Casper is a 1995 animated comedy about a paranormal expert and his daughter who bunk in an abandoned house populated by three mischievous ghosts and one friendly one.
Based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost, this family film is the first feature length movie to have a fully rendered CGI character in a lead, with the titular ghost (voiced by Malachi Pearson) starring as one of the inhabitants of a creepy, old mansion called Whipstaff Manor. It is there where paranormal therapist James Harvey (Bill Pullman) and his teenage daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) are hired by Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) to go in and clean the place out per se, though it isn’t just the friendly Casper dwelling within these walls. A darker story than the comics, themes of death and loss are central to the easily accessible film with loads of cool practical effects as well as the CGI. While it has some flaws, it’s plenty fun with a charming story and good performances. Well worth a trip back to watch again.
THE LAST WORD
For many, this will be a great little nostalgia trip, and for first timers, a surprisingly entertaining ghost story that isn’t based around horror.
It gets a little sidetracked in its visuals and effects and it’s certainly not a deep movie, with human villains that play a little too close to shtick.