Casper: Special Edition (1995)

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General		Extras
Category	Family	Main Menu Introduction Main Menu Audio & Animation Menu Audio dts Trailer Audio Commentary-Brad Silberling (Director) Featurette-Behind The Scenes-Revealing Casper Deleted Scenes-Song - Lucky Enough To Be A Ghost Game-Casper's Treasures, Spelling Lab Theatrical Trailer DVD-ROM Extras
Rating
Year Of Production	1995
Running Time	95:56
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (67:22)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Language Select Then Menu
Region Coding	2,4,5	Directed By	Brad Silberling
Studio Distributor	Universal Pictures Home Video	Starring	Bill Pullman Christina Ricci Cathy Moriarty Eric Idle Ben Stein Don Novello Fred Rogers Terry Murphy Chauncey Leopardi Spencer Vrooman Malachi Pearson Ernestine Mercer Doug Bruckner
Case	?
RPI	$34.95	Music	James Horner Ray Colcord

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	None	English Dolby Digital 5.1 (448Kb/s) English dts 5.1 (768Kb/s) English Audio Commentary Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	1.85:1
16x9 Enhancement
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.85:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	English for the Hearing Impaired Danish Finnish Norwegian Swedish Russian Icelandic Hebrew English Audio Commentary Danish Audio Commentary Finnish Audio Commentary Norwegian Audio Commentary Swedish Audio Commentary	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Casper the friendly ghost first appeared in 1945. It was released by Famous Studios, a studio initially in partnership with Paramount, who later took full control. He was based on a story by Seymour V. Reit and animated by Joe Oriolo. The last theatrical release of a Casper cartoon in this form was in 1959, a sterling run for a little cartoon character. In 1949 Casper became a comic book character when St. John Publishing acquired the rights to all Paramount cartoon characters. The license for the characters was transferred to Harvey Comics (probably the version most would be familiar with) a year later. Casper comics appeared on the shelves right up until 1982. Casper's first TV appearance was in 1963 and included many of the friends that he had made in his years in comic books such as Wendy the Good Little Witch and of course his three nasty uncles.

    We come now to Casper's latest theatrical release, his big movie. As we have seen over the last decade, many cartoon and comic book characters have attempted to make the jump to the big screen, some far more successfully than others. Thankfully Casper is one of the most successful of this list, at least in my opinion.

    The character of Casper has been given much more depth than he had in the comic books or in the cartoons. The cartoons in particular portrayed a fairly one-dimensional character, a little lonely ghost looking for a friend that would not pass out at the sight (or lack of such) of him. In the film he remains a somewhat innocent character but instead of just looking for a friend he has found one and is falling in love. This does not detract from the character, as this expansion has been done in a very sympathetic manner and the character remains true to his origins. In one particular aspect, they have explored Casper's life before his death and the circumstances of that event as well.

    It still remains a family film but there is something here for everyone that loves a fairy tale. An interesting comment from the director in the commentary was concerning the corridors in the mansion in which the film is set. He says that they thought the set looked like "Dr Seuss threw up!" but decided not to use this line as it was a family film and might upset the kiddies. This is interesting because they use the word b**** more than once and one character says p*** off. While these are mild by today's standards, I just wondered why they thought the former would upset the kids and not the latter, although I suppose it is more likely to upset the parents rather than the children.

    The majority of the film is set in a wonderfully spooky house that was completely built inside a sound stage. During the accompanying documentary, the set designer points out that this is an unusual set in that the rooms have ceilings. Ceilings are not usually built for sets, as the characters in a normal film do not normally leave the ground, but with ghosts flying around the camera angles change and you suddenly need ceilings. Another interesting point was that the colour scheme chosen had to be fairly dark to ensure that the ghosts did not disappear into the background. The set design is fantastic and they have created a wonderful set full of atmosphere that right from the start sets the tone for the film.

