Speaker 1: Hi everyone. Quick note, h there's some slight static here
Speaker 1: and there at the beginning of the episode, but it
Speaker 1: goes away pretty quickly so you won't hear it for
Speaker 1: most of the episode. I just wanted to give everyone
Speaker 1: heads up, thanks for understanding, and enjoy the episode. On
Speaker 1: the Doe Cast, the questions asked if movies have women
Speaker 1: in um, are all their discussions just boyfriends and husbands
Speaker 1: or do they have individualism? The patriarchy? Zef invest start
Speaker 1: changing it with the beck Del Cast. Hey, Jamie, Hey,
Speaker 1: can I keep you know? It's cool? Closed the window.
Speaker 1: I love how she was like, can you close the window?
Speaker 1: It's called goodnight? God? What a what a creepy little ghost.
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Bechtel Cast. My name is Jamie Loftus,
Speaker 1: my name is Caitlin Darante, and this is our show
Speaker 1: where we examine movies through an intersectional feminist lens. You
Speaker 1: saying the Becktel test simply as a jumping off point,
Speaker 1: but Jamie, yeah, what is it? Well, the Bechdel test
Speaker 1: is a h well, it's a test in which uh well,
Speaker 1: and also I should tell you where it came from.
Speaker 1: It came from? Uh? Oh god, Sorry, I just wanted
Speaker 1: to cast for The Friendly Ghost, and so I'm like,
Speaker 1: so this, okay, this is not going to pass. I
Speaker 1: just so frothingly horny for Bill, paulm and Daddy that
Speaker 1: I'm not fully with it at this time. It's a
Speaker 1: media metric invented by queer cartoonist Alice in Becktel, sometimes
Speaker 1: called the Bechdel Wallace test. Uh. There's many permutations of
Speaker 1: this test. Here's the one that we use here at
Speaker 1: the Bechdel Cast. We require that two characters of a
Speaker 1: marginalized gender with names speak to each other about something
Speaker 1: other than a man for more than two lines of dialogue.
Speaker 1: And you know, some movies do it, um many don't.
Speaker 1: And my new favorite thing is when a movie when
Speaker 1: it's clear that they get like a note that it
Speaker 1: didn't pass the Backtel tests, and then they do a
Speaker 1: small reshoot and add in a completely nonsensical scene just
Speaker 1: to say they passed. I want to I've been trying
Speaker 1: to keep better track of those in movies because I'm
Speaker 1: trying to think of which there was a movie I
Speaker 1: saw recently that was like Newer that I'm like, this
Speaker 1: feels like a weird Anyways, It's complicated because I feel
Speaker 1: like that would be the case for more recent movies.
Speaker 1: People weren't No, people weren't thinking about this back It
Speaker 1: didn't come into the popular consciousness until, like I feel
Speaker 1: like late two thousand's early two thousand tents, even though
Speaker 1: it was invented back in the eighties and then and
Speaker 1: then our podcast, it's the only thing we actually talked about.
Speaker 1: Because we invented we popularized it. No, I'm kidding, but
Speaker 1: um yeah, recent movies are I think doing a better
Speaker 1: job at passing generally. Generally yes, but but sometimes you
Speaker 1: still see some some things. I don't know. I think
Speaker 1: I just am in a crummy mood because you're just
Speaker 1: like the state of these days, Caitlin, I'm just not
Speaker 1: convinced that the world is a less misogynist what than ever,
Speaker 1: just less prejudice in general? Um well, we live in
Speaker 1: a healthscape. On that note, let's talk about Casper the
Speaker 1: Friendly Ghost I love too. Okay, so I'll start by
Speaker 1: saying this this episode, you might be like, wait a second,
Speaker 1: it's June. Why are you covering Casper the Friendly Ghost?
Speaker 1: This seems more like a HALLOWEENI pick. Well, the reason
Speaker 1: we're covering Casper the Friendly Ghost is because it's a
Speaker 1: little bit of synergy. It's a little bit of cross promotion,
Speaker 1: if you will, um, because listeners, pretty there's nothing scarier
Speaker 1: than corporate synergy. And by corporate I mean just me. Um. So.
Speaker 1: So I have a new investigative series right now coming
Speaker 1: out called Ghost Church. Uh. It is about the American
Speaker 1: Spiritualist movement, which was kind of this movement that existed
Speaker 1: in the eighteen hundreds. It still exists now. It's evolved
Speaker 1: in all these freaky ways, but it's basically founded on
Speaker 1: the idea of like spirit communication, that the dead don't
Speaker 1: really die, it doesn't really play by Casper rules. Um.
Speaker 1: But yeah, that The overview of the show is it's
Speaker 1: a history of this bizarre religion and its founders who
Speaker 1: were um, women religious leaders at a time where there
Speaker 1: weren't a lot of women religious leaders. But they're kind
Speaker 1: of girl bossing around. It's it's a wild story. And
Speaker 1: then it also is the other half of it is
Speaker 1: my experience going to a spiritualist camp this year and
Speaker 1: talking with uh spirit mediums who are still working today.
Speaker 1: So if that sounds like a fun thing to you,
Speaker 1: I would I would love if you listened it was
Speaker 1: a really fun kind of like challenging piece to put together,
Speaker 1: and I hope you like it. So we were looking
Speaker 1: for and and I'll sort of bring up because there
Speaker 1: are like some spiritualist ideas in Casper the movies concept
Speaker 1: of death, but it's also the movie is so all
Speaker 1: over the place that I feel like death is viewed
Speaker 1: just like however, the movie needs you to view it
Speaker 1: from scene to scene, like sometimes it's the biggest deal
Speaker 1: in the world, and then other times they're like who
Speaker 1: gives a ship? And you're like, well, which what whatether?
Speaker 1: It doesn't matter. It's a great movie. But we were
Speaker 1: looking for movies about spirit communication and it made me
Speaker 1: think about spiritualism as like I've been studying it and
Speaker 1: understanding it because most of the stuff, like a lot
Speaker 1: of spiritualism is built around the idea of the seance.
Speaker 1: But most seances, as they're presented in movies are like
Speaker 1: bad or conjure something evil, or you need like your
Speaker 1: Christian to come and resolve what you've unleashed via a seance,
Speaker 1: which is the opposite of what spiritualism is about. Spiritualism
Speaker 1: is like an attempt to take a step away from
Speaker 1: the idea of like good and evil. They're very into
Speaker 1: redemption and like redemptive justice and all these like. I mean,
Speaker 1: there are plenty of issues with it with the religion,
Speaker 1: but it is far more progressive than Catholicism, for example,
Speaker 1: which is weirdly, what you'll mostly get in seance movies
Speaker 1: is like a Catholic priest showing up to reverse what
Speaker 1: the seance did. It's hard to find a feel good
Speaker 1: movie about death, and that's where cast By the Friendly
Speaker 1: Ghost comes in. And that's where Castfer comes in because
Speaker 1: the only other movie that's like explicitly about spiritualism is
Speaker 1: Nightmare Alley that came out last year, which again is
Speaker 1: pretty unfavorable, which is like fine, but more importantly, no
Speaker 1: one watched the movie and we didn't like it. So
Speaker 1: that's why we're With all due respect to King Guierma
Speaker 1: del Toro, it was so boring. There was no pans
Speaker 1: labyrinthe I I get. Really, I'm like, you're just gonna
Speaker 1: not give Rooney Mara anything to do. What a waste?
Speaker 1: What a waste of everyone's time? Anyways, Uh so that's
Speaker 1: why we're doing Casper. This is actually one of the
Speaker 1: more like open minded views of death that you can
Speaker 1: find in a movie or spirit communication at least. Sure, yes,
Speaker 1: so yeah, listen to Ghost Church. We'll keep talking about
Speaker 1: spirit communication. But Caitlin, what's your history with Casper? Oh
Speaker 1: my gosh. This movie came out when I was nine
Speaker 1: years old, so I was the exact right age he
Speaker 1: see it and love it and be obsessed with it.
