Directed by David Block, Scooby-Doo! Music of the Vampire is the seventeenth direct-to-video installment for the Scooby-Doo franchise.
It begins when Scooby and the gang take a road trip into bayou country to attend the "Vampire-Palooza Festival", an outdoor fair dedicated to all things Dracula. At first it looks as if they're in for some fun and lots of Southern snacks, but events soon turn scary when a real life vampire comes to life, bursts from his coffin and threatens all the townsfolk. On top of that, this baritone blood sucker seems intent on taking Daphne as his vampire bride! Could the vampire be a descendant of a famous vampire hunter who is trying to sell his book? Or perhaps he's the local politician, who has been trying to make his name in the press by attacking the vampires as downright unwholesome. The answers are to be found in a showdown in the swamp which our heroes unmask one of their most macabre monsters yet.
Tropes:
- 2D Visuals, 3D Effects: The opening song has CG-animated the Mystery Machine.
- Activist-Fundamentalist Antics: Jasper Poubelle, though centered around vampires. His protesting towards vampire-related stuff turns out to be more or less publicity for his mayoral campaign.
- Animated Musical: Only the second installment of the franchise to feature the characters sing musical numbers since Scooby Goes Hollywood back in 1979.
- Animation Bump: Several sequences are more fluid and detailed than the rest of the movie, mostly during the musical numbers and, strangely, Daphne in the scene where Velma rescues her from the vampire wedding.
- Batman Cold Open: The gang start off with solving a mystery of a giant, monster cockroach. After this and several previous Noodle Incident mysteries, they all agree that they deserve a vacation.
- Big "NO!": Shaggy and Scooby scream this as Daphne puts on show tunes as the gang sets off on their road trip.
- Brain Food: Mentioned in "Done with Monsters"; Daphne lists "things that eat your brains" as one of the creatures that she hopes won't be involved in their vacation.
- By the Lights of Their Eyes: By Fred and Velma for a moment when driving through a tunnel during the "Setting Off" Song.
- Cat Scare: In the mystery from the Batman Cold Open, Shaggy and Scooby scream, sending the others running towards their location. When Velma and Daphne arrive, they see the two panicked about a regular cockroach's huge shadow. Unfortunately, the real cockroach monster turns up moments later.
- Dramatic Wind: Fred does this at one point during "Done With Monsters", where he sticks his head out the window and the wind is blowing his hair back.
- Famed In-Story: Scooby and the gang. After getting caught, the villain explains that he lured them into the town because scaring people with their reputations would have increased the popularity he hoped to obtain with his hoax. Turns out to be Hoist by His Own Petard because he didn't think they'd live up to the reputation and summarily tear down his entire mystery.
- Gadgeteer Genius: Tulie mentions that he is an inventor who tried to patent flying shoes.
- Green Around the Gills: As the gang is driving across a high, rickety bridge during the song 'Done With Monsters', Shaggy looks down at the water below and becomes nauseous and green as a result. He snaps out of it when Fred passes him a burger.
- I Ate WHAT?!: Shaggy and Scooby are disgusted when Tulie reveals that he makes his gumbo with leeches.
- "I Want" Song: The song "Done With Monsters" totally plays this straight, with the gang hoping there aren't any monsters on their vacation.
- Jerkass: Lita, the owner of the festival, Jasper Poubelle and Bram are all unpleasant people who only care about furthering their own agendas.
- Ladies and Germs: Bram of the Fangenschanz acting troupe welcomes the audience with "Ladies and gentle-mortals!"
- List Song: "Done with Monsters" largely consists of the gang listing a bunch of supernatural creatures (presumably ones that have been the costumes for past mysteries) that they hope not to encounter on vacation.
- Lost in Character: The actors of the vampire show go way too far when it comes to being like vampires. Humorously, this leads to them being walking cliches. Lampshaded with Bram, who Daphne mentions is "one stereotype below my limit".
- The Musical: Not the first film of the franchise to feature songs sung by the characters in-universe, but the first film in the direct-to-video film series to be a musical.
- My Eyes Are Leaking: Velma towards the end. The swamp gas is making her eyes water and stream down her face, making Daphne (dazed and tied to an altar) think Velma is crying.
- Nobody Touches the Hair: Shaggy looks irritated when Daphne ruffles his hair out of position during the opening song, though he quickly lets it go to keep having fun with the song.
- Noodle Incident: During the Batman Cold Open mystery, the gang rattle off three other mysteries that they recently solved just previous to the current one. The viewer doesn't get any information about said mysteries other than a rough timeline and the monsters involved (a rat creature, a glop monster, and a snake-o-saurus).
