Casper (film)

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Live Action Adaptation of Casper the Friendly Ghost from The Nineties. Directed by Brad Silberling (who went on to do the A Series of Unfortunate Events film) and produced by (who else?) Steven Spielberg. The first feature film ever to have a CGI character in the lead role, beating Toy Story by six months.

Rich Bitch Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) is eager to get her claws on her dear departed dad's fortune, but discovers at the reading of his Will that he... didn't like her very much and only left her a spooky mansion. After finding that the house may contain treasure, she drags her Battle Butler Dibbs (Eric Idle) to the Maine coastline, where they find the building is haunted by Casper and his three uncles. Carrigan eventually hires "ghost therapist" Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) to get rid of them. He brings along his daughter Kat (an early-teen Christina Ricci fresh off The Addams Family films), whose relationship with Casper is most of the movie.

The movie didn't do well with the critics (Roger Ebert being a notable exception), but nevertheless gained a bit of a cult following.

The direct-to-video sequels, on the other hand, were far more commonly agreed to be much lower quality, both in terms of effects and plot, probably because they had absolutely nothing to do with the original movie except for the titular ghost.

The movie was the basis for the short-lived animated series The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper.

Tropes used in Casper (film) include:
  • Adorkable: Bill Pullman as Dr. James Harvey
  • Adapted Out: The game adaptation omitted Dibs, but oddly enough keeps Carrigan.
  • An Aesop: About friendship, with a good example (Casper and Kat), and a dysfunctional example (Carrigan and Dibbs) and a creepy example (the Ghostly Trio and Dr Harvey).
  • Alliterative Name: Carrigan Crittenden.
  • All That Glitters
  • Alpha Bitch: Amber.
  • Avoid the Dreaded G Rating: There's enough language to justify its PG rating.
  • Battle Butler: Eric Idle's character Dibbs. It's never explained what his relationship to Carrigan is or why he follows her around and takes her abuse.
  • Big Eater: All three of the Ghostly Trio, especially Fatso, naturally.
  • Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: Carrigan Crittenden all the way.
  • Black Comedy: The Ghostly Trio warms up to James so much that they decide they want to kill him so he'll become a ghost and hang out with them for eternity. But they change their minds.
  • Boo Meets Girl
  • Butt Monkey: Paul "Dibbs" Plutzker.
  • California Doubling: Friendship, Maine, the setting of the film, is a real place, but none of the movie was shot there. The downtown scenes were filmed in the more touristy Rockport, Maine while most of the movie, including all the scenes involving Whipstaff, were filmed in California.
  • Cartoon Physics: It seems Casper and the Ghostly Trio operate under this trope as all can shapeshift and are completely malleable. The Trio uses these abilities to scare people and pick on Casper. Whilst Casper himself uses it for practical purposes such as changing his hand into cooking tools and entertaining Kat. When Carrigan becomes a ghost the only abilities she uses is going through solid objects, using it to take Casper's treasure chest. Whilst Dr. Harvey tries to use them to fly, but since he died drunk he has trouble controlling it causing the Trio to help him up when he falls. Harvey figures this out right away in his initial fight with the ghosts, even managing to knock them away and using the vacuum against them. The next scene after, Kat has armed herself with a dust buster in case they got out.
  • Cut Song: "Lucky Enough to be a Ghost".
  • Dawson Casting: Averted; all of the teenagers are played by actors between the ages of 13 and 15 and Casper's voice actor is 14 with the actor portraying his briefly restored body just about pushing it at 17.
  • Deadpan Snarker: Kat at times.
  • Died Happily Ever After: Kat's mom.
  • Disney Villain Death: Carrigan. Not that it stops her...
  • Establishing Character Moment: A lot of the characters have their share of moments:
    • Casper for example gets his first speaking appearance trying to settle an argument over two kids taking a picture of the house on a dare. Only for him to intervene, help and accidentally scare them away. Showing that he's a nice ghost, whom wants a friend, but has no such luck.
    • Carrigan and Dibbs establish themselves off the bat. Carrigan shows her impatience and domineering personality, by putting out a cigarette on an expensive table at the lawyer's office and pushing Dibbs into speeding the reading along so she'd know what she got. When she was told she inherited Whipstaff Manor and not any financial reward. While Dibbs can only begrudgingly follow her commands, despite his clear hatred of her.
    • Dr. Harvey establishes himself on the news as well as in his first official scene. The news segments show that he does try to handle hauntings professionally and that the later problems with Casper and The Ghostly Trio, while shocking and new to him also fall under the problems he's trying to solve for all hauntings while at the same time trying to contact his deceased wife. In his first official scene with Kat, he appears absent minded, but still cares for his daughter. He only feels lost, because without his wife Amelia, he has no idea how to raise Kat.
    • Kat Harvey is shown to be aloof regarding her father, due to having to constantly move and not be able to keep the friends she makes. When she meets Casper, she's scared of him at first, but when she sees he's a lonely ghost who wants a friend, she tries her best to help him. At one point even stand up to the Ghostly Trio for picking on him one too many times.
    • The Ghostly Trio's first moment is after Casper accidentally scares Carrigan and Dibbs. They appear collectively in a demonic scare image. Showing that they take their haunting seriously as well as get creative and have fun with it. They show that while they pick on Casper a lot, they do care about him and any friends they make. Which is why they get along with Dr. Harvey so well.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Right after the Ghostly Trio decide they want to kill James so his ghost can join their gang, James (drunkenly) tells them he won't help Carrigan evict them from the manor, and declares them to be his best friends. They declare they just can't croak him right in front of him.
  • Evil Laugh: Carrigan, in ghost form.
  • Fly At the Camera Ending: The movie ends with Casper flying up to the camera, winking, spelling out "The End", then the friendly ghost apparently trying to devour the audience.
  • Four-Fingered Hands: Lampshaded.
  • "Friend or Idol?" Decision
  • Getting Crap Past the Radar: "There's a girl...on my bed... Yes!"
    • "Hey, boys! We got a closet case here!"
    • The following exchange:

