Casper's Scare School (2006/Classic Media)
Picture: B-
Sound: C+ Extras: C Feature: C
When Kibosh, The King of Ghosts and all Dark
Creatures finds out that Casper the Friendly Ghost has befriended a young human
boy named Jimmy and helps him to practice his soccer skills, he and Casper's
uncles, the Ghostly Trio decide it is time to send Casper to Scare School to
learn how to be a real ghost. Casper's Scare School is a cute kids
movie that shows once again that The Friendly Ghost can still be a friend to
ghosts and "fleshy's" alike, and that friendship can still save the
day.
Casper is forced to attend Scare School to learn to
be scary, or he will be sent to the Valley of the Shadows, a place that sends
chills up the spines of The Ghostly Trio as they describe it to their ghostly
nephew. At Scare School, the students are an assortment of kid zombies,
mummies, vampires and other creatures that are learning to go bump in the
night. The school is run by Alder and Dash, a two-headed creature with tentacles
for legs. Alder and Dash are tried of running Scare School and want to run amok
scaring people in the human world like they used to do. They ask Kibosh to let
them scare people again and when he tells them no, Alder and Dash devise a plan
to turn Kibosh into stone and then become the King of All Dark Things.
With the help of his new scary classmates and his
human friend Jimmy (and some surprise help), Casper battles Alder and Dash to
try to return everything back to normal.
Casper's
Scare School is produced in CGI animation. Casper and The Ghostly Trio's appearances have
changed greatly since the theatrical live action-computer animated film of
1995. The characters look like they are
little toys that are three inches tall and the students all have over-sized
heads. At various times in watching this
movie, it seemed like the characters were going to topple over from their huge
noggins. The backgrounds and buildings
look like toy playsets. It's a cute
little look that is obviously geared toward kids. The movie is fun and has some cute moments and
there is nice twist to The Valley of the Shadows. Celebrity voiceovers are performed by Bob
Saget, Jim Belushi, Phyllis Diller and The Captain and Tennille. The kids will like it and it will give adults
some smiles.
The DVD looks great and is presented in
anamorphically enhanced 1.78 X 1 widescreen and offered animation that was just
not all that impressive. Sometimes, it
looked to faint, other times; it just looks like something is holding it back. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Stereo sound quality is
equally good, though it has limited surrounds. Extras include A Scream of a Scene - a featurette that shows the viewers the
step-by-step process of how the movie is made, two music videos ("Casper The Friendly Ghost" and
"The Scare School Song")
and a Classic Famous Studios Casper cartoon, "By The Old Mill Scream".
- Marc
Greisinger
