Casper Meets Wendy | |
---|---|
Directed by | Sean McNamara |
Written by | Jymn Magon |
Based on | Casper the Friendly Ghost by Seymour Reit Joe Oriolo Wendy the Good Little Witch by Steve Mufatti (artist) |
Produced by | Mike Elliott |
Starring | Cathy Moriarty Shelley Duvall Teri Garr George Hamilton Hilary Duff Richard Moll Vincent Schiavelli Blake Foster Voices: Jeremy Foley Bill Farmer Jim Ward Jess Harnell |
Cinematography | Christian Sebaldt |
Edited by | John Gilbert |
Music by | Udi Harpaz |
Production companies | |
Distributed by | 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment |
Release date |
|
Running time | 94 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
Casper Meets Wendy is a 1998 American fantasy comedy film based on the Harvey Comics cartoon characters Casper the Friendly Ghost and Wendy the Good Little Witch. The film is a sequel to Casper: A Spirited Beginning , and the second spin-off/prequel of Casper (1995). Saban Entertainment co-produced the project.
This was Hilary Duff's first major film, and was released on September 22, 1998, six days before her 11th birthday. The film also marks the second Casper film for co-star Cathy Moriarty, who previously starred as the main antagonist in the 1995 film.
The film was met with mostly negative reviews from critics, but was considered an improvement to its predecessor. Its television premiere was October 24, 1999 on Fox Family.
The Ghostly Trio cause panic at a baseball game, and their nephew Casper fails to settle the terrified crowd. The park empties, and after watching their effect with satisfaction, Casper's uncles plan a vacation.
Meanwhile, a malevolent warlock named Desmond Spellman is told by the Oracle in the Mirror that in the future, a good little witch named Wendy will surpass him. Desmond plans to get rid of her with the advised "Mystic Abyss", a dimensional rift that can destroy living beings. He then creates a pair of spies: Jules and Vincent, and assigns them to bring Wendy to him from where she is living in the country with her three mischievous aunts: Gert, Gabby and Fanny.
Jules and Vincent arrive at Wendy's house to escort the young witch to Desmond, but she narrowly escapes with her aunts. To keep Wendy safe from Desmond, her aunts hide and vacation at the same resort hotel in which Casper and his uncles are vacationing. Casper and Wendy meet in a barn and become friends, but they fear that their guardians will not get along because ghosts and witches are natural enemies. Casper and Wendy devise a plan to make them meet at a party. Casper gets the Ghostly Trio to possess three men who happen to resemble them. Wendy convinces her aunts to go to the party to meet men. Thanks to their plotting, they meet and soon the Trio are flirting with the three witches, who are posing as regular women.
The plan is spoiled when the possession wears off and the Trio's real selves are revealed to Wendy's aunts, who, in turn, reveal their real selves and threaten them with magic. Wendy explains to Casper that she and her aunts cannot use high-level magic or else Desmond will be able to track them down. When the Trio suspects Casper is protecting the witches, they pressure him into blurting out that the witches cannot use their powers, prompting the Trio to terrorize Wendy and her aunts. Wendy feels she has no choice but to cast a high-level spell to cover the Trio in plaster, alerting Desmond of her location.
Distraught that Casper broke his promise, Wendy ends their friendship. Casper soon confronts his uncles and tells them that Desmond is coming after the witches and they should help, at which the Trio scoff and refuse. Before the witches can evacuate the resort, Desmond and his spies arrive. After finding and confronting the witches, Desmond explains the Oracle's prediction, and after she tries to resist him, summons the Mystic Abyss and casts Wendy into it, with Casper diving inside in an attempt to rescue her. While inside together, Wendy apologizes to Casper for yelling at him and ending their friendship. Wendy's aunts battle Desmond but are no match for him. Before Desmond can turn the witches into fertilizer, a giant three-eyed monster appears and frightens the warlock who trips over Wendy's broom and falls into the Abyss himself. The monster turns out to be the Ghostly Trio, who had a change of heart. While they hold the door to the Abyss open, Wendy's aunts pull her and Casper out.
Both Casper and Wendy are unconscious from being inside the Abyss, but with encouragement and comfort from their guardians, Casper is restored by his uncles, and Wendy is treated by her aunts. After a touching reunion between the witches and an awkward one between the ghosts, the witches thank the Trio for helping them and the Trio admit it was nice getting to know them. Casper and Wendy's friendship is restored. The Oracle then proclaims that Wendy is the greatest witch because she did something no other witch ever could: she befriended a ghost. Later, Casper, his uncles, Wendy, and her aunts, all bid each other goodbye. Wendy assures Casper they will see each other again very soon. Before flying back home with her aunts, Wendy gives Casper a goodbye kiss, causing him to blush.
Casper Meets Wendy received mostly negative reviews from critics, with a total of 6 reviews from critics on the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes. 17% gave the film a positive review, with an average score of 4.10/10, which gives the film a slight improvement over its predecessor, but still low compared to the 1995 theatrical film. [1]
Hilary Duff was nominated for a Young Artist Award. [2]
In the original airing and VHS release of the film, the Casper theme can be heard in the opening sequence performed by Shana Halligan. [3] In the subsequent DVD releases the lyric is muted though the melody and sound effects remain intact. Halligan is still credited with performing the theme song.
Harvey Comics was an American comic book publisher, founded in New York City by Alfred Harvey in 1941, after buying out the small publisher Brookwood Publications. His brothers, Robert B. and Leon Harvey, joined shortly after. The company soon got into licensed characters, which, by the 1950s, became the bulk of their output. The artist Warren Kremer was closely associated with the publisher.
Wendy the Good Little Witch is a fictional comic book character from Harvey Comics. Like Casper the Friendly Ghost and Hot Stuff the Little Devil, Wendy is an opposite-type character, a girl witch who does good deeds.
Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost is a fictional character that appeared in titles published by Harvey Comics. Spooky first appeared in Casper the Friendly Ghost #10. He is Casper's cousin, although their exact relation is never specified. He generally resembles Casper except he has freckles, a derby hat, and a large, black nose.
Hot Stuff the Little Devil is a comic book character created by Warren Kremer who first appeared in Hot Stuff #1, published by Harvey Comics. Imbued with a mischievous personality and able to produce fire, Hot Stuff appears as a red child devil who wears a diaper and carries a magical sentient pitchfork, which is a character in its own right. Much to the consternation of his demonic brethren, Hot Stuff sometimes performs good deeds to irritate them.
The Ghostly Trio are fictional characters appearing in Harvey Comics. They are well known for being the uncles of Casper the Friendly Ghost. Their first animated appearance was in The Friendly Ghost, a cartoon of Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios theatrical series from the 1940s. When Casper was translated to Harvey Comics, the characters were redesigned to make them more mischievous than terror-inspiring. The characters made numerous Harvey Comics appearances and were featured in the title Casper and the Ghostly Trio. Versions of the Ghostly Trio remained prominent in subsequent adaptations/spin-offs.
Casper: A Spirited Beginning is a 1997 American direct-to-video fantasy comedy film based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. It serves as a prequel, though breaks continuity with the 1995 Universal/Amblin film Casper. The film stars Steve Guttenberg, Lori Loughlin, Rodney Dangerfield, Michael McKean, James Earl Jones and Pauly Shore, with supporting roles of Richard Moll, Sherman Hemsley, Brian Doyle-Murray, Edie McClurg and Ben Stein. The plot explores additional details surrounding the titular character's origins. 20th Century Fox had previously acquired film rights to the character from Universal. The film was produced by The Harvey Entertainment Company and Saban Entertainment and released by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment on September 9, 1997, and was panned by critics.
Fatso may refer to:
The Harvey Entertainment Company was the production arm of comic book publisher Harvey Comics. It was founded in 1957.
The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper is an American animated television spin-off series and a sequel of the feature film Casper, which, in turn, was based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character of Casper the Friendly Ghost.
Casper's Haunted Christmas is a 2000 animated Christmas supernatural black comedy film produced by The Harvey Entertainment Company and Mainframe Entertainment, based on the character Casper the Friendly Ghost, and was released in the United States by Universal Studios Home Video on October 31, 2000. Unlike either its theatrical or two direct-to-video predecessors, which combined live-action and CGI, the film was fully made in computer animation. It stars Brendon Ryan Barrett as the voice of the title character. Randy Travis provided original music.
The New Casper Cartoon Show is a 1963–1964 animated television series that appeared on ABC's Saturday morning schedule, based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. Casper's co-stars included his friends from the Harvey Comics stories: Wendy the Good Little Witch, the Ghostly Trio, Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, and the ghost horse Nightmare. The show premiered on October 5, 1963 and is one of the earliest Saturday morning cartoons.
Casper's Scare School is a 2006 animated television film based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. The film premiered on Cartoon Network on October 20, 2006. It was produced by Classic Media. A TV series of the same name was produced in 2009, as well as a 2008 video game of the same name.
Casper is a series of action-adventure games based on the 1995 film of the same name. Two different games were released in 1996 and 1997 for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, by different publishers, in different regions. A third game was released for the 3DO, Sega Saturn, PlayStation, and Game Boy Color, published by Interplay Productions. There was also a Game Boy game developed by Bonsai. A PC game, Casper: The Interactive Adventure, and a Game Boy Advance game, simply titled Casper, were released in 1997 and 2002 respectively serving as sequels.
Casper the Friendly Ghost is a fictional character who serves as the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a translucent ghost who is pleasant and personable, but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio.
Casper is a 1995 American supernatural fantasy comedy film directed by Brad Silberling, in his feature film directorial debut, based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost created by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo. The film stars Christina Ricci, Bill Pullman, Cathy Moriarty, and Eric Idle, with voice talents of Joe Nipote, Joe Alaskey, Brad Garrett, and the film introduction of Malachi Pearson in the title role. The film follows Casper (Pearson), a friendly ghost who peacefully haunts a mansion called Whipstaff Manor in Friendship, Maine, meets and befriends a teenage girl named Kat Harvey (Ricci), the daughter of Dr. James Harvey (Pullman), a paranormal therapist who is hired to move into Whipstaff in order to rid the mansion of its spectral inhabitants.
Casper and the Spectrals is a three-issue comic book miniseries published by Arden Entertainment, celebrating the 60th anniversary of Casper the Friendly Ghost.
The cartoon character, Casper the Friendly Ghost who appears in numerous cartoon shorts as well as Harvey Comics publication, has appeared in five films since his inception, most of which were either released in television or straight-to-video while only one was released theatrically. Many for the most part are unrelated to each other. Like in the comics and animated shorts, the films feature Casper, a ghost of a deceased child, who refused to frighten others and would like nothing more than to be friendly around the world, due to the nature of what he appears to be, it would often get him shunned by whoever he encounters, but along the way, he would find and befriend a certain someone he could identify himself with, and would often help that someone in need.
Kibosh is the main antagonist from Casper the Friendly Ghost. Kibosh is the powerful, evil and feared King of Ghosts. He is a big and muscular green ghost with red eyes. He is the archenemy of Casper, and he has great contempt for the little ghost and his uncles although he is less villainous in Casper's Scare School than in his earlier appearances, though he still has contempt for Casper and his uncles in the latter appearance.
Casper and the Ghostly Trio is a 2006 platform game developed by Data Design Interactive and published by Blast! Entertainment. It is based on the Casper the Friendly Ghost character by Harvey Comics. The game was released for the PlayStation 2 exclusively in the PAL region, where it was unanimously panned by critics despite a low-key release.