the youngest girl (at most six years old), sweet and insecure...and during the final confrontation, it's her who casually and fearlessly deprives Revolta of her power ("I want that wand, Revolta!!").
- Bewitched Amphibians: During the final battle with Revolta, she turns Scooby into a frog. When Tanis gets the wand away, she uses it to turn Scooby back into his usual self.
- Big Bad: Revolta, who spends the entire film plotting to turn the girls into her "Revoltized" evil slaves forever so she can conquer the monster world.
- Big Sister Instinct: Sibella's the oldest of the five girls and she risks getting captured to try to warn Tanis and Elsa not to go near the shack.
- Big Beautiful Woman: Miss Grimwood, the school's headmistress (and possibly founder). She has a bit more body mass than the rest of the female characters, but Col. Calloway is still willing to dance with her when they hold a celebratory "dance party" at the end.
- Big Brother Is Watching: Revolta's spy traps keep a constant watch on the Grimwood Girls regardless of where they are, with the sole exception is if they are in the school itself.
- Big Damn Heroes: Shaggy accidentally falls into a hidden chute, which causes him to slide into the "revoltizing" device and free the girls. Subverted, though, because this, along with Scooby, Scrappy, and Matches showing up, gives Creeper hostages to bargain with, and the girls agree to go back under the "revoltizing" device anyway to save their teachers' lives. Revolta's plan only goes wrong because she turns Scooby into a toad and then one of the spider-bats accidentally chases Scooby into dropping potions into a cauldron, making the brainwashing useless.
- The Calloway Cadets prove instrumental in enabling the Grimwood-girls, Matches, Shaggy and the Doos to escape the castle just before it explodes.
- Boarding School: Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls and Calloway Military School (which are next-door to each other) are the two schools featured.
- Brainwashed and Crazy: Revolta's method of choice. She plans to have all five ghouls be "revoltized," which basically means permanent brainwashing, and then she'll use them to rule monsterdom. When the ghouls are brainwashed, they speak in monotone, "I obey only Revolta!"
- Breaking the Fourth Wall: The opening has Scooby noticing the film's title appearing onscreen, then he, Shaggy, and Scrappy seeing their names appearing onscreen next to each of them. Scooby even pushes the "starring" circle over to Shaggy.
- Card-Carrying Villain: Revolta. As just one example, she considers Creeper calling her plan "revolting" to be a compliment; also, her plan is a very standard "take over the world" plot. The only "depth" provided to her motivation is that she thinks the girls' fathers have all gone soft and thinks that she'd be much better at the whole "ruling monster-dom" thing.
- Cerebus Syndrome: The first half is primarily chock-full of comedy, and aside from a few moments, primarily is a school comedy, especially after the girls are shown to be friendly. The second half has Revolta scheming to kidnap the children, the comedy drops, though still present in some scenes, and the gang only escapes by the skin of their teeth.
- Cloudcuckoolander:
- The giggly ghost that is Phantasma.
- To a much more minor extent, all the girls. Tanis thinks playing in the quicksand is "fun" (possibly because the quicksand wouldn't sink her for some mummy-related reason), Elsa thinks ripe corn is "yuck", Sibella takes having a garden full of rotten food as a compliment, and Winnie has some bizarre "doggy" behaviors that show up in-context (running on four paws during a jogging exercise) and out-of-context (she misinterprets a remark by the cadets on "flipping" for the serve and she thinks it means to flip over the net while howling).
- Continuity Nod: This film is presented as taking place just after 13 Ghosts since it has the trio using that show's red van, though Daphne is now absent. This would seem to make Ghoul School the only one of the three "Superstars 10" films definitely confirmed to be in canon and continuity with the rest of the primary Scooby-Doo canon.
- Covers Always Lie:
- Shaggy has his green shirt in one poster when he wears his red shirt and jeans in the film proper. Not to mention, neither characters deal with mixing anything in a cauldron.
- The same art depicts Elsa with a green skin tone, contrasted with the flesh-colored one she sports in the final product. On the DVD, she's colored properly, while her father is drawn with green skin and differently-colored clothes than what he actually wears in the film.
- On the original VHS back cover, the girls are depicted as present when the Mirror Monster emerges from the mirror, with Scrappy challenging him while Shaggy and Scooby watch in fear. In the film itself, the girls are only "present" at that scene insofar as being in the same castle (though elsewhere), plus Shaggy is sucked into the mirror while the Monster takes his place.