Speaker 1: And I especially loved the production design, although I wasn't
Speaker 1: like a nine year old being like, wow, look at
Speaker 1: this set design. Amazing. The house is so still so cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the house holds up. The Casper house holds up. So
Speaker 1: I just like loved the spooky sets in the in
Speaker 1: the house and then when they go into the secret
Speaker 1: layer where the Lazarus machine is and like that all that.
Speaker 1: I loved it, And I did you realize the Backstreet
Speaker 1: Boys connection? No? Oh my gosh. This is the kind
Speaker 1: of you know, like when you learn a fun fact
Speaker 1: and you're like, I know, I've learned this before, but
Speaker 1: I just like relearned it today and it's all the time. Yeah, right,
Speaker 1: in our advanced age, sometimes things just slip. Um. The
Speaker 1: music video for Backstreets Back all right, where all the
Speaker 1: Backstreet Boys are dressed up in Halloween costumes and they're
Speaker 1: dancing in the mansion. That's the Casper mansion. It's the
Speaker 1: same mansion, and every time you see the wide shot,
Speaker 1: you're like, this looks familiar, and it's the Backstreets back
Speaker 1: mansion because that song came out in nine six, so
Speaker 1: they just like share it a set repurposed the Casper House.
Speaker 1: Isn't that the coolest? It's a legendary and it's just
Speaker 1: beautiful and awesome and yeah, so anyway, I loved it
Speaker 1: at the time, but I don't think I saw I
Speaker 1: watched it past probably like seven because again, famously, Titanic
Speaker 1: comes out and I didn't watch any other movies for
Speaker 1: a solid decade. Yeah, totally, so, I you know, there
Speaker 1: was a couple of year chunk in the mid to
Speaker 1: late nineties when I was obsessed with this movie, but
Speaker 1: I hadn't watched it since, so rewatching it for the
Speaker 1: podcast was interesting. And my thesis statement will be that
Speaker 1: Casper is a creepy little pervert. Okay now now, now,
Speaker 1: now thoughts. I definitely think that Casper's behavior is not great,
Speaker 1: but I, I don't know they're this, I I really
Speaker 1: love this movie is still it's like it's gonna be
Speaker 1: hard to I mean, I just like, every time I
Speaker 1: see this movie still you're still oh my gosh. Yes,
Speaker 1: Like I I don't remember when I first I like,
Speaker 1: this was just like a VHS that was always at
Speaker 1: our house. And I loved Casper, not just Casper, the
Speaker 1: Casper Expanded Universe. Because there were two directed video sequels
Speaker 1: that came out after this. It was called like Casper.
Speaker 1: Oh my gosh. There for some reason, like just so
Speaker 1: many awakenings for me happened via this Casper franchise. There
Speaker 1: was a direct oh my god, this is going to
Speaker 1: drive me wild, and I do need to know what
Speaker 1: this direct movie was called. But anyways, this movie was
Speaker 1: one of my favorites when I was a kid. I
Speaker 1: still watch it every couple of years. I think it
Speaker 1: was like, yeah, I like to watch it around Halloween time.
Speaker 1: I just think it's like there's so much wrong with it.
Speaker 1: But it is a problematic favorite for me that I
Speaker 1: like that I still think it's doing a lot of
Speaker 1: like funny cool stuff that like I don't know, like
Speaker 1: there's things that happened in this movie that don't happen
Speaker 1: in movies anymore. Because they shouldn't. And then there's things
Speaker 1: that happened in this movie that don't happen in movies
Speaker 1: anywhere that I'm like, where did that go? That was fun? Sure?
Speaker 1: I liked that, Like it's just really chaotic. I feel
Speaker 1: like they're like especially because it's like an I P
Speaker 1: a piece of like I P. I feel like now
Speaker 1: people are so like precious with like rebooting I P.
Speaker 1: Where it's all very like sterile and I don't know,
Speaker 1: like you think about how sexless the Marvel movies are
Speaker 1: and how it's like they can be funny but they
Speaker 1: actually can't be funny, and it's just like you just
Speaker 1: feel so much like caution in some ways that is
Speaker 1: good and undoes harmful things that were done in movies
Speaker 1: in the past. And then it's just sometimes you're like, yeah,
Speaker 1: why so much of this movie is just like there's
Speaker 1: a ruckus and yeah, wild wild choices. Yeah. I used
Speaker 1: to be completely in love with every character in this movie.
Speaker 1: I loved Christina Ricci's character so much, wanted to be her.
Speaker 1: Was also in love with her father, thought he Pulman
Speaker 1: dad was really handsome. Still really feel that way. Kathy
Speaker 1: Moriarty is like there's just so much, so much campiness
Speaker 1: in this movie too, in a way that just like
Speaker 1: happens in movies now, but I feel like doesn't happen
Speaker 1: in like big kids movie. I don't know, maybe I'm
Speaker 1: totally wrong and I'm just not watching the right movies,
Speaker 1: but but yeah, like this movie is just so goofy
Speaker 1: and campy and like if you showed it to a
Speaker 1: kid right now. It's also so that they be like,
Speaker 1: what is this? Like, who is Rodney Dangerfield? Oh my gosh.
Speaker 1: The cameos are wild. Mel Gibson makes it, has a cameo,
Speaker 1: has a cameo. It's so and all the cameos are
Speaker 1: like really condensed to They all happened like five in
Speaker 1: a row will happen, and then one won't happen for
Speaker 1: forty five minutes. Yeah, I guess all I have to
Speaker 1: say is I love this movie and I think it
Speaker 1: is so goofy and chaotic, and let's talk about it.
Speaker 1: Let's do but first let's take a quick break and
Speaker 1: then we will come right back. And we're back, and
Speaker 1: here is the recap. So there's a big scary house.
Speaker 1: Two boys go inside at nighttime to take a picture.
Speaker 1: I guess to show their friends that they went inside
Speaker 1: the spooky hunted house. But then someone maybe it's Casper
Speaker 1: the ghost I don't know, takes the picture for them
Speaker 1: and then they run out screaming, it is Casper the ghost.
Speaker 1: It is voice O God, calem. Don't you love the
Speaker 1: part at the end where five hundred wild things happen
Speaker 1: in a row people are dying, coming back to life, dying,
Speaker 1: coming back to life, Surprise kiss, surprise Angel. That the
Speaker 1: mother doesn't visit her daughter but does visit this ghost.
Speaker 1: Like all this stuff happens where you're just like, um,
Speaker 1: what a wild night? And then and then the ghost
Speaker 1: start playing guitars and then the movie is all of her.
Speaker 1: It's it's really funny. Sorry anyway, Okay, we cut to
Speaker 1: a woman named Kerrigan that's Cathy Moriarty icon She inherits
Speaker 1: a manner from her deceased father, presumably the same old
Speaker 1: scary house that we just saw, which is called what again,
Speaker 1: Whip the staff manner? Whips staff manner, which sounds like
Speaker 1: a place in the valley where they shoot porn. Yes,
Speaker 1: so the property is condemned. It seems nearly worthless. But
Speaker 1: then she and her lawyer Dibbs played by Eric Idol,
Speaker 1: find something in the paperwork that makes it seem like
Speaker 1: there might be treasure hidden somewhere in the house. So
Speaker 1: they travel to the house in Maine. They go inside
Speaker 1: and meet Casper, who is the same friendly ghost, a
Speaker 1: friendly ghost, and then sometimes you're like, what do we
Speaker 1: mean when we say friendly, because sometimes he's a pretty
Speaker 1: calculated ghost sometimes and sometimes he's very creepy and perverted.
Speaker 1: As I mentioned, will be canceling Casper on the beat
Speaker 1: to cast today. Unfortunately, we will no longer be able
Speaker 1: to watch Casper because he's going to be canceled and
Speaker 1: then he's going to start touring the right wing circuit.
Speaker 1: It's going to be disaster um, and then he'll say,
Speaker 1: we did that, Yeah, we did that. This our job.
