History YMMV / Casper

* BrokenBase: The "can I keep you?" line from Casper to Kat as she's falling asleep. Some find it creepy and a little perverted, given that he kisses her while she's barely conscious. Others are more okay with it, since the movie treats his attraction to Kat as a PrecociousCrush and he is eternally twelve years old. For what it's worth, him saying that in human form is what tells Kat that it's him - so she must seem to remember him saying it and appears to be okay with it.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: When we finally see Casper as a living boy, he's dressed like a bishounen pirate.[[note]]He had previously mentioned playing pirates with his father in the lab. Could have been his old costume.[[/note]]

** Early in the 1995 film, Creator/DanAykroyd [[TheCameo cameos as Ray Stantz]] from ''Franchise/{{Ghostbusters}}'' to rid the manor of Casper's uncles, then remarks [[{{Catchphrase}} "Who you gonna call?]]...[[SubvertedCatchphrase Someone else"]] as he flees from them. Come 2016, [[Film/Ghostbusters2016 the reboot of Ghostbusters]] has attracted numerous detractors who have adopted this phrase to voice their displeasure with the film.

** Carrigan crosses this when she and Dibs steal the serum that can return them to life if they're killed, then tries to kill Dibs so he can steal the treasure from the vault as a ghost. She attempts this first with an axe, then with her Range Rover. Her attempts to kill him both fail and she ends up dying instead, but the fact that she was willing to kill him just to get rich counts. She crosses it further when she presumably kills him later by tossing him out of a window when he refuses to bring her back to life.

* TearJerker:
** Casper telling Kat the story of how he died. Ghosts gradually lose their memories of their lives, so it's particularly sad that Casper, who may have been dead for quite a long time, once again recalls his final days as a human so vividly. It becomes a even bigger TearJerker when Casper comes to the end of his story, explaining that his [[UnfinishedBusiness unresolved business]] was looking after his father, who passed on peacefully, leaving Casper in the human world for all eternity.
--->'''Kat''': What's it like to die?
--->'''Casper''': (''after a pause'') Like... being born. Only ''backwards.'' I remember, I didn't go where I was supposed to go. I just stayed behind, [[DyingAlone so my dad wouldn't be lonely]].
** James and his quest to reunite with his deceased wife's spirit. He does his best to be a good father for Kat's sake, but Amelia's death left him so broken that he's been dragging his daughter all over the country just for the chance to see his wife again.
** James and Amelia's brief reunion at the end, accompanied by Music/JamesHorner's beautiful and tear-jerking [[https://youtu.be/eVQEAeRyIjI "One Last Wish"]].
** And as per the basic premise of the character's misadventures, lonely and dejected Casper spends most of the first act trying desperately to connect with anyone he can even get a chance to talk to and failing due to their frightened reaction to his being a ghost.

* EvilIsSexy: Carrigan being played by Cathy Moriarty. She's just as sexy as a ghost.
** [[https://www.deviantart.com/toongod/art/Carrigan-s-Ghost-GIF-07-710419125 Or]] even [[BuxomIsBetter more]] so.

** Dr Harvey thinks he needs to have TheTalk with Kat, and she assures him it's "not ''that'' late". Then comes Christina Ricci's very sexual roles in ''Film/TheIceStorm'' and ''Film/TheOppositeOfSex'' - which she did to break out of her child star image.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: When we finally see Casper as a living boy, he's dressed like a bishounen pirate.[[note]] He had previously mentioned playing pirates with his father in the lab. Could have been his old costume.[[/note]]

* {{Narm}}:
** Carrigan constantly being called [[ObligatorySwearing a bitch]]. It's just so out-of-place in a kid's movie and, worse, it always calls attention to itself.
** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di_RUURTiAI#t=7m3s Dr. Harvey's scream when he first sees Casper, as well as the face he makes when he's screaming]], is so bad, we dare you not to laugh. The scene IS PlayedForLaughs, though -- considering the guy IS supposed to be a ghost expert.

** When the Ghostly Trio nearly cross this when they briefly consider murdering Dr Harvey in order to make him a ghost for them to hang out with. They don't go through with it, but they were seconds away from carrying it out.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** Music/JamesHorner's score for the first film, with a special shout-out to the haunting and touching "[[http://youtu.be/U9Az6dyE6zg Casper's Lullaby]]."
** The [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hl3yHQMtUFU natural result]] of combining Music/LittleRichard with the WesternAnimation/CasperTheFriendlyGhost theme.