- Cute Little Fangs: Sibella shows her gleaming pair of ivories in the first thirty minutes.
- Daddy's Girl: The girls are clearly very close to their fathers. Nothing's ever said about who their mothers are.
- Dance Party Ending: In this case, the dance party is held to celebrate the girls being rescued from Revolta's evil scheme, and to thank the Calloway Military School cadets and colonel of all people for contributing to the rescue.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Some of the monsters have a dark affiliation, but the monsters (not including Revolta and her goons) are relatively nice folks. Shaggy and Scooby gradually learn that the monsters aren't as scary as they appear to be once you spend time with them.
- Daywalking Vampire: Sunlight seems to have no negative effects on Sibella.
- Defrosting Ice Queen: Not literally, since Matches himself breathes fire, but Matches begins the movie hostile to Scooby (though Scrappy quickly befriends him), and Matches only starts to like Scooby later in the movie.
- Dhampyr: Sibella's implied to only be half-vampire, seeing as how (unlike her dad) she can be outside during the day and is clearly unaffected by sunlight (though she's presumably still vulnerable to garlic).
- The Dragon: The Grim Creeper, who looks like an overgrown mutated potato with a single eye.
- Though Matches is a literal dragon, he's a separate trope, entirely.
- Eat the Camera: Sibella as a bat does this when flying towards Col. Calloway, right before a commercial break is to take place.
- Evil Is Hammy: As if speaking loudly and over the top wasn't enough, Revolta even trills her name whenever she speaks it—which is a lot.
- Exact Words: Sibella decides to stretch her wings instead of her legs, as Winnie offered to race her across the bog. Winnie's not happy to see that Sibella abused her offer.
- Exactly What It Says on the Tin: Revolta's castle is called "Castle Revolta".
- Failed a Spot Check:
- How Shaggy ends up brainwashed into taking the girls to Barren Bog. Scooby notices a spider-bat in the room, but when Shaggy investigates, he finds nothing at the window...and he doesn't notice the spider-bat is on his drapes instead.
- Prior to that, Scooby is bouncing up and down during ballet, and the students think it is a new step, however none of them see the pet piranha that is biting his tail.
- Apparently, despite the spy traps being everywhere, nobody at the school noticed any new weird plants growing, especially considering how thorough they appear when getting rid of ripe and fresh plants.
- Absolutely no one can see the cadets are blatantly cheating. This might be understandable if the devices were off the court, but they are all shown on the court, and in some instances, they are visible right in front of the net.
- Fictional Currency: Sibella's able to purchase a pizza (topped with everything except garlic) for everyone with one Transylvania-dollar (which also happens to come in the form of a coin).
- Fiery Redhead: Winnie has red hair, and it isn't wise to threaten her.
- Filler Villain: The Mirror Monster. He has no connection to the rest of the film and is just there to pad it out. Not that he's a disliked character.
- Fluffy Dry Cat: Werewolf Winnie's fur puffs when she's dried off after getting soaked in the school's moat.
- Flying Broomstick: Revolta has these, which she and Creeper use to narrowly avoid getting killed by the destruction of their lair. They still fall to their deaths when the broomsticks evaporate underneath them.
- Forced Transformation: Revolta turns Scooby into a toad at one point.
- Foreign Queasine: Even Shaggy and Scooby have trouble finding something edible at the Ghoul School.
- Friendly Neighborhood Vampire: Sibella's a friendly vampire girl. Her father is this as well, when not in Papa Vampire mode.
- Funny Afro: Sibella has one when she's dried off after a swim in the moat, and because Winnie is covered in fur, when she's dried off, she practically becomes a Funny Afro.
- Fur Against Fang: Winnie and Sibella, respectively—it's a downplayed example, combined with Friendly Rivalry, in that they're fellow students and appear to be friends.
- Sibella makes a joke about werewolves being such "show-offs"; Winnie races Sibella and then complains her ability to turn into a bat is "no fair".
- At one point, Winnie rather rudely orders Sibella to "get flappin'!" (to buy a pizza), but Sibella still complies.
- Got Volunteered: After hearing of what the girls want them for, Scooby and Shaggy are still considering leaving, but Scrappy claims they are good coaches anyway, ultimately forcing them to stay.
- General Ripper: Col. Calloway is a very, very mild example. He's not itching to kill, but he's extremely warlike and teaches the cadets that no matter what happens, they have to win!!!
