Follows the adventures of Casper the friendly ghost and his three uncles as they try to come to terms with their deserted mansion's greedy new owner. Original. Movie tie-in.
Casper The Novelization (Updated) Inside the lawyer Rugg’s office, Carrigan Crittem demands to know what her father left her in his will. Ruggs tells her Whipstaff Manor. Carrigan is enraged! She held his hand for two days and that’s all he got. She threatens to contend the will and drag Ruggs and everyone else into court. She tosses the will into the fireplace. Her lawyer Dibbs thinks she’s crazy.
Dibbs sees that in the papers there’s a treasure map, but it’s too late to pull it out.. Carrigan says she knew it was something valuable about the house. They then drive to Whipstaff Manor. They start to explore nooks and crannies. As soon as they’ve gotten comfortable, Casper shows himself. Casper warns them not to scream but too late. The dust starts to form into… Dibbs and Carrigan don’t wait around to find out what. As their screams are heard and they run out of the manor, Casper thinks another lonely night with no one to play with.
Three eleven-year-old boys are telling ghost stories. Casper sees the light in their window and pops out of their flashlights. The boys scream and Casper floats through the floor to the living room. The dad is watching the tv. There’s a man named Dr. James Harvey whose saying ghosts were once people and they need help like the rest of us. (He’s a ghost shrink). He finds out that after his wife (Amelia) died Dr. Harvey took up psychiatry. Now with his daughter Kat (Kathy) he travels from town to town trying to help poltergeist.
Casper is immediately attracted to Kat (who wants the interviewer to leave her alone as it’s her first day of school). As he pulls the dad’s hat over his eyes and flies out the window, he vows he’s going to find Kat Harvey, but first… Casper pays Carrigan a visit in her hotel room and makes her take notice of the interview. There’s now a lady saying that the spirit of her husband was miserable and lingering in their apartment. She called Dr. Harvey and after a few weeks he’d gone. Dr. Harvey admits he asks each spirit if they’ve seen his wife but so far no luck.
When asked if he’s seen a ghost, he simply answers I think we all believe ghosts are out there and he’s just trying to help. Carrigan gets excited. She’s tried priests, ghost busters, and home wrecking crews but to no avail of ridding the ghost from Whipstaff. Dr. Harvey might be just what she’s looking for. Meanwhile, Dr. Harvey comes to Kat’s school and announces they’re moving again. On the way there, Kat tells her dad she’s not going to find her mother. She’s dead. She’s not a ghost. He makes a deal with her that if they don’t find her this time he’ll stop. Kat is happy because she’ll finally get to have a real home and friends (and stop moving).
Kat and Dr. Harvey are introduced to Dibs and Carrigan. Kat thinks there’s something not right about Carrigan but isn’t sure what it is. Carrigan thinks it’ll be a quick and easy job, but Dr. Harvey tells her it can take months or years. Carrigan says this isn’t acceptable and tells them she’ll be watching them before she speeds off. Casper is all nervous. She’s there and he made it happen. He worries if she’ll like him. Kat finds a fuse and Casper goes to check her out in the light. He watches her through the face of a grandfather clock.
Looking for a bedroom, she finds on with the bed named “Fatso” “Stretch” and “Stinky”. Kat chooses the room that use to be Casper’s (to his delight). Kat dumps a box on Casper unknowingly. Meanwhile, Dr. Harvey looks at his wife’s picture and wonders will the sadness ever go away. He hugs Kat goodnight and thanks her for giving him this chance.
Casper morphs himself into a pillow as Kat tries to go to sleep. She punches him in the gut and tosses him aside. Kat gets up and starts to unpack her clothes. She tosses her sock in his mouth and he says BLECH! Kat turns around. Casper says hi and she faints. Casper goes into the bathroom and drenches himself in water and then wrings it onto her. When she comes to and sees him, she screams and he flees. Dr. Harvey finds Casper in the closet and shrieks and slams the door. Dr. Harvey picks Kat up and shuts them into a hall closet. Casper is kicking himself for never being able to introduce himself to humans without freaking them out.
Kat apologizes to her dad for thinking he was a lost cause and talking about him behind his back. He tells her to apologize later. Casper shuts down the power and blocks the door. “Stretch”, “Stinky”, and “Fatso” come back home from a horse race. They demand to know why Casper isn’t doing his chores and why he doesn’t have dinner ready. He says they’ll have al fresco outside. They suspiciously ask if he’s trying to keep them out but he says it’s a nice night. They should eat under the full moon.
