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 Wendy the Good Little Witch by Steve Mufatti (artist)
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	The Harvey Entertainment Company Saban Entertainment
Distributed by	20th Century Fox Home Entertainment
Release date	September 22, 1998 (1998-09-22)
Running time	94 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$6.4 million

Casper Meets Wendy is a 1998 direct-to-video fantasy family comedy film based on the Harvey Comics cartoon characters Casper the Friendly Ghost and Wendy the Good Little Witch. 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 11 years old when the film was released on September 22, 1998. It then aired on October 27, 1998, four days before Halloween, on Fox Family.

Plot

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

Meanwhile, an malefic warlock named Desmond Spellman who believes himself the greatest warlock to have existed gets an unwelcome messaged by the Oracle in the Mirror who tells him that in the future, a 10-year-old named Wendy the Good Little Witch will surpass him in being the greatest witch ever. In response, Desmond plans to get rid of her with the advised "Mystic Abyss". He creates two henchmen: Jules and Vincent, and assigns them to bring Wendy to him, where she is living in the country with her three witch aunts, Gert, 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 place 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. Unfortunately, her aunts and his uncles might not get along because ghosts and witches are natural enemies. However they are certain they'd get along if they only got to know each other. Casper convinces The Ghostly Trio to break the record for possession so that he can learn how to do it, and they possess three men at the party. Wendy convinces her aunts to go to the party and meet men. Thanks to the two working together, they meet and soon the Trio are flirting with the three witches, posing as regular women.

Though everything goes well at first, the plan is foiled when the possession wears off and the ghosts' real selves are revealed to Wendy's aunts, who revealed their real selves as well and 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. After trying to escape the resort the witches are then found by Desmond and his henchmen. After confronting the witches Desmond explains the Oracle's prediction and after trying to resist him Desmond casts Wendy into the Mystic Abyss to destroy her, but Casper dives in to save her. Her aunts try to fight Desmond but are not powerful enough. Yet before Desmond can turn the witches into fertilizer, a giant three-eyed monster pops up and frightens the evil warlock, turning the tables and along with Wendy's broom pushing him causing him to fall into the Abyss himself. The monster turns out to be the Ghostly Trio, who combined their powers 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 brought ghosts and witches to work together. Casper, his uncles, Wendy, and her aunts all bid each other goodbye, and Casper and Wendy assure each other they will meet again soon. Before flying back home with her aunts, Wendy gives Casper a goodbye kiss and his face blushes bright red.

Cast

Soundtrack alteration

In the original airing and VHS release of the film, the Casper theme can be heard in the opening sequence performed by Shana Halligan.^[1] In the 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 an Young Artist Award.

See also

• List of ghost films

References

External links

• Casper Meets Wendy on IMDb