- Girls Have Cooties: Well, the topic of cooties doesn't come up literally, but this is the Calloway cadets' general demeanor towards the Grimwood girls. In fact, near the end, the cadets complain that they'll never understand girls, especially Grimwood girls!
- Good Parents: The girls' fathers are all very loving towards their daughters but are also fiercely protective of them.
- Gratuitous Rap: Scrappy's rap at the end, which comes out of absolutely nowhere.
- Heel–Face Turn: The Calloway cadets. At first, they refuse to rescue the Grimwood girls out of petty revenge for beating them in the volleyball game, but once they recall that the "Calloway code" requires them to help "ladies in distress", they go on a rescue mission to save the girls from Revolta.
- Heroic Willpower: Sibella, Dracula's daughter, is the last to be captured by the spider-bats after she puts up a very good fight against them first (they only caught her because she was distracted by Elsa and Tanis getting captured). Then, it takes forever for the magical headphones to brainwash Sibella; Revolta even comments about how Sibella's will is as strong as her father's. The bats have to physically carry Sibella to Revolta's castle before the brainwashing finally works.
- Hurricane of Puns: The girls have their own thematic puns. Tanis talks about her "mummy", and Sibella uses "Fang-tastic" as a Character Catchphrase.
- The Hyena: Phantasma, to the point of where she's bordering on Laughing Mad. It's also her single most distinctive character trait; during a scene where Scooby is imitating all the girls to inform Shaggy that they've been kidnapped by Revolta's spider-bats, to imitate Phantasma, Scooby simply has to do her crazy laugh.
- Hypocritical Humor: Minor example: Winnie dives into the moat for a swimming exercise while howling at the top of her lungs. Sibella remarks that "you werewolves are such show-offs", while dramatically flapping her arms like she's going to swoop down on someone before finally diving.
- I Ate WHAT?!:
- Col. Calloway is less than pleased when Miss Grimwood tells him what he's been eating and drinking: "fungus" fudge and "toadstool" tea.
- Subverted when Shaggy and Scooby unexpectedly get "gross" food revealed to them too, but ultimately don't care because it tastes pretty good.
- Iconic Sequel Character: This may be the second Scooby-Doo movie in the Hanna-Barbera Superstars 10 lineup, but the Cute Monster Girl quintet (especially Sibella and Tanis) are far better known than the guest characters from the previous movie.
- Idiot Ball: The Calloway cadets don't seem to have a clue they are living next to ghouls. This is despite them observing Sibella's transformation, Winnie's howling, Phantasma's intangibility, Tanis's mummy bandages, and perhaps most egregiously, Matches's fire-breathing.
- If You Ever Do Anything to Hurt Her...: Before returning home, Dracula and the rest of the monsters warn Shaggy and Scooby that allowing their children to be harmed on their watch is a very bad idea. When Revolta abducts the kids, they along with Scrappy drop everything to save them to avoid the fathers' wrath.
- It Was Here, I Swear!: This happens to poor Scooby twice! The first time, Scooby notices one of Revolta's venus spy-traps in the garden, but Revolta withdraws the trap before Scooby can get Shaggy's attention, so Shaggy dismisses what Scooby saw as a hunger-induced hallucination. This is played as a gag, but the second time has much more serious consequences, because Scooby notices one of Revolta's spider-bats in the room, but can't get Shaggy to see it because the spider-bat moves from the window to the drapes. The spider-bat then brainwashes Shaggy into taking the girls on a field trip to Barren Bog, which indirectly sets off a chain of events that gets them all brainwashed and almost becoming Revolta's evil team forever.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold:
- Matches is bad-tempered and hostile towards Scooby as well as the Calloway Cadets, but he and Scrappy pretty much instantly become friends, he clearly cares about Miss Grimwood and her students, and eventually warms up to Scooby.
- The Calloway cadets too—while initially are kind of hostile towards the Grimwood-girls and also initially refuse to help Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy rescue the girls from Revolta, but their consciences eventually get the better of them, and after recalling that "it's the Calloway code to help ladies in distress", they go to rescue the Grimwood-girls and Shaggy, Scooby and Scrappy.
- Karloff Kopy: Elsa's father Frankenteen, Sr. sounds vaguely like Boris Karloff.
- Laser-Guided Karma: It becomes clear the cadets have always won through cheating. They lose thanks to their cheating strategies blowing up in their faces.
