The movie came out in 1995 and was considered a hit, even though it costs upwards of $55 million dollars to make. The movie detailed the adventures of a ghost expert, Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman), and his young daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) who are hired by an heiress, Carrigan (Cathy Moriarty), to get rid of some ghosts haunting a mansion in Maine. She wants to find the treasure hidden there and will stop at nothing to get it. When the Harvey's move in, they eventually come across Casper and his three ghostly uncles, Fatso, Stinkie and Stretch. Casper is friendly but his uncles are not, and they seek to get rid of the "fleshies" that are bothering them in what they consider their home.

The good doctor is on a tight time schedule though since Carrigan is lacking funds to keep paying him. He seeks his own answers though, looking for his long dead wife. As Kat tries to fit in with the local townsfolk (in a minor subplot), James tries to reason with the ghosts and find what unfinished business keeps them on this mortal coil. When reason fails, he fights with the ghostly trio (i.e.: the uncles) and his daughter goes from despising Casper to thinking of him as a friend. All the while, Carrigan plots to find the treasure and the resulting turmoil causes everyone some pain.

Okay, the direction was a bit fast and loose here and the script was getting re-written all the time (said the director in the commentary track), which showed (a lot). The acting was solid enough for a children's show with Ricci and the ghosts stealing the show, as intended, though some of the subplots could've been better handled. I think the movie was intended primarily for kids but enough subtle references to make the parents happy too. Cameos by Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Dan Ackroyd, Mr. Rogers, Don Novello, Rodney Dangerfield, and others helped make the movie worth a number of smiles, if not actual laughs, and I wish Eric Idle had been given more to work with here. Other issues for me were how the script wavered from a young child audience to a teenage audience with language inappropriate for the former and too tame for the latter.

The special effects were splendid though as were the sets. Pullman was plausible as the ghost busting dad and the supporting cast generally well used. The various sight gags were enough to keep trivia buffs happy for weeks on end and in the end it was a cute enough family comedy to rate a Recommended for all its faults. The sequels were really lame and suffered from the usual attempt to cash in on a moneymaker so you might want to avoid them unless they're on cable for free. In general, it seemed like people either loved this one or hated it with little middle ground and this is one of those times when I'm firmly on the fence, but leaning towards liking it, for all the reasons listed above.

Picture: The picture was presented in 1.85:1 ratio anamorphic widescreen color. While there were some moments with grain and minor video noise, mostly due to the darkness of the scenes, the picture was generally clear with minimal problems. I think I saw a couple of artifacts at one point but they were few and far between.

Sound: The audio was presented with a choice of 5.1 Dolby Digital Surround English, French, Spanish, or a 5.1 DTS English track, with English captions for the hearing impaired or optional Spanish or French subtitles. For the most part, there was a lot of directionality with the audio but the bass was somewhat distorted (usually referred to as loose or lacking definition). Otherwise, the vocals and music were pretty solid with a broad dynamic range on an upscale home theatre set up.

Extras: There was an audio commentary with director Brad Silberling that discussed a number of anecdotes about making the movie, from his employment by Executive Producer Steven Spielberg, to the deletion of some scenes for budgetary concerns. While not the most engaging commentator I've heard over the years, it wasn't a bad commentary. There were a couple of games, Casper's Treasures (where you're rewarded for finding objects) and a Spelling lab. There was a cartoon from ~50 years ago, Penguin For Your Thoughts which struck me as odd since it was a mediocre episode (I think the first one might've been a better choice or even one of the ones centering on a haunted house theme), a bunch of recipes and Halloween tips for kids, a Behind the Scenes look at the making of the show, a deleted scene (it was cut because it would've been too expensive to make) with optional commentary, a set of cast biographies, some recommended choices for viewing (without trailers though), and some DVD-Rom features that provided more material for a Halloween celebration.

Final Thoughts: Younger audiences will like this one as will older folks that remember the original cartoon. There weren't too many liberties taken with the source material here, at least in relation to other films in recent years, and it was pretty well made considering the difficulties of the CGI graphics used to animate the ghosts. It had some sappy material in it (it was a kids show after all) but kids like that sort of stuff, at least until they get old and jaded, but on average it was okay.