    The fleshy actors all bring home sterling performances both from an artistic standpoint and from a technical. When you remember that they have to perform to the empty air, the level of interaction, both physical and emotional, that they have managed to bring to the performance is quite amazing. Even the tiny details such as the tracking of the eyes never misses a beat. I particularly enjoyed Eric Idle's performance and there is a particular pace and feel to the film as a fair percentage of the dialogue is impromptu. Normally in a film with animated (or in this case computer generated) characters, the voices are recorded separately and usually first. In this case, the voice actors were on the sound stage during the filming, allowing for this improvisation.

    Casper is living in an old house with his three ghostly uncles. For obvious reasons, the house is regarded as haunted and no-one will go there. Our villain is a nasty woman who has inherited the house from her deceased father, and through a small twist of fate, she believes that the house has a hidden treasure within. She and her close friend (Eric Idle) go to the house but run into more than a little trouble when they discover that the house is haunted. They try a number of ways to de-ghost the premises which leads to some great laughs with some funny cameos. While this is going on, Casper is watching TV and sees a story about a man who is acting as a psychiatrist to the dead. This doesn't particularly interest him until he sees the man's daughter. Casper contrives to have the psychiatrist brought in, supposedly to help the ghosts of the house find peace and cross over, but in actual fact Casper hopes to make friends with the girl. The story moves from there to an exploration of a number of themes around death and crossing over along with having a barrel of laughs as the three uncles resist any type of therapy.

Video

    Overall, this is a very nice transfer with only some minor problems.

    Presented at 1.85:1, which is its original aspect ratio, the transfer is 16x9 enhanced.

    While not very sharp, the image has a nice film-like appearance and is certainly not soft. Shadow detail is very good for the most part. There are several dimly lit scenes, and only very occasionally do parts of the image lack detail. There is no low level noise present.

    As mentioned before, the haunted house is painted in quite dark colours. Overall, the colours are good with correct saturation and no noise. Skin tones do occasionally drift a little towards the cold side of things.

    There are no MPEG artefacts present nor any posterization. There are no film to video artefacts and only slight grain present. Film artefacts are rare. The only really noticeable white spot is the one that is against the dark background right on the layer change frame so it is paused and you can get a good look at it.

    There are English subtitles for just about all the content on the disc, including the movie, the commentary and all the special features. They are easy to read and accurate.

    This is an RSDL disc with the layer change at 67:22. It is noticeable, but not too badly placed.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    There are three soundtracks for the movie on this disc, a Dolby Digital 5.1 and a DTS 5.1 soundtrack and a Dolby Digital 2.0 track for the director's commentary. I listened to both the feature tracks all the way through and found little difference between them. If anything, and this is a first for this reviewer, the Dolby Digital may have just been in front on the subwoofer material.

    Dialogue quality is excellent as is the audio sync.

    The music is a wonderful orchestral score that really matches the atmosphere of the movie.

    There is a lot of material present in the surrounds, including ambience and music along with quite a few very well placed split rear effects. They even take the daring step of placing some dialogue in the surrounds and this works very well.

    There is a solid subwoofer track present that supports the movie and in particular the ghostly antics that fill the film. There are a couple of occasions where they do send material to the subwoofer just for atmosphere - this is not something I particularly like, but each to his own.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

Menu

    A very nice themed menu with a border representing a corridor from the haunted house and scenes from the film playing in the centre. It is 1.78:1 and 16x9 enhanced and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Commentary: Director Brad Silberling.

    This was the first film that Brad Silberling directed, having come from the world of television. This commentary is full of interesting information about the film, and his difficulty in moving from the small to the big screen. Other problems arose because this was also the first time he had directed material that included special effects. He also talks about the film and the characters and actors that were involved and then onto the time spent generating the non-human characters. Overall, a very good commentary.

Documentary: Revealing Casper. (47:11)

    Starting out a little lame as some of the cast talk about Casper as if he was an actor that was on set with them, but this quickly moves on to a great documentary that expands on the information given during the commentary. It consists mostly taking upper bodies (as opposed to talking heads), with footage from the film intercut where appropriate. There is a wide range of material covered from the actors to the casting, the production, building the set and so on. The director in particular seems a little like Dorian Grey as he appears in two guises with each a number of years apart A good, solid and entertaining documentary. Presented at 1.33:1 with the material from the film letterboxed and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack.

