Casper Meets Wendy (1998)

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General		Extras
Category	Childrens	None
Rating
Year Of Production	1998
Running Time	90:28
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (44:44)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Programme
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Bruce McCarthy Sean McNamara
Studio Distributor	Saban International Twentieth Century Fox	Starring	George Hamilton Hilary Duff Cathy Moriarty Shelley Duvall Teri Garr Richard Moll Vincent Schiavelli Blake Foster
Case	?
RPI	$26.95	Music	Udi Harpaz

Video		Audio
Pan & Scan/Full Frame	Full Screen, not known whether Pan & Scan or 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

    Just as in Casper: A Spirited Beginning, this is a movie that is suitable for the younger audiences and also ideal as a movie the whole family can enjoy together. Personally, I found this more enjoyable than A Spirited Beginning, primarily because the plot was more refined and there were two specific groups of characters that were quite humorous. The first to tickle my funny bone were the 2 assistants that I will explain anon, and the second were the 3 men that are "invaded" by Casper's ghostly friends Fatty (Travis McKenna), Stinky (Patrick Richwood) and Stretch (Michael James McDonald). It was amazing to see how these three actors portrayed the mannerisms of cartoon characters and brought them to life in these human bodies.

    As for the story, the evil warlock Desmond Spellman (George Hamilton) is told by his magical mirror that he is no longer the most powerful wizard in all the land. The title is instead bestowed upon the little witch Wendy (Hilary Duff), who is unaware of her new title and increase in magical powers. Not one to be outdone, the warlock decides to seek out and destroy (in a nice child-like way) Wendy and reclaim his title as the baddest dude around. To assist with the task of tracking down Wendy Spellman creates two Men In Black assistants; Jules (Richard Moll) and Vincent (Vincent Schiavelli) who are more clumsy than helpful.

    Once Wendy becomes aware of her fate, she takes off with her Aunts (Cathy Moriarty, Shelley Duvall and Teri Garr) for a holiday and settles in at the Sunny Brite Resort. They will be able to remain hidden from the warlocks and holiday at the same time as long as they don't use any witch magic. But how long can witches remain calm without their potions and spells?

    Casper also happens to be holidaying with Stinky (voiced by Bill Farmer), Fatty (voiced by Jess Harnell) and Stretch (voiced by James Ward) at the same resort. Casper and Wendy become good friends, after they overcome their belief that ghosts and witches can't get along together. They decide that in order to have some fun they should send the aunts and ghosts on a blind date at the local dance. This makes for some interesting times whilst all the while the evil warlock and his MIB are edging ever-closer to catching Wendy. Will they all work together to save Wendy ????

Video

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

    The transfer is quite clear and sharp with the ghosts being animated over the top of the film. While this gives a slightly disconnected appearance, the presentation still looks acceptable with a typical example being seen at 8:19. A very fake effect is clearly visible at 18:15 resulting in background shimmering which is not typical of this transfer and it is unfortunate that a little extra time was not put into the animation side of the movie at this point. There is a rather high level of detail revealed by this transfer, and this remains consistent throughout. Shadow detail is also of a high standard with no apparent problems. The same section of film from 8:19 shows the deep black background that is typical for the remainder of the film. There is some mild low level noise with the worst sections around 24:18.

    The colours are bright and true to life, with the majority of colour being reserved for the animated effects just as it was for Casper: A Spirited Beginning.

    There were no MPEG artefacts to be seen. Aliasing is very rare and almost non existent which is always a pleasant surprise. Film artefacts are rare with the most noticeable appearing around the 24:18 mark.

    There are a large number of subtitles available for this presentation. The English versions that I checked were close to the spoken word but not exact.

    This disc is an RSDL disc, with the layer change occurring almost seamlessly at 44:44. This is towards the end of a camera zooming in on a house so the motion and audio may cause a stutter on some equipment. I must say that it was seamless on my Pioneer player and quite a snappy change which was not easy to find.

Video Ratings Summary

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

Audio

    There is only an English Dolby Digital 2.0 track available on this disc. When played back using Pro Logic II decoding it did expand the sound somewhat, but regardless of decoding, the track did offer quite a nice sound.

    The dialogue was clear and easy to understand at all times. Audio sync was a problem at 47:54 but this only lasted for a second.

    The music is from numerous bands and there are plenty of songs used throughout the movie. Whilst I have not heard of any of them, the target audience may be more up on such things. All tastes are catered for and there is nothing childish that would make adult viewers cringe in their seats. The volume levels did not drown out the dialogue at any point during the movie.

    The surround channels were used less that in the previous Casper title reviewed (Casper: A Spirited Beginning). They are primarily reserved for music and special effects. Directional effects were uncommon and essentially reserved for Casper and the other ghosts flying around in the air.

    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;

• Nothing

• Nothing

    As with Casper: A Spirited Beginning, this title was an enjoyable kids / family movie that everyone should enjoy.

    The video quality was wonderful and with the exception of one section contained several special effects that were handled with perfection.

    Unfortunately there is only the one English Dolby Digital 2.0 track 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