Speaker 1: I kind of as much as from Again, there's like
Speaker 1: just so many bad choices in this movie that I'm
Speaker 1: just like, what a confusing thing to have done. I
Speaker 1: guess I'm not bothered by it um because this like
Speaker 1: movie was also written by like two women, but two
Speaker 1: women who were like voices in the animaniacs, Like, what
Speaker 1: is going on like with this movie? I don't even care,
Speaker 1: but I care again and Dibbs you get like literally
Speaker 1: no background other than her father has just died. We
Speaker 1: don't know where Dibbs came from nope, or like what
Speaker 1: their relationship is. I feel like it's implied that they
Speaker 1: probably fuck and maybe he wants something more and she doesn't.
Speaker 1: That was always my head canon was that she was
Speaker 1: you know, she's like, Dibbs is always around if I'm horny,
Speaker 1: but obviously he's and then he's like in love with her,
Speaker 1: but then he turns. I just love that you get.
Speaker 1: Usually I'm like, wait, we have this like incredible iconic
Speaker 1: woman playing this villain, Like let's find out more about her.
Speaker 1: But the way that Karagan comes off and like, I
Speaker 1: don't need it. She just wants a treasure and she
Speaker 1: has a mansion and she's like weirdly okay with uh
Speaker 1: dying at any moment, like before she's even sure the
Speaker 1: machine works. I just I just love just no one
Speaker 1: makes any sense. Also, the way that she's defeated is hilarious,
Speaker 1: but we will get there. So weird. Oh God, the
Speaker 1: ghost rules in this movie? Or why why doesn't Eric
Speaker 1: Idol turn into a ghost? That was I was like,
Speaker 1: did they run out of c G. I budget, um, well,
Speaker 1: because he doesn't die, does he or justn't canonically, I
Speaker 1: guess he just kind of disappears. Oh yeah, I always
Speaker 1: thought he died. What does happen with him? He falls
Speaker 1: into a vat no she it's like towards the end
Speaker 1: and they're bickering over the treasure chest and then she's like,
Speaker 1: you have a flight to catch and then she uses
Speaker 1: her ghost magic or something to like fling him out
Speaker 1: of the window and then we just don't see him
Speaker 1: after that. So maybe he did die and becomes a ghost.
Speaker 1: But I guess I always just assumed that he died, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because he's flung out the point of me I wrote
Speaker 1: down for that. Actually I did know how he I
Speaker 1: guess didn't die, but I feel like, how would he
Speaker 1: not die? You know? But um, it reminded me. I
Speaker 1: wrote down reverse I Frankenstein because you know that that
Speaker 1: scene and I Frankenstein where Aaron Eckhart breaks through a
Speaker 1: window like that for no reason. I don't remember, but
Speaker 1: I guess I'll just have to rewatch it. Look, if
Speaker 1: you have listeners, we know that this is a little
Speaker 1: chaotic for a main Feet episode, but we did I
Speaker 1: Frankenstein for my birthday a couple of years ago. And um, yeah,
Speaker 1: there's like a scene where he's going into like the
Speaker 1: science lab. I Frankenstein, I mean Adam Adam frank Stein. Yeah.
Speaker 1: For listeners who haven't seen I Frankenstein, first of all
Speaker 1: turned this off. You gotta go watch it. But yeah,
Speaker 1: Adam Frankenstein, played terribly by Aaron Dockart. He like burst
Speaker 1: through a window bill ny lab is open lab. Yeah, oh,
Speaker 1: I do remember that. But it's open because people are
Speaker 1: like using their key cards and scanning in. But he
Speaker 1: just like breaks a window. Drama. He was supposed to
Speaker 1: be sneaking in anyways, Casper, So so Karagan and Dibbs
Speaker 1: go to the manner. They meet Casper, who is friendly,
Speaker 1: but they still scream and it wakes up some other
Speaker 1: ghosts in the places extra haunted. So then Karagan gets
Speaker 1: a priest to try to exercise the ghosts out of
Speaker 1: the house. That doesn't work. They get Dan Ackroyd as
Speaker 1: a ghostbuster to bust the ghosts. That doesn't work. Also,
Speaker 1: you know, it's fun fun ghost church moment. Listen to
Speaker 1: ghost Church now on I Heart Radio. Dan Ackroyd, I
Speaker 1: believe his father was into spiritualism, and dan Ackroyd said
Speaker 1: specifically when he was working on Ghostbusters, part of his
Speaker 1: inspiration and motivation for wanting to write and being Ghostbusters
Speaker 1: was his dad's interest in spiritualism and the idea of
Speaker 1: life after death. And so he made uh, you know,
Speaker 1: you can listen to our episode on it. We had
Speaker 1: a lot of thoughts on it. But that was his
Speaker 1: interest in the afterlife. Wow. And now he follows like
Speaker 1: an alien religion or something. Yeah, he's uh he he
Speaker 1: likes esoteric religions, you know. Yeah, the more I work
Speaker 1: on this project, the more I'm just like, you know what,
Speaker 1: it is like such an amazing thing if you can
Speaker 1: find a religion that is not perpetua constantly perpetuating harm
Speaker 1: on other people. And if you do find that, then like,
Speaker 1: have a great time, enjoy yourself, you golden rule it up.
Speaker 1: That's why I founded the cult, I mean Church of
Speaker 1: Paddington scariest si um. I just remember the direct to
Speaker 1: video sequels in case there's any other kids that were
Speaker 1: watching these vhs. It was called Casper A Spirited Beginning,
Speaker 1: And in the Christina ricci Ish part, there was a
Speaker 1: boy named Chris who I was like, Wow, I'm going
Speaker 1: to marry Chris. Wonder what happened to him? No idea.
Speaker 1: And then the third one was I believe Hillary Duff's
Speaker 1: first role Casper meets Wendy and Hillary Duff plays a
Speaker 1: young witch who be friends Casper and then they do
Speaker 1: you know, supernatural magical stuff together. So thank you to
Speaker 1: the Casper franchise for giving us Hillary Duff. I think
Speaker 1: that she got Lizzie McGuire off of that. It's called
Speaker 1: American History, Caitlin, and and a Star is Born. Um,
Speaker 1: Hilary Duff of Stars Born would be so funny. Uh,
Speaker 1: that would be great. I would watch it, yes, Okay,
Speaker 1: So then Acrod being a ghostbuster that doesn't work. Now
Speaker 1: Kerrigan hires a crew to bulldoze the house that doesn't work.
Speaker 1: And then then like the ghosts that they're trying to
Speaker 1: get rid of, are these mean ghosts unlike the friendly
Speaker 1: ghosts that is Casper. We'll find out that these mean
Speaker 1: ghosts are Are they Casper's uncles? They are there? Is
Speaker 1: there his abusive uncles? So they're mean? But also that
Speaker 1: like doesn't make I'm sure that because Casper started as
Speaker 1: a comic book character, so I'm assuming this is addressed
Speaker 1: somewhere in Casper Cannon. But you're also like, maybe they're
Speaker 1: like his adoptive uncles or something, because I don't think
Speaker 1: that they're like they were his uncles when he was alive.
Speaker 1: It doesn't sound like there were three weird goals hanging
Speaker 1: out at this house. Right. Do you like when you
Speaker 1: become a ghost, do you like have a ghost chosen family?
Speaker 1: In which case, why that would be true, I don't know,
Speaker 1: because he's just like a kid ghost, So maybe he
Speaker 1: was looking for I don't know why I'm overthinking this.
Speaker 1: Did the kid ghost? So he's kind of lost in
Speaker 1: the world. You know, he doesn't have a lot of people,
Speaker 1: and he can't remember his life at first, so they
Speaker 1: would be his adoptive uncle's. But they really they were.
Speaker 1: They're really cinderelling this little perverted young ghost. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: they're They're really mean in general and mean to Casper.
Speaker 1: But Casper is friendly and all he wants is to
Speaker 1: make a friend. Then Casper sees a news segment on
Speaker 1: Dr James Harvey. He is a therapist for ghosts. Okay,
Speaker 1: so this spiritualism wise, this is made up. Its spiritualism.
