Sometimes I have to pinch myself when I am doing an entry for the blog because I can’t believe that I have been committed for 250 straight days now. So for the 250TH day, I wanted to watch something special and I chose to watch Casper which was based off of one my favorite cartoons as a child. Carrigan Crittenden (Cathy Moriarty) is money hungry so when she finds out her neurotic father has passed away she goes and finds out that she has inherited an old house with secret treasure inside. When she goes to the house, she discovers that there’s a ghost inside and she decides to hire a ghost shrink named Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman). Harvey takes the job and he takes his daughter Kat (Christina Ricci) who befriends the friendly ghost named Casper (Malachi Pearson) while her dad tries to deal with the other three unruly ghosts. The film also stars Eric Idle (Monty Python And The Holy Grail) as Dibbs, Joe Nipote (Viper) as Stretch, Joe Alaskey (Duck Dodgers) as Stinkie, Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) as Fatso, Amy Brenneman (Heat) as Amelia Harvey, Devon Sawa (Final Destination) as Casper in Human Form, Chauncey Leopardi (The Sandlot) as Nicky, Jessica Wesson (Milk Money) as Amber, and the film was directed by Brad Silberling (City Of Angels).
Believe it or not, it has taken me 21 years to see this film and to be perfectly honest with all of you I have no idea why. The one thing that I can say about the film adaptation of Casper is that it was fun to watch. You can’t expect an Oscar winning film out of it, but a film that you just have fun watching. This was the type of film that really relied on slapstick comedy to drive the laughs especially with the ghostly trio or the unruly three (whatever you want to call them) and Eric Idle who is a master of it. The one thing I liked about the film that I don’t remember happening with the cartoon was Casper crossing back over to be a human. I thought that it was a very cool move to imagine what he would have looked like as a human being or a fleshy as they call us. I loved seeing Christina Ricci in the film although every time I see her I just think that she is Wednesday Adams all grown up. I don’t know if I have a favorite scene from the film because it was just so enjoyable to watch. The scene where he makes breakfast is pretty good and I even enjoyed the sequence with Carrigan as a ghost as well. The film is currently available on HBOGO as long as you have a subscription to that, but I’m sure you can find it just about anywhere. I am going to recommend this film especially if you were a fan of the cartoon. I am going to give the film an B for a final grade.
Haven’t you ever wondered if there was life in other planets or galaxies? What if I was to tell you that 1000 plus years into the future that Earth has mastered the art of deep space travel and that we have interacted with several different species. Your mind would be blown and that is the case for the film Titan A.E.. For Cale (Matt Damon) life is a little different because his father had been working on a project called Project Titan. When a certain alien race known as the Drej caught wind of this, they destroyed the planet Earth. Fast forward fifteen years into the future, Cale is working on a scavenger ship when he is told that he may hold the key to finding Project Titan which could potentially save the human race from the evil Drej. So, he takes on the mission which will prove to be far from easy. The film also stars Bill Pullman (Independence Day) as Captain Joseph Korso, Drew Barrymore (E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial) as Akima, John Leguizamo (Ice Age) as Gune, Nathan Lane (The Birdcage) as Preed, Janeane Garofalo (Mystery Men) as Stith, Tone Loc (Ace Ventura: Pet Detective) as Tek, Ron Pearlman (Hellboy) as Professor Sam Tucker, and the film was directed by Don Bluth, Gary Goldman, and Art Vitello.
Spoiler Alert: Before you continue to read on, please be advised that this paragraph may contain spoilers. Proceed with caution. I love these kinds of animated films because it reminds me a lot of Heavy Metal and many others like it. While it could be predictable at times, Titan A.E. was actually a very fun film to watch with a very good story. That was my favorite part of the whole film was the fact that I loved the story. Imagine that the key to saving the human race is in a ring that some kid has been carrying for a while and had no idea his father put it on his finger. The only reason why I said that the film could be predictable at times was because you could tell right from the start that Cale and Akima were going to be a thing in the film. You knew that they were going to be double crossed at some point in the film and that happened twice. Like I said, that didn’t deter me from continuing on. The key to great acting in an animated film is making sure that they convey the proper emotions and you do it right. I would like to think that all of them did a great job throughout the film especially comedian Jim Breuer who plays a cook in the film (I didn’t know he did). I did love the enemy alien race who are made of energy. The one thing that kind of caught my attention about them was the fact that they are treated like they are the enemy, but I believe someone int he film mentioned something vital. They mentioned that they destroyed Earth because they were afraid that the humans were creating something dangerous. That doesn’t make what they did OK, but fear is the mind killer. If you’re a fan of science fiction based action adventure animated films, then I would definitely suggest checking this one out. I am going to give the film an A- for final grade.
365moviesin365dayschallenge 