Casper (film)
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| Casper | |
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 Casper poster |
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| Directed by | Brad Silberling |
| Produced by | Steven Spielberg Colin Wilson |
| Written by | Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo (characters) Sherri Stoner Deanna Oliver |
| Starring | Bill Pullman Christina Ricci Cathy Moriarty Eric Idle |
| Music by | James Horner |
| Cinematography | Dean Cundey |
| Editing by | Michael Kahn |
| Distributed by | Universal Pictures |
| Release date(s) | May 26, 1995 |
| Running time | 100 min. |
| Country |  U.S. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $55,000,000 |
| Gross revenue | $287,928,194 |
| Followed by | Casper: A Spirited Beginning |
| Allmovie profile | |
| IMDb profile | |
Casper is a 1995 live-action feature film based on the Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoons and comic strips. The ghosts featured in the film were created through computer-generated imagery.
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[edit] Premise
Furious that her late father only willed her his gloomy-looking mansion rather than his money, Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) is ready to burn the place to the ground when she discovers a map to a treasure hidden in the house. But when she enters the rickety mansion to seek her claim, she is frightened away by a wicked wave of ghosts. Determined to get her hands on this hidden fortune, she hires "afterlife therapist" Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman)to exorcise the ghosts from the mansion. Harvey and his daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) move in, and soon Kat meets Casper, the ghost of a young boy who is "the friendliest ghost you know." But not so friendly are Casper's uncles: Stretch, Fatso and Stinkie, who are determined to drive all "fleshies" away. Ultimately, it is up to Harvey and Kat to help the ghosts cross over to the other side[1]. Notably, it is the only time an official explanation has been given as to how the Friendly Ghost died. He watches Mister Rogers' Neighborhood and his own classic cartoon series at the beginning of this film.
[edit] Synopsis
Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty), a selfish and cruel woman, grows angered when she finds that her deceased father's will only leaves her with an old house, Whipstaff Manor. Infuriated, she tosses the will into a fireplace but it is rescued by her attorney and close associate Dibbs. Dibbs (Eric Idle) discovers one of the will's pages has an inscription on it describing treasure hidden in the manor. Carrigan and Dibbs visit the old manor, but find it is haunted by four ghosts, Casper, a seemingly friendly ghosts and his three taunting uncles, the Ghostly Trio: Stretch, Stinky & Fatso. The two try to remove the ghosts using a priest, Dan Aykroyd as a Ghostbuster and even a demolition crew to destroy the building. Casper, who is lonely, watches a news report about a therapist to the dead, Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman). His daughter, Kat(Christina Ricci), is seen on television and Casper instantly falls in love with her. Casper manages to play the news report to Carrigan who decides to contact Dr. Harvey.
Dr. Harvey and Kat travel to Friendship Mane where the manor is placed. Kat and her father have been travelling around the country for years, Dr. Harvey in search for his deceased wife Ammelia as a ghost. Carrigan and Dibbs meet them at the manor, Carrigan asking Dr. Harvey to remove the ghosts as quickly as possible. However, the Harveys have immense trouble doing this, Casper attempting to befriend them while the Ghostly Trio cause mayhem for Dr. Harvey. They enter his body changing him into Clint Eastwood, Rodney Dangerfield, Mel Gibson and the Crypt Keeper and then fight him using umbrellas. He defeats them with a vacuum cleaner. The next day, Casper and Kat become friends properly. Kat goes to her high school for her first day, meeting Vic DePhillippi and his pompous girlfriend Amber Whitmire. When Kat reveals that she lives in Whipstaff, her classmates decides that they could have their upcoming Halloween party there, much to the annoyance of Amber. Dr. Harvey also reveals his goals to the Ghostly Trio who take a liking to him.
Kat finds Casper's old bedroom in the attic and Casper remembers his past, including how he died from a fatal illness. His father attempted to revive him by building a machine called Lazarus. Casper remembers its location and takes Kat too it via a secret passage leading to an underground laboratory. Carrigan and Dibbs follow, learning that special formula powers the machine. They steal it and realise they could use it to rob banks, the process involving them dying, stealing the money as ghosts and then returning using Lazarus. The two try to kill each other to see if it works but it ends with Carrigan falling down a cliff and returning as a ghost. Carrigan steals the treasure chest from the manor's vault and orders Dibbs to revive her. He refuses and betrays her, Carrigan throwing him out of a window. Casper and Kat trick Carrigan into claiming she has no unfinished business, causing her to pass onto the afterlife. Dr. Harvey shows up as a ghost, having died during a happy hour with the Ghostly Trio. Casper revives him, giving up his last chance of returning to life. The Halloween party begins and Kat ends up being the only person without a dancing partner. A boy, played by Devon Sawa, appears before her and they dance. He reveals himself as Casper. Casper was previously visited by Ammelia as a ghost who revived him until 10 o'clock, similar to the story of Cinderella. Casper and Kat kiss but Casper turns back into a ghost, scaring all the Halloween guests away. However, he doesn't mind. The Ghostly Trio then start playing a rock and roll version of Casper the Friendly Ghost and the movie ends.
[edit] Characters
[edit] Casper
Portrayed by Malachi Pearson (voice), has been haunting his family home of Whipstaff Manor for some time, having died after he played out in the cold for too long when he was twelve years old. A newspaper seen during the scene in the attic says he died from pneumonia. Now in the care of his three wicked uncles, Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso, Casper's afterlife is not exactly pleasant. He has had to put up with his uncles' outrageous antics and his wish to gain a friend is always ruined. Casper is very friendly and outgoing, but he sometimes appears rather shy. He is infatuated with Kat Harvey.