Kat: I want to look...nice.
James: Mm-hmm.
Kat: Like... Like date nice.
James: Really? Uh...Honey, I think maybe it's time that we...sat down and...
Kat: It's a little late for that, Dad.
James: How late?
Kat: Oh, don't worry. Not that late.

    • There's also a surprisingly funny one in one of the sequels. The school principal runs out of the bathroom, pants still down, after being scared by Casper. He runs up to a woman staff member, grabs her and says "I need you!". She looks down at his boxers, screams, and slaps the principal across the face.
  • Ghost Amnesia: Casper and Dr. Harvey, until their respective memories get jogged. Carrigan seems like she doesn't have that problem, but Dibs had to jog her memory for one moment so, it seems her memory was starting to slip since she forgot she asked Dibs to retrieve the Lazarus formula.
  • Glamour Failure: Ghosts don't have reflections. Kat dryly comments this is one reason she's not dating Casper. ILM probably considered it a way to save money on the CGI.
    • Probably not just that; it's a pretty common belief that ghosts don't have reflections anyway.
  • Good Smoking, Evil Smoking: Carrigan smokes and is definitely evil.
  • Greater Need Than Mine
  • Hey, It's That Guy!: Robert Barone, President Whitmore, and that funny British dude. Also in the first movie, human!Casper is portrayed by Devon Sawa, who would later portray Alex Browning.
    • A then unknown Hilary Duff playing Wendy in the third movie.
  • Haunted Headquarters
  • Heroic Sacrifice: Casper gives up his only chance to come back to life so Dr. Harvey can come back and be a father to Kat.
  • Hurricane Of Incredibly Lame Puns: The Ghostly Trio are full of them.

Fatso: [being sucked into a vacuum cleaner] This sucks!

Stanz: Who you gonna call? [Ghostly Trio laughs] Someone else!

Kat: You guys are disgusting, obnoxious creeps!
Ghostly Trio: ...Thank you!

