Casper Film Review

When people think of Ghostbusters they usually think of just the main Ghostbusters films and really nothing more then that. Yet they all seem to forget that there was technically another film that did feature a Ghostbuster and that film that has turned thirty years old this year and it's the very film that i'm going to be talking to you all about today and so then join me as I review the film is the other family friendly horror comedy comic book adaptation that starred Christina Ricci with the film in question being called simply just "Casper" enjoy.

The plot of this film is Casper and his new friend Kat have to team up to stop and evil woman from stealing all of Casper's gold. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual plot that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad with this films plot being as epic as a Casper plot should be and yet at the same time it's also epic enough to be the plot of a movie and not something that you'd expect to find in any of the Casper cartoons or comic strips either with it being clear as day that the makers of this film have a certain amount of love and respect for the source material and as a result of that is the fact that we do end up with a plot that is perfectly befitting the Casper character but with that being said tho the plot of this film doesn't get a whole lot of focus which does make it hard to tell alot of the time just what the main plot of the film is even meant to be in the first place but to be fait to this film when it does focus on it's plot that's when we get to see alot of really fun scenes it just would have worked alot more better if the film did focus on it's plot instead of spending alot of the time on side plots that don't really go anywhere or add anything to the main plot of the film in the first place as all that does is only highlight the fact that the makers of this film aren't focusing on the main plot and as those side plots don't add anything to the plot of this film with the plot of this film also being really rather entertaining and as well as being really rather engaging as well in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Starring in this film is Malachi Pearson as the voice of Casper and Christina Ricci as Kathleen "Kat" Harvey. Also starring in this film is Bill Pullman as Dr. James Harvey , Cathy Moriarty as Catherine "Carrigan" Crittenden , Joe Nipote as the voice of Stretch , Joe Alaskey as the voice of Stinkie , Brad Garrett as the voice of Fatso , Garette Ratliff Henson as Vic DePhillippi , Jessica Wesson as Amber Whitmire , Amy Brenneman as Amelia Harvey , Ben Stein as Rugg and Eric Idle as Paul "Dibs" Plutzker.

Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual acting that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good. As all of this films actors do turn in the best possible performance that they possibly could have done something that couldn't have been easy given the fact that Casper is such a little known comic book character and comic book movies at this point in time weren't given the same amount of respect that they are given these days and therefor whilst it would have been forgivable if this films actors did choose to phone in their performance thankfully not one of them do that as they all do give this film there A game and because of that we do end up with some truly goo performances in this film and while it would have been super easy to say that Christina Ricci was the best actor in this film and while she is indeed good in this film her role could have been played by any young actor therefor the best actor in this film has to be Brad Garrett as he just has the perfect booming voice for Fatso and is the only one that could have played that character as a result of it and while there really are other and better actors in this film he is the only one that feels oddly enough really perfectly cast in that role with the acting that's in this film really being helped by the fact that this films script is just so good that all this films actors have to do is just say the lines as they are written and a good performance will come out of them naturally which is something that really does help to raise the overall quality of the acting that's in this very film.

Doing the CGI for this film is Character Shop and the legends and the greats that are currently over at Industrial Light & Magic. Now then interms of what I personally thought / felt about the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual CGI that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty really good with all of this films CGI holding up really well thirty years later with alot of that being due to the fact that they had some really good effects companies working on the film both of whom really seemed to know what they were doing and because of that we got effects that look like they could be in a movie that was made five or even ten years ago as they are that good and while yes granted we do get a few dodgy looking effects like for example the effects on the Dad character when he gets turned into a ghost don't look as good as all of the other ghost effects do and that is something that does make alot of sense as the Dad as a ghost only appears on screen for a few minuets whereas alot of the other ghosts have alot more screen time and therefor it does make alot of sense that the makers of this film would put alot more effort into making them look good but at the same time tho it would have helped this film out quite alot if the makers of this film put just as much effort into making sure that all of the ghost characters look good regardless of how long that they appear in the film but to this films credit it does have alot more good looking effects in it then it does bad ones with even the bad ones only being bad when you compare them to the rest of this films effects.

This film does do a smart thing by linking the characters of Kat and Casper in a few ways the first one being the fact that they both dead parents and the second one being that they both have relatives that either are ghosts are get turned into ghosts during the course of this film. Which is a cool idea as it does give these characters something to connect with and to the films credit it is something that they do both talk about during the course of the film with this being something that does make there friendship feel all the more believable but at the same time tho it does feel like to much of a coincidence that they would both have these exact same things happen to them as that does come across as being a sign of bad screen writing especially as it could have made for a more fun dynamic if the makers of this film had Kat be skeptical of ghosts even existing in the first place only for her to warm to them over the course of the film due to her spending so much time with Casper and while Casper just wanting a friend was a nice touch and is true to his character it would have made it more fun if we did get see Casper hang out with other ghosts as we know from the film that Casper is more then capable of not only leaving his house but also going into the local town so therefor it would be reasonable to assume that Casper might have been able to talk to other ghosts in the town should there be any that is with earning Kat's friendship over the course of the film instead of just having him form this creepy kind of obsession with her which does feel like it's against his character even if the film does have an excuse of him just being a twelve year old boy.