Speaker 1: You have mediums who connect with spirit. And also there's
Speaker 1: like the whole crossing over concept is interesting as it's
Speaker 1: presented in this movie because I don't know, like it's
Speaker 1: it's kind of like all over the place where it's like, oh,
Speaker 1: you have unfinished business, and then if you have unfinished business,
Speaker 1: you go to heaven like Christian heaven. Question mark, Like
Speaker 1: where did Kathy Moriarty go? We don't really know, you
Speaker 1: would think, but like it's it's hard to say how
Speaker 1: this movie feels about redemptive justice in the afterlife. I
Speaker 1: don't know if they were thinking about it when they
Speaker 1: wrote it, but I just thought it was because spiritualism
Speaker 1: is mostly like they don't believe that like spirits remaining
Speaker 1: on Earth is purgatory. They're like, that's kind of par
Speaker 1: for the course where you'll like remain like when you die,
Speaker 1: you become a spirit guide to the people in your life,
Speaker 1: but then you can cross over to this place called
Speaker 1: the Summerland. It's kind of all over the place. It
Speaker 1: depends on who you ask. They're really organized like the
Speaker 1: plot of Casper. Like the plot of Casper, right, So,
Speaker 1: Dr James Harvey is a psychiatrist who, after the death
Speaker 1: of his wife, his wife's wife, his gorgeous wife with
Speaker 1: perfect hair. He started to treat ghosts and help them
Speaker 1: resolve their unfinished business. And then Karagan also sees this
Speaker 1: broadcast because Casper goes into her hotel room and puts
Speaker 1: it on her TV. Because Casper saw Dr Harvey's daughter
Speaker 1: Cat and really takes a liking to her and wants
Speaker 1: to be her friend. Again weird as hell, like the
Speaker 1: first thing where you're like, now, Casper, that's enough, you know,
Speaker 1: like that because I kind of forgot that that was
Speaker 1: his motivation. I think more logically assumed that. I was like, oh,
Speaker 1: he saw that like her dad could help him cross over, right,
Speaker 1: I just felt like writing wise, that would be a
Speaker 1: more logical thing. And then like he meets her and
Speaker 1: they become friends and so that it just happens anyways,
Speaker 1: Like why give him a weird pervy motivation when the
Speaker 1: thing that's on TV also like should be like more
Speaker 1: motivating for him, right, because he sees Dr Harvey being
Speaker 1: able to like connect with and help ghosts and that
Speaker 1: piques his interest. But it's not until he sees Cat
Speaker 1: Christine Rucci and he's like, hubba, hubba, I need her
Speaker 1: in my life. Oh my gosh, I'm in love. And
Speaker 1: then he like sets up a weird, like manipulative scheme
Speaker 1: to lure Cat and her father into his house so
Speaker 1: that he can get with Cat. And that's yeah, it's
Speaker 1: so creepy. I was kind of curious. I was like,
Speaker 1: I wonder if that like changed at some point, because
Speaker 1: it just didn't seem logical like this, Like I feel
Speaker 1: like the reverse note would be given now where it's like,
Speaker 1: don't force a weird love story on this like twelve
Speaker 1: or thirteen year old girl. But I feel like in
Speaker 1: the nineties it was maybe the opposite where they're like, no,
Speaker 1: we gotta get a love story going here, because it's
Speaker 1: just like, I don't know, it just doesn't scan for
Speaker 1: me that it's like, oh, the little ghost is horny
Speaker 1: and he's just going to ignore this really valuable whatever
Speaker 1: Bill Pullman hot. That's the take my defense of every
Speaker 1: bad choice in this movie. I'm just like, but Bill
Speaker 1: Pullman is the way he wears those weird pants. He's
Speaker 1: really looking like a dad in the nineties. So we
Speaker 1: cut to him. We cut to Dr James Harvey played
Speaker 1: by Bill Pullman and his daughter Cat played by Christina Ricci.
Speaker 1: They are driving to this manner in Maine. Now Cat
Speaker 1: doesn't leave in Ghosts and she thinks her dad is
Speaker 1: a loser and a joke and she's resentful that he
Speaker 1: moves her around the country all the time. And sometimes
Speaker 1: you're and you're like, she like, really wrong. I think
Speaker 1: rewatching it this time. I'm like, he's really not a
Speaker 1: very good parent at all. So at the end when
Speaker 1: his dead wife comes back, his wife returns and it's like,
Speaker 1: you're actually an awesome parent. I'm like, I mean, I'm
Speaker 1: glad he didn't die, but I wouldn't say that he's
Speaker 1: a good parent right where is like he's not even
Speaker 1: there with his daughter for half of the movie. He
Speaker 1: goes to a bar and hangs out with this mean
Speaker 1: Ghosts for like a long time. That was so wild
Speaker 1: to be I never like because I've never watched this
Speaker 1: movie with anything but like a nostalgic like lens, And
Speaker 1: this was like embarrassingly one of those things where I'm like,
Speaker 1: I definitely didn't This is the first time I ever
Speaker 1: heard like jailhouse rock or like an OVI song would
Speaker 1: have been like in this movie. But yeah, it's the
Speaker 1: night of his daughter's big party and he's like, god
Speaker 1: at a bar, like really fucked up. And I'm like,
Speaker 1: I get that. The ghosts like kidnapped him and brought
Speaker 1: him to a bar, but they didn't make him get
Speaker 1: way blackout drunk and walk off a cliff. Also, they
Speaker 1: were going to shoot him in the head. I was
Speaker 1: just like, this movie is so funny, Like what are
Speaker 1: you doing it? Actually? Really like, once I found out
Speaker 1: the writers right for Animaniacs, I'm like, yeah, this is
Speaker 1: a fucking like weird cartoon. Yeah. I loved Animaniacs anyway. Okay,
Speaker 1: so her whole thing is that she doesn't like that
Speaker 1: they have to move around all the time because she
Speaker 1: just wants to stay in one place long enough to
Speaker 1: make a friend. And we're like, oh my gosh, that's
Speaker 1: what Casper also wants to make a friend. Wow. So
Speaker 1: Dr Harvey and Kat arrive at the manor. Karagin is
Speaker 1: there and she's like, you better figure is out really quickly,
Speaker 1: Dr Harvey, and he's like, it's gonna take as much
Speaker 1: time as it takes, honey. So he and Kat move
Speaker 1: into the house, which is wild that they do that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm also like, why did she switch school systems. If
Speaker 1: they're only supposed to be there for two weeks, we
Speaker 1: don't know, look look away, look away, don't ask what matter?
Speaker 1: They should have turned They should have turned the get
Speaker 1: Ready machine into a roller coaster. I will never not
Speaker 1: be mad that someone didn't turn that into a roller
Speaker 1: coaster that was clearly made to be turned into a
Speaker 1: roller coaster? Are you kidding me? Seriously? So mean? So
Speaker 1: they explore it. They explore the house. It's big, it's cookie,
Speaker 1: it's spooky, and Casper is so excited that Kat is there.
Speaker 1: And then Kat sees Casper. She freaks out, she's never
Speaker 1: seen a ghost before. And then Dr Harvey sees him too.
Speaker 1: He also freaks out, and everyone's like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: there are ghosts. His reaction defies logic. Why doesn't he
Speaker 1: came here to see ghosts? The second his daughter's like,
Speaker 1: I saw ghosts, you would think he would be thrilled
Speaker 1: because she doesn't believe in ghosts, but for her father,
Speaker 1: and instead, the second he gets the information, he's like,
Speaker 1: I don't believe you and I'm scared. I'm like, what's
Speaker 1: wrong with you? He's such a bad dad. He's like,
Speaker 1: not bad, not a bad person, clearly. Okay, this was
Speaker 1: my horrible Twitter joke. I texted it to you. I
Speaker 1: don't even want to say it out loud. It's such
Speaker 1: a bad format. Men would rather go to the with
Speaker 1: staff manner and hang out and get and walk off
Speaker 1: a cliff with three scary ghosts, then go to therapy.
Speaker 1: It's true, though, it's true. He's I empathize with him.
Speaker 1: He's having a hard time with the death of his wife,
Speaker 1: but a lot of his parenting decisions are just egregiously
Speaker 1: bad parenting decisions. He just doesn't make sense this. I
Speaker 1: don't understand why he reacts this way because he's also
Speaker 1: bad at his job. Because he's really bad at his job.
