The sixth direct-to-video installment of the Scooby-Doo franchise, Scooby-Doo and the Monster of Mexico was produced by Warner Bros. Animation and again directed by the guy who brought us Scooby-Doo comics, Scott Jeralds.
Once more the film was done in a retro format resembling the classic Hanna-Barbera 1970s cartoons and this movie was the final time featuring Frank Welker, Casey Kasem, Heather North and Nicole Jaffe from The New Scooby-Doo Movies together, as this was North and Jaffe's final time voicing Daphne and Velma respectively. This was also North's final project before her death in 2017.
The movie begins with Fred’s Mexican pen-pal inviting him and the rest of the gang to come visit him in Veracruz, Mexico. Fred’s friend, Alejo Otero, and his family own a hotel and offers to let them all stay while vacationing. The gang decides it’s a good chance to take a break from solving mysteries, only to find there’s a new mystery waiting for them when they arrive in Veracruz. The mythical Mexican monster El Chupacabra is supposedly tormenting the residents of the town and chasing away visitors. Of course, the gang begins investigating the town to see what they can turn up.
Tropes:
- Agony of the Feet: When El Chupacabra comes after Daphne during the final chase scene, she stomps on its toes with her high heels, leaving it hopping on one foot in pain.
- Ambiguous Situation: Were the two cats that seemed to come alive from the mural robots or real cats? They certainly act like real cats licking Fred and when they see a parrot.
- Artistic License – Religion: The jack-o-lanterns some kids are seen carving in the background are completely out-of-place in Dia de Los Muertos, being exclusively related to All Hallows' Eve.
- Big Bad: Mr. Smiley and Charlene are behind the hoax as an attempt to get the Otero family to sell their land.
- Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: El Chupacabra is depicted as a Mexican Sasquatch. See Sadly Mythtaken below.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: The museum guide, also known as Charlene, is a much crueler person than she seems.
- Blazing Inferno Hellfire Sauce: During the "Viva Mexico" portion of the film, Scooby eats some chili peppers which are too spicy even for him to handle and goes searching for some water, even breathing fire in the process.
- Cactus Cushion: When the gang gets chased around by the Chupacabra, Velma manages to evade it at one point by dressing up a cactus to look like her; the monster grabs the cactus and gets injured by the needles, and then backs up into another one.
- Chekhov's Gun: A billboard is seen for Mr. Smiley's theme park in America early on. Later a similar billboard is seen suggesting he wants to build a new one in Mexico. Turns out Mr. Smiley's the culprit. He wanted to steal the land owned by Alejo and his family to build his theme park on.
- Compressed Hair: Under her Chupacabra disguise, Charlene wears a museum guide disguise, with a wig that compresses her big/puffy blonde hair.
- Chupacabra: The Monster of the Week. Although the only thing consistent about it is its apparent diet of goats (and even then, it is only mentioned once).
- Crazy-Prepared: The bad guys have all kinds of very impressive animatronic robots scattered throughout the area to intimidate the gang, tracking devices, signs to divert them to a museum, and more.
- Crisis Catch And Carry:
- In the opening scene, Alejo tracks down his son, Jorge, when he runs after the family dog. Then he sees el Chupacabra and runs away, carrying his son in his arms.
- When El Chupacabra appears again on Dia de Los Muertos during the cemetery ceremonies, a man picks up a little girl (presumably his daughter or another relative) as he runs away from the monster.
- Damsel in Distress: Daphne gets kidnapped in a tourist attraction mid-film in an attempt to scare away the gang, but she is found outside shortly after. She also breaks free of her restraints of her own effort right when she is found.
- Dating What Mommy Hates: After Charlene's revealed as one of the culprits and is carted off to prison alongside her lover, Mr. Smiley, Dolores (Luis and Alejo's mother) reveals that she never liked Charlene that much to begin with, even going so far as to call her a "bruja" (which, as Fred notes, is the Spanish word for "witch").
- Didn't Think This Through: Mr. Smiley learned the hard way that if you only speak English in a foreign community, chances are a vast majority of them won't understand what is being said. His attempt to impersonate a ghost and convince the town's inhabitants to sell off their land fails because no one understands what he's said, especially when living relatives of the man he's impersonating are present and knew he only spoke Spanish.
- Eccentric Mentor: Downplayed, but still: The Curandero, a quintessential sage/shaman/wise mentor figure, turns out to have a personal website. When Daphne expresses surprise about this, he replies with a hint of a smile: "As I said: expect the unexpected."
- Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Mr. Smiley mocks Alejo for respecting his father's wishes to not sell the family hotel. Lampshaded at the end by Señor Fuente.
- Expressive Mask: Mr. Smiley's rubber skull mask is capable of showing a wide range of emotions and the jaw moves perfectly with his voice.
