Delayed Reaction: Casper

Premise: A paranormal therapist and his daughter move into a house haunted by spirits, including a friendly ghost named Casper.

It is so much fun rediscovering movies. I've seen Casper probably several times. I remember renting it as a child and I'm sure I caught pieces of it on HBO at different points. There is a time when I would've told you this is a movie I knew very well. However, I haven't seen this movie since before I hit puberty. It's probably been 20+ years, and I've devoted no part of my memory to remembering anything about it. It wasn't a sticky movie in my brain. I love rewatching movie like this, because scene after scene brought all these dormant memories to life. It's a sensation up there with the first time you use a scalp massager. It's the thrill of discovery AND nostalgia at the same time.

So, yeah. I don't know that I necessarily liked Casper when I recently watched it, but I had a terrific time watching it. I'm assuming this sensation is something other people have as well. If not, you're missing out.

Casper comes from a really fun time in comedy movies. The mid-90s were all about taking old shows and turning them into movies. The Beverly Hillbillies. The Addams Family. The Flintstones. The Brady Bunch Movie. In my memory at least, they all looked like they were directed by the same people and had the same brand of self-aware humor. Casper fits in this run of movies. I honestly can't tell you if I found it funny. I don't think it's laugh out loud funny. It's the kind of funny that's more like a pleasant warmth in my belly.

One thing I do know is that Christina Ricci was a great child star. I think she's plenty fine now too. She isn't one of those child stars who never evolved and is still giving the same performance at 40 as she gave at 14. It just hasn't worked as well as her child star years. We roll her Addams Family and Casper work together, but those are very different performances. In Casper she's much looser (obviously). She really sells all those scenes when she's playing against presumably nothing (later, called Casper).

The ghost effects hold up surprisingly well; probably because they weren't trying to push the limits with them and weren't striving for realism.

I feel I should end on this question. All those cameos. How and why?

Verdict: Weakly Recommend