Casper
1995, Kids & family/Fantasy, 1h 40m
41 Reviews 250,000+ RatingsWhat to know
critics consensus
A meandering, mindless family movie that frequently resorts to special effects and transparent sappiness. Read critic reviews
You might also like

Dr. Dolittle

Sister Act 2: Back in the Habit

George of the Jungle

Honey, I Blew Up the Kid

Stuart Little 2
Where to watch
Casper Videos
Casper Photos
Movie Info
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.
Cast & Crew
Christina Ricci
Kathleen 'Kat' Harvey
Kathleen 'Kat' Harvey
Bill Pullman
Dr. James Harvey
Dr. James Harvey
Cathy Moriarty
Carrigan Crittenden
Carrigan Crittenden
Eric Idle
Paul 'Dibbs' Plutzker
Paul 'Dibbs' Plutzker
Malachi Pearson
Casper (McFadden)
Voice
Casper (McFadden)
Voice
Joe Nipote
Stretch
Voice
Stretch
Voice
Critic Reviews for Casper
Audience Reviews for Casper
-
Dec 28, 2013I recall this film popping out of nowhere really, saw a trailer for it out of the blue, liked the look of it and went to see it. The creepy Addams Family visuals along with some really sweet looking effects hooked me and overall I really enjoyed this little kiddie flick. The plot is a simple Scooby Doo type affair really. There's a big old spooky mansion where Casper and his three uncle ghosts reside. An evil tyrannical female inherits the mansion and wants to find the treasure hidden within its bowels (then tear it down), problem is the ghosts. So she hires Bill Pullman (a paranormal therapist) and his daughter Ricci to get rid of the spooks. This being a kids flick its very predictable so I needn't tell you how things unfold. What I will say is the film is a highly enjoyable ghostie adventure with some really nice looking cobweb ridden sets, charming locations, quirky humour, acceptable performances and great CGI amazingly. The ghost effects on Casper are really nice and hold up well today. He's easily the best of the bunch visually, he looks quite realistic actually. The three naughty uncles are slightly more cartoonish looking and act so. The jokes and slapstick from them is very childish, you can see the one liners and sight gags coming a mile off but that's expected. Other ghosts that materialise during the film also look more like cartoons and not as effective as Casper, not too sure why Pullman's wife appears as a proper human though when all the others are CGI, emotional moment I guess. The other thing that impresses is how well the actors interact with the CGI spooks, believe it or not but they do look in all the right places and at the right times. You'd half expect this film to have hokey effects and badly directed live action but its really good all the way through. There are some unnecessary quickfire cameos that's for sure, the only clever one was seeing Dan Aykroyd turn up as 'Ray Stantz', I liked that. Hot on the heels of a certain Charles Addams creation Ricci follows on with her adopted kooky persona with this halloween caper, and its suits her perfectly. Pullman is a blundering but lovable father to Ricci's character whilst Casper is voiced nicely and acted well by a young Devon Sawa in human form. The only let down is the rather lame villainess and her henchman played by Eric Idle who didn't really need to be here. At times this film is actually very sweet and can bring a lump to your throat, it has that sickly sentimental touch, especially during the finale. But overall this is a great fun film if you enjoy light-hearted supernatural silliness. To sum up it isn't too far from a kids version of 'Beetlejuice' or 'High Spirits' and much better than the Eddie Murphy vehicle 'The Haunted Mansion'.Phil H Super Reviewer
-
Jun 19, 2013Considering I've never been a HUGE fan of Casper (then again who is these days?) and considering the film doesn't have the best reputation for an animated adaptation, I wasn't expecting a whole lot, but I was surprised at how good I thought the film was. Bill Pullman and Christina Ricci both do decent jobs and you can sense the relationship of father and daughter with the two, and the kid who played CAsper does a good job at pulling off his personality, but the characters that steal the show are the ghostly trio, Stretch played by Joe Nipote, Stinky played by Veteran VA Joe Alaskey (Bugs, Daffy, Tweety, & Sylvester from 2000 to 2006), and Fatso played by Everybody Loves Raymond actor Brad Garrett. Not only are all three of these guys entertaining as hell as these characters, but they make them each funny, give them distinct voices, and make each character just mean but the likable and funny kind of mean. Also the film has a few very good cameo moments and does have a good sense of humor which considering most Cartoon to film adaptations usually have the same humor of juvenile fart jokes or other jokes, but no this film did try a number of jokes and a lot of them actually workMichael E Super Reviewer
-
Nov 19, 2012This was my first film I went to see at the cinema, I was 5, Anyway back then I thought it was great but now I'm older it's not that great, Kids will love it but that's it, There's some funny scenes but it's more silly than funny.Jamie C Super Reviewer
-
Aug 03, 2012Crapped my pants watching this film as a child, was emotionally abused by the special effect in the film. Cliche storyline but visually stunning. Not funny at all, not funny.Sylvester K Super Reviewer
Verified