- Last Episode, New Character: At the end, three new girls show up with their parents. However, they are un-named. Unknown if they were named in the model sheets though.
- Last-Name Basis: The first names of Miss Grimwood and Colonel Calloway are never mentioned throughout—they're only ever referred to as "Miss Grimwood" and "Colonel Calloway", respectively.
- Lawyer-Friendly Cameo: The father of one the new students at the end is implied to be Godzilla. The coloration is notably the charcoal grey of the live-action Godzilla, rather than the green of the Hanna-Barbara Godzilla. Also, the eponymous Creature from the Black Lagoon is colored orange instead of green.
- Lorre Lookalike: Phantasma's father speaks with a clear Peter Lorre impression, which is accentuated by his big round eyes.
- Love Is a Weakness: Revolta says that the classic monsters were once some of the most powerful beings in the world, but believes that them becoming fathers has made them "soft".
- Milholland Relationship Moment: When the girls' famous fathers show up, Shaggy and Scooby run like hell, but are caught anyway. Shaggy first claims to Dracula that he doesn't want to eat him and Scooby, since they have "chicken blood" and are skin and bones. Then, more relevantly to this trope, Shaggy begs the "Mummy Daddy" not to hurt Scooby and Scrappy, since it's Shaggy's fault that they're at the school in the first place. Tanis's dad responds, "Hurt you? I want to hug you, for making my daughter feel like a winner!" Then it turns out the fathers are actually here to congratulate the trio for helping the girls win the volleyball game for the first time ever.
- Mind-Control Eyes: Anyone who is under control of Revolta's brainwashing will have either spinning spirals or black outlined ripples in their eyes.
- Mirror Universe: Shaggy gets temporarily stuck in one while his evil double escapes into the real world. They switch back eventually.
- Monster in the Moat: The school is surrounded by a moat inhabited by a two-headed Threatening Shark.
- Monster Mash: The premise is about Scooby, Shaggy, and Scrappy doing volunteer work at a school for monsters, with the girls being a vampire, a Frankenstein monster, a werewolf, a mummy and a ghost. Then later their fathers, the actual monsters they're all based on, appear. And in the end, we also see a Martian father and daughter, the Creature from the Black Lagoon and his daughter, and freakin' Godzilla even shows up to drop off his daughter (Zillette?)
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Revolta's name certainly fits someone as evil as her.
- Never Trust a Trailer: The trailer for the 2001 VHS and DVD splices in some footage from Scooby-Doo on Zombie Island and The Witch's Ghost, as if to create an inconsistently-animated impression of Scooby's whole gang visiting Miss Grimwood's school.
- Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Shaggy and Scooby prove completely inept at this "rescuing the girl ghouls" business; Scrappy and Matches are more helpful but ultimately Matches' pilot light goes out at a bad time. Revolta actually would've succeeded at "Revoltizing" the girls if she hadn't decided to magically turn Scooby into a toad... which gives him a small enough form to accidentally knock potions into the cauldron and screw up the formula, rendering the "revoltizing" potions useless. The spider-bat who chased Scooby into those potions also falls under this trope.
- Nice Girl: While creepy and vaguely threatening at first (not leaving the best first impression on Shaggy and Scooby), the girls at Miss Grimwood's ultimately prove to be very nice.
- Sibella and Tanis are easily the nicest of the five—Sibella's very helpful and polite and will provide assistance whenever needed, and Tanis is the only one of the girls who don't intentionally scare Shaggy and Scooby out of their wits when they first met her, unlike the others who apparently thought acting vaguely creepy and threatening was a hilarious joke to play. However, it should be noted that Tanis did scare Shaggy and Scooby by accident when they and Scrappy hid inside of the sarcophagus that she happened to be sleeping in.
- The Nicknamer: Minor example; Elsa never calls Shaggy by name, only as "Coach". The others sometimes call Shaggy "Coach" too, but Elsa never uses any other term of address.
- Nightmare Face: When Scooby fails to trick the Mirror Monster and then accidentally bumps into him from behind, the next frame shows an Extreme Close-Up on the Mirror Monster's face.Mirror Monster: You can't fool the Mirror Monster!
- Nightmare Fuel Station Attendant:
- Like a certain family, most ghouls/monsters/etc. in this film are perfectly nice people who don't seem to understand why others would be freaked out by man-eating plants, quicksand, less-than-savory food, and the like.