  • Jerkasses --> Jerks With Hearts of Gold: Stretch, Stinkie and Fatso.
  • Jerk Jock: Vic DePhillippi.
  • Karma Houdini: Vic and Amber get scared out of the party, before they could play their prank, by the Ghostly Trio. However, Kat looks on in confusion and praised by her guests, and without a date, until Casper shows up briefly alive.
  • Live Action Adaptation
  • Logo Joke: The Universal globe turns into the moon.
  • Major Injury Underreaction: During Father Guido Sarducci's cameo, from one of Carrigan's many attempts to exorcise the ghosts. He's the only one to go in the house and come out speaking the same tone like nothing bad happened....despite the fact that he just got his head twisted around. He does lie about exorcising the ghosts before he leaves.
  • Money, Dear Boy: The only explanation for the celebrity cameos. Or the long-term presence of Eric Idle.
  • Mythology Gag: Kat and her father's surname is Harvey. Casper the Friendly Ghost was originally published by Harvey Comics, which was defunct by the time this film was made.
  • Nice Guy/Nice Girl: Aside from the titular friendly ghost, Dr. Harvey and Kat are this. While they are initially scared by Casper and the Ghostly Trio. Once they get to know them, they become good friends. Kat especially, as just after she overcame her fear of him, stood up for him, when the Trio was picking on Casper and later on tries to help him remember his life and death. Whereas Harvey, who initially had to fight the Ghostly Trio was doing his best to help them out despite them being jerks to him. It pays off eventually, as at first they wanted to initially kill him so they could be pals for eternity, but when he expressed his love for them as friends, they couldn't even bring themselves to do that. Even trying to warn him about walking backwards drunk off a construction site.
  • Pet the Dog: The Ghostly Trio keep the promise they made and find Kat's mom.
  • Pinky Swear
  • Premiseville: A movie with An Aesop about friendship is set in Friendship, Maine.
  • Promise Me You Won't X
  • "The Reason You Suck" Speech: To Carrigan from Dibbs, after he gets fed up with her and decides to take the treasure for himself.

Dibbs: Carrigan, if there's one thing I've learned from you, it's "Always kick 'em when they're down." And baby? You're six feet under! Oh what a shame! [takes out the Elixer] Sorry sweetheart. We're through. [aims to pitch it]
Carrigan: [gasps in horror] I am NOT going to forget this, you ungrateful, lousy little worm, you!
Dibbs: [laughs] You can haunt me all you want, but it's going to be in a great, big, expensive house! With lovely purple wallpaper, and great big green carpets! And a little dog, called Carrigan. A bitch, just. like. you!"

Stretch: Who's got their pointy head up my--
Fatso: That's not my head.

  • Starring Special Effects: Has the distinction of being the first movie where the title character is CG.
  • Steampunk: Casper's father's secret laboratory.
  • Take That: Quite a few, considering it was written by Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver, two veterans of the Warner Bros. Animation Silver Age. Jabs at Oprah, Mark Wahlberg, and the like are commonplace.
  • Terrible Trio: The Ghostly Trio. Although they're astonishingly competent for secondary antagonists -- though they have had over 100 years to perfect the art.
  • Undead Child: Casper, of course.
  • Unfinished Business
  • We Named the Monkey "Jack" Dibbs tells Carrigan that when he's rich from the treasure, he'll get a little dog, and name it after her.
  • What Does She See in Him?: Casper's been in whipstaff long enough to know Vic and Amber are bullies (Well Amber's a bully, Vic just simply does what she says.), even pantomiming Vic's pick up line to Kat to further emphasize it. However when Kat says yes, it makes Casper look depressed enough to fade away, leading to this trope and.....
  • What's He Got That I Ain't Got?: When Casper tries to convince Kat to take him instead, he asks this question. Even coming up with a counter point. He wins by transforming into a Superhero and taking her to the light house.

Casper: What's this Vic guy got that I don't, huh?
Kat: A pulse.
Casper: Big fleshy deal.
Kat: A tan.
Casper: Very bad for your skin.
Kat: How about a reflection.
Casper: [Looks in the mirror realizing Kat's got a point] Ok, but can he do this?
[turns into a superhero]
Casper: Come with me if you want to live.

  • When the Clock Strikes Twelve: Played with.
  • Who You Gonna Call?: To exorcise the house? Ultimately, Dr. Harvey, but Carrigan tries a few other professionals first. One of the trope namers even drops by to give a lampshade.
  • Writers Cannot Do Math: Just try to work out what time period Casper lived in.
    • Mainly, the problem is that darn Duke Snider autographed baseball. Duke Snider began his baseball career in the 1940s, but everything else in the film, particularly the art direction, suggests Casper lived sometime around 1900. To add to the confusion, a direct-to-video "prequel" portrayed him becoming a ghost in The Present Day.
    • The only possible explanation for the "prequel" is that after his father passed away, he was taken to the train. During the trip, time moves faster. After falling off the train, all the shorts and specials happen. Then he wanders to the town where he meets the boy Chris. Casper did say to Kat that he "didn't go where" he "was supposed to go", and he didn't. Though they can all be explain away by Broad Strokes and Hand Waves.
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