Casper (1995)

Please don't spend money on this.

best movie i've ever seen.

I am only giving this movie a 1 for the great cast, though I can't imagine what any of them were thinking. This movie was horrible

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

'Casper' was always a favourite of mine growing up and was one of the few films I could watch over and over without getting bored of. It's not often you come across a kids' film with a heart as big as this one; a storyline that is both entertaining and meaningful, happy yet sad, and able to be enjoyed by people of all ages and not just its target audience.It's a shame that most kids growing up now will have never seen or heard of 'Casper' but will be familiar with shallow, artificial and soulless films like 'Frozen' and 'The Lego Movie'. This film always brings back good childhood memories, it has that special something and I'd much rather watch this than the majority of modern day family movies.

As a child I loved the Casper comic books and televised cartoons and was anxious to take my daughter to this movie. It gave a new depth to the character by explaining who little Casper was before he died and how he died which no cartoon or comic book ever explained. This movie truly captured the spirit of what made us baby boomer kids love the character.

Cathy Moriarty is the best thing in this movie, let's just make that real clear right now. Her acting was actually good, and I liked her in her villain character. As for Bill Pullman, not so much, I really felt like he was miscast in the father role. But then again, he didn't have very good material to work with here. The script is muddled and unfunny, and the movie as a whole just didn't really work, in my opinion that is. This is supposed to be a funny, cute, family movie about Casper the friendly ghost, but we didn't. I think the biggest reason this movie just doesn't make you laugh, it attempts, but it does not succeed, at least not with me it didn't. The actors seem kinda uncomfortable and unsure as to what the heck is going on, except for Cathy Moriarty, like I said before, she's good. I love her big line in this movie: "the b**ch is back!" Even though I was surprised to hear that line in a family movie, but I liked it, I thought it brought power, that was about the only line I thought was good lol. Christina Ricci was so so, she annoyed me at times, but she wasn't bad in this, she was just alright, nothing to point at and brag about, but nothing to be ashamed of either. Overall, this just did not work for me. 3/10, it only got that high really because of Moriarty.

Taking the classic comic book and cartoon onto the big screen, this version of the story of the friendly ghost gives the viewer an inside look as to who Casper really was and his life before and after becoming the sweet spirit. Fresh from her star-making role of Wednesday Addams, Christina Ricci is perfect to play the poor child who is initially scared of him but soon wants to help the spirit of the child find out the truths. Her father Bill Pullman also gets involved as do the sinister Eric Idle and Cathy Moriarty as the agent and owner of the house who hire Pullman to get rid of the spooks which includes more than just Casper. Moriarty is particularly entertaining as one of the most outrageous of greedy characters, and her shrieking (which made her the scene stealer of "Soap Dish") takes over here as well to make her unforgettably funny.There are some delightful surprises in this mostly sweet-natured tale of the tying together of two different generations of children, one live, the other dead, the greed of adults, and the Peter Pan like belief in a world beyond our grasp. Try not to feel tears of joy and nostalgia when Casper takes Ricci on the train ride to his long hidden bedroom and is later allowed to face the truth of why he is who he is. Ricci and Pullman too also face the loss of their mother and wife, although one of Casper's prankster uncle ghosts also gets in the way comically. This is a family film that proves to be innocent yet never juvenile and cloying.