2000-10-31
N/A
84 min
Kibosh, supreme ruler of all ghosts, decrees that casper must scare at least one person before Christmas Day so Casper visits Kriss, Massachusetts where he meets the Jollimore family and sets out to complete his mission. As usual, kindhearted Casper has a ghastky time trying to scare anyone; so The Ghostly Trio, fed up with his goody-boo-shoes behavior, secretly hires Casper's look-alike cousin Spooky to do the job-with hilarious results.
<em>'Casper’s Haunted Christmas'</em> goes fully animated, which - if you've seen how bad the partial animation has been in the live-action hybrid follow-ups - was obviously going to lead to a far poorer product.
This 2000 release drags and overstays its welcome and that's despite an ~80 minute run time - it's a very dull film, to look at and to take in. Brendon Ryan Barrett is, despite his best efforts I'm sure, ill-fitting to voice Casper, due to his deeper tone - the character should sound kid-like; interestingly though, Barrett starred as the main child character in <em>'Casper: A Spirited Beginning'</em>.
I will actually give minute praise for one aspect of the film: the throwaway humour was actually, relatively (!), alright - one or two bits got the slightest of chuckles out of me, to be fair. It doesn't help the production at all, but it's something I guess.
The only interesting thing about these films at this point is the filmmaking company changes. From standouts like Amblin Entertainment and Universal Pictures for the original, to Saban Entertainment and The Harvey Entertainment Company for the initial two follow-ups and now predominantly just the latter for this and the next follow-up. Gotta admire the resilience to keep the series going!