Speaker 1: He goes and tries to give therapy to the three
Speaker 1: mean ghosts and like, no breakthroughs happened, like he, Well
Speaker 1: they have. They have breakthroughs via they become friends, but
Speaker 1: like which is also inappropriate. You're not supposed to be friend,
Speaker 1: you're psychiatry client. Look, my therapist gives me a ride
Speaker 1: home sometimes. Don't worry, it's fine. Uh. It doesn't mean
Speaker 1: that you can't make some breakthroughs as someone who's willing
Speaker 1: to give you a ride home. But do you go
Speaker 1: out and get blackout drunk with your therapists. No, that see,
Speaker 1: that's that they like, he is not good at his
Speaker 1: job unclear to me. They make it sound in the
Speaker 1: news report like he has successfully done this before, but
Speaker 1: clearly that's not true. And also when he meets the
Speaker 1: like I do think he success fully becomes friends with
Speaker 1: the uncle's, but that doesn't mean that he's a good therapist.
Speaker 1: Like that correct is You're right, that's unprofessional. I've just
Speaker 1: been excusing this man. Also, the first time that he
Speaker 1: meets them, he's like, I'm your therapist, and then he
Speaker 1: immediately sucks them into a vacuum, and I'm like, that's also,
Speaker 1: that's a little problematic. I wouldn't let my therapists talking
Speaker 1: about at this point. Also, well, I'll just wait till
Speaker 1: we get to this plot point. But then another wild
Speaker 1: thing happens. Okay, so Casper's uncles show up after the
Speaker 1: kind of initial shock wears off of like Dr Harvey
Speaker 1: and Cat seeing Casper. So the uncles show up, who
Speaker 1: are stretch fat so and stinky, and then Dr Harvey
Speaker 1: tries to make contact with them, but again they're mean
Speaker 1: and they play a bunch of pranks on him. He
Speaker 1: battles them for a while, and then he sucks them
Speaker 1: into a vacuum cleaner. They're big time pranksters, huge goofs.
Speaker 1: Huge were they when they were alive? The impractical jokers
Speaker 1: that maybe laughed that much they were there. That's actually
Speaker 1: the cast of It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and they
Speaker 1: didn't realize And maybe that's or that's the prequel to
Speaker 1: Everybody Loves Raymond because Brad Garrett is one of those. Okay, true,
Speaker 1: But also you're like, surely those were not their names
Speaker 1: in real life. They just seemed to be that like,
Speaker 1: and maybe I'm sure a lot of this is comic stuff,
Speaker 1: but the three Uncles, the way they're characterized, the way
Speaker 1: they behaved, the way they're named, the way they look,
Speaker 1: it just seems like they there's a separate set of
Speaker 1: rules for them, then for Casper and for all the
Speaker 1: other ghosts, they're just kind of doing their own thing,
Speaker 1: the world building, right. I like, I like that they're
Speaker 1: the impractical jokers. They joked too hard there, Cassive Jackass Hills,
Speaker 1: Johnny Knoxville and Steve and oh my gosh, yes, Okay,
Speaker 1: So the next morning, Kat and Casper get to know
Speaker 1: each other a little better. He makes her breakfast via
Speaker 1: another breakfast machine, although this is weak. There's only like
Speaker 1: a thing that cracks the egg and puts it in
Speaker 1: a skillet. But the rest he kind of has to
Speaker 1: do himself. But it's not awesome. It's so we were
Speaker 1: trying to remember when we first started talking about the
Speaker 1: breakfast Rube Goldberg machine. The ones that always come to mind. Peewee,
Speaker 1: I feel like has the best one, but Wallace and
Speaker 1: Grommet also have one, and Transper has one, Casper has one.
Speaker 1: A lot of people pointed out one that we missed,
Speaker 1: which was Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. I haven't seen that
Speaker 1: it was. Wait, was it, Flubber Flubber had a breakfast machine.
Speaker 1: It's anytime there's a cookie inventor, you've got to have
Speaker 1: a breakfast machine. And I like that rule, right because
Speaker 1: Back to the Future also has a breakfast machine. And
Speaker 1: if you count marmal aid as breakfast food, which for
Speaker 1: Paddington he every meal is marmalade, there's a marmalade breakfast
Speaker 1: machine at the beginning of Paddington One. So lots of
Speaker 1: breakfast machines in this movie. Added to the list. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I would say it's a low ranking breakfast machine, but
Speaker 1: it makes sense because Casper's dad was a cookie inventor, right, yes, Okay,
Speaker 1: so Casper is making cat breakfast. But then the uncles
Speaker 1: come back and they again, like you mentioned, they kind
Speaker 1: of have Cinderella Casper. They make him do all of
Speaker 1: their chores and cooking and cleaning and all that stuff.
Speaker 1: And Dr Harvey wants to treat the uncles and help
Speaker 1: them resolve their unfinished business and crossover into whatever plane.
Speaker 1: He also doesn't have much of a vested interest in
Speaker 1: helping Casper. Would correct unclear to me because you would
Speaker 1: think that Casper would maybe priority one. He's a kid. Well,
Speaker 1: if you's being treated very poorly, I mean maybe it's
Speaker 1: the airplane rules. You've got to take care of the
Speaker 1: worst one and then you can take care of the
Speaker 1: kid after take right. Um, well, okay, let's examine this.
Speaker 1: The reason the doctor Harvey is even in the movie
Speaker 1: is because he needs to get rid of the ghosts
Speaker 1: so that Carrigan can go into the house and find
Speaker 1: the treasure. But the ghosts aren't causing that much of
Speaker 1: a problem that why can't she just know I feel
Speaker 1: like they would have killed her. I feel like they
Speaker 1: with the rules of this movie, they would have killed her.
Speaker 1: I understand why she's not comfortable going into the house,
Speaker 1: but like it seems like at the beginning, and I
Speaker 1: feel like this would have been a strong character twicet
Speaker 1: if she was just extremely afraid of death. But that's
Speaker 1: not true. She's like not afraid of death at all.
Speaker 1: She can't wait to die so that she can go
Speaker 1: through walls and find a treasure chest that has a
Speaker 1: base ball globe. Such weird logic where she's like, wait
Speaker 1: a second, if I died right now, I could walk
Speaker 1: through this wall and then I could find the treasure.
Speaker 1: I'm like, you could also, just like you were happy
Speaker 1: with bulldozing the house, you could just get an axe
Speaker 1: hack open the wall. But not my business. Nothing makes sense,
Speaker 1: not my clown's, not my circus, okay. Meanwhile, Cat goes
Speaker 1: to her new school where she meets Vic, this boy
Speaker 1: who she thinks it's cute, the most nineties looking boy
Speaker 1: you've ever seen in your life. Just swoop, just a
Speaker 1: blonde swoop. And we also meet Vic's girlfriend who I
Speaker 1: never figured out her name. Oh, Mrs Generic Bully miss
Speaker 1: in this world, there can only be one girl in
Speaker 1: every class, and she's she's a she's a like a rich,
Speaker 1: mean girl. Casper follows Cat to school just in case
Speaker 1: you weren't sure if he you was creepy yet or not.
Speaker 1: Then there's this announcement about a Halloween dance that they
Speaker 1: can't have in the school gym because of asbestos removal.
Speaker 1: So so what I was like, they shouldn't be at
Speaker 1: the school, right, They all like suddenly die, like fifteen
Speaker 1: years after this movie comes out, the whole everyone who
Speaker 1: went to that school, and then it becomes like a
Speaker 1: big true crime thing. But they'll just turn into ghosts.