- Foreboding Fleeing Flock: Alejo mentions that coyotes fear humans more than humans should fear coyotes. One of the gang asks why the coyote's sounds are coming toward them, in that case, and Alejo theorizes that it's running from something. Sure enough, the coyote runs right past the gang and the Oteros trying to escape la Chupacabra.
- Foreshadowing: Luis mentions that he met Charlene at Mr. Smiley's Funland amusement park. It turns out that she is romantically involved with Mr. Smiley.
- Genre Savvy: El Curandero tells the gang that they will be in grave danger if they continue investigating, and predicts the culprits are businessmen from up north who had their development plans refused by the locals. He's dead right on both points.
- Gold Digger: Charlene (very openly) admits that she only loved Luis for his family's wealth.
- Good News, Bad News: When Daphne tells him to slow down after their getaway from the Chupacabra, Shaggy tells her he has bad news: the brakes don't work, and he can't slow down. However, he interjects some good news immediately thereafter: the Mystery Machine has almost run out of gas.
- Gratuitous Spanish: Justified, since (almost) the entire movie takes place in Mexico—in fact, the fact the main villain doesn't speak Spanish is an important plot point.
- Happily Married: Alejo and his wife, Sofia—Dolores and her late husband (Luis and Alejo's father) were presumably this.
- Honest Corporate Executive: Señor Fuente might want the Ortero's land, but he wants it honestly and takes their refusal gracefully, even trying to help them under circumstances which he could have used to his advantage instead.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: An animal version (as well as being exaggerated)—after arriving at the resort owned by Alejo and his family, Scooby-Doo (a Great Danenote ) immediately falls for the Ortero-family's pet Chihuahuanote , Chiquita (who returns those feelings).
- Hypocritical Humor:
- Shaggy and Scooby talking about how ridiculous the idea of the monster is while there's a clear view of them having barricaded their door and carrying tongs.
- Doña Dolores (Luis and Alejo's mother) saying to stay calm about Charlene's kidnapping before undergoing a complete Freak Out.
- "I Can't Look!" Gesture: When the gang finds a Chupacabra footprint after a nighttime incident, Shaggy tells Scooby not to look so they won't be up all night. Both of them hide their faces in their hands/paws.
- Improvised Weapon: Velma and Fred hide from El Chupacabra by joining some musicians on a stage. When the monster holds it over its head, Velma and Fred lean down and play their trumpets in its ears.
- It's Always Mardi Gras in New Orleans: Naturally, the gang goes to Mexico in time for Dia de Los Muertos.
- Kick the Dog: An annoyed Charlene chews out Luis for being a hopeless romantic and reveals that she only wanted his money and that she and Mr. Smiley are a couple. Telling him, "Oh, would you wake up and smell the café lechera, you pea-brained romantic?"
- Language Barrier: The threat written in Spanish on the Mystery Machine had a grammar error no real Spanish-speaking person would make, and the alleged ghost of the Otero patriarch only spoke English. These are hints that the bad guys don't speak Spanish.
- Latex Perfection: Mr. Smiley's skull mask and Charlene's museum guide disguise, which she even wears under the Chupacabra suit.
- Lazy Mexican: Subverted—Shaggy's initially excited at visiting Mexico due to the cultural tradition of taking siestas after lunch until Velma explains that they're to prepare for hard work, which repels him. This is the only time the idea comes up in the entire film.
- Loophole Abuse: Shaggy and Scooby are told to search the East side of town for the monster. They decide that since the Mystery Machine is located on the east side of town, they'll just search for it and then stay there until the others get back. Naturally, it backfires on them.
- Maybe Magic, Maybe Mundane:
- So how many of the things at the pyramids were special effects? It is strongly implied that not all of them were, since the animatronic eagle Paco (which is operated by the main villain) was visibly afraid of the living statues, and was attacked by the two jaguars that came to life.
- And then (most of) the gifts Alejo's family leave at his father's grave vanish... how did that happen? The only gift that was not gone? Charlene's.
- Also, the Curandero (medicine man) gives the gang some cryptic hints, implying that the monster is not real, "the only evil force in this land is greed", and "the answers to all your questions can be found in the past" (which leads the gang to investigate the national museum). His role in the plot is never explained: does he just happen to know something about the goings-on, or does he have some sort of psychic powers?
- My Hovercraft Is Full of Eels: Fred's Spanish speaking leaves something to be desired, though he usually gets most words right. Unfortunately, the few he gets wrong are enough to turn the sentence into gibberish (e.g., "Thank you for your wise words of ostrich."). Ironically, he's much more versed in Spanish grammar, as he manages to figure out a major clue from a threat written in Spanish containing an error a native speaker wouldn't have made, meaning that their culprit likely doesn't speak Spanish.
- Nightmare Fetishist: The Tour Guide, smiling widely, talks about how the ancient Aztecs' sacrifices involved "ripping out their still-beating hearts to offer to the Gods. Super!"
- Not This One, That One: After Alejo introduces himself by walking out of a cottage, the gang assumes that's his house. He clarifies that they're just guest cottages, and he lives in the massive family hotel nearby.
