A $55 million family film that revolved around a character well-known to its target audience going on to earn $288 million at the box office is about the safest way to launch a franchise you can think of, and while 1995’s Casper did exactly that, it never got around to actually involving a second feature-length theatrical installment.
The beloved family favorite instead spawned animated companion series The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, live-action prequels Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, along with a string of video game tie-ins, but the proposed Casper 2 that was written and set to be directed by Simon Wells ended up getting canceled outright in the year 2000.
Rotten Tomatoes critical and user scores of 51 and 49 percent respectively are a barometer of how average a movie the friendly ghost’s bow turned out to be, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t a huge number of fans from a certain generation who continue to hold it close to their hearts, and it appears as though a great deal of them are HBO Max subscribers.
As per FlixPatrol, at one stage or another this week Casper has apparated on the Top 10 charts in 19 countries across two continents, an unlikely return to prominence for a saccharine story that was initially unleashed upon the world over a quarter of a century ago.
Outside of scratching a nostalgic itch, it wouldn’t be unfair to suggest that Casper doesn’t really hold up, but rose-tinted glasses can often be the best way to revisit a childhood favorite.
Published: Jul 14, 2022 02:26 am