- It should be pointed out, however, that their lack of understanding never causes them to act with cruelty: when the Calloway Cadets are trapped in quicksand, for example, Tanis and Elsa don't understand why the Cadets consider that a bad thing, but ultimately they do help the Cadets out just because the cadets insisted. This, along with the cadets suddenly remembering a crucial part of the "Calloway Code", convinces them to help rescue the Grimwood girls later on.
- No Name Given: Miss Grimwood's octopus butler is not given a name.
- Not-So-Harmless Villain: The Grim Creeper, twice. When we first see him, he appears to be Revolta's bumbling, idiotic sidekick, and for the most part, he is. But when he actually shows up in person, he uses an elaborate plan to trick Winnie into getting herself brainwashed (which required Winnie to run from him; yes the Grim Creeper actually manages to act scary), and Winnie then helps capture the rest of the girls. Also, he proves a surprisingly formidable obstacle to Shaggy and Scooby's rescue attempt, due both to his multiple tentacles and his trump card of trapping them in a pit with the giant Well Dweller.
- Obviously Evil: The moment Revolta shows up, it's immediately clear who the villain of the film is.
- Odd Friendship: After properly acquainting themselves with Grimwood, Shaggy and Scooby end up earnestly enjoying their time with the girls, in spite of the fact they're real monsters.
- One-Gender School: Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls is an all-girls school (for female monsters) while Calloway Military School is an all-boys military school.
- Opposing Sports Team: The Calloway Cadets are the "insufferable" type. They snicker and laugh at the idea of beating the Grimwood girls, complete with an ominous "Goodbye, Grimwood!" at one point, they're hostile and rude when they deign to speak to the girls at all, and they cheat when they're about to lose. Interestingly enough, though, unlike most examples of this trope, the cadets learn their lesson later on, after remembering that the Calloway Code requires them to help ladies in distress. It didn't hurt that Tanis and Elsa had previously rescued them from quicksand.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Matches is tiny, and he can't breathe fire indefinitely; if he breathes too much fire in too short a period of time (or if he gets wet), his "pilot light" will go out and he'll only be able to breathe smoke until it recharges.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Sibella never drains anyone's blood during the movie (though she does drain a crabapple), she doesn't get burned up in sunlight, and she has no problems crossing water (she can even go swimming). She plays some other vampire tropes straight, though: she buys a pizza with everything on it "except garlic", she can transform into a bat, and she's very strong (at one point she air-lifts Shaggy and Scooby out of danger in her bat form).
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Winnie's a werewolf, but is never shown to have a human form.
- Painting the Medium: Twice in thirty seconds during the opening credits! The most humorous example being when Shaggy claims that he's having trouble seeing through the rain...right when a credit is right in front of his face.
- Papa Wolf: All five of the girls' fathers are highly protective of their daughters (with Winnie's being a literal example since he's a werewolf). They all give implied death threats to Shaggy and Scooby should anything bad happen to any of their daughters. Special mention goes to Tanis and Phanty's dads, who extend their threat to cover all five of the girls rather than just their daughters specifically.
- Pink Means Feminine: A more subtle example than most, but Tanis wears a pink bow. It stands out as this trope because it's the only thing she wears that isn't another bandage.
- Three new students show up at the end (which finally prompts Shaggy and Scooby to take a hike, but they at least say goodbye to the original girls as they go), and one of them, the daughter of Godzilla, is wearing a pink tutu.
- Plot Hole:
- A minor one, since it only affects the logic of an individual scene. In one scene, Sibella saves Scooby, Shaggy and Scrappy from alligators by letting them all hold onto her in her bat form, then air-lifting them out of danger. But later in the movie, when Revolta's castle is about to explode because Revolta's potion got messed up, Sibella says, "I'll fly us out, but I can only take one at a time." Although the former was a short glide while the latter would have been a lengthy airlift.
- Also, when the five Calloway Cadets are meant to be following the colonel through Barren Bog, four of them split off to go their own way (leaving only Baxter, the smallest, to follow the colonel), and wind up caught in quicksand. At the end, they meet the Colonel and Baxter again...yet Baxter is clearly shown with the others when they're caught in the quicksand.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: Revolta's plan to use the Grimwood girls to Take Over the World has nothing to do with the girls' rivalry with the Calloway Cadets. Her motivation is that she's lost her respect for their fathers, who aren't the fierce monsters of legend they were before having children.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: A downplayed example, seeing as they're young boys who don't know any better, but the Calloway Cadets (before they turn good) regularly mention that their opponents are girls and their plans to whoop their butts.