To give this film some credit it does have some really well done emotional moments that nine times out of ten do infact work. With both Kat and her father going on about they miss her mother and how much they meant to each of them to Casper even going into great detail about what it was that caused him to die in the first place and how he blames himself for his death because of the fact that he was having to much fun playing outside there are alot of moments like this in this film that oddly enough make the film feel alot more grown up and more mature then alot of the more adult films that were released even this past year where the only thing that made them mature was the fact that they had swearing and gore in them and that's it where as here they were openly talking about death in a way that kids won't understand without first discussing it with their parents as it's handled in a very mature way that doesn't talk down to it's kid audience but rather it talks to them on a level with that being something that is very sorely missed in films these days as they choose to either talk up to the kids or talk down to them with either one making the kid audience feel dumb but if they talked to them on a level then they could actually make them feel more smarter because of it with this being something that this film does really well as they even add in in a throwaway line what it is that keeps ghosts to this plain of existence only to then bring it back into play in the films climax which was a really smart thing and is something that would have gone over kids heads but it's something that you only pick up on on repeat viewings of the film as that's just how mature , adult and yes at times day that this film really can be.

It's time to talk about this films main villain Catherine "Carrigan" Crittenden as played by Cathy Moriarty. While her character does have a decent and dimple enough plan for this kind of film her character is also one that does feel like she's really underdeveloped as a villain as we don't get to find out why she wants Casper's tressure in the first place which is a small detail but at the same time tho it would have helped to make us the audience connect with the character alot more then what we do in the final cut of the film because as things stand it does come across as her only wanting his tressure because of the fact that she believes that she'll be filthy rich which to be fair for a kids film is a decent enough motivation but at the same time tho it doesn't make her character seem all the more memorable because of it with this not really being helped by fact that for large portions of the film not only is she is not in the film and barely has any kind of interactions with the main characters until the films third act but we barely see her act like an actual villain so therefor we the audience have no reason to hate her character as the makers of this film don't really give us a reason to hate her that is until we get to the third act when the character goes over board in doing all of these evil things at which it's to little to late as we the audience have already made our minds up with we hate her or like her or in this case just feel nothing for her the best way to actually fix this issue would be to treat this character like she's the main villain from the first Addams Family movie where we get to see her manipulate the main characters into doing what she wants them to do as this would not only give the character more of a chance to actually be a threat to the main characters it would also give her more interactions with the main characters as well instead of having her off on er own with her lawyer for the vast majority of the film.

Now then this film has had an exact grand total running time of exactly one hour and forty minuets and eight seconds. Which to be fair is pretty much the exact grand total running that you'd expect a film like this one to have with the film having just about the right amount of plot there to cover that amount of running time as while the film does have a decent amount of plot there to cover a good chunk of it's running time it's not enough to fully justify the film being that amount of running time as the film only really has amount of plot to cover at a stretch one hour and twenty minuets and that's really it with the film having about twenty minuets worth of filler with both James and The Ghostly Trio having a pointless subplot and there being a pointless subplot about Kat throwing a Halloween party for her new classmates both of which aren't really needed as they add nothing to the overall plot of the film with this film not even using it's running time all that wisely either as the film doesn't even develop it's plot all that well as it does get hard to tell just what the plot of the film is as the film is more focused on developed the friendship between Kat and Casper then it is in developing the plot of the film with this even effecting it's characters as the film doesn't even develop it's characters as the film doesn't really to take the time to fully develop any of it's characters as we know as much about the films characters coming out of the film then we did going into the film with alot of the films characters only really having one character trait and nothing more then that but I really will admit that this film really does have some really good pacing to it tho.

So now then as this is a comedy that really does mean that I have to actually talk about the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film well then in all honesty I in all honesty personally thought / felt that the actual comedy that's actually featured / presented to us in this very film was in all honesty not that bad. Which is something that's to be expected from a kid friendly horror comedy as the jokes in this film are very basic and very note which to be fair is something that does work really well for this film as it does allow for the characters as simple as they are to really shine through and let there charm shine through as well as even tho Casper himself really only gets the one joke with that being the fact that people are afraid of him because of the fact that he's a ghost it's still a decent joke that does lead to some decent laughs however tho the best joke in the film is when Kat lays on Casper thinking that he's pillow with her even hitting him several times to make herself more comfortable which granted is a simple joke but at the same time tho this is a film that can only do simple jokes as the characters and the set up alone doesn't allow for anything more then that and while The Ghostly Trio and James do get a few decent laughs there jokes feel like that there more there to appease the kid audience where as the jokes with Kat and Casper feel like that there more there to appease the whole family and therefor come across as being all the more better because of it this is despite the fact that The Ghostly Trio and James do get alot more jokes in this film then both Casper and James do as well it's just that the jokes with Kat and Casper happen to be the more funnier jokes in my freaking opinions anyways / at least.

Overall it's hard to believe that not only is this film now officially thirty years old but also that Universal Pictures is doing more for this film then what they ended up doing for Back To The Future as while yes this is a good film there's no denying that but Back To The Future is easily the better film in my freaking opinions anyways / at least. Now then i've talked about all of the good and as well as all of the bad things that are in this very film in this very review and as such that really does mean that this very film really does earn itself a grand old score of exactly a 6.5 out of 10 from me.

Now then as for where I personally got all of the images that I personally used in tis very review well then bots and girls and as well as ladies and gentlemen I personally got all of the images that I personally used in this very review from the official Casper The Friendly Ghost fandom wiki page , IMP Awards . Com and Google Images. With my personally preferred website to use to get images really from this very film being the really great Google Images this is really because of the fact that really all of the images that I really indeed got and really used from Google Images are all really high quality really with all of the images that really are all and of course really currently up and on the really great and the really solid Google Images really are all being really fairly high in quality and as well as them all really being fairly high in definition.