He doesn’t keep them out long and noice “a smell”. Dr. Harvey introduces himself (to Casper) not aware of the others. The Ghostly Trip come face to face with Dr. Harvey.Casper returns after the Ghostly Trio have shot him to the moon. Casper sees Stretch knock the plunger away. Casper hears Kat yelling for her dad. She and Casper open the door at the same time and she flies into him.
Casper asks if she’s ok. Kat screams. Kat sees that her dad is holding the vacuum but it isn’t plugged in. So, Kat plugs it in and he sucks up the Trio. He tells Kat they need to regroup and think of a plan. He’s exhausted. The next morning, Kat is greeted by Casper whose got the table set and has made breakfast. He wraps himself around her mouth like a muffler and tells her not to scream. He’s a ghost yes, but he’s a friendly ghost. And if she screams she’ll wake up his uncles.
She comments she can see right through him. He says it’s a symptom of having no skin. She asks what he’s made of. He says the tingly feeling you get when your foot falls asleep. Kat asks can he hurt her. He asks if she can hurt him. Dr. Harvey comes down and Casper offers him breakfast the paper. The Ghostly Trio join them and act like their melting when the sunlight is let in through the window. Dr. Harvey thinks they’re gone but “Stretch” tells him to think again. The Ghost ask Casper how dare he serve the humans before them. He then brings them in a tray of junk food and they eat it in such a revolting way the Harvey’s are disgusted. The Ghost say Casper has no respect for them and after all they’ve done for him. Casper tries to clean up after them quickly.
Kat has had enough and calls them disgusting, obnoxious, creeps and ask what their problem is. Casper was just cleaning up after them. They exchange insults back and forth until Dr. Harvey sends Kat to school so she won’t be late on her first day.
He then tells the Ghostly Trio they started off on the wrong foot. He’ll let them finish their breakfast and then they’ll start the process to help them cross over. The Trio splatter him with their breakfast. At school, a cute guy with shaggy hair gets Kat’s attention. He smiles at her and she thinks maybe it won’t be so bad here. Casper wanted to go with her to school to take her lunch, show her around, and carry her books but she tells him she doesn’t need him. She has trouble opening her locker and the cute guy comes to her rescue and tells her his name is Vic. But then their interrupted by the girl that almost knocked her over earlier (Amber).
Her teacher announces they can’t have the Halloween dance in the gym because there are still repairs so it’ll have to be pushed back a couple of months. Amber volunteers her house. Her teacher announces there’s a new student and asks Kat to come up front and tell the class about herself. Kat gets a meow from Amber and snores. Casper ties some shoelaces together. When they find out she lives in Whipstaff, some how she gets volunteered to throw the Halloween party at her place. She’s sees Casper in the back on the room. Meanwhile, Carrigen and Dibbs find a larger room on the map and think they’ve hit the jack pot.
Dr. Harvey feels like he’s gotten somewhere, when “Fatso” tells him he’s in a crisis. Kat interrupts and asks him if she can have a party. Vic stops by but she blocks his view. He tries to see in the house. She gots out and slams the door. He asks if she can have the party. She says he hit the ceiling but she thinks it’ll be ok. Casper comes out and mocks Vic. Vic asks if they can hang at the party. She says she’d love too and shots Casper a hateful look. He fades away.
As soon as Kat leaves, Amber asks if he asked her. He says yes although he likes Kat and doesn’t think her plan is a good idea. He tells Amber it’s not right, but she says it’s just right. Kat will be sorry she ever heard of Friendship. Casper keeps trying to convince Kat to go to the party with him but she tells him she has a date who has flesh and a complexion. Casper takes Kat out the window (by the ankle) and shows her the light house and she thinks it’s beautiful. She asks him how he was when he was alive. He says he doesn’t remember. He asks if this is bad. She says its sad. She asks why this is. He says when you’re a ghost he guesses it doesn’t matter anymore.
Kat says she thinks she’s starting to forget her mom. But she can remember the smell of her clothes and the warmth of her breathe at night. She wonders sleepily if her mom is a ghost has she forgotten about her. He asks her if he were alive would she go to the dance with him. She says sure. He asks can he keep her. She says sure. He kisses her before she drifts off and she tells him to close the window it’s cold. He looks at the window but it’s already closed. He looks at the picture of his mom and thiks of his own mom before letting her sleep.
Kat asks her dad if she can get a costume, but he says Carrigen hasn’t paid him yet. Kat pleads with him not to let the Ghost Trio mess up her party. He says he’ll handle it. Kat then finds a hidden toy room with a toy train. She looks into one of the boxes and it’s contents make her smile. The Ghost meet Dr. Harvey in his office. They try teasing him, but he ignores them and starts to pack boxes (hoping to use reverse pychology on them). The Trio go out the window and Carrigen and Dibbs come in through the window.
