Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, May 27, 1995 TAG: 9505300050
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: B-10 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: KATHERINE REED STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
They're fighting over who will take the photo, who will get to be in it, when a cute little voice admonishes, "Hey, you guys don't fight. I'll take the picture."
And "Casper," the Friendly Facilitator, is off to a shrieking start. (The Polaroid shows two little boys with mouths stretched open for maximum scream volume.)
With the help of some terrific computer-generated special effects and a script that pokes fun at political correctness, "Casper" looks like the current frontrunner for biggest summer movie hit. It is unabashedly calculated for every kind of commercial reward: Evidence, the roller-coaster ride into the laboratory in Whipstaff's dungeon, which will undoubtedly be replicated at Universal Studios.
But the movie also earns its laughs.
The story is this: Carrigan Crittenden and her partner Dibs (Cathy Moriarty and Eric Idle - quite a team) have just learned that her father has left most of his estate to environmenta; foundations. All she's getting is a big old house called Whipstaff Manor.
A treasure may be buried somewhere in its walls, however, and Carrigan decides maybe she'll end up rich after all.
The trouble is, Whipstaff is haunted by four ghosts: Casper (voice by Malachi Pearson) and his three reprobate uncles. The uncles thwart all efforts to get into the house and find the treasure. Until Dr. James Harvey - a ghost "therapist" - and his daughter, Kat, come at Carrigan's bidding.
Dr. Harvey, played by the wonderful Bill Pullman, is a parapsychologist of a most unusual kind. He refers to ghosts as "living-impaired," and believes it is important to ask the question, "What haunts them?" The answer, he asserts, is "a lack of resolution," which is what he believes he has been hired to give Whipstaff's three unfriendly ghosts.
Casper doesn't need therapy; he just wants a friend, which he finds in Kat (Christina Ricci, better known as Wednesday Addams), who's looking for the same thing.
There's an adolescent love story here, too. It's typical of Hollywood children's movies to attempt to appeal to as broad an age group as possible. That explains the punchline to the scene in which Dr. Harvey sucks the three bad ghosts into a vacuum cleaner. ("This sone of them proclaims.) To keep parents entertained, there are cameos by Dan Aykroyd, Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson and Rodney Dangerfield.
With a little guidance, younger children will also enjoy "Casper," which isn't very scary - and the right kind of silly.
Casper
***
A Universal Pictures release, showing at Salem Valley 8 and Valley View Mall 6. 100 minutes. Rated PG for the occasional bad word.
by CNB