- Pungeon Master: Most of the Grimwood girls, especially Sibella, have a tendency for monster-related puns. Miss Grimwood has her moments as well, like this: "It's an old family recipe: Poison Ivy Punch. Made from scratch."
- Reasonable Authority Figure: Miss Grimwood herself—pretty much the only times that we ever see her truly get mad is when Matches is misbehaving. Scrappy temporarily becomes one himself when he referees the volleyball game; he wants Grimwood to win but will call Grimwood girls out on fouls, such as when Phantasma goes through the net, which is a technical violation that awards Calloway the ball. Though how he didn't see some of the Cadets' cheating is anyone's guess...
- Red Baron: Revolta is also known as "The Witch of the Web."
- The Rival: The Calloway Cadets are this to the Grimwood girls because they always beat them at volleyball, and are the primary source of conflict before Revolta begins enacting her plan.
- School Rivalry: Miss Grimwood's Finishing School for Ghouls is said to have a long-running rivalry with neighboring all-boy's school Calloway Military School. This also has shades of a "girls-vs-boys" rivalry as well. It ultimately ends up being a friendly rivalry, however, as the boys end up helping the ghouls out when Revolta attacks their school.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- Shaggy and Scooby attempt to pull this off twice—the first time is after learning the true nature of the school and the second time is when they're trying to get out of meeting the girls' fathers, but they fail both times.
- The Mirror Monster who replaces Shaggy gets burned in the rear by Matches, causing him to decide that it's too dangerous out in the real world, so he switches back with Shaggy of his own accord, jumping into the mirror and literally throwing Shaggy out of it.
- At the very end, three new students arrive: the daughters of a martian, the Creature from the Black Lagoon, and Godzilla. This prompts Shaggy and Scooby to make another escape attempt, and this time they succeed because their contract has expired. They're at least nice enough to say good-bye to the rest of the girls as they're leaving, though.
- Serious Business:
- See Papa Wolf above—while the dads clearly love their daughters and do like Shaggy and the Doos, they're also fiercely protective of their daughters and make implied death threats to Shaggy and Scooby should something terrible happen to any of their daughters. Special mention goes to Tanis and Phanty's dads, who extend the threat to cover all five of the girls rather than just their daughters specifically.
- As another example of this trope, Grimwood's Finishing School for Girls has an intense rivalry with Calloway Military Academy, which it settles every year by volleyball.
- Shout-Out:
- To the Universal films, since the girl ghouls are the daughters of the Universal horror series monsters. But there's also a minor shout-out near the end to Gone with the Wind of all things! Specifically, when Elsa throws Revolta's wand into the cauldron full of brainwashing potion, the potion is over-energized, and Revolta realizes it'll explode. Winnie then howls and says, "We're gonna be gone with the wand!"
- Elsa is named for Elsa Lanchester, who played the Bride of Frankenstein.
- Simpleton Voice: Elsa has one, but ironically, she's probably the smartest of the girls; as a gift to her "Dada", she was able to create a portable Walkman-like device labeled a "Shockman" all by herself.
- The Social Darwinist: Revolta has slight shades of this. Her motivation for wanting to turn the girl ghouls into her "evil SWAT-team" is that, in Revolta's opinion, the girls' fathers used to be the mightiest in the monster world, but have now gone "soft". Apparently, Revolta thinks they've gone soft, especially after seeing Dracula was willing to offer the Mummy the former's cape to keep the latter out of the rain, so it can be inferred that Revolta would prefer herself as ruler of Monster-dom because Revolta would never do something that nice.
- Speech-Impaired Animal: In addition to Scooby, we have Matches.
- Take Over the World: Revolta's motivations for her plot. She thinks the girls' fathers, who used to be the most powerful monsters in the world, have grown "soft", and naturally Revolta herself would be a suitable replacement ruler of monsterdom, complete with girl ghoul SWAT team.
- Teacher's Pet: Baxter of the Calloway Cadets is this, with the Colonel being the "teacher". In an unusual example, however, this is portrayed as a good thing: since Baxter was the only one of the cadets to actually listen to the Colonel's instructions and follow them precisely, Baxter finishes his hike in much better shape than the rest.
