I'm just gonna say right off the bat that this Christmas won't be so haunted. May this round off the Casper movies that I gave a shit about. Like Casper's Scare School, I caught this on Cartoon Network, and what really drove me to talking about this was the sudden animosity it got for its animation, and that gets to me because complaints like those overshadow more fundamental issues with the cartoon itself.
History
Following a steady decline with three live action adaptations, starting with the okay 1995 film, going down with 1997's Casper: A Spirited Beginning and I'm getting some mixed signals on Casper Meets Wendy, Harvey Comics, or whoever, decided to go for a different route for the next Casper movie.
Casper's Haunted Christmas was released in 2000, not in December, not even November, but on Halloween, because nothing says Christmas like Halloween. Okay to each their own, but if you intend to release anything on Halloween, at least give it a true semblance of horror, not the syrupy horror Casper is known for.
The animation was produced by Mainframe Entertainment, a company that has steadily become a resident punching bag due to the poor aging of their older works, but for another time.
Speaking of a Canadian studio heading this, a majority of the cast in this is Canadian. I ragged on American voice actors for wearing out their roles, but here I have a lot more to talk about. The movie was recorded in Vancouver, a prime stop for cheaper filming, and hence, a roster of immediately available actors
Casper is surprisingly voiced by an American actor, Brendon Ryan Barrett, a man who has had twelve roles in a career spanning from 1995 to 2001, though that's really because he doubled as an acting coach. Tegan Moss co-stars as the obligatory human friend that cements Casper's status as the friendly ghost. Moss had some very small roles in cartoons recorded in Vancouver, though she is mostly known for her live action works, appearing in Are You Afraid of the Dark?, The X-Files, Degrassi and Fringe, and that's just going by what I know.
But don't get me wrong, Vancouver does have its share of repetitive actors, namely Scott McNeil, Terry Klassen, Samuel Vincent, Tabitha St. Germain, Kathleen Barr, Ian James Corlett, but here's the thing... they have serious range. They make low budget shows easier to get through because they actually try to give unique voices to a bulk of their characters. Oh yeah, McNeil voices Stretch andTerry Klassen voices Stinkie. Fatso is left in the hands of Graeme Kingston, an actor who has only had two voice over roles, Fatso included. His live action roster is no better, as he had appeared in only seven productions altogether, and had disappeared after this movie. Lastly, we have Colin Murdock as Kibosh, who has a much wider filmography, especially in shows I know about. He's no James Earl Jones, which sadly means that A Spirited Beginning has an objective advantage.
There is one more interesting tidbit, to promote the film, Baskin Robbins had an ice-cream flavor made available. It says it's Casper-themed, so I don't know what they did with it, maybe it's just a fancy way of saying plain vanilla. Apparently for most VHS copies you could get a coupon for a free ice cream sundae. Perfect for kids who're smart enough to read between the lines of a verbatim family movie involving a verbatim protagonist living a verbatim life.
Premise
Looking at this and Casper's Scare School, I realized something. They recycled the same core aesthetics, as I go along, I'll point out connections to Scare School.
Casper's uncles haunt a drive-in movie theatre, and Casper winds up failing to show up due to his nice nature. Sorta like Casper's uncles going on a scare route around town and Casper missing it due to helping his human friend with soccer practice. For here, it's because Casper was kind enough to let the ticket vendor know he needed to be in there. There's being kind for the sake of helping people out, then there's being kind enough to being a bitch to humanity.
Not going unnoticed, Snivel, the house bitch for Kibosh arrives for the obligatory reprimand, and due to the stupidity of the uncles, summons Kibosh, who instills a stricter punishment. If Casper doesn't scare anyone before Christmas Day, he will be banished to the Valley of the Sh- I mean The Dark. It wasn't enough that Casper had to go to a rehabilitation program with the Valley being an alternative that would be the ultimate punishment if Casper didn't comply, no, he needs to scare someone, with an emphasis on it happening before Christmas. They say Casper needs to scare at least one person a year, but my point stands because if it really was one person a year, the deadline would be New Years Eve.
Before I go further, and trust me, not much is worth talking about, I'd like to point out the ultimate strike against holiday movies. In the long run, a stark majority of these movies are either too sappy, or ad nauseam. We know we have to deal with an antagonist who either sees the error of his ways or greatly suffers by the end, we know of the corny songs in between, and we especially know of the sap where the action isn't. This can be applied to my views on Holiday specials in general, though this movie practically goes hard on the latter. Remember, it's Casper the Friendly AF Ghost.
Hope you have your insulin shots ready, because things are about to get more syrupy. Casper and his uncles are sent to Kriss... Massachusetts. Massachusetts. Massachusetts? Really? Points for not going with California and New York, but Massachusetts? That state is ass, you could've easily set it in, I dunno, Minnesota? Michigan? Heck Wisconsin could use some love, but Massachusetts? Oh wait, excuse me, it's all for the sake of a pun. If you take the first four letters and put it with Kriss, you can figure out the rest from here.