- Only Known by Their Nickname: After Tulie introduces himself, he notes Tulie isn't his real name, but it's the name on the shack he lives in, so it's what he goes by.
- Only the Pure of Heart: The vampire kidnaps Daphne to be his bride because he wants a pure-hearted beauty. Velma takes umbrage with being ignored:
Velma: You know, I'm pure of heart. Does anyone ever think of kidnapping me?! - Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Fred gets a couple in after finally getting his net/stake launcher working.
- As the rest of the gang is moving in, Shaggy laments not being told about the wedding in time to get a gift. Fred, patting the launcher, says he has one right there. Shaggy has to have Velma spell it out for him before he gets it, and Fred comments that his way of putting it sounded cooler.
- When moving in on Valdonya:Fred: I'd say you're looking at a net loss. (Fires off a net, snagging the vampire) I think I'll raise the stakes. (Fires off stakes, pinning the netted vampire to a tree)
- Romantic False Lead: Bram appears to be a love interest for Daphne, but he's only leading her on to become a bride for Lord Valdronya.
- "Setting Off" Song: "Done With Monsters", sung by Mystery Inc. as they are on the road heading for their vacation destination.
- Shout-Out:
- During "Done With Monsters", Daphne puts on a mask that resembles the Ghostbusters logo.
- The sheriff is a pastiche of Don Knotts' character on The Andy Griffith Show.
- Bram is clearly named after Bram Stroker author of Dracula.
- Vincent Van Helsing is also named after the Van Helsing in the Dracula book but in-universe this Van Helsing is the descendant of the one from the book.
- After almost being hit by the Mystery Machine as he's crossing the street, one of the vampire actors yells at the gang that "I'm stalkin' here, I'm stalkin' here!"
- The beginning mystery — against a giant cockroach — is a pastiche of Alien.
- Take That!: Daphne and Velma are fans of "Silverlight", a series of romance novels involving trendy new modern vampires. Shaggy pegs the whole thing as silly, and one of the characters is a professor who writes folklore-based vampire novels and thinks the "teen vampire craze" is silly.
- Triumphant Reprise: The gang reprises their "Setting Off" Song "Done With Monsters" as they celebrate their solved mystery and head off into the sunset.
- Vampire Episode: This film sees the gang attend a "Vampire-Palooza Festival'' where a vampire escapes from his coffin, threatens the townfolk, and tries to make Daphne his vampire bride.
- Vampire's Harem: Daphne gets kidnapped by Valdronya to become his bride. Subverted as it turns out Valdronya is no real vampire, but Van Helsing in disguise trying to stage a "vampire wedding" to create his own new tourist attraction, and to sell more books.
- Vampires Hate Garlic: Shaggy and Scooby try fending off vampires with garlic (and not for the first time in the franchise) by wearing garlic necklaces for protection when going into a theater at a vampire-themed festival, only to be stopped by an unnamed teen vampire cosplayer who's working at the festival and claims garlic is prohibited in the theater. To get around this, the pair eat the garlic whole, much to the cosplayer's disgust.
- Vampire Refugee: Played with when Shaggy thinks he's been bitten and must part company with Scooby for fear he'll turn and attack his best pal. The scene actually gets rather maudlin until it turns into a musical number about their friendship.
- Vampire Vannabe: Fangenschanz's entire motive for staging a vampire wedding is that they hope that Valdonya will reward them for their efforts by turning them into vampires.
- Villain Song: There's "The Vampires Dance" by Bram and his backup singers and "Do You Want To Live Forever?
" by Bram and Daphne. Then there's "Bride of the Vampire", sung by Bram and his allies again. - Wedding Smashers: The rest of the gang crashes the vampire wedding to rescue Daphne.
- What Happened to the Mouse?:
- Swamp hermit Tulie tells Shaggy and Scooby that the vampire stole his prototype for hovering shoes. When the vampire is captured, this is never brought back up. Although in the prologue which takes place in the future he does show the audience he has possession of them. When/how this happened is never at all explained let alone shown.
- Similarly, Jasper Poubelle and his vampire-hunting posse are never again seen after they succeed in getting the curfew set. Perhaps the posse had to go home before their torches burned out.
- Why Did It Have to Be Snakes?: At the beginning of the movie while on a mystery in a sewer, Daphne is revealed to have an intense fear of cockroaches. And then right after seeing a normal-sized one, the gang unluckily runs into a near eight-foot tall one.
