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Casper
Casper poster
Directed by	Brad Silberling
Produced by	Paul Deason Jeff Franklin Gerald R. Molen Jeffrey A. Montgomery Steven Spielberg
Written by	Joseph Oriolo (characters) Sherri Stoner Deanna Oliver
Starring	Bill Pullman Christina Ricci Malachi Pearson (voice) Cathy Moriarty Eric Idle
Music by	James Horner
Distributed by	Universal Pictures
Release date(s)	26 May 1995
Running time	100 min.
Language	English
Followed by	Casper: A Spirited Beginning
All Movie Guide 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 the same way as 1984's film Ghostbusters.

Contents 1 Premise 2 Characters 2.1 Casper 2.2 The Ghostly Trio 2.3 Dr. Harvey 2.4 Kat Harvey 2.5 Carrigan Crittenden 2.6 Dibs 3 Sequels and spin-offs 4 Reaction 5 External links

Furious that her late father only willed her his gloomy-looking mansion rather than his millions, Carrigan Crittenden 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 to exorcise the ghosts from the mansion. Harvey and his daughter Kat 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, this film is the only time an official explanation has been given as to how Casper died.

Main article: Casper the Friendly Ghost

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, but this is factually inaccurate. [2] 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.

Main article: 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.

Portrayed by Bill Pullman, a psychiatrist and is shown to be an alumnus of Johns Hopkins University. After his wife Amelia's death, 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.)

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.

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 Dibbs down with her car.

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 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.

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.

The film was generally well-received as a family feature, with Time Out London describing it as "an intimate and likeable film"[3]. The CGI effects, which were cutting edge at the time, and the performances of Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci were especially 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"[4] 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.

• Casper at the Internet Movie Database

v • d • e Casper films and television series
1995	Casper
1996	The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper
1997	Casper: A Spirited Beginning
2000	Casper's Haunted Christmas
2006	Casper's Scare School
Related	Casper the Friendly Ghost • Harvey Comics