- Teens Are Monsters: Well, literally, yes! Though in terms of personality, the "teen" monsters are all very nice, and so are the "child" monsters.
- Those Magnificent Flying Machines: The cadets have a pedal-powered helicopter. They use it to air-lift our heroes and the girls out of Revolta's castle in the climax.
- Threatening Shark: The Grimwood school has a two-headed shark in the moat that tries to harass Scooby after he falls into it, despite the fact that most sharks cannot survive in freshwater.
- Took a Level in Kindness: The girls' fathers are implied to have taken one before the start of the story, in spite of being Knight Templar Parents making thinly veiled death threats on Shaggy and Scooby if the girls suffer a bad fate under the duo's watch, as Revolta says they've gone soft and aren't as cruel as they used to be.
- Totally Radical: The cartoon ends with Scrappy rapping, which is just as terrible as it sounds. To clarify, the music during the rap is actually pretty good. It's the vocal part that falls flat; Scrappy can't pull off the rap because he has little sense of vocal timing, so during some lines it sounds like he's just speaking really fast, rather than actually trying to maintain a rhythm.
- Town Girls: Elsa and Winnie are the tomboys, Sibella and Tanis are the girly girls, and Phanty's the in-between.
- Two-Teacher School: Mrs. Grimwood employs a few monster servants but seemingly teaches everything at her finishing school besides Gym, which she hires Shaggy to teach (with Scooby and Scrappy being his assistants). To be fair, she only has five students, and it isn't shown exactly how many classes the school has.
- Vegetarian Vampire: Sibella's probably a vampire who doesn't subsist on blood. The only thing we ever see her drain is a crabapple.
- Verbal Tic: Here's a list:
- Sibella makes lots of "bat" puns, such as "fang-tastic" or "fright stuff" or just puns on the word "bat" in general.
- Winnie takes the opportunity to howl if she is saying anything that would remotely sound like a howl. For example, she won't howl if she's just saying that Shaggy and friends "won't be hungry for long", since there's nothing in that sentence that sounds like a howl. But if she's greeting someone and saying "hello", she'll turn the last part of "Hello" into a howl. Also, she'll sometimes howl if her emotions are running really strongly, such as when Revolta's cauldron is "over-generalized" and is in danger of exploding and taking the whole castle with it.
- Phantasma has a very distinctive laugh, which sounds something like "Ah-hee-hee-hee-ahahahaha!" or variations thereof. She does the laugh whenever she can get away with it.
- Elsa talks very, very slowly all the time, and sounds like a simpleton (which doesn't reflect her actual intelligence, since she can construct a "portable Shock-man" by herself). She even sounds simple-minded when she's angrily telling Revolta, "You can't tell Elsa Frankenteen what to do." She also habitually refers to Shaggy as "Coach".
- Tanis' verbal tic doesn't come out as much as the others; on rare occasions, she'll start making Egyptian-themed puns, such as being able to swim "a Nile and a half", and calls her mummy daddy "Mummy".
- On that note, Jamal of the Calloway Cadets has his own tic: answering questions with an "affirmative" instead of a simple "yes".
- Revolta rolls her "R"s.
- Virtue Is Weakness: Revolta spies on Dracula using his cape to shield the Mummy from the rain. She says in disgust that she used to admire the classic monsters, but now they have become soft. She aims to take over the world and eliminate all forms of kindness.
- What the Hell, Hero?: A very minor example occurs after Shaggy and the Doos arrive at Grimwood. To go into greater detail:
- After Shaggy and the Doos discover that Miss Grimwood's finishing school is an all-girls school for female monsters rather than female humans, Shaggy and Scooby (of course) want to high-tail it out of there. But Miss Grimwood reminds Shaggy that he had signed a contract to stay on for at least one school year (and Scrappy adds that he and his Uncle Scooby had also signed it)—so if Shaggy and the Doos were to leave, they'd be violating their contract. Shaggy acknowledges that Miss Grimwood has a point and he, Scooby and Scrappy ultimately stay at the school—Scrappy doesn't have a problem with it, and although Shaggy and Scooby are obviously much more reluctant to do so, they warm up to the students remarkably fast.
- When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Verbatim, this is when Revolta plans to revoltize the girls, making their evil brainwashing permanent.
- Wicked Witch: Revolta is a vicious witch, complete with creepy skin color, evil spells, and flying broom.
