Casper's Haunted Christmas

Casper's Haunted Christmas
Directed by	Owen Hurley
Written by	Ian Boothby
Production Company	Harvey Comics
Distributed by	Universal Pictures 2000 - 2007 2018 present Classic Media 2007 present
Release Date	October 31, 2000
Running time	86 minutes

Casper's Haunted Christmas is a 2000 direct-to-video film produced by Harvey Comics and Mainframe Entertainment based on the character Casper the Friendly Ghost and was released by Universal Studios Home Video on October 31, 2000. Unlike its direct-to-video predecessors, this film was completely done in computer animation. It stars Brendan Ryan Barrett as the voice of Casper. Randy Travis provided original music.

Plot

Kibosh, the King of Ghosts, decrees that Casper must scare someone before Christmas Day or he will be banished to The Dark for all eternity. To make sure this happens, he confiscates the Ghostly Trio's Scare licenses and flings them to Kriss, Massachusetts where they meet the Jollimore Family. When Casper's good behavior starts to act up, the Ghostly Trio call in Casper's lookalike cousin Spooky and his girlfriend Poil to do the job.

Cast

• Brendan Ryan Barrett - Casper
• Kathleen Barr - Carol Jollimore
• Ian James Corlett - Little Kid
• David Kaye - Narrator
• Graeme Kingston - Fatso
• Terry Klassen - Stinkie
• Scott McNeil - Stretch, Noel Jollimore
• Tegan Moss - Holly Jollimore
• Colin Murdock - Kibosh
• Tabitha St. Germain - Pearl (Poil)
• Lee Tockar - Snivel
• Samuel Vincent - Spooky

Crew

• Ian Boothby - Co-writer
• Roger Fredericks - Co-writer
• Kris Zimmerman - Voice Director
• Byron Vaughns - Producer
• Owen Hurley - Director

Marketing

Baskin Robbins made a tie-in promotion with the VHS release of Casper's Haunted Christmas, by inventing a Casper-themed ice cream flavor that was available throughout December. Also, the worldwide ice cream store chain also inserted a coupon good for free ice cream sundaes inside every video.

Home Media

On 2000, Universal Studios Home Video released the film on VHS and DVD; however, on 2007 Classic Media and Genius Entertainment re-released the film on DVD. After the 2017 Comcast acquisition of DreamWorks, the rights were reverted by Universal Pictures Home Entertainment and was reprinted and releasing on October 16th, 2018.

Trivia

• This is the first Casper film to not have Ben Stein involved as a cameo.

• This is the first Casper film in full C.G.I. rather than live-action mix with .C.G.I.
• The part where the Trio steals Christmas for their plan is a reference to the Dr. Seuss' children's book: How the Grinch Stole Christmas. Ironically, Universal Pictures who distributed of this film had also distributed the film adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) with Jim Carrey released in the same year.

• This is the second Casper film to be released by Universal, with the first being Casper (1995).
• Randy Travis had collaborated with Kath Soucie the voice of Kat Harvey in The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper on Annabelle's Wish (1997).
• On the VHS version of the film, a VHS promo for A Monkey's Tale 1999 movie was shown; however, there was never a DVD or VHS release of the film. Likely, Universal was originally going release A Monkey's Tale on VHS in the US but got cancelled.

• Brandon Ryan Barrett who provided the voice for Casper in this film had previously worked on another Casper film portraying Casper's human friend Chris Carson in the 1997 direct-to-video Casper: A Spirited Beginning.
• Byron Vaughns producer collaborated with Steven Spielberg executive producer, Deanna Oliver and Sherri Stoner writers of the first Casper film to do episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures.
• The front cover of this film was later used on the 2015 DVD re-release of Casper (1995).
• This is the only Casper film to be rated G by the MPAA; all of the previous Casper films were rated PG by the MPAA.
• The early NTSC home media releases of the film were released in a low pitch. However, current NTSC home media printings correct it in a normal pitch (as opposed to having that treatment for PAL releases).
• This is the first Casper movie to have Spooky and Pearl.
• This the second movie to have Kibosh and Snivel.

Video

Trailer

Casper's Haunted Christmas (2000) Trailer (VHS Capture)

Casper's Haunted Christmas VHS Trailer

Casper's Haunted Christmas - Trailer

[[Category:Universal Pictures f