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 either its theatrical or two direct-to-video predecessors, which combined live action and computer animation, this film was completely done in computer animation. It stars Brendan Ryan Barrett as the voice of Casper. Randy Travis provided original music.
Plot[]
After a scaring spree at a Drive-in theater, the Ghostly Trio's are confronted by Casper who is then confronted by Officer Snivel who informs him that his scare quota is down. The Trio take Snivel's whistle and blow it which summons Kibosh, the perfidious King of Ghosts, who decrees that Casper must scare someone before Christmas Day, according to ghost law which requires him to purposely scare at least one person a year, or he will be banished to the Dark, together with his uncles, for their failed responsibility for him, for all eternity. To make sure Casper scares someone, he confiscates the Trio's haunting licenses and flings them to the Christmas-influenced town Kriss, Massachusetts, on account of the Trio's hatred of the holiday, where they meet the Jollimore Family. When Casper's good behavior starts to act up, which includes befriending the daughter of the family, Holly, the Ghostly Trio call in Casper's lookalike cousin Spooky, who brings along his girlfriend Poil, to do the job disguised as Casper in the hope of fooling Kibosh.
Casper visiting Holly outside her bedroom window.
With Casper and Spooky unlikely to scare someone after a series of failed attempts the Trio decide to plot a scaring spree stealing every Christmas present in Kriss, in a reference to How the Grinch Stole Christmas, and taking them to the Jollimores' house where they plan to lure the townspeople then set off scary booby traps to go out with a bang before being banished to the Dark. Casper along with Spooky and Poil scare the Trio using a fake Kibosh made from the Jollimores' giant Santa. Casper then summons the real Kibosh using Snivel's whistle to inform him he scared the Trio, fulfilling his ghostly obligation, however, Snivel informs Kibosh of the booby traps, violating the no scaring order on the Trio. To prevent Kibosh from banishing them to the Dark, the Trio claim they intend to spring the traps on themselves to entertain Kibosh. After the act, Kibosh accepts the Trio's claim and returns their haunting licenses before leaving with Snivel. The film ends with the remaining ghosts celebrating Christmas with the Jollimore family.
Casper ends the film by breaking the fourth wall to tell everyone Merry Christmas and a Happy "Boo" Year.
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. animation 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 this film) had also distributed the live-action film adaptation of Dr. Seuss' How the Grinch Stole Christmas (2000) starring Jim Carrey that was released within 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, who was the voice of Kat Harvey in the 1996 follow up animated series to the 1995 theatrical film The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper and the titular character on Annabelle's Wish (1997).
- On the VHS version of the film, a VHS promo for A Monkey's Tale (1999) was shown. However, there was never a VHS or DVD release of the film. Likely, Universal was originally going to release it on VHS and DVD in the US, but for unknown reasons got cancelled.
- Interesting facts regarding the voice actors:
- Out of all twelve voice actors in this film, seven (or 58.3%) of these actors (namely Tabitha St. Germain, Sam Vincent, Lee Tockar, Scott McNeil, Colin Murdock, Ian James Corlett & Kathleen Barr) would go on and do voice work on the Canadian animated show Slugterra. Here's a list of the seven actors with their roles in both this film and Slugterra (roles for the former are in parenthesis).
- Tabitha St. Germain (who voiced Poil) provided the voices of Desdemona, Little Boy, Cantina Tough Woman.
- Sam Vincent (who voiced Spooky) provided the voices of leading protagonist Eli Shane, his father Will Shane, as well as Croesus, Max Jackson, Rubin Evern, Sedo, Old Man, Welder Walter and Yarry.
- Lee Tockar (who voiced Snivel) provided the voices of both Pronto (one of three secondary protagonists in Slugterra) and Load.
- Scott McNeil (who voiced both Stretch and Noel Jollimore) provided the voices of Mr. Saturday, Howard and André Geyser.
- Colin Murdock (who voiced Kibosh) provided the voices of both C.C. and Blite.
- Kathleen Barr (who voiced Carol Jollimore) provided the voices of Master Shanai, Sylvia, Female Restaurant Thug, Granny Molenoid and Mystery Woman.
- Ian James Corlett (who voiced an unnamed little kid) provided the voices of both Gar Revelle and Straggus.
- 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.
- Tegan Moss (who provided the voice for Holly Jollimore) went on to voice Penny in the Inspector Gadget animated film Inspector Gadget's Last Case and its follow-up series Gadget and the Gadgetinis, both of which were based on the 1983-1986 series of the same name.
- Ian James Corlett (who provided the voiced for an unnamed little kid) would later go on to create Being Ian, which ran from 2005-2008.
- Out of all twelve voice actors in this film, seven (or 58.3%) of these actors (namely Tabitha St. Germain, Sam Vincent, Lee Tockar, Scott McNeil, Colin Murdock, Ian James Corlett & Kathleen Barr) would go on and do voice work on the Canadian animated show Slugterra. Here's a list of the seven actors with their roles in both this film and Slugterra (roles for the former are in parenthesis).
- Producer Byron Vaughns collaborated with three people that worked on the first Casper film to also do episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures: executive producer Steven Spielberg, and writers Deanna Oliver and Sherri Stoner.
- 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.
- The Werewolf model was reused from Transformers Beast Machines character Noble as it was made MainFrame as well.
Video[]
Trailer[]
| Casper films | ||
|---|---|---|
| Theatrical film | Casper | |
| Direct-to-Video/Television films | Casper: A Spirited Beginning | Casper Meets Wendy | Casper's Haunted Christmas | Casper's Scare School | |