Keep those shots ready, Casper's human friend of the hour is... Holly Jollimore. Can you smell the creative bankruptcy? Just the fact that they went with that validates my point on the syrupy aspects of this movie. It's so syrupy that Vermont is looking like a more suitable location for this movie. But hold up, for this checks off another cliche in these specials. Holly is the Debbie Downer who's against her parents' borderline creepy fixation on Christmas, as is the way with many Christmas specials. I wonder if they'd obsess about Trump to the same extent they do with Christmas. For Holly, I would say she's a personal highlight... had it not been for the fact that she's moping because she had to move out of town/state. How many times?
Keep those shots ready, Casper's human friend of the hour is... Holly Jollimore. Can you smell the creative bankruptcy? Just the fact that they went with that validates my point on the syrupy aspects of this movie. It's so syrupy that Vermont is looking like a more suitable location for this movie. But hold up, for this checks off another cliche in these specials. Holly is the Debbie Downer who's against her parents' borderline creepy fixation on Christmas, as is the way with many Christmas specials. I wonder if they'd obsess about Trump to the same extent they do with Christmas. For Holly, I would say she's a personal highlight... had it not been for the fact that she's moping because she had to move out of town/state. How many times?
You'd think there'd be a lot to cover in this movie, but trust me, all you need to know is that it involves Casper trying to balance his friendly side with having to be scary, going for the former every time. Casper obviously befriends Holly, and this doesn't bode well with the uncles who had lost their haunting licenses (forced plot device FTW) in order to motivate them into getting Casper to pull off that scare, so, they have to call on a relative for help.
The relative is named Spooky, and he has a girlfriend named Poil. Seems like he's a Brooklyn stereotype, now as a New York native, let me tell ya, times have changed. Spooky is poised as Casper and he scares Holly. If I had my way, there'd be a falling out between Casper and Holly, Casper would be hurt by this, but he'd see it as a personal sacrifice, sometimes not everything's meant to last. Casper's uncles would take pity on him and try to cheer him up somehow, but Casper would be happy knowing he could live in freedom once again.
Well, they did the first aspect, but Casper sets out to clear his name and yada yada yada, everything's the way it is meant to be, plus the uncles suffer in the end. They were obnoxious throughout.
Animation
Let's not beat around the bush, CGI animation in this era never holds up, especially if it's by a mid-budget company. Mainframe in later years utilized a mix of CG and some hand-drawn elements, but until then, we got more of this.
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| Yeah |
What more could I say on it? It's a CGI movie from 2000, of course it won't hold up.
Overall
This is where I'd end things, but looking back over the plot of this movie, I couldn't help but think of Scare School. It really did borrow a lot of elements from this. Let's count the ways, namely where it's similar and where one does it better than the other.- It begins with Casper and his uncles going on a scare route. Applies for both movies.
- Casper can't make it because he needs permission from a ticket vendor in this movie. In Scare School he's busy helping out his human friend with soccer practice.
- Casper gets in trouble because there needed to be a Holiday related conflict. Casper gets in trouble because he got scared by his human friend.
- Casper is immediately told about getting sent to a negative dimension if he fails. Casper is also told of the dimension in Scare School, but that's just an alternative and an ultimate punishment if Casper doesn't go through what amounts to a rehabilitation program.
- Casper's uncles seem to care more about how the punishment would affect them in this movie, along with being over-the-top assholes throughout. Casper's uncles actually give a damn about him in Scare School.
- The effect of Spooky scaring Holly has an actual emotional effect to it, though it mainly affects Holly, admittedly the fact that she's another move-away girl helps and harms this. In Scare School, the human friend seems to be more disappointed, and it affects Casper more since he actually did the scare, and it leads to a chain of events where he ultimately saves the day.
- The relative in this is a stereotype at best. The relative in Scare School, while not super important, gave Casper a personal idea on the seriousness of his punishment if he didn't comply and it helped him get to know the world he wound up in.
- We end on a sappy and borderline rushed note. In Scare School, everything's tied up well and we even get some development on Kibosh of all people.
- Scare School had an actual message, seemingly, while this is just some cheap holiday fodder.
Basically, Scare School, in spite of coming after, is a much better film compared to this. If I were to be so bold, I'd say it's the best animated Casper film, bar none. This felt painful just thinking about it, and to be honest, I went by memory for this one, and even then I feel I summed up the more crucial aspects. This movie is barren, and covered in syrup. Not to mention it has the luxury of being a Christmas film released on Halloween.
I'm Channeleven, and this was the best shit I've taken in years.
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