Casper (1995)

Casper is a 1995 American supernatural comedy-drama film directed by Brad Silberling, in his feature directorial debut, based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost created by Seymour Reit and Joe Orio. The film stars Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriaty, Eric Idle, and also features the voices of Joe Nipote, Joe Alaskey, Brad Garrett and the introduction of Malachi Pearson in the title role.

Plot
Casper (voiced by Malachi Pearson) is a kind young ghost who peacefully haunts a mansion in Maine. When specialist James Harvey (Bill Pullman) arrives to communicate with Casper and his fellow spirits, he brings along his teenage daughter, Kat (Christina Ricci). Casper quickly falls in love with Kat, but their budding relationship is complicated not only by his transparent state, but also by his troublemaking apparition uncles and their mischievous antics.

Good Qualities

 * 1) This film was the very first movie to have a CGI character as the main protagonist, instead of a live action character.
 * 2) The film stays faithful to its source material, also giving the portrayal of the title character really nice. The film can be fun to watch at many times.
 * 3) Great acting. Malachi Pearson makes a great voice for Casper and Christina Ricci does good Kat. The most iconic actor in this film has to be Brad Garrett for his role as Fatso.
 * 4) The late James Horner's musical score is very relaxing to listen to for many scenes of the movie, most notably the ending of the film. Horner also had worked on many projects for Amblin Entertainment.
 * 5) The writing in the film is neat, cool, and good. This is mainly because Stoner and Oliver wrote several episodes of the critically acclaimed TV show, Animaniacs, which is mainly exactly why the comedy, jokes, and humor is funny in the film, which can sometimes give you vibes to the TV show.
 * 6) Likable characters, most notably Casper himself.
 * 7) Nice direction from Brad Silberling, which this film was his feature directorial debut.
 * 8) The CGI animation is impressive to look at and well done by the animators of the film, including Casper and the Ghostly Trio's fluid animation.
 * 9) The scene where Casper explains his death to Kat is very sad.
 * 10) The Ghostly Trio makes mostly funny jokes, even though they can be very mean-spirited at some times, most notably to the title character.
 * 11) The ending is very beautiful.
 * 12) The scene where a ghostbuster (Ray Stantz) says Who Ya Gonna Call? Someone Else... was funny.
 * 13) The scenes of an angelic Amelia Harvey coming to contact with both Casper and her husband James are quite effective.
 * 14) It was the one that revolutionized a future of live action/computer animated hybrid films. It’s a shame though that most of them aren’t even this good.

Bad Qualities

 * 1) As mentioned above, the Ghostly Trio can be mean-spirited to Casper.
 * 2) A sequel was originally plan, but the movie didn't make nearly as much as they would like to greenlight a sequel as well as both Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman being unavailable due to working on other projects. This ultimately led to them spawning some direct-to-video prequel films, which were terrible, as they suffered from horrible CGI effects of the ghosts and weak stories.
 * 3) *Not to mention the poor sales on those movies further led Universal Studios and Amblin Entertainment to cancel any plans for Casper 2.
 * 4) Some characters can be annoying.
 * 5) Casper can be quite of a stalker as he would follow Kat around without her knowledge, and lines like "There's a girl on my bed. Yes!" and "Kat, (whispers) can I keep you?" makes his fixation on her quite creepy.
 * 6) Casper the Friendly Ghost was never dark, but the coming of this film really makes it dark. An example of this can be the scene where Casper explains his death.
 * 7) There's never an explanation for Amelia's death.
 * 8) Though it's nice, the script can sometimes be uninspired.
 * 9) Most of the humor can be unfunny.
 * 10) The main antagonists are dull and unthreatening.
 * 11) *Despite the direct-to-video prequels overall bad qualities, they at least have more opposing main antagonists by comparison.
 * 12) A huge missed opportunity when the Ghostly Trio had a chance to redeem themselves beyond their mischievous ways during a scene when their were crying about whether or not they should kill Dr. Harvey to make themselves a quartet as they were getting fond of him, but that moment of redemption was all for nothing once Dr. Harvey becomes a ghost and joins them, much to there amusement.
 * 13) A uselessly dated subplot involving a spoiled rich kid trying to make the new kid's life miserable, which automatically goes nowhere.
 * 14) Despite being label as a paranormal therapist, Dr. Harvey' is shown to be very in-competent when doing his therapy on the Ghostly Trio. Not to mention that his reaction upon seeing them and Casper for the first time is no different than any other's reaction, which makes all the talks about him being able to help ghosts with their unfinished business in order for them to crossed through the next dimension all the more questionable.
 * 15) Inconstant rules about the living in-paired.
 * 16) *It’s established that ghosts have unfinished business, which is why they have a hard time crossing the next dimension, but in the end the movie ends with four ghosts still roaming around the Earth without any information of there unfinished business.
 * 17) *They state that ghosts and humans cannot harm one another, but we see ghosts wielding weapons against another human, and near the end we see a ghost punched a human being out of the house.
 * 18) *It’s also hinted that ghosts cannot see there own reflection in which Kat has pointed out to Casper when he realize he cannot see his own reflection, but when Amber and Vic look in the mirror to see there costume, the Ghostly Trio appears in the reflection.
 * 19) *They also state that ghosts no longer has memories of their passed lives once become a deceased spirit, but when one human becomes a ghost, her memories still remains intact regardless.
 * 20) The more recent DVD and Blu Ray box arts are pretty bad, as a lot features Casper from Casper's Haunted Christmas, than the actual 1995 film version, with a poorly revamped logo.
 * 21) *Also some of the more recent images has Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci in the forefront with Casper himself not being shown, or just being part of the logo.

Reception
Casper opened at #1 over the Memorial Day weekend, grossing $16.8 million over its first three days from 2,714 theaters, averaging $6,205 per theater. Over four days it grossed $22.1 million, averaging $8,140 per theater. It stayed at #1 in its second weekend, grossing another $13.4 million, and boosting its 10-day cume to $38.9 million. It played solidly all through the summer, ending up with a final gross of $100.3 million in North America, and an additional $187.6 million internationally, for a total worldwide gross of $287.9 million, far exceeding its $55 million budget and becoming a commercial success.

Casper received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the film for its faithfulness to its source material (specifically the title character's portrayal), visual effects, music score, and performances, but criticized its dark story and humor. Rotten Tomatoes' critical consensus reading, "A meandering, mindless family movie that frequently resorts to special effects and transparent sappiness." On Metacritic the film has a score of 49% based on reviews from 22 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by CinemaScore gave the film a grade A on scale of A to F. Roger Ebert gave the film three out of four stars, calling it a "technical achievement, it's impressive, and entertaining. And there is even a little winsome philosophy."

Despite its mixed reception, Casper has gained a cult following among fans.

Trivia

 * Steven Spielberg was originally set to direct the film, but after seeing an episode of Brooklyn Bridge (which was directed by Brad Silberling), he chose Brad to direct the film.