** And as per the basic premise of the character's misadventures, lonely and dejected Casper spends most of the first act trying desperately and failing to connect with anyone he can even get a chance to talk to due to their frightened reaction to his being a ghost.

* EnsembleDarkhorse: Kibosh from 1997's A Spirited Beginning.

** In the first film, when the Ghostly Trio nearly cross this when they briefly consider murdering Dr Harvey in order to make him a ghost for them to hang out with. They don't go through with it, but they were seconds away from carrying it out.

** In ''A Spirited Beginning'', Brock locking Chris in the mansion and his complete LackOfEmpathy when he's told that the bomb planted inside the mansion could have killed Chris. Really, he and one of his lackeys (the other having made a HeelFaceTurn) deserved ''far'' more than having them hung on a tree by their underwear.
*** Also in ''A Spirited Beginning'', when Chris introduces his dad to Casper but he doesn't show up (having been kidnapped by his uncles), Chris's dad demonstrates, in one scene, that he is one of the biggest douchebags of a dad for any character in a kids' movie of the 90's. It can also give the idea that this scene traumatized several kids due to how douchy Chris's dad acted in this scene.
*** Basically explain, when Chris's dad gets angry over his son still being a kid (despite the fact Chris is probably '''thirteen''') and proceeds to [[TrashTheSet take down everything in Chris's room]] as a means to punish him.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Say what you will about the rest of the film, but even after twenty years of technological development, the computer animated ghosts are still ''very'' convincing. It helps that animated ghosts are very well-suited to the CGI capabilities of 1995; they float in the air, they don't have shadows, they don't have reflections, etc.

* MemeticMolester: Casper. "Can I keep you?"

* {{Narm}}: Carrigan constantly being called [[ObligatorySwearing a bitch]]. It's just so out-of-place in a kid's movie and, worse, it always calls attention to itself.

** For some, Casper whispering "Can I keep you?" to Kat while she sleeps.

* SpecialEffectsFailure: Accounted for in the sequels, where the ghosts have robotic movements, are animated choppily and face-plant smack in the middle of the UncannyValley.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: When we finally see Casper as a living boy, he's dressed like a bishounen pirate.
** He had previously mentioned playing pirates with his father in the lab. Could have been his old costume.

* NightmareFuel: The Ghostly Trio's first impression can be terrifying. Double for the way they scared Dr. Harvey, which also counts as a CrowningMomentOfFunny.

* NoProblemWithLicensedGames: The SNES/Famicom game is actually pretty fun and creative, playing like a modified version of "A Boy and his Blob". Casper takes various forms to escort Kat through his house down to the Lazarus Machine, fighting off his uncles and Carrie along the way. Only problem is that it came out at the end of the SNES lifespan, so cartridges are rare and super-expensive.

* NightmareFuel: The Ghostly Trio's first impression can be terrifying. Double for the way they scared Dr. Harvey.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: When we finally see Casper as a living boy, he's dressed like a bishounen pirate.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: When we see Casper as a living boy, he's got 90s hair, a billowy white shirt and tight pants tucked into his knee-high leather boots.
** Averted: He is wearing a pirate-outfit (you can see some kind of saber on his right hip as he descends the stairs) As for the hair... well, a mad scientist able to bring back the dead might as well have given his son an unusual haircut

** Averted: He is wearing a pirate-outfit (you can see some kind of saber on his right hip as he descends the stairs) As for the hair... well, a mad scientist able to bring back the dead might as well have given his son an unusal haircut

*** Basically explain, when Chris's dad gets angry over his son still being a kid (despite the fact Chris is probably '''thirteen''') and proceeds to [[TrashTheSet take down everything in Chris's room]] as a means to punish him. '''What the fuck'''.

* WTHCostumingDepartment: When we see Casper as a living boy, he's got 90s hair, a billowy white shirt and tight pants tucked into his knee-high leather boots.

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: Say what you will about the rest of the film, but even after twenty years of technological development, the computer animated ghosts are still ''very'' convincing. It helps that animated ghosts are very well-suited to the CGI capabilities of 1995; they float in the air, they don't have shadows, they don't have reflections, etc.

** Casper whispering "Can I keep you?" to Kat while she sleeps. It's supposed to be cute. It's not.

** [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di_RUURTiAI#t=7m3s Dr. Harvey's scream when he first sees Casper, as well as the face he makes when he's screaming]], is so bad, we dare you not to laugh. The scene IS PlayedForLaughs, though.

** James and Amelia's brief reunion at the end, accompanied by Music/JamesHorner's beautiful and tear-jerking "One Last Wish."