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.

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.

For those who our Casper fans of the original movie from 1995 and the classic cartoons that started it all it's an okay movie in my opinion, not as worse than "Casper: a Spirited Beginning" the story itself is kinda cheesy in 90s standards, the characters are good in my opinion since actor George Hamilton does end up playing a warlock in this movie and even Pauly Shore playing the Oracle sounds bland in which they rip off the magic mirror from Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. even the strangest part of the movie is that witches hate ghosts and ghost hate witches which is kinda like the Mccoys and the Hatfields fued to be exact and not to mention a Close Encounters of the Third Kind reference at the beginning of this film during the scene in the baseball game, and no surprisely Hilary Duff (before she was in Lizzie McGuire) does a great job playing Wendy and even Teri Garr, Shelley Duvall and Cathy Moriarty (who previously was in the first Casper movie from 1995 as I said before) did a good job playing her 3 aunts, still this movie might have some gross out humor and some mild scary scenes at some point than it's quite considered a family flick to watch in my opinion.

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.

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.