Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2508 in DVD
• Released on: 2008-09-01
• Rating: Parental Guidance
• Aspect ratio: 1.78:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Formats: Anamorphic, PAL, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 96 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
The 1995 family film Casper tries to put a fun spin on the story of a paranormalist and widower (Bill Pullman) who moves into a new house with his daughter (Christina Ricci) and meets up with the ghost of a dead little boy. Based on the comic book about Casper the friendly ghost, the film is a dreary series of awkward interactions between live actors and computer effects, and you can almost see Pullman and Ricci reconsidering the project while on camera. A few cameo appearances from uncredited stars help things a bit. But there's no way, based on this film, that one could have guessed that its director, Brad Silberling, would go on to make the exceptional drama City of Angels. This special edition DVD release includes a director's commentary and exhaustive 47-minute behind-the-scenes documentary, plus games and DVD-ROM content for the kids. --Tom Keogh

Special Features
Commentary with Director Brad Silberling Revealing Casper documentary (47 mins) Deleted scene "Lucky Enough to be a Ghost" Casper's Playroom (games) DVD-ROM features Theatrical trailer Ratio: 1.85:1 Widescreen (16:9 Anamorphic) Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1, DTS 5.1 Subtitles: English for the Hearing Impaired

Synopsis
Casper the ghost was created in 1940 by Joe Orolio. This is the live-action/animated family feature film starring the friendly young spook. In it, greedy heiress Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) inherits the haunted Whipstaff Manor and discovers that the house contains a treasure, which is closely guarded by three nasty ghosts. She invites ghost therapist Dr. James Harvey, and his daughter Kat, (Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci) to move into the eerie mansion and get rid of the supernatural creatures.
The nephew of the three spirits is Casper, a friendly but lonely ghost who becomes Kat's pal. Casper takes Kat to his father's secret lab where he once attempted to bring Casper back to life with a special machine. Carrigan eavesdrops on their conversation and decides to become a ghost herself, in the hope that she will get the booty more easily. Then she can use the machine to change back to a human. However, Carrigan doesn't realise that you can't flirt with the afterlife.

Customer Reviews

Brilliant
This is one of the most entertaining family films ever made. It's brilliantly funny and also very moving. Yes it has a plot!!! There are great cameos from Mel Gibson, Dan Akroyd and Clint Eastwood, and the SFX are great too. Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci are a great father / daughter team. This puts many of Hollywood's recent efforts to shame with its delightful charm and it's not too long either.

Cute, sweet, and very funny
You would think Casper would just be a silly little film that only a child could possibly love. Surprisingly, though, it's actually a very entertaining film that even manages to produce a poignant moment or two in between scenes of regular hilarity. The fact that Christina Ricci is in the movie doesn't hurt either – that's the main reason I wanted to see it. The whole cast is actually quite good, even Bill Pullman (who I'm grudgingly beginning to halfway like for some crazy reason – and yes, you do get one of those vintage Pullman turnaround shots before the movie ends). The non-human characters really steal the show, though, as Casper's uncles Stinkie, Stretch, and Fatso are a real hoot and steal every scene they're in.

As far as the story goes, you've got this old abandoned mansion in Maine where Casper lives with his three obnoxious uncles. Casper is of course quite lonely, and his uncles will not tolerate humans at all. Then the old dude who owns the condemned place dies and leaves the house to his greedy daughter Carrigan (Cathy Moriarty), who comes running in search of a hidden treasure. She and her friend/partner in crime (Eric Idle) don't last more than a few seconds in the house. With a little secret encouragement from Casper, however, Carrigan finds out about a ghost shrink named Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) and invites him to the house. Casper is overjoyed because he has a potential new friend in Harvey's daughter Kat (Christina Ricci). There are several little subplots that play out rather well, but it's mainly just a matter of sitting back and letting all the ghostly hi-jinx work their magic. That's not to say the movie isn't sad at times, as you can't help but feel sorry for poor lonely Casper.

I thought the animation and digital effects were done really well; it would have been so easy to go way over the top, but ILM knows what they are doing. It can't be easy to work with characters you can't even see (except via their stand-ins during filming), but I found the interaction between ghosts and humans to be very natural and believable. It's really a great family film because kids will surely enjoy all of the ghostly antics, adults will find themselves laughing along more often than not, and the movie definitely has a heart. You can also have fun spotting all of the many celebrity cameos that pop up all over the place. Sure, that Casper is pretty goofy-looking, but you have to love him – and Christina Ricci is cute as a button.

'The Frighteners' for kids
This big-screen story of the cheesily lovable American ghost is actually a lot better than you'd expect. Christina Ricci is on board as a cool young female lead - seeing her in Casper's gothic haunted house reminds me a lot of her role as Wednesday in The Addams Family. One of the best things is the wonderfully nasty pair of villains (including Monty Python's Eric Idle) who end up suffering some truly sadistic punishments. The film's plot sees the human heroes allied with friendly spirits in a battle to rid the town of some nastier ghosts - summarising the story like this, it strikes me as a kids' version of 'The Frighteners'! A good film, and not just for children.