CASPER
[Spoilers]
A film review by Charles Ellis
Copyright 1995 Charles Ellis
SUMMARY: Even with a klutzy execution like this, CASPER is far
better family fare than the fart jokes on Nickelodeon,
the fart jokes on the Simpsons, and the Power Rangers
type shows. Parts of the film are stupid but in a way
that kids will accept.
The death of creativity is slow and lingering. Consider Steven Spielberg's output. "Let's remake Peter Pan with GREAT SPECIAL EFFECTS!" "Let's remake The Flintstones with GREAT SPECIAL EFFECTS!" "Let's remake the Holocaust with GREAT SPECIAL EFFECTS!"
Now it's Casper The Friendly Ghost's turn. Casper would roll over in his grave. If it is possible to make an already lame one-note Harvey/Famous studios creation from the forties an even lamer vehicle, this is it.
I saw Casper with a full house of families sympathetic to the picture. They wanted to like the film. They did. Even my kids liked it. You will like it and your family will, too. Let's be fair and objective about this. I repeat, despite my criticisms of this picture, there's enough good stuff in it that you will enjoy and should take the kids. It is not "too scary."
Now that I've said that I've got to report that the audience groaned audibly and the words "fakey" and "puppet" were heard when Casper makes his on-screen appearance. It's true. You've never seen such a high tech technique look so low tech. You'll swear the computer-generated Casper is a *real* puppet. You can almost hear the plastic slide when Casper blinks his saucer-like "ET" eyes. The Ghostly Trio fares better but two recently deceased human ghost characters look like outtakes from NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS (which works in NIGHTMARE but not here ... these are supposed to be *real* ghosts). You get used to the puppet-looking Casper, but I couldn't help wondering when Kermit the Frog was going to appear.
They redo the classic ET "hands touching" shot. There must be a cut-and-paste file in the word processors at Amblin with contents like "Use Hands Touching scene here". There's a line Casper says "Can I keep you forever?" which is so awful, it elicited the groans again. And they repeat the line later at the "climax" of the film. This is supposed to be a tagline, the equivalent of "Life is like a box of chocolates." Screenwriting is dead.
At the end, Casper gets to be a "real boy" until the stroke of 10 PM. Yes, they stole from Pinoccio and Cinderella, too, and badly. When Casper makes his appearance as a twelve-year-old hunk the audience, you guessed it, groans. Casper looks, acts, and sounds like an eight-year-old tops. This scene just doesn't play. What could these idiots have been thinking? That the pre-pube crowd is going to flock to the picture because they heard Casper turned out to be their age? The scenario calls Casper's innocent "I just want a friend" motivation into question and posits that Casper wants to get a girl like any other pre-teen boy.
Some "in-jokes" are that the hero's last name is Harvey (Harvey comics) and that Casper's last name was MacFadden (also involved in the publishing of Casper Comics). There is a nice cameo appearance by a Ghostbuster.
Christina Ricci is very good as the kid with more sense than the adults, the typical movie kid. A good choice. Her dad is portrayed by a guy who looks like Robin Williams and the villainness is a woman who looks like Kathleen Turner. I guess they couldn't get Robin Williams and Kathleen Turner.... Eric Idle is amusing but where's Don Knotts when we need him? The two skinny Ghostly Trios have practically the same voice, as far as I could tell.
To the film's credit, they explore the origins of Casper. After all, the cartoons *were* about a dead kid and just ignored it. There are scenes and vignettes that do work as intended. Particularly touching is a scene in Casper's old playroom. I bet the hottest artistic argument of the film was who got to keep the antique toys used in that scene. I know it would be if I was there!
The subplot with the secret lab and the ghost machine has the look and feel of a 1970's TV special. Sort of a Maxwell Smart caper. It's certainly *not* moody or scary. Would you believe Maxwell Smart with GREAT SPECIAL EFFECTS? Oh No! Another mega-idea from the creative mind of Steven Spielberg! Watch for it soon...
THE BEST THING ABOUT THE FILM Kids love it and parents should take them. Then go to a comic store and load up on a bunch of Caspers/Wendys/Spookys etc. They are cheap. Your children will want to read them. Tell them they can read them after you read them. This will make them even more desirable. The comic book Casper lives in a shack with the ghostly trio in an enchanted forest. He has adventures outwitting the trio and other supernatural creatures there. Take this opportunity to let your discover and enjoy enjoy reading and develop an attention span. You will get precious few opportunities like this as your children grow.
Copyright 1995 by David Ellis, All Rights Reserved. Permission is granted to repost this file on any APPROPRIATE private bulletin board or circulate this file via manual forwarding by e-mail providing that the file is transmitted in its entirety, from the title and byline on top to the end of this paragraph.
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