Speaker 1: That's actually that's why is it? And I also, in
Speaker 1: as far as this movie franchise was willing to go
Speaker 1: in terms of just like body horror and sad things happening,
Speaker 1: it's not off the table. A whole school dying of
Speaker 1: asbestos poisoning actually seems like it would fit right in
Speaker 1: Caspar four. Andyone, start working on it. Let's start working
Speaker 1: on it. Let's get Kathy Moriarty back, love her, get
Speaker 1: Christie to reach he back. She's the only survivor. She
Speaker 1: comes back. It's a haunted school of all of her
Speaker 1: childhood bullies. Yeah, because she was only in the school
Speaker 1: for two weeks and then she made it out. Are
Speaker 1: they going to live there now? Right? Do they? Just
Speaker 1: because because Karrigan and Dibbs died, that doesn't mean that
Speaker 1: they get the house. That just goes to somebody else
Speaker 1: or gets repossessed. Doesn't entitle the ghost therapist to a mansion.
Speaker 1: We simply don't know to quote him, possession is nine
Speaker 1: of the law, which means he can't have that house.
Speaker 1: He does not possess the house. Um, Okay, the Halloween
Speaker 1: dance is coming up, and then Cat's classmates find out
Speaker 1: what house she lives in this big spooky manner and
Speaker 1: they're like, let's have the Halloween dance there, And the
Speaker 1: teacher is like, yeah, sounds good to me. Baffling, but
Speaker 1: I'm like, maybe that is how maybe maybe schools were
Speaker 1: that lax in the nineties years ago, where they were
Speaker 1: like he was like, yeah, great, cool, have a great time.
Speaker 1: I was like, is he is he there? I forget
Speaker 1: he does? He does come to chaperone, he goes well,
Speaker 1: that's good. But it's also like, but I also love
Speaker 1: how they like don't ask anyone's permission because it's not
Speaker 1: her house, right, she shouldn't be throwing a party at
Speaker 1: Carrigin's house. Yeah, they're squatting in the house. And then
Speaker 1: they're like, but also, let's have a party, and he's
Speaker 1: fine with it, and then they have one of the
Speaker 1: more bizarre father daughter conversations ever committed to film. The
Speaker 1: movie is just so weird it is. Okay, So back
Speaker 1: at the house, the uncle's mentioned that they've seen Dr
Speaker 1: Harvey's his wife, which again Amelia baffling. She's an angel,
Speaker 1: why she's visiting their ghosts? The Impractical Jokers She loved
Speaker 1: the show. Um, and Dr Harvey's whole thing is that
Speaker 1: he desperately wants to see his wife because he's got
Speaker 1: unfinished business even though he's alive. So they strike up.
Speaker 1: Oh so this is the wild thing that the other
Speaker 1: extremely unprofessional thing that he does as a psychiatrist, where
Speaker 1: even though he's supposed to be giving psychic like you
Speaker 1: know whatever, like psychiatric evaluations, giving therapy to these ghosts,
Speaker 1: trying to you know, help them heal, he's like, well,
Speaker 1: you know what, let's make this about me during our
Speaker 1: first session, and can you go find my wife for
Speaker 1: me wild. He says, I shouldn't be doing this, and
Speaker 1: then he's like, but let me just like immediately like
Speaker 1: he's already doing something. He's already sucked his clients into
Speaker 1: a vacuum, and so he's like, at this point, I
Speaker 1: might as well just do a bad job. I've already
Speaker 1: been nothing but up. So they strike up a deal.
Speaker 1: If Dr Harvey can keep Karagan off of the ghost
Speaker 1: uncle's backs, they will help bring Amelia's ghost or you know,
Speaker 1: spiritual presence to see Dr Harvey. And so he's like, okay, great,
Speaker 1: but then they just end up playing another prank on him.
Speaker 1: So again I'm just like, wow, they're so mean, so mean,
Speaker 1: why would they do that? Speaking of mean people, the
Speaker 1: mean girlfriend of that kid Vic, she has Vic pretend
Speaker 1: to ask Cat to like hang out at the dance,
Speaker 1: like he he would be Cat's date at the dance,
Speaker 1: and Cat is super excited and she says yes, but
Speaker 1: Casper wants to go to the dance with Cat, but
Speaker 1: she's like, no, I already have a date, and also
Speaker 1: you're a ghost. And then there's a handful of scenes
Speaker 1: where we would just have to like unpack those later
Speaker 1: because Casper is being really creepy and pushy, but it's
Speaker 1: played off as being cute. But they're like, we love this.
Speaker 1: Um yeah, that is just I mean that whole, like
Speaker 1: this whole kind of sequence where like the way Casper
Speaker 1: treats Cat and then how like weirdly negligent her dad is.
Speaker 1: You're just like, we gotta get this kid out of here.
Speaker 1: We gotta get her out of Maine. You know. She
Speaker 1: I hope that you know, she's got like, you know,
Speaker 1: some aunts or uncles that she could talk to because
Speaker 1: her dad is just a mess. Oh yeah, her her
Speaker 1: uncle's thought so stinky and stretch God, they're it's just
Speaker 1: not It made me. It bummed me out so much.
Speaker 1: The scene where it's like I knew what they were
Speaker 1: going for, but it just like felt so bizarre where
Speaker 1: Cat like asks her dad, She's like, hey, can I
Speaker 1: have like or maybe she doesn't, She's like, there, we're
Speaker 1: going to have a party here at this place we
Speaker 1: don't live. We never see the scene where she asks
Speaker 1: if that dance can happen at the house, right, and
Speaker 1: which you would think wouldn't be allowed, but anyways, she
Speaker 1: scene starts as if they've already agreed on it, and
Speaker 1: she's like I want to wear something nice, like date nice,
Speaker 1: and which is like she's like twelve or thirteen. That's
Speaker 1: like not unreasonable, sure coming with age. I get it,
Speaker 1: but the way he reacts is so bizarre, where he like,
Speaker 1: immediately I was like, oh, I should give you the
Speaker 1: sex talk and she's like, no, that's okay, and he's
Speaker 1: like why are like he basically implies like why are
Speaker 1: you having sex? I'm like, dude, she's twelve, why are
Speaker 1: you acting like this? And then she's but then she's
Speaker 1: sort of like ha ha no, no, I going on,
Speaker 1: why is she not like you? What it is? His
Speaker 1: inability to connect with his daughter is staggering, especially because
Speaker 1: he's a mental health professional. There are Okay, now, this
Speaker 1: free performance in this movie is camp and I would
Speaker 1: say that two mm hmm. Bill Palman and Kathy Moriarty
Speaker 1: are tied for me for campiest performances of the movie.
Speaker 1: I think Christina Ricci actually kind of keeps it pretty grounded.
Speaker 1: But sometimes, like Bill Palman is acting so cartoonishly weird
Speaker 1: in a way that like it's kind of confusing given
Speaker 1: what his part is. We're sometimes he's like yeah, whatever
Speaker 1: and You're like, I don't he You're supposed to be
Speaker 1: a grieving single father. Like, his performance makes no sense.
Speaker 1: I get why Kathy Moriarty and Eric Idols performances that
Speaker 1: makes total sense. They're basically home alone villains. Like, yeah,
Speaker 1: that works. But yeah Bill Pullman being like especially when
Speaker 1: he like he gets drunk and then makes out with
Speaker 1: all three of the ghost uncles and then falls off
Speaker 1: of a clue and Stinky says, no homo. But the
Speaker 1: other two are kind of loving it. Movie so weird
Speaker 1: the wild. Okay, So that was the creepiest scene to me,
Speaker 1: was him asking his twelve year old if she's had
Speaker 1: sex before. You're just like, yeah, I don't know why
Speaker 1: that was listen to a guidance counselor um. Okay, so
Speaker 1: we just saw the scene where Casper was being extra
Speaker 1: creepy to Cat. Then Cat finds a bunch of Casper's
Speaker 1: old like toys and things. She sets them up to
Speaker 1: help him remember stuff about his past, which he was
Speaker 1: having trouble remembering. And then I was like, wow, Spirited
Speaker 1: Away parallels much because it's a young girl and a
Speaker 1: spirit boy and she helps him remember his past. I
Speaker 1: really love that scene. Where Casper is like my train,
Speaker 1: I don't know, it's cute. She doesn't like that. I
Speaker 1: wish that this movie would have just been like or
Speaker 1: I guess your general would have like just been okay
Speaker 1: with this being a friendship because that angle is really cute,
Speaker 1: and like she does this very sweet friendship gesture and
Speaker 1: then it like moves the plat forward in a very
Speaker 1: logical way, and it's like, yeah, they don't need to kiss.
Speaker 1: He's a fucking computer ghost clost anyways, until he's Devin
Speaker 1: Saw we'll get there. Um my confusing. I don't get
Speaker 1: the Devin Sawa appeal, and I never have, I never will.
Speaker 1: I am just so youthful that I don't really know
Speaker 1: why I'm supposed to care about Devin Sawa because I'm seventeen. Jamie. Yeah,
Speaker 1: happy birthday, thank you. I can't wait to buy cigarettes
Speaker 1: with you. Cool. Cool. Oh, okay, So she's so Cat
Speaker 1: is helping Casper remember who he used to be. Then
Speaker 1: it's the night of the party, Casper finds a dress
Speaker 1: for Cat to wear, and then Casper's by the way,
Speaker 1: I remember how I died, And here's what it was,
Speaker 1: was that his mother's wedding dress or was that just
Speaker 1: like an old dress. I really, I'm not sure they're
Speaker 1: explicitly say it's her wedding dress. I don't think so,
Speaker 1: but it looks like a wedding dress. Yeah, I don't know. Um. So,
Speaker 1: then Kat finds a newspaper clipping about Casper's dad who
Speaker 1: claimed to be haunted by the ghost of his dead son.
Speaker 1: Then he invented a machine to bring his son back
Speaker 1: to life. And Casper's like, oh, yeah, the Lazarus This
Speaker 1: is cool. So he remembers where it is. It's in
Speaker 1: the house, like in the basement or something. So he
Speaker 1: leads Cat to this machine. There's a whole like literal
Speaker 1: roller coaster conveyor belt thing that it takes you into
Speaker 1: this like Phantom of the Opera style basement laboratory. It
Speaker 1: is awesome. This whole like sequence really just makes me
Speaker 1: so happy. I love it. Yeah, it's very cool. Meanwhile,
Speaker 1: Karagan and Dibbs are snooping around the house and they
Speaker 1: follow Cat and Casper to the lab and then Casper
Speaker 1: goes into the Lazarus machine to be brought back to life.
Speaker 1: Cat fires up the machine, but then Karagan sneaks in
Speaker 1: and steals the red plot liquid that powers the machine
Speaker 1: before basically say it's plot liquid too. Like she's like,
Speaker 1: what's this. He's like, it's kind of this juice that
Speaker 1: brings you back to life. There's only one anyways, Like
Speaker 1: we're like, okay, I guess this is the world building.
Speaker 1: Good job, everybody. So then Krragan's logic is she will
Speaker 1: kill Dibbs. He will turn into a ghost and be
Speaker 1: able to float through the walls to find the treasure
Speaker 1: they're looking for, and then she can use this red
Speaker 1: ghost liquid to bring him back to life. But as
Speaker 1: she's trying to kill him, she accidentally kills herself by
Speaker 1: falling off of a cliff, and then she comes back
Speaker 1: as a ghost. You see her fall off the cliff too.
Speaker 1: It's yes, exactly what I did. I did think it
Speaker 1: was funny that they're like, Okay, we can watch Kathy
Speaker 1: Morrie already fall off a cliff because she's the bad guy.
Speaker 1: But Bill Paulman is a good guy who also ostensibly
Speaker 1: falls off a cliff or like pulls off like a balcony.
Speaker 1: He yeah, he dies from a fall, but you can't.
Speaker 1: We can't see Bill Pullman fall right, even though I
Speaker 1: think you know, sometimes I'm like I I like Kathy
Speaker 1: Moriarty much more than Bill Pullman. Bill Pullman's walking around
Speaker 1: thinking he's a good person. Well he's not a very
Speaker 1: good dad, true, but he's so hot. Okay, So she
Speaker 1: comes back as a ghost. Meanwhile, the ghost uncles are
Speaker 1: trying to kill Dr Harvey at a karaoke night at
Speaker 1: a bar while they're all black out drunk. But Dr
Speaker 1: Harvey again is too drunk to notice that they're trying
Speaker 1: to like murder him with gun and crowbars and stuff,
Speaker 1: and he's like, I love you guys, You're my best friends.
Speaker 1: And then he falls off a balcony and dies. Then
Speaker 1: back at the Manner, Karagan as a ghost has found
Speaker 1: the treasure. We don't see the scene where she figures
Speaker 1: out where it was or anything like that, but she
Speaker 1: comes back with a treasure chest, and Casper and Cat
Speaker 1: steal the red Liquid back from her and then trick
Speaker 1: her into admitting that she doesn't have any unfinished business.
Speaker 1: So she crosses over and like ceases to be a
Speaker 1: ghost and disappears and leaves the red plot liquid and
Speaker 1: the treasure behind. Also, I skipped the part where she
Speaker 1: kills Eric Idol, but she just sends him through a window.
Speaker 1: I thought we were going to get an Eric Idol ghost.
Speaker 1: I always am waiting for it to show up. It
Speaker 1: never does. I was wondering because I was thinking of
Speaker 1: Ghostbusters with this due to c G I ghosts right,
Speaker 1: And one of the things we talked to about the
Speaker 1: first Ghostbusters movie is that male coded ghosts can look
Speaker 1: like anything like this a general animation problem. But women
Speaker 1: ghosts can only look like conventionally hot women that you
Speaker 1: can see through. I don't know that this it's hard
Speaker 1: to say again, like this movie is kind of lawless
Speaker 1: in that regard because it just seems like Casper and
Speaker 1: the uncles are all obviously like male code of ghosts,
Speaker 1: and they look weird. But then it's like, if you
Speaker 1: were already a famous actor, you'll just look like that
Speaker 1: famous actor as a ghost. In a way that felt
Speaker 1: because originally, when Karagan came back, I'm like, oh, this
Speaker 1: is Ghostbusters rules, but then you're like, no, Bill Pullman's
Speaker 1: ghost looks exactly like Bill Pullman. I wonder if when
Speaker 1: you become a ghost, right at first, like right after
Speaker 1: you die, you more closely resemble what you looked like
Speaker 1: in life. But then the longer you're a ghost, the
Speaker 1: more cartoonist you you start to look, as I kind
Speaker 1: of like that, as you like lose touch with your
Speaker 1: past and yourself, you kind of just turned into this
Speaker 1: like a blob, blobby cartoon character. Cannon, I like it,
Speaker 1: thank you, Okay, they killed car again. They make her
Speaker 1: like cross back over and the treasure chest opens and
Speaker 1: it turns out to be a baseball and glove because
Speaker 1: those were Casper's treasures when he was alive, and that
Speaker 1: was the mcguffin. Basically just there's like you're just like sure, okay,
Speaker 1: which is like that's whatever, cute, fine, Yeah, this at
Speaker 1: this point, so many things you just are like Cat
Speaker 1: is never going to recover from this night. This night
Speaker 1: is so traumatic for her. And when she finds out
Speaker 1: that her mom returned as an angel and didn't even
Speaker 1: say hi, I don't know what she's going to do
Speaker 1: that I can never That's the problem I've had since
Speaker 1: I was a kid. I was like, if my mom
Speaker 1: passed away, came back as an angel and only talked
Speaker 1: to my dad and Casper the friendly ghost when I
Speaker 1: was right there, I would be so pissed that did
Speaker 1: not even occur to me until you said that. But
Speaker 1: that fucked up not very angelic behavior if you ask me. No. Okay.
Speaker 1: So meanwhile, while all this is happening, Cat's class has
Speaker 1: shown up for the Halloween party, and that's happening upstairs.
