Casper: A Spirited Beginning (1997)

This review is sponsored by

BUY IT

General		Extras
Category	Childrens	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1997
Running Time	90:28
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (53:44)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Sean McNamara
Studio Distributor	Saban International Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	James Earl Jones Pauly Shore Michael McKean Rodney Dangerfield Lori Loughlin Jeremy Foley Bill Farmer Brendon Ryan Barrett
Case	?
RPI	?	Music	Udi Harpaz

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Frame	English Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) French Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) German Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Italian Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s) Spanish Dolby Digital 2.0 (192Kb/s)
Widescreen Aspect Ratio	None
16x9 Enhancement	No
Video Format	576i (PAL)
Original Aspect Ratio	1.33:1	Miscellaneous
Jacket Pictures	No
Subtitles	Dutch English for the Hearing Impaired French German for the Hearing Impaired Italian Spanish	Smoking	No
		Annoying Product Placement	No
		Action In or After Credits	No

    Back in 1945, animator Joe Oriolo and writer Seymour Reit decided to make a story about a friendly ghost. Over time Casper has "starred" in many movies and been owned by several different studios, not to mention other famous spin-off roles in comic books and the like.

    In Casper: A Spirited Beginning we see a deviation from the plot of the original 1945 version, which could be attributed to a mellowing of the story to cater to even younger audiences. Originally Casper died and was placed into the house where he grows up. In this particular version Casper is on a ghost train and is thrown off by another occupant before it reaches its final destination and he then makes his way to the house on his own. Either way it's an interesting story and the target audience would not care about such idiosyncrasies.

    As I have just mentioned, Casper (voiced by Jeremy Foley) has just died and is being sent to Ghost Central Station to be trained in all ghostly tricks and mannerisms. Unfortunately Casper is kicked off the train and therefore misses out on this vital training. Needless to say Casper has no idea that he should in fact be scary, rather than this mild mannered "wisp of air". The missing passenger causes the master ghost trainer Kibosh (voiced by Lord Vader, oh I mean James Earl Jones) great discomfort as he has only ever lost 3 ghosts before (whom we see later on in the story). Kibosh sends his assistant Snivel (voiced by Pauly Shore) to find and return Casper for training.

    Meanwhile Casper heads to Deedstown and after scaring half the population finds a friend in a lonely boy called Chris Carson (Brendon Ryan Barrett). Chris and Casper develop a strong bond and Chris decides to teach Casper how to be a real scary ghost. Luckily Chris is fascinated about all things supernatural and is a master at this sort of thing, or so he thinks. Later on we meet the other escaped ghosts Stinky, Fatty (not fat but big boned) and Stretch, who also try and give Casper some training assistance. Together they all try and elude being captured by the evil master Kibosh.

    This is a movie that is suitable for the younger audiences and even as a family movie. Although the childish antics and odd screaming scene can get a bit much at times, mums and dads should be able to cringe through those sections and enjoy the rest.

    Just to clarify for those that are not familiar with the film, this is not a purely animated movie. It is instead a a live-action adventure with Casper and his other ghostly friends and foes being left to the animators.

Video

    The transfer is presented in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, which is its original aspect ratio.

    The transfer is quite sharp with the ghosts being animated over the top of the film. While this gives a slightly removed appearance the presentation still looks acceptable with a typical example being seen at 69:20. There is a rather high level of detail revealed by this transfer, and remains consistent throughout. Shadow detail is also of a high quality with no apparent problems. This is primarily due to the scenes being in brightly-lit rooms or outdoors. Even the shots taken within the old mansion, such as at 82:00, contain a lot of light which make this particular problem scarce. There is no low level noise.

    The colours are bright and true to life, with the brightest colours being reserved for the animated effects. A rather strong palette of colours were used to create the Ghost train and the other animation. It is Kibosh who contains the strongest colour (a bright green) which at times appears to be excessive.

    There were no MPEG artefacts seen. Aliasing is very rare, almost non-existent, which is always a pleasant surprise. The most obvious section was at 24:57. Film artefacts are very rare, with the most noticeable appearing at 24:16.

    There are subtitles in many languages available for this presentation. The English version that I checked was close to the spoken word but not exact.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change placed midway through Chapter 8 at 53:44. It is quite disruptive to the flow of the movie at this point, but is clearly far superior to having to get up and flip the disc over.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only a Dolby Digital 2.0 track available on this disc. When played back using Pro Logic II decoding it did expand the sound somewhat. But in either case the track did offer quite a nice sound.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times.

    Audio sync was not a problem at all with this transfer, but there are several instances where the kids don't open their mouths very wide, making it hard to distinguish.

    The musical score by Udi Harpaz was well mixed and a fitting choice for this style of movie. The volume levels did not drown out the dialogue at any point. There are also a large amount of additional music that is played during the movie, with everything from "Don't worry be happy" to "Kandy Pop", ensuring there is a favourite for everyone.

    The surround channels were often used for ambience, music and any special effects. Directional effects were common, especially when Casper and the other ghosts were flying around. This was true for both the front and rear sound stages. At 38:36 you can clearly hear an owl in the rear right channel.

    The subwoofer was not used at all, nor was its exclusion missed for this style of movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

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

    The Region 4 version of this disc misses out on:

• Theatrical Trailer
• 30-minute "Making of" Featurette

• Nothing

     The Region 1 version of this DVD contains more content than the locally released Region 4 disc. The main feature is identical, except for the NTSC and PAL formatting differences. It would be up to your personal tastes as to whether you would be justified in spending the extra money on importing the title for these additional features.

    Casper: A Spirited Beginning is an enjoyable kids / family movie that everyone should enjoy.

    The video quality is wonderful considering its main market is viewers not overly interested in a perfect picture image.

    Unfortunately there is only the Dolby Digital 2.0 soundtrack to choose from. Those viewers without the Pro Logic II advantage will miss out on the directional effects of the rears.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall