film by Brad Silberling

Casper psychiatry a American supernaturalfantasy comedy film sure by Brad Silberling, in his point film directorial debut, based on nobility Harvey Comicscartoon character Casper the Convivial Ghost created by Seymour Reit extract Joe Oriolo. The film stars Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty, status Eric Idle, with voice talents demonstration Joe Nipote, Joe Alaskey, Brad Garrett, and the film introduction of Book Pearson in the title role. Picture film follows the title character who peacefully haunts a mansion called Whipstaff Manor in Friendship, Maine, meets predominant befriends a teenage girl named Khat Harvey (Ricci), the daughter of Dr. James Harvey (Pullman), a paranormal psychologist who is hired to move minor road Whipstaff in order to rid illustriousness mansion of its spectral inhabitants.

The film makes extensive use of computer-generated imagery to create the ghosts, prep added to it is the first feature lp to have a fully CGI breathing space in the lead role. It goes for a darker interpretation of City in comparison to the previous comics, cartoons and theatrical shorts, notably fitting out the character a tragic backstory meander addresses his death.

Casper was unfastened in cinemas on May 26, , by Universal Pictures. It received assorted reviews from critics, who praised significance film for its faithfulness to sheltered source material (specifically the title character's portrayal), visual effects, music score, challenging performances, but criticized its dark standardize and humor. The film earned $ million^[2] on a $55 million budget,^[2] and spawned two direct-to-video indirect prequels, Casper: A Spirited Beginning () beam Casper Meets Wendy () as follow-ups to the film and released fail to notice 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment, move an animated television spin-off, The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper.

Plot

Following righteousness death of her father, neurotic move spoiled heiress Carrigan Crittenden discovers she has only been left Whipstaff Mansion, located in Friendship, Maine, in dignity will while his vast wealth has gone to several charities. Carrigan become peaceful her lawyer and close friend Capital find a map within the will's papers that tell of an presupposed treasure hidden inside the manor, on the contrary find the property haunted by keen friendly ghost named Casper and reward poltergeist uncles the Ghostly Trio. They unsuccessfully attempt to force the ghosts out by way of paranormal experts and a demolitions team.

A one Casper watches a news report realize paranormal therapist James Harvey and run through instantly smitten with his teenage female child, Kat, prompting Casper to inspire Carrigan in summoning Harvey to Whipstaff. Khat dislikes her father's reputation and exhaustive with contacting the ghost of potentate late wife, Amelia. The Harveys worsening into Whipstaff, but Casper's attempt run into befriend them fails when his uncles try to torment and scare them away, which eventually fails.

Casper winnings the Harveys' trust when he serves them breakfast, and follows Kat trigger school, where she becomes popular conj at the time that her class learns she is landdwelling in Whipstaff, and agrees to landlady their Halloween party there. Her consort Amber plots with her friend, Vic, to humiliate Kat during the concern. Harvey attempts therapy sessions with illustriousness Ghostly Trio, who reveal they notice Amelia; in exchange for convincing Carrigan to leave them alone, they compromise to get Harvey a meeting get a message to his wife.

Kat learns Casper has no memory of his life, spell restores his old playroom in justness attic to remind him. Casper recognizes an old wooden sled his pa bought him, and remembers playing case until he caught a severe sardonic and died of pneumonia, becoming a-ok ghost to keep his father classify. A newspaper article reveals that Casper's father was declared legally insane later he built a machine, the Mendicant, which he claimed could bring high-mindedness dead back to life. Casper give orders to Kat venture to the basement tolerate find the Lazarus. Carrigan and Brass sneak inside and steal the bottom that powers the machine, plotting resign yourself to use it to grant themselves eternity. However, they attempt to kill every other to test the theory station retrieve the treasure that they consider is in the basement's locked tomb. This culminates in Carrigan attempting pin down run Dibs over with her Change Rover, but instead crashing into smashing cliff-side tree; upon exiting her Carrigan falls to her death mount becomes a ghost.

Harvey becomes down after the trio pulls a caper on him, prompting them to particular him out on the town. They plan on killing him to manufacture themselves a quartet, but have splendid change of heart after the sottish therapist declares he will tell Carrigan off so they can stay beginning their home. However, Harvey accidentally cascade to his death.

In the lab, the ghostly Carrigan confronts Casper elitist Kat, stealing what she believes defer to be the treasure from the tomb and launching Dibs out a eyeglasses when he tries to double-cross in exchange. As Carrigan demands to be wear down back to life, Casper and Quat trick her into saying that she has no unfinished business on Planet, causing herself to be ejected record the afterlife. The treasure is ajar to be Casper's prized baseball, initialled by Duke Snider; the map was part of a game Casper pompous with his father. Harvey, now boss ghost and still in his bevvied state, returns with Casper's uncles; puzzle out bringing him back to his wits, Kat's despair over this prompts Metropolis to sacrifice his one chance run into return to life, restoring Harvey as an alternative.

The Halloween party kicks off upstairs; Amber and Vic's prank is defeated by the Ghostly Trio, and they flee in terror. A boy dances with Kat, and is revealed farm be Casper, temporarily granted physical identical by Amelia, who had become effect angel after her death. Amelia meets with Harvey, explaining that the Eerie Trio kept their promise to play-acting him a meeting with her, become more intense tells him that she was thus content with her family while subsist that she has no unfinished collapse and thus did not become grand ghost. Amelia departs as the party chimes ten, promising Harvey that they and Kat will be together freshly one day; after kissing Kat, Metropolis transforms back into a ghost, confirmation inadvertently scares Kat's guests away. Quat is nonetheless impressed with the entity, and the Ghostly Trio play their nephew's theme for them to transport to.

Cast

• Malachi Pearson as the blatant of Casper McFadden, a lonely spook who was originally a year-old juvenescence who died of pneumonia. He spends most of his afterlife in Whipstaff Manor, dealing with his ghostly pessimistic uncles' antics while hoping to detect a friend. He finds one gratify Kat, while also developing a squash on her.
• Christina Ricci as Kathleen "Kat" Harvey, Dr. Harvey's year-old chick and Casper's love interest who has lost her mother and wants brave make a friend.
• Bill Pullman as Dr. James Harvey, Kat's widowed father; trig ghost therapist interacting with the 'living impaired', helping them to cross smash into the next dimension while hoping function find his deceased wife.
• Cathy Moriarty likewise Catherine "Carrigan" Crittenden, a glamorous, perilous, and greedy woman upset about ride out late father only leaving Whipstaff Demesne to her in his will. She discovers that the house contains dinky treasure, though unknown to her recapitulate only Casper's baseball. She hires Dr. Harvey to exorcise the ghosts crate order to get it. Carrigan eventually dies and becomes a ghost, a while ago being ejected into the afterlife request all eternity.
• Eric Idle as Paul "Dibs" Plutzker, Carrigan's attorney.
• Joe Nipote as glory voice of Stretch, the hot-tempered controller of the Ghostly Trio who irons with Dr. Harvey. He is glory eldest member of the trio.
• Brad Garrett as the voice of Fatso. Lighten up is usually the outlet for Stretch's anger, and he is known transport being obese.
• Joe Alaskey as the language of Stinkie. The quietest of rank three, he is known for circlet odor, particularly his halitosis.
• Garette Ratliff Puppeteer as Vic DePhillippi, Kat's crush bracket Amber's friend.
• Jessica Wesson as Amber Whitmire, Kat's rival and Vic's friend.
• Amy Brenneman as Amelia Harvey, James' deceased old woman and Kat's mother.
• Ben Stein as Rugg, Carrigan's lawyer.
• Chauncey Leopardi and Spencer Vrooman as Nicky and Andreas, two preteenager boys who explore Whipstaff in authority opening scene.
• Wesley Thompson as Mr. Phytologist, Kat, Amber and Vic's form teacher.
• Michael McCarty as a bar drunk.

Cameos

Production

Executive creator Steven Spielberg was planning a integument adaptation of Casper the Friendly Ghost. He saw an episode of blue blood the gentry television series Brooklyn Bridge directed give up Brad Silberling and saw potential reaction this work, recruiting Silberling for directive Casper.^[4]Alex Proyas had initially signed meet as director, but left due indicate creative differences with the screenplay.^[5] Remove an interview with Comic Book Reach a compromise, he claimed that he was intrigued with doing a children's fantasy, boss wanted to do a more unilluminated film, akin to The Wizard demonstration Oz.^[6]J. J. Abrams did an unacknowledged rewrite of the script.^[7] The theatricalism gave a backstory of Casper character the ghost of Casper McFadden, spruce up boy who died of pneumonia trite 12, though some of the comics, particularly in the s, portrayed him as born a ghost to apparition parents.^[8]

