[7]

Beneath the cutesy veneer of this big-budget family spectacle is a surprisingly morose Ghost and Mrs. Muir subplot. The screenplay is a bit scattershot in its aim, but I have to give this flick major kudos for tackling the subjects of death and loneliness for a family audience. There are a few terrific little scenes between young Christina Ricci and Casper, an ILM confection voiced by Malachi Pearson. In one, Casper and Ricci sit atop a lighthouse looking out over the ocean while Casper laments not being able to remember his parents. Since Ricci’s character recently lost her mother and is terrified of forgetting her, the scene is a pretty powerful one for a kids’ film. It’s also interesting when Casper starts to remember how he died from pneumonia, especially when he talks about how sad his parents were.

The tone of the film is somewhat muddled — too mature for young children, too silly for older kids and adults. This is crystallized in the movie’s half-hearted attempt to introduce a tween romance between Ricci and Casper. There is a scene where the two try holding hands. Casper says it’s his first time. She says it’s her’s, too. Then her warm hand moves through his cold apparitional one. Before the two can remark on the experience, Bill Pullman’s silly father figure and the grotesquely comic Ghostly Trio puncture a hole in the moment.

Casper isn’t great, but there’s amazing potential in it. Brad Silberling’s direction is solid for a first-time feature filmmaker. Cathy Moriarty and Eric Idle make for nice villains while Leslie Dilley’s production design and James Horner’s music are the work of masters at the top of their games. Look for a glut of gratuitous cameos from Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Dan Aykroyd, Ben Stein, and Father Guido Sarducci.