The 1995 movie ‘Casper’ has become a fan favorite for families over the years during the Halloween season and I remember watching this a lot when I was younger and had the VHS (remember those?) copy. So, now, with the Halloween season finally here and since I haven’t seen this in years, it was time to give the friendly ghost a little re-visit!
‘Casper’ is a kind young ghost who peacefully haunts a mansion in Maine. When a specialist James Harvey arrives to communicate with Casper and his fellow spirits, he brings along his teenage daughter, Kat.
Casper quickly begins to fall for Kat, but their budding friendship is complicated not only by his transparent state, but also by his trouble-making apparition uncles and their mischievous antics.
After all these years, the 1995 childhood favorite ‘Casper’ is still a silly, fun ghost movie that the whole family can really get into. This modern Halloween family classic delivers some good laughs, a few touching moments and a coming of age story of sorts.
‘Casper’ does a decent job blending humor with some emotional/touching moments here and there, along with a couple little scares. The few tiny scares in this movie aren’t really that bad, so the younger ones will absolutely be fine with this light-hearted Halloween family treat.
The Ghostly Trio (a.k.a. Casper’s uncles) do serve as the main comedic relief of this movie. The characters can be on the sort of annoying side, but they’re supposed to be. One scene that involves the Ghostly Trio that’s really funny is when the trio briefly possesses Dr. Harvey (Bill Pullman) and Harvey briefly appears as Clint Eastwood, Rodney Dangerfield, Mel Gibson, and ultimately The Crypt Keeper.
The movie can also get a little emotional when the therapist and his daughter discuss her recently deceased mother. It’s also quite moving when the mother makes an appearance towards the end to visit Dr. Harvey and see their daughter one last time. The movie also gets a little touching when Casper begins to talk to Kat (Christina Ricci) about what he can remember of his childhood.
So, make sure not to miss this family favorite during this Halloween season! ‘Casper’ is also available to stream on the Peacock streaming service.
‘Casper’ marks the first movie to have a fully CG visual effects character in a leading role. Quite a few actors were offered for the James Harvey character, such as John Ritter, Tom Hanks, Kurt Russell, Tim Allen and Robin Williams. Honestly, I can kind of see Robin Williams in that role for sure!
And did you know that ‘Casper’ has a little live-action franchise? Two direct to video follow-ups were created - ‘Casper: A Spirited Beginning’ (1997) and ‘Casper Meets Wendy’ (1998). Both of them served as prequels and, and from what I have read about them, don’t really connect to the 1995 movie. A potential theatrical sequel was in production for a while, but was ultimately scrapped due to the video sales of the 1997 and 1998 movies.
‘Casper’ is rated PG for mild language and thematic elements and has a running time of 100 minutes.
Make sure to keep checking the Dietrich Theater website for show dates and times for ‘Casper’ and other Spooky Fest films! If you can’t make it, ‘Casper’ is available on Peacock.
This is the first feature film to have a fully computer-generated visual effects character in a leading role.
A deleted portion of the attic scene involved Kat coming across an old photograph of Casper's uncles, Stretch, Fatso, and Stinkie when they were still humans. This was featured and shown in the storybook released alongside the film.
James and Kat Harvey are named after Harvey Comics, the long time publisher of "Casper the Friendly Ghost".
A live-action sequel was proposed, and a preliminary script was drafted by Simon Wells when production wrapped. Unfortunately, Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman were attached to other projects and Ricci's dislike of the movie and doing less kids movies. The producers decided to produce a cartoon series The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (1996) and made a deal with the head of Fox Kids on an animated spin-off the day before the movie was released.
Early CGI models of Casper were closer to his original look in the comics, with oval eyes with blue rings around them. However, his face made him look more lifeless and off-putting. Steven Spielberg decided to change his look and to give Casper more "sympathetic" looking eyes. (A la E.T.)
A scene was filmed with Zelda Rubinstein shooting out of a chimney and shouting "Go toward the light!", reprising her role from Poltergeist (1982), but it was cut.
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