Deleted Scene

    This is a scene that was partly completed before the decision to cut it was taken. It opens with a 1:45 explanation of what the scene was about and why it was cut. You are then presented with a screen where there are two versions of the scene playing in small boxes, one above the other. The top is the footage as shot for the scene during main filming, the lower is the animators' reference. The reference was shot on video through the main camera but included life size models of the ghosts being manoeuvred by some crew. This reference was filmed so that the animators could get an idea of how the scene should look. You can select either of the squares on the screen and it enlarges to about 1/3 size and continues to play. You can press the menu key to return to the two small boxes. You can also listen to the original soundtrack or select a director's commentary to go with the scene. The deleted scene runs for 3:16.

Casper's Play Room: Casper's Treasures.

    There are five hidden objects in the various menus of the DVD. The object is to find and select each one, thus collecting them. Once you have collected them you are promised a reward. The first is on the menu shown when you select Casper's Play Room. From the second option, Spelling Lab, move to the right and an old-fashioned fan is highlighted - press Enter to collect. The second is on the DVD ROM features menu (you don't need a DVD ROM at this stage, this menu is within the normal menu structure and just tells you about the DVD ROM features) and is to the left of the return to previous menu selection. The third is on the first screen of the chapter selection menu reached from the top menu. It is to the right of the return to previous menu selection. The fourth is to the left of the return to previous menu selection and the fifth is on the menu that first appears when you select bonus from the top menu and is on the left. The reward? Well, it simply plays the final dance scene from the film.

Casper's Play Room: Spelling Lab.

    Here you are presented with a word that has been scrambled, and you need to select in turn each of the letters on the bottom of the screen to build the correct word at the top. There is a question accompanying each of the three words that gives you a hint as to what you are trying to descramble.

Theatrical Trailer (1:15)

    Presented at 1.33:1 and accompanied by a Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack. Despite the disappointment of the aspect ratio this is not a bad trailer and represents the film fairly well though it does not mention the bad guys but concentrates on the relationship between Casper and Kat.

DVD ROM content:

    After loading the usual Interactual software you can select: Halloween Fun With Casper. On this page are a number of selections.

    Safety Tips: A number of safety tips for surviving Halloween in America, and I don't mean garlic and a crucifix but advice on checking the candy for tampering. Other helpful tips are concerned with the costume (can you breathe?) before going out, trick or treating and the aforementioned candy inspection.

    Fun House: The first section here is a series of items that helps you prepare for Halloween. There is a simple program that displays a pumpkin along with controls to change the eyes, nose and mouth and then print the resulting image to help you design your jack-o'-lantern. There are similar utilities for Halloween paper chains, spider webs, a mask maker and a picture frame creator. There are also three games, tic-tac-toe, spooky shuffler (rearrange a picture cut into squares and then scrambled) and mindbender (the classic memory game played with scenes from the movie).

    Invitations: A utility to help create invitations to your Halloween party.

    Calendar: a utility that creates a calendar and then lets you specify certain sweets to eat on each day of the month. A fairly obvious attempt to get the kids to spread out their feast of candy rather than gorge them all in the one night.

    Recipes: A series of recipes with a Halloween theme that print out and fold over to make recipe cards.

    It would appear that Region 4 and Region 2 have received identical discs. There are some minor differences in the comparison with Region 1 which are outlined below.

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• Penguin For Your Thoughts: a seven-minute cartoon from the original Casper material.
• a repeat of some of the DVD ROM content accessible from the normal menus without a PC.
• French, Spanish and Portuguese subtitles and closed captions.

    The Region 1 version of this disc misses out on:

• Various different language subtitles.

    The addition of the cartoon gives us a TKO for R1 but it is only a points decision.

    This is a wonderful family film with a great story, excellent actors (both fleshy and otherwise) and a happy ending. All presented with a DTS soundtrack on a very good disc.

    The video is excellent.

    The audio is very immersive.

    There is a very nice selection of extras if you include the DVD ROM material.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall