Casper et Wendy

"Casper" is one of the best live-action family films to me. It has the best special effects ever and the cast was superb. On the other hand, "Casper : A Spirited Beginning" was one of the worst made for t.v. family films I can remember. I couldn't believe top stars like Rodney Dangerfield, Steve Guttenberg, & James Earl Jones would star in slop like that. Anyway, I was really scared to try out "Casper Meets Wendy" but now I'm glad I did. I fell in love with the cast and excellent special effects the first time watching it. Shelley Duvall, Cathy Moriarty, & Teri Garr are Wendy's three hilarious witch aunts. The basic plot: Wendy the Good Little Witch and her three witless witch aunts hide out at Sunny Brite Resort trying to escape from the evil warlock Desmond Spellman, played wonderfully by George Hamilton. The ghostly trio has also vacationed at the resort and naturally Wendy meets the lonely Casper the Friendly Ghost, where they begin a boo-tiful friendship that's out of this world. If you thought the original Casper was good you are destined to enjoy this one. Great cast, special effects, and direction will please the whole family. Go rent or buy this film when you have some time. It's worth it! Available on video now from 20th Century Fox.

As I started to read the prior comment, I thought I had accidentally brought up comments on Titanic or Gladiator.

Actually, I found this mildly amusing, It didn't have that humor/storyline for everyone of a Shrek or Nemo, but that is okay. Not every Kid's Movie has to appeal to the whole family. Since this is a Kid's Movie, and I don't like to rate/inflict adult standards onto purely Kid's Movies outside of appropriateness -- message, if any; language and type of action, etc. The whole thing boils down to "How did the kids react to it?"

Well, the kids liked it a lot. And at the bottom line, when the day is done, that is what counts when you rent or take your kids to see a Kid's Movie. That being said, I am not interested in the complexity of plot lines, holes in story or academy award quality performances.

The kids say 7, and that is good enough for me.

The casper2+3 movies are more meant for kids ...

As adults everybody is giving bad reviews.. But its not that bad, enjoy the movie it definitely is a5-6star rating... Just the story in these movies went more towards kids. Funny stuff (for kids) it has new characters witches and bad guy and everything , they couldnt be much more good. Enjoy it.

The main reason I decided to see 'Casper meets Wendy' was the fact that it was the first one that Hilary Duff acted in apart from being an uncredited extra in 'True Women'.

The leading male character is Casper, an animated child ghost, and the leading female character is Wendy, a girl witch, played by the then inexperienced Hilary Duff. Although the plot, which is kept simple so that the target viewers, young children, have no difficulties in following it, is about the forbidden friendship between Casper and Wendy, in a way a prepubertal 'Romeo and Juliet', the main vehicles for humour are the adult witches and ghosts, the latter contributing many of the slapstick elements.

Adults watching this film, who may well be the parents of the members of the target group, may well find some amusement in the deadpan reactions of most of the adults who take no part in the storyline, but witness some of the extraordinary behaviour of the witches and ghosts. Many adults even enjoy some slapstick humour, and may well find it rewarding to see the more riotous scenes, particularly in the company of some members of the target group. The sartorially-minded will quite probably enjoy the frequent and extreme changes of clothing by the one child and three adult witches. Finally, it is quite interesting to see the main message of 'Romeo and Juliet', 'West Side Story', 'The Color of Friendship' and many other works of art, that it is wrong to stand in the way of friendships simply because two people have different backgrounds, conveyed by a film made for such young viewers.

The casting was brilliant. All of the characters seemed perfectly suited to their role in the proceedings. As the star of the non-animated cast, Hilary Duff displayed a sufficient variety of emotions to keep the viewer involved in the uncomplicated story, while avoiding extremities which could have extended the film into something too dramatic for very young children. It would be unfair, however, to compare her performance with that of the then inexperienced Reese Witherspoon in 'The Man in the Moon', which is of necessity a far more mature and rounded portrayal of the leading character, since it is a very moving and dramatic story. Apart from that, Reese Witherspoon was a few years older when she played the role of Dani Trant.

Personally, I got rather bored by so many slapstick scenes in 'Casper meets Wendy', but I have seen many films that are a lot worse.

Being an author, director and screenwriter myself I can't just watch a movie without automatically looking for flaws in them. If there's a hole in it I'll most likely find it. I read novels and screenplays over and over again then study the movies along with the scripts to see what is right and what's not. How the target audience reacts to movies is also important in my business. I would be happy to have Hillary Duff star in one of my screenplays. She's the right age, has the right look and the talent to star in the series I'm working on now.

I had a fun time reading all the reviews for this movie. I can't help but wonder why adults who hated this movie would bother to set through it let alone write lengthy reviews using highly colorful & hateful terms. If you don't like kiddy movies don't watch them. Intelligent people wouldn't set through something they hated with a passion unless they were deliberately trying to find fault with it or the staring actors.

Hillary Duff gets "hate" messages from people who are jealous of her all the time. In fact she gets so much of it she's stopped communicating with most of her fans because of it. It doesn't help anyone, not her, not her fans, not the people who hate her either. It just puts more distance between the fans and the actors/actresses and that's completely uncalled for. Either you like the movie or the actors or you don't. I have a list I don't care much for either but I'm not going to waste my time using colorful metaphors talking about them.

Hillary is one of the sweetest kids you will ever see. She's cute, honest, and when she smiles her entire face glows. My daughter Kristy (15)was watching the Lizzy McGuire movie and said she would like to meet Hillary because she thought that she would be a nice person. I would love for her to have the opportunity to meet Hillary and her mother.

Hillary was literally thrown into the acting business after doing a commercial or two. Before that she sang and danced. She was in fact very inexperienced when she did Casper Meets Wendy. If you understand the circumstances you should realize that with no more experience than she had at that time she did a fantastic job in this movie. The KIDS loved her!

Casper Meets Wendy isn't a typical Casper movie. The first Casper movie was by far more aimed at the general audience. Overall it was the best of all three for adults and young people alike. A Spirited Beginning was aimed more for the children and Casper Meets Wendy was aimed for the younger children. Of course it was also intended to have a simple plot that anyone could understand including little children. It's a feel good movie. It is not a horror story about a scary ghost or witch. It's for the young and young at heart.

For those people who really love to watch bad movies so they can hate them I have list they might like. ;-) You could start with "The Polish Vampire in Burbank" and move on to "Behind the Green Door" just for starters. I find it frustrating to turn the TV on and have 300 or so channels with nothing worth watching. But that's how the movie and TV shows are these days. I can't help but wonder if it is a lack of good scripts or if the producers just can't recognize a good script from a bad one. When a movie as bad as The Blair Witch, made by students on a budget of $8000 can turn a profit of more than $140,000,000 that's sad business. When people pay to see bad movies it sends the wrong signal to every producer in Hollywood. I have no doubt my kids could make a better movie than that.

Casper meets Wendy is a feel good movie and if you liked the comics of these characters you should like the movie. The acting and gags are geared for a kiddy flick and they accomplish exactly what the director wanted them to.