Casper the Friendly Ghost is outrageously cordial in “Casper” and more’s the pity. He’s delighted that he should be the Pillsbury Dough Boy, with whom he shares in excess of a passing likeness here.
The issue with Casper has forever been his integrity. It’s a lot more straightforward – and more fun- – to get behind an animation miscreant. (Significantly talking, this applies to people, as well.) Goodness effectively reverts into sappiness, and, in “Casper,” the Friendly One is upstaged from the beginning by his three blockhead uncles, Stinkie, Stretch and Fatso. This threesome wears the pants at Maine’s Whipstaff Manor, a bedraggled spread passed on to a duped beneficiary (Cathy Moriarty) who needs the spot de-ghosted so she and her powerless kneed aide (Eric Idle) can pull around for the lost fortune supposed inside.
