Casper et Wendy

I rented this for my four-year-old son from our local public library. As the third Casper film, and a direct-to-video release (the only advertising I remember was on cereal boxes), I wasn't expecting much from this little venture, but I was delightfully surprised. I actually sat and watched the whole thing, and the climax is quite suspenseful. A great cast, some witty writing, and fine performances by George Hamilton as the villainous arch-warlock Desmond Spellman (am I the only one who thinks this is a dig at Aaron Spelling?), Richard Moll, Vincent Schiavelli—and the three adult witches, Shelly Duval, Teri Garr and Cathy Moriarty. The CGI ghosts are well done.

But the biggest surprise of all is Hilary Duff's sparkling performance as Wendy. Based on all the ditzy teen idol crap she did later-- rolling her eyes and huffing every thirty seconds as "Lizzy McGuire" and singing those plastic pop tunes--I expected her to just float around on her broom and look cute. But this is the best acting I've ever seen her do. I can hardly believe it's the same person. She's a delightful little bundle of energy, delivers her lines intelligently, and really works her little duff off (sorry, couldn't resist that). It's a shame her career took such an airhead direction. This video shows she was capable of better things, but she's already being forgotten.

One caution: The ending, with the swirling "Mystic Abyss", when it seems like Wendy might actually be a gonner, as well as the "possession" scenes might be a little too much for some preschoolers.

Nice children's movie. Fun and full of good feelings. A little cheesy but in line with the character of Casper, the child ghost that everyone loves.

Definitely simpler than the original 1995 film and with much lighter themes.

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.

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.

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.