Casper hears music coming from the toy room. To his delight Kat’s cleaned up the room. He says he remembers staying up reading Treasure Island. Casper gives Kat a beautiful dress of his mom’s to wear. She asks if she can wear it to the party. Casper is too busy reminiscing over the red sled he sees and the memory of his dad giving it to him. He stayed out late playing with it and he got sick. She asks what its like dying. He says its like being born in reverse. They see an article about his dad inventing a machine to bring his dead son back to life “The Lazarus”. Casper remembers and takes Kat to see it. Carrigen and Dibbs hear this from the shadows.
The chair takes her underground. Casper tells her all the robot arms are his dad’s “Up and At Em” machine. Carrigen and Dibbs come after them in the chair. Casper shows Kat the Lazarus (a pool). She finds three buttons in a book (Frankenstein) and pushes one. The pool bubbles and the geyser shoots into the air. A contraption arises from the pool. There’s a single red vial with most of the liquid looking like it’s gone. There’s just enough for one. Casper opens the door to the chamber and tells her to pull the lever. She pulls one and the machine starts to shake. Carrigen grabs the vial. Casper is now a blob. He asks is he alive.
Dr. Harvey is quite drunk and having a good time with the Ghosts at a restaurant. They’re all getting emotional and crying. Harvey says he’s going to tell Carrington they don’t want to move on. It’s there house and they can haunt it if they want to. They see a ghost coming out of a trench. Carrigen has an accident, goes over a cliff, and turns into a ghosts. Kat tries to fix Casper but Carrigen appears. She flies through the wall and grabs a chest. Kat grabs the potion from Dibbs and they get away on the chair. It’s then that everyone starts to arrive for the party.
Carrigan confronts Casper and Kat, stealing what she believes to be the treasure from the vault and launching Dibs out a window when he tries to double-cross her. Casper and Kat remind her that Casper's treasure was her unfinished business and by getting it completed her unfinished business. She vanishes to the after life. The treasure is revealed to be Casper's prized baseball, signed by Duke Snider. The Ghost return with Dr. Harvey whose now dead. Casper brings Dr. Harvey back in the Lazarus. The Ghosts scare away Amber and Vic. (Amber had convinced Vic to stand Kat up but was spying to see what was going on inside).
Kat’s mom (Amelia) grants Casper his wish to be real until 10:00. Kat is shocked when she learns the identity of the cute boy that asked her to dance. The Ghostly Trio keep their promise and Amelia and James reunite. She tells him she has no unfinished business and then gives him some advice about Kat and vanishes. Casper kisses Kat and then turns back into a ghost. The kids see. Casper says book. The kids freak out and run out the manor.
My Thoughts: When I watched this I thought it was cutesy! The book much like the movie is the same on a lesser level. Not taking anything away from the book, but some of the emotional moments hit harder viewed than read. Moments like when Casper gives up the chance to be human to bring back Kat's father. And I still wonder in confusion, how and why it went from Dr. Harvey and the Ghost Trio hanging out at the bar and bonding and relating to all of a sudden Dr. Harvey shows up at the manor dead. So he was so drunk that he thought it was a good idea that because he loved the Ghost Trio so much that he wanted to be one of them? Really? I guess because he has such an obsession with ghosts he'd in an emotional display just rationally want to be one. Riiiight! Another good moment was the return of Kat's mother and finally giving Dr. Harvey closure and just giving him permission to let go. And literally to give up the ghost. I loved Caper's "Cinderella" moment! 2 Cute and 2 sweet! Best moment in the story (and movie). Another heart-warming moment for me was when Casper struggled to remember anything about his human life and then when Cat fixes up the secret toy room for him it all comes back to him. Kat and Casper are just plain adorable together! They make you wish he didn't have to turn back and could have stayed human. I loved that just days (a day?) ago she was scared of him and then she's making the gesture of love to him to give him a significant part of his life back. So with all the warm moments in this whimsical story, it's a good Halloween heartstring-tugger.
Rating: 8
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Simplemente: Me ha encantado. Ágil, rápido de leer y con una trama sencilla y fácil. Para cuando apenas tienes tiempo este tipo de libros se agradecen. Lo recomiendo absolutamente a todo el mundo, obviamente es una historia que engloba más que nada la fantasía pero tiene su parte tierna y divertida, todo en su justa medida. De verdad, maravilloso.