Prime Time: Casper (1995)

If you're anywhere near the same age as me, or older, then you'll remember the cartoons featuring Casper, the friendly ghost. A lot of them followed the same template. Casper would float around, trying to make friends, and inevitably scare off almost everyone that he met. There would be cries of " it's a g-g-g-g-ghooooooooost" and everyone would flee. Even campfires would be shown as living entities, picking up their sticks and running away as fast as they could.

This live-action movie, featuring some decent CGI that holds up surprisingly well over two decades later, sees writers Deanna Oliver and Sherri Stoner taking that core idea and managing to nicely frame a whole movie around it. There are a lot of cute gags, plenty of supernatural shenanigans, and a perfect tone throughout that just about keeps the schmaltz palatable, thanks to the darker moments being handled with an impressively light touch.

Bill Pullman plays Dr. Harvey, and Christina Ricci is his daughter, Kat. The two end up in the same house as Casper (voiced by Malachi Pearson, and portrayed by Devon Sawa in one sequence showing him in "non-ghost" form) because the doc has been hired by a woman named Carrigan (Cathy Moriarty) who wants the house cleared of the spirits that live within it. As well as Casper, there are three nuisance ghosts named Stretch, Stinky, and Fatso. Carrigan needs them all gone so she can find the treasure that she knows is hidden somewhere inside the house, which she inherited from a dead relative.

Directed by Brad Silberling, who has a relatively small filmography with one or two gems tucked in there (why am I still the only one who enjoys A Series Of Unfortunate Events so much?), Casper is a pretty perfect way to adapt a cutesy cartoon character into a feature film. It doesn't waste too much time setting things up, with credit again due to Oliver and Stoner, who do a fantastic job in the script department, and it plants the more serious/emotional moments in between numerous gags (with the initial confrontation between Dr. Harvey and the three non-Casper spirits being a highlight).

Pullman and Ricci do very well in their roles, acting opposite the special effects naturally enough and doing a fine job when called upon to deal with the themes of loss and loneliness (both miss their wife and mother, respectively, who died some time ago). Ricci may be the focus of Casper's attention but it's a pleasant surprise to see Pullman get to have more of the outright fun moments, thanks to his interactions with the other ghosts. Moriarty is a good villain, helped in her scheming by Eric Idle (as the sycophantic and selfish Dibs), and both characters are led to a fitting end by their plans. There are also a number of fun cameos, none of which I will spoil by namechecking here.

Having not seen this since I first caught it when it was released on VHS, Casper was a pleasant surprise when I rewatched it recently. It's a great family film, dealing with some big themes that will surely lead to good conversations between kids and their parents, and I hope that others don't allow it to be completely forgotten further down the line.

7/10

Casper can be picked up here.
Americans can pick it up here.