Casper Meets Wendy

Casper Meets Wendy
Directed by Sean McNamara
Produced by Mike Elliott
Written by Jymn Magon
Based on Casper the Friendly Ghost
by Seymour Reit
Joe Oriolo
Starring Cathy Moriarty-Gentile
Shelley Duvall
Teri Garr
George Hamilton
Hilary Duff
Richard Moll
Vincent Schiavelli
Blake Foster
Voices:
Jeremy Foley
Bill Farmer
Jim Ward
Jess Harnell
Music by Udi Harpaz
Cinematography Christian Sebaldt
Edited by John Gilbert
Production
company
Distributed by 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release dates
  • September 22, 1998 (1998-09-22)
Running time
 94 min.
Country United States
Language English
Budget $6.4 million
Box office $30 million

Casper Meets Wendy is a 1998 direct-to-video film based on the Harvey Comics cartoon character Casper the Friendly Ghost. The film is a sequel to Casper: A Spirited Beginning while it being the second prequel/spin-offs to the 1995 film Casper. Haim Saban, best known for creating the Power Rangers, serves as an executive producer for this movie, and his production company, Saban Entertainment, was also involved. This was the first major film for Hilary Duff, who was nearly eleven years old when this film was released. It was released on September 22, 1998, and aired on October 27, 1998, four days before Halloween night, on Fox Family.

Plot

A mysterious "spaceship" floats over a baseball game, eventually revealed the ghosts Fatso, Stinky and Stretch, The Ghostly Trio, who cause panic in the ballpark. Their nephew Casper, a shy, friendly ghost attemps to settle the agitated crowd, but the people are equally scared of him. The park empties, and Casper's uncles plan a vacation.

Meanwhile, evil warlock Desmond Spellman believes himself the greatest warlock to have existed, until the Oracle tells him that in the future, 10-year-old Wendy the Good Little Witch will be the greatest witch ever. In response, Desmond plans to kill her with the advised "Mystic Abyss". He creates two warlock enforcers: Jules and Vincent, and assigns them to bring Wendy to him.

Wendy is living in the country with her three witch aunts, Gerti, Gabby, and Fanny. Jules and Vincent arrive to abduct Wendy, who narrowly escapes with her aunts. To keep Wendy safe from Desmond, her aunts hide and vacation at a resort hotel, which happens to be the same in which Casper and his uncles are vacationing.

Casper and Wendy meet in a barn and, due to their nice personalities and having been bossed around by their respective relatives, become great friends. Realizing that her aunts and his uncles might not get along, because ghosts and witches are natural enemies, Casper gets his uncles to haunt a dance, to which Wendy convinces her aunts to attend. The Ghostly Trio possess three men at the party and flirt with the three witches.

Though everything seems to go well, the plan is foiled when the possession wears off and the ghosts' real selves are revealed to Wendy's aunts, who threaten them with magic. However, as Wendy explains to Casper, she and her aunts can't use powerful magic or else Desmond will be able to track them down. She begs Casper not to tell anyone about this. Unfortunately, when the Trio suspects Casper is protecting the witches, they pressure Casper into confessing that the witches cannot use their magic, prompting the Trio to attack Wendy and her aunts. Wendy feels she has no choice but to cast a spell on them, covering them in plaster, thus alerting Desmond's magic tracker.

Wendy, distraught that Casper broke his promise, ends their friendship. The witches are then attacked by Jules and Vincent. Before Wendy and her aunts have a chance to escape, Desmond arrives and tries to cast Wendy into the Mystic Abyss to kill her, but Casper dives in to save her. Her aunts try to fight Desmond but are not powerful enough. Yet before Desmond can kill the witches, a giant three-eyed monster pops up and frightens the evil warlock, turning the tables and causing him to fall into the Abyss himself. The monster turns out to be the Ghostly Trio, who combined to defeat him. While they hold the Abyss open, Wendy's aunts pull her and Casper out. Now saved, the two reconcile their friendship. The Oracle proclaims that Wendy is the greatest witch because she did something no other witch ever could: She befriended a ghost. Casper, his uncles, Wendy, and her aunts all bid each other goodbye, and Casper and Wendy assure each other they will meet again soon.

Cast

Main

Supporting

Cameo/Uncredited

Soundtrack alteration

In the original airing and VHS release of the film the Casper theme can be heard at the beginning performed by Shana Halligan. In subsequent DVD releases the lyric is muted though the melody and sound effects remain intact, however Halligan is still credited with performing the theme song.

Awards and nominations

Casper Meets Wendy won the Children’s Programming - Electronic Visual Effects award. Hilary Duff was nominated for a Young Artist Award.

See also

External links

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