- Obnoxious In-Laws: After the monster kidnaps Charlene, a friend of Doña Dolores comments that she wishes the monster would run off with her future daughter-in-law. Dolores calls her out on this.
- Paper-Thin Disguise: Subverted. When the gang is chased by a mob of angry tourists, they use obvious disguises like they always did in their previous adventures. The tourists see through their disguises immediately.
- Politically Incorrect Villain: Mr. Smiley pretends to be the ghost of Alejo and Luis's father telling them to sell their hotel. But Alejo pointed out their real father spoke only Spanish. When he's found out, he complains that he doesn't know how to speak Spanish and asks why everyone can't just learn English.
- Red Herring: Señor Fuente. He is introduced wanting to buy Alejo's land, despite previous refusals. Doña Dolores says she never trusted him and calls him a jerk... but he isn't the bad guy. In the end, he explains that, for as much as he wanted to buy the Ortero's land, he came to respect the fact that they didn't want to sell it and admired the family's love for his old business partner, Señor Otero (Luis and Alejo's dad).He also explains that he had learned of Charlene and Mr. Smiley's scheme and wanted to warn them of it.
- Retraux: Produced in the same retro Hanna-Barbera style as Scooby-Doo! and the Legend of the Vampire and later with Krypto the Superdog; all of these being directed (and created in the latter) by Scooby/H-B veteran Scott Jeralds.
- Running Gag:
- Most of the gang have customized their email notifications to include their catchphrases.
- One of the locals compares El Chupacabra to his Uncle Flaco more than once (after someone has described the monster in some negative way).
- Sadly Mythtaken: The urban legends associated with El Chupacabra describe it as being reptilian and that it sucks the blood of goats, hence the name ("Chupacabra" translates to "goat-sucker"). The Chupacabra in this movie is a Bigfoot-like creature, and characters never mention it drinking blood (it is mentioned eating goats, however). While the Chupacabra is popularly known as the "Mexican Bigfoot", that doesn't mean that it's literally Mexico's version of Bigfoot (the Chupacabra doesn't even come from Mexico but from Puerto Rico). Though to be fair, they probably would've had trouble using a faithful version of the Chupacabra in a Scooby-Doo movie, anyway, especially one emulating the classic Scooby-Doo cartoons from 1969-1979. Ironically, they kind of got it in reverse from the last film, where a Bigfoot-like monster was inaccurately portrayed as a bloodsucker.
- "Scooby-Doo" Hoax: The Chupacabra is a fake monster used by Mr. Smiley and his associate, Charlene.
- Shout-Out:
- Velma says they're likely to meet "coyotes and jaguars and boars" in the forest, and Daphne says, "Oh my!"
- "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."
- El Chupacabra's roars are the same as Godzilla in Hanna-Barbera's The Godzilla Power Hour.
- One of the lyrics in the "Viva Mexico" song is "Let me hear you scream '¡Ándale! ¡Ándale!'", which was a common exclamation from another Warner Bros. Animation character, Speedy Gonzales.
- Smelly Skunk: The Gang is forced to stop the Mystery Machine at one point thanks to a skunk, which has Visible Odor coming off it. They take cover on a billboard and the skunk laughs at them.
- Special Effects Failure: In-Universe; the "magical eagle" is very obviously just a machine. However, it's convincing enough to fool the gullible tourists.
- Spot the Thread: Freddy, when reviewing the footage of the vandalized Mystery Machine, deduces that the perpetrator isn't a native Spanish speaker due to the word manana missing the tilde, the ~ symbol above the first "n."
- Stupid Crooks: The villain this time around makes some notable mistakes, such as relying on absurd, flimsy hoaxes and attempting to impersonate a Mexican man who only spoke Spanish when he doesn't know it.
- Vehicular Sabotage: One of the culprits clips the Mystery Machine's brake line. It only stops when the fuel runs out and conveniently right outside of a fuel station.
- What You Are in the Dark:
- When he heard Alejo yelling for help, Luis freezes in terror rather than immediately running over (since their father's passing, he was afraid of losing his brother too), and initially claiming he'd been unconscious at the time something he clearly sees as his Moment of Weakness and is ashamed of it. He apologizes for his cowardice, but Alejo immediately forgives him, claiming that there are worse things than being a coward. Shaggy, a self-proclaimed coward, would know.
- The gang publicly apologize to Luis for wrongfully suspecting him even though he'd had no knowledge of that mistaken suspicion and wouldn't have ever known if not for their apology.
- Señor Fuente, upon getting an inkling of Smiley's scheme, chooses to warn the Orteros rather than just sit back and try to profit off of it himself.
- Wrong Genre Savvy: The tourists think they’re in some lighter movie with actual spirit animals and being Badass Bystanders against the sinister vandals but are really just Unwitting Pawns of the villains who've been distracted into chasing the heroes.