[edit] The Ghostly Trio
Portrayed by Joe Alaskey, Joe Nipote, and Brad Garrett respectively, are Casper's uncles, and they hate humans, or as they call them, "fleshies" and "bone-bags." They include Stretch, the hot-headed leader, Stinkie who is quiet, almost always smells and uses his bad breath on others, and Fatso, who loves to eat. The three are chaotic in every sense and can't resist scaring no matter what the cost. However, there is a turning point to their horrid ways when they keep their promise to Dr. Harvey, and get his wife Amelia for him.
[edit] Dr. Harvey
Portrayed by Bill Pullman, a forty-two year old psychiatrist and is shown to be an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University. After the death of his wife Amelia, he has gone on to become a "ghost therapist," only to find and make contact with his wife, because he believes she is a ghost. However, after learning that she instead became an angel, he and his teenage daughter Kat stay at their new home of Whipstaff, at least according to The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper.
Dr. Harvey has to put up with the Ghostly Trio, who have learned to like him, but he has as well. Dr. Harvey is an easy-going guy with a big heart. He obviously loves Kat, although he sometimes appears rather neglectful of his now motherless daughter's emotional needs. As demonstrated in the scene where he speaks with his angelic wife, he is worried that he's not taking good care of her, but Amelia assured him that he was doing a good job, although she gave him some "motherly" advice ("Don't pick up the extension every time she gets a phone call, french fries are not a breakfast food..." etc.)
[edit] Kat Harvey
Portrayed by Christina Ricci, the daughter of Dr. Harvey and a fairly typical teenager with a cool sense of humor. She is about thirteen years old (though Ricci was actually fifteen when the movie was filmed) and is a generally good companion to Casper. Kat hates having to put up with the Ghostly Trio, because none of them get along with her as would be expected.
Throughout the film, she and Casper have a romance of sorts, in which, for the most part, he is infatuated with her, but she can't get past the fact that he's a ghost. However, despite not reciprocating his obvious interest until the end of the film, in which he temporarily becomes human and they kiss at the Halloween dance, she still appears to care for him.
[edit] Carrigan Crittenden
Portrayed by Cathy Moriarty, the film's villain and she is thus very nasty and selfish. Her late father had a huge fortune, but he didn't leave any of it to her, which deeply angers her. Therefore, upon discovering that the old mansion that he did leave to her may contain treasure, she becomes obsessed with possessing the treasure for herself. At the end of the film, she dies and becomes a ghost, but is tricked into crossing over.
She is unmarried as evidence by the fact that she is referred to as "Miss Crittenden." The fact that her father owned Whipstaff Manor seems to indicate that either she and Casper are distantly related or that someone in her family bought the mansion from someone in his. In her ghostly form, she tended to use stereotypical "evil laughter" frequently, although the only time she used it when she was alive was when she was trying to run Dibs down with her car.
[edit] Dibs
Portrayed by Eric Idle, appears to work for Carrigan Crittenden as a kind of toady despite the fact she constantly belittles him. Although he is technically a villain, he doesn't seem to be as nasty a person as she is. He is accident prone and a bit dumb. His motivations are unclear, but he turns on her when he thinks he has the advantage, only to be cast out of a window by her. The film doesn't explain what happens to him after this or even if he survived. His full name, Paul Plutzker is only known from the end credits, since he is always referred to as "Dibs" in the actual film.
Some reviewers have identified him as her lawyer, since he acts much as a lawyer in the scene which him and Carrigan are introduced, but his behavior later in the film is very atypical of a lawyer. The most likely connection between Crittenden and Dibs seems to be that they are lovers. For example, he refers to her with terms such as "sweetheart" and "baby" throughout the movie, in one scene she seems to kiss him on the lips and he tells her that "we're through" after turning on her. When he introduces himself to the Harveys, he says he's a "close personal friend" of hers.
[edit] Sequels and spin-offs
The film led to an animated television spin-off entitled The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, which featured the same voice actors as the film with Dan Castellaneta and Kath Soucie voicing Pullman and Ricci's characters. Casper and his uncles were later animated with computer-generated imagery in the films Casper: A Spirited Beginning, Casper Meets Wendy, Casper's Haunted Christmas and Casper's Scare School, which do not follow the same plot line as this film.
[edit] Reaction
The film was generally well-received as a family feature, with Time Out London describing it as "an intimate and likeable film"[2]. The CGI effects, which were cutting edge at the time, and the performances of Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci were praised, especially considering that, in the scenes where the Harveys interact with the ghosts, Pullman and Ricci were actually acting with nothing.
Cathy Moriarty's performance, however, was much criticized, with Variety saying she does "a poor woman's Cruella de Vil"[3] in the movie. Many reviewers also felt that Eric Idle, being a venerable comedian, was underused in the role of Moriarty's obsequious henchman. Some critics also felt it was a mistake for the film to juxtapose cartoon-esque comedy with serious themes about death. Nevertheless, the film was a success at the box office, grossing $100 million in the United States, almost twice its budget, and $326 million worldwide.
The film continues to be shown on television in the family feature slot of many networks, especially around Halloween and Christmas.
[edit] External links
- Casper at the Internet Movie Database
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