Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1997)
Review by HTQ4
Film:
DVD:

Written by Jymn Magon and Thomas Hart, based on the book Casper: The Friendly Ghost by Joseph Oriolo and Seymour Reit
Directed by Sean McNamara
Starring Steve Guttenberg, Lori Laughlin, Rodney Dangerfield, Michael McKean, Brendon Ryan Barrett, and Jeremy Foley

Features:

• Half-hour making-of featurette
  
• Original trailer
  

You all know Casper the Friendly Ghost, but you probably don't know the story of how he became the white floating blob of protoplasm we all know and love, do you? Well, it seems he fell off the train to the new ghost training station, and was forced to fend for himself. While he is out looking for a place to...um...stay dead, he comes across this sleepy little town that is on the verge of being bulldozed to make way for "progress." Casper must try to bring a father and son closer together and at the same time save the town from destruction.

This is an absolutely horrible script. It is full of one-liners that take every day things and make them ghostly (i.e., "The Spooker Image Catalogue"), and they're not really funny at all. Not only that, but the digital effects for the spirits are absolutely dismal. When you add to that the fact that the acting is about as deep as a puddle of mud; you've got the perfect equation for a complete waste of time. Considering that you've got Guttenberg headlining and a list that reads like the direct-to-video all-stars backing him up (including voice work by Pauly Shore, egad), then you can kinda see what I'm talking about here.

The DVD treatment is better than the movie deserves. All you get is a making-of documentary that takes this movie waaaaaaay too seriously. They also spend too much time with clips from the movie, and not enough time with interviews from the cast and crew. It's obviously severely padded to hit that half-hour mark, although you'd hope it was really because the cast and crew had really nothing to say for themselves. It's really funny to hear the director and editors talk about the character development of how Casper came to the idea that he could be a "friendly ghost" rather than an "evil ghost."

So, this is an insult even to children who might watch it. It should be left alone.