Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase

Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase is a 2001 direct-to-video animated comic science fiction mystery film, and the fourth in a series of direct-to-video animated films based on Hanna-Barbera's Scooby-Doo Saturday morning cartoons. It was released on October 9, 2001. It features the Mystery, Inc. gang, which includes Scooby-Doo, Shaggy, Fred, Daphne and Velma. The film was produced by Warner Bros. Animation, but carries a Hanna-Barbera Cartoons, Inc. copyright and logo.

It is the final Hanna-Barbera production to be executive produced by both William Hanna and Joseph Barbera before Hanna's death on March 22, 2001. It is also the fourth and final Scooby-Doo direct-to-video film to be animated overseas by Japanese animation studio Mook Animation. This movie, along with Aloha, Scooby-Doo!, was part of the first Scooby-Doo re-release on Blu-ray on April 5, 2011. This was also the first movie to feature Grey DeLisle as the voice of Daphne Blake after the death of Mary Kay Bergman in 1999.

This was also the last film Scott Innes voiced Scooby-Doo and Shaggy, as well as the last film where B. J. Ward voiced Velma. A video game based on the film was released by THQ in 2001 for the PlayStation and Game Boy Advance. This is the first Scooby-Doo video game to be on a sixth-generation handheld. The Scooby-Doo movies would not feature real supernatural creatures again until Scooby-Doo! and the Goblin King.

Plot
In a college computer lab run by Professor Robert Kaufman, two of his students, Eric Staufer and Bill McLemore, are working when a virtual creature – the Phantom Virus – emerges from a new game based on the Mystery Gang's past adventures and tries to attack. The next day, Mystery, Inc. themselves come to the college and learn from their friend Eric that the virus had assumed a lifelike form thanks to an experimental laser able to transmit objects into cyberspace, and is now running rampant across the campus. The gang goes on the hunt for the Phantom Virus, leading to it chasing Scooby and Shaggy throughout the campus. Unfortunately, the whole gang, including the virus, is banished to the game after an unknown person activates the laser. Left with no other choice, the gang fight their way through the ten levels of mystery and adventures to complete the game in order to escape it, with the goal of finding a box of Scooby Snax to complete each level. The Phantom Virus, meanwhile, attempts to impede their efforts on each level. The first level is on the Moon, the second is in the Colosseum, third the dinosaur age, four under the sea, five finds the gang shrunken in a backyard, six in ancient Japan, seven in ancient Egypt, eight in a medieval fantasy setting, and nine at the North Pole.

After a while, they finally reach the game's tenth and final level, which is in a huge city, where they meet their virtual counterparts who resemble themselves from previous series, with the exception of Scooby. They team up to confront the Phantom Virus, who wreaks havoc across the final level and summons his henchmen – five villains from the gang's past: the Creeper, Jaguaro, Gator Ghoul, the Tar Monster, and Old Iron Face. To make matters worse, all the monsters are real. The climax takes the two gangs to an amusement park, where they fight off the creatures and attempt to retrieve the last box of Scooby Snax. During the fight, they use magnets to fight the virus, whom they discover is severely weakened by magnetic forces. Cyber-Scooby distracts the virus long enough for the real Scooby to retrieve the Scooby Snax, winning the game and deleting the monsters and the Phantom Virus once and for all.

The real gang bids farewell to their virtual selves and head home. Back in the lab, the gang reveals that they figured out the culprit, who turns out to be Bill due to the Phantom Virus making baseball references throughout their adventure. Bill is arrested by Officer Wembley and confesses that he created the virus to scare Eric away and take all the credit for inventing the laser. He was outraged when Kaufman chose Eric's video game design over his baseball-themed video game, despite being at the college two years longer than him, and he felt more deserving to win the prize money at the university's science fair. Fearing Mystery Inc. would expose him as the Virus' creator, he sent them into the game believing they would never get out. Kaufman protests that students alike are all equal as he is taken away. The gang and Eric play the new Scooby-Doo game, during which Scooby interacts with the gang's virtual counterparts once again by feeding Cyber-Scooby some Scooby Snax.

The post-credits scene includes the gang telling the audience what their favorite parts of the movie were.

Voice cast

 * Scott Innes as Scooby-Doo, Shaggy Rogers, Cyber-Scooby-Doo, Cyber-Shaggy, Creeper (uncredited)
 * Frank Welker as Fred Jones, Cyber-Fred, Gladiator Lion (uncredited)
 * Grey DeLisle as Daphne Blake, Cyber-Daphne (uncredited)
 * B.J. Ward as Velma Dinkley, Cyber-Velma (uncredited)
 * Joe Alaskey as Officer Wembley
 * Bob Bergen as Eric Staufer
 * Tom Kane as Professor Robert Kaufman
 * Mikey Kelley as Bill McLemore
 * Gary Sturgis as Phantom Virus
 * Glenn Shadix as Tar Monster (uncredited)
 * Michael Brandon as Skeleton Gladiator (uncredited)
 * Giovanni Ribisi as Skeleton Gladiator #2 (uncredited)
 * Tom McHugh as Skeleton Gladiator #3 (uncredited)
 * Rupert Everett as Old Iron Face (uncredited)
 * Fred Dalton Thompson as Creeper (uncredited)
 * Fred Newman as Gator Ghoul (uncredited)
 * James Coburn as Jaguaro (uncredited)

Production
Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase is the fourth direct-to-video Scooby feature, and was the last for the original team that worked on the first four films. The team was led by Davis Doi, and included Glenn Leopold, Jim Stenstrum, Lance Falk, and others. They had previously clashed with studio executives who suggested outside screenwriters for the second Scooby film, Witch's Ghost. For Cyber Chase, it was the same situation: executives recommended Mark Turosz, a writer already under contract with Warner Bros. who had little experience with animation. The crew had produced the first Scooby film, Zombie Island, as well as the third, Alien Invaders, with total autonomy, and were insulted by Warner's insistence that they use Turosz's script.

The team were particularly critical of Turosz's draft of the script, which according to Falk was considered a regression in terms of the franchise's potential. They felt its pacing and plot line were unsatisfactory. In addition, it was reportedly poorly formatted and unfamiliar with the animation process. For example, the script included complicated camera moves impossible to do with their budget, as well as countless locales that would prove tedious to design. As a result, the original team moved onto other projects after the film's completion. The next Scooby feature, Legend of the Vampire, was also written by Turosz.

Stenstrum initially suggested they explore using live-action actors for scenes set inside the video game, though the idea was quickly dropped. Out of the first four films, Cyber Chase features the largest array of storyboard artist credits, as the team were under significant time constraints and required additional help. Cyber Chase was also the last Scooby film to feature animation produced at Japanese studio Mook Animation.

Reception
Despite having a lack of critical consensus and reviews, the film has a 60% approval on Rotten Tomatoes.

Home media release
Scooby-Doo and the Cyber Chase was released October 9, 2001 for both VHS and DVD formats. The film was re-released on Blu-ray on March 29, 2011. This was the first animated Scooby-Doo film to be produced in the high-definition format.