The plot follows Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman), a psychologist and widowed father, and his daughter Kathleen Harvey (Christina Ricci). Dr. Harvey has been fascinated with the paranormal since his wife passed away, and part of the plot is him trying to find a way to reconnect with her in the afterlife. The Harvey's move into an abandoned house which is reported to have ghost sightings and is deemed haunted. In that house lives Casper, a ghost child who means well, and his mischievous uncles Stretch, Fatso and Stinky, dubbed the "Ghostly Trio". The Ghostly trio care for Casper, but they also take advantage of and pick on him.
Now I didn't watch that much of the Casper cartoons as a kid. I saw maybe a few of the shorts. But I think in the original cartoons, the Ghostly Trio were the villains as I recall, but here they're more like the anti-heroic comic relief. Kathleen, or "Kat" as she goes by, is trying to fit in in this new town, though she gets picked on by a mean girl at school named Amber. Due to a mishap, the school Halloween dance gets postponed, however Kat and the other students agree to have the dance take place at the haunted house that Kat moved into, after learning about its history and recent sightings.
Amber tries to sabotage the party, but to no avail. Kat meets and befriends Casper, whom she's scared of at first, but the two eventually form a dynamic, and are even shown to be "more than friends". We learn that Casper died of pneumonia after playing outside in the snow for too long, and that his father was a genius inventor who worked to find a way to bring his son back. This is a major plot point as part of the conflict is centered on Casper and Kat figuring out a way to bring the former back to life. We've got our main villains, Catherine "Carrigan" Crittenden (Cathi Moriarty), the main antagonist, and her bumbling sidekick Paul "Dibs" Plutzker (Eric Idle).
Carrigan and Dibs set out to find and steal the treasure hidden within this house, even if it means sabotaging the main characters. That's about the gist of it really.
I recently rewatched this on Amazon Prime, and I'd say it's a pretty decent family friendly horror comedy. It's funny and has an interesting story and likable characters. I thought it was interesting that Casper himself is given a tragic backstory that wasn't addressed in the original cartoon as far as I know. For being the first live action movie based on a cartoon to feature cartoonish computer animated characters, it's not bad. It's not a perfect movie, as the plot is predictable and simplistic, and at times the movie is a bit cheesy.
For instance, there's the whole thing with Casper asking Kat "Can I keep you?" Like, who even says that? What does that mean? Also, (this is a spoiler, but you could already see it coming) I didn't care for the part when Casper is briefly brought back to life for the dance. I get that it was supposed to be a pay off, but compared to his cartoon ghost form, it felt out of place to me. Carrigan and Dr. Harvey's ghost forms were also pretty cheesy. The whole thing where the ghost of Dr. Harvey's wife serves as a "fairy godmother" made very little sense. I'm not complaining because I didn't like the movie. I'm complaining because I didn't love it.
Anyway, I generally enjoyed Casper (1995) for what it is, and having seen and enjoyed it as a kid, I have kind of a soft spot for it despite its miss steps.
I give Casper (1995) a solid 7/10.
Have you seen Casper (1995)? What did you think? Did you like it? Did you not like it? Did you think it was okay? Let me know in the comments.
You can check out my video review on YouTube:
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