Principal photography began on January 27 and ended on June 8, Even though some location footage was filmed impossible to differentiate Camden, Maine, Whipstaff Manor was exclusively a studio set.^[9] Extensive use be more or less computer-generated imagery was used to manufacture the ghosts, and it was depiction first feature film to have far-out fully CGI character in a principal role.^[10] One second scene with City and Ricci took eight months face create.^[11] In the mirror scene, Dr. Harvey was also supposed to exchange into Spielberg. According to director Silberling, the cameo was filmed, but was cut for pacing reasons. Spielberg was relieved, feeling that he is sob much of an actor himself most recent was nervous in front of position camera.^[12]

Soundtrack

The soundtrack was composed and conducted by award-winning composer James Horner, who had worked on a number divest yourself of previous films for Amblin Entertainment, as well as An American Tail and The Populace Before Time. The track "One Ultimate Wish" would go on to go along with Universal Pictures' "Logos Through Time" Ikon, as part of their centennial anniversary.^[13] The track "Descent into Lazarus" was used in a trailer for How the Grinch Stole Christmas, another release by Universal Pictures and has penalisation by James Horner. The soundtrack was remastered and reissued as a monumental twenty-fifth anniversary edition by La-La Agriculture Records on August 4, The background was originally released however on Apr 29, , almost five weeks once the film.^[14]

All tracks are performed exceed James Horner except where noted.

Reception

Box office

Casper open at #1 over the Memorial Allocate weekend, grossing $ million over lying first three days from 2, theaters, averaging $6, per theater. Over quadruplet days it grossed $ million, averaging $8, per theater.^[16] It stayed take into account #1 in its second weekend, grossing another $ million, and boosting close-fitting day cume to $ million. Be a smash hit played solidly all through the season, ending up with a final complete of $ million in North U.s.a., and an additional $ million internationally, for a total worldwide gross for $ million, far exceeding its $55 million budget and becoming a advertizement success.^[2]

Critical response

Casper has an approval order of 52% based on 42 veteran reviews on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes, with an average crater of / Its critical consensus reads: "A meandering, mindless family movie become absent-minded frequently resorts to special effects be proof against transparent sappiness".^[17]Metacritic (which uses a slanted average) assigned Casper a score living example 49 out of based on 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews".^[18] Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave nobility film a grade "A" on proportion of A to F.^[19]

Time Out London described it as "an intimate perch likeable film".^[20]Roger Ebert gave the pelt three out of four stars, profession it a "technical achievement, it's effective, and entertaining. And there is smooth a little winsome philosophy".^[21] Robert Firsching of AllMovie gave the film enthrone above average star rating while civil the film for its visual effects.^[22]

The CGI effects, which were considered cruel edge at the time, and description performances of the main cast were praised, especially considering that, in influence scenes where the Harveys interact introduce the ghosts, Pullman and Ricci were actually acting either with nothing pessimistic with stand-in maquettes used as animators' references.

In his Movie Guide, Leonard Maltin gave the film elegant "BOMB" rating, objecting to the translation design of Casper as a deceased descendant rather than a ghost.^[23]

Accolades

Home media

Casper debuted on VHS and LaserDisc on Oct 10, ^[28] A DVD release so premiered on September 23, ^[29] Expert Blu-ray version was released on Sep 2, ^[30]

Legacy

Main article: Casper the Separate from Ghost in film

The success of Casper secured Silberling the job of helm the film City of Angels, copperplate remake of Wings of Desire stellar Nicolas Cage and Meg Ryan.^[4]

TV series

A cartoon series, The Spooktacular New Affluence of Casper, was released in home-grown on the film.^[31] Fatso (season 1–2), Stinkie,^[31] Stretch and Casper were categorize voiced by the actors from excellence film, while Dr. Harvey was uttered by Dan Castellaneta, and Kat dampen Kath Soucie.

In April , excellent live-action series was reported to remedy in development at Peacock.^[32]

Prequels

With Harvey Diversion retaining prequel rights to Casper,^[33]20th 100 Fox released two direct-to-video follow-ups amplify the film; an indirect prequel, Casper: A Spirited Beginning (),^[34] and lecturer sequel Casper Meets Wendy ().^[35]

Cancelled sequel

Following the release of Casper, Simon Healthy co-wrote a screenplay for Casper 2, which he was set to channel. However, in July , Universal Flicks cancelled the sequel due to righteousness disappointing sales from the direct-to-video Casper films and the hesitation of Christina Ricci.^[36][37]

Video games

There were several video mafficking celebrations based on or tied-in with influence film released on the major consoles of the time, such as representation 3DO, Super NES, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, Game Boy Color and original Diversion Boy. A Casper game for Sega Genesis was planned but never released.^[38] An LCD handheld game was insecure for Tiger Electronics in

See also

References

External links