Speaker 1: Uh and then Dr Harvey's ghost because Cat's dad has
Speaker 1: Bill Pullman has become a ghost after falling off of
Speaker 1: the balcony when he was black out drunk. He shows up,
Speaker 1: doesn't remember who Cat is at first, but then he's like,
Speaker 1: oh yeah, I forgot again. You're just like, oh, there's
Speaker 1: just Tonal. Another moment of total dissidence with the Bill
Speaker 1: Pullman performance where she's so sad like obviously she was
Speaker 1: found out her father died. She's an orphan, and he
Speaker 1: was like like yeah, pull my finger, like he doesn't
Speaker 1: remember her, which also doesn't track with like the ghost rules,
Speaker 1: because Kathy Moriarty ghost remembers everything about what's been going
Speaker 1: on when she was still alive. She hasn't like suddenly
Speaker 1: forgotten there's anything about who she is or what she's
Speaker 1: trying to do. But Bill Pullman, there are no rules.
Speaker 1: Eric Idol doesn't even get to be a ghost. I
Speaker 1: don't know why I truly have like they ran out
Speaker 1: of ghost budget. Maybe they're like, we can only make six.
Speaker 1: We're budgeted for six ghosts, and we can't make a
Speaker 1: single ghost more. This did have a budget of fifty
Speaker 1: five million dollars. That's a lot of dollars in especially
Speaker 1: a lot, but this movie made so much money. I mean,
Speaker 1: every yeah kid on the planet saw this damn movie
Speaker 1: and it's and it's a good thing they did because
Speaker 1: it's because it teaches you good lessons. Yeah, like that
Speaker 1: you should stalk your romantic interest from a young age.
Speaker 1: Christina re Young. I meant more to get drunk with
Speaker 1: ghosts and being negligent. That was. There's so many bad
Speaker 1: things you could take away from this movie, but I
Speaker 1: just feel like it moves so fast and it's so confusing.
Speaker 1: It's uh. I wonder if anyone was able to take
Speaker 1: anything away from this movie other than what the what?
Speaker 1: What what am I looking at? Yeah? Good? Good point?
Speaker 1: Um Okay. So Dr Harvey's ghost is back, and then
Speaker 1: Casper sacrifices his chance of being brought back to life
Speaker 1: so that they can use the Lazarus Machine and the
Speaker 1: Red plot liquid to bring Dr harvey back to life,
Speaker 1: which they do kind of beautiful, such a beautiful sacrifice,
Speaker 1: if only the stakes hadn't been established one minute previous
Speaker 1: to this happening exactly. It happens so like it is
Speaker 1: a very noble sacrifice, but it is like everything happens inside,
Speaker 1: like that whole loop is closed inside five minutes. It's
Speaker 1: so bizarre. So then Kat goes back upstairs to the
Speaker 1: Halloween party. Meanwhile, Casper is in his room. He's all
Speaker 1: sad that he can't go to the party. But then
Speaker 1: Cat's mom slash Dr Harvey's his wife Amelia, shows up
Speaker 1: as an angel and turns Casper into a human boy,
Speaker 1: which will last until ten pm. So he goes to
Speaker 1: the dance and he's Devin Salwa and he dances with
Speaker 1: Kat and then they float and then he says, can
Speaker 1: I keep you for the second time? And you're like, nope,
Speaker 1: it's not better in person. It's it's weird whether it's
Speaker 1: the cartoon or a door of or of a fleshy
Speaker 1: as they put it right. And so they're dancing and
Speaker 1: and then we're like, I guess. And then Amelia visits
Speaker 1: Dr Harvey and she's like she basically says, I'm dead.
Speaker 1: You have to stop looking for me, get over it.
Speaker 1: See you when I see you. That. My mom would
Speaker 1: always cry when she would give the advice because it
Speaker 1: is cute. It's a little cute specific, but but when
Speaker 1: you think about how many things he's doing wrong as
Speaker 1: a parent, definitely not the top three recommendations I would
Speaker 1: have made. I would have been like, trying not to
Speaker 1: get blackout drunk the night you're supposed to be chaperoning
Speaker 1: your daughter's party. Try not to squat in houses you
Speaker 1: don't own, which unless it's absolutely necessary, which it doesn't
Speaker 1: seem like it is in this case. Don't make your
Speaker 1: daughter switch school systems once every for two weeks. Yeah,
Speaker 1: because what she actually says is don't feed cat French
Speaker 1: fries for breakfast. And it's like, yeah, he's doing way
Speaker 1: worse stuff than that. I was like, he's doing that too.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, you don't even see that. I take
Speaker 1: it back. You you should squat in places you don't own,
Speaker 1: because property ownership is one of the greatest scams perpetuated
Speaker 1: of all time. But he's just doing so much wrong.
Speaker 1: He's doing so much wrong. Yeah, exactly, so, Amelia. I mean,
Speaker 1: she says it nicer than that, but she's just like,
Speaker 1: you loved me so much that I don't have any
Speaker 1: unfinished business, so you can stop looking for me. You
Speaker 1: did a great job. But she's dating stinky. She's like,
Speaker 1: it's not telling me. She's like, just keep doing a
Speaker 1: great job parenting. And we're like, he's not though, And
Speaker 1: then we cut back to Kat and Devin saw on
Speaker 1: the dance floor. They kiss, and then the clock strikes ten,
Speaker 1: so he turns back into Casper and all the kids
Speaker 1: are like, oh my god, there's a ghost and they
Speaker 1: run away, and then the uncle's who I guess are nice,
Speaker 1: now strike up their rock band if they literally. The
Speaker 1: plot indicates that when Bill Palman kisses them they become nice.
Speaker 1: That is the turning point. Yeah, they're bad. They're pointing
Speaker 1: a gun at his head ten seconds before, and then
Speaker 1: he kisses them and they've become nice. Fine by me,
Speaker 1: kiss your friends. That's exactly to quote one of the greats,
Speaker 1: assuming they consent to it. All right, So that's the movie.
Speaker 1: Let's take a break and we'll come back, and we're back.
Speaker 1: I think we covered a lot of this in text, yes,
Speaker 1: but I mean one of the first big I mean,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of broad nineties tropes and it just
Speaker 1: like late twenty century movie tropes that are present in
Speaker 1: this movie. That I mean when that stood out that
Speaker 1: we haven't touched on yet is the character of Fats
Speaker 1: So who is um? I mean, that's just used clearly
Speaker 1: as a punching down joke in a movie instantly no
Speaker 1: body diversity. Otherwise, there's a ton of like references made
Speaker 1: in this movie, one of which is like make fun
Speaker 1: of Oprah's weight, which is I can't think of a
Speaker 1: more problematic thing to do get a life, um that. So,
Speaker 1: I mean that character in general was just like a
Speaker 1: joke bucket for offensive jokes, all of which have aged poorly,
Speaker 1: especially when Yeah, there's nobody diversity or really diversity at
Speaker 1: all in this movie. I think that there's like truly
Speaker 1: not two black actors with speaking roles. There's like a
Speaker 1: teacher and a student, but other than that, it's like
Speaker 1: they're on screen for like hardly any time at all. Yeah,
Speaker 1: It's like, I know, this movie canonically happens in Maine,
Speaker 1: but it's a fucking movie and there's non white people
Speaker 1: who live in Maine and very nineties. And then there's
Speaker 1: what we've been talking about this whole time, which is
Speaker 1: the creepy stalker relationship that is like not necessary, and
Speaker 1: if you get it out of the way, it could
Speaker 1: have been a really nice friendship story, could have just
Speaker 1: been a friendship again, and and one like you pointed out,
Speaker 1: Casper doesn't need to lure them in, like that could
Speaker 1: have happened more organically, where like Karrigan just finds out
Speaker 1: about Dr Harvey on her own, she hires them, they
Speaker 1: come to the house, and then Casper and cat meat
Speaker 1: from that and then they just become friends. But instead
Speaker 1: it's like this weird and we talk about all the
Speaker 1: time on the show, these like coercive stockery romances. The
Speaker 1: start by usually a man just being really creepy at
Speaker 1: a woman and maybe she pushes back at first, but
Speaker 1: eventually it ends up working and she'll kiss him by
Speaker 1: the end of the movie. And for that to be
Speaker 1: in a kids movie where the characters are twelve is
Speaker 1: just like feels especially sinister. It's such a bummer and
Speaker 1: it's like I I again, the only thing I can
Speaker 1: say is there's so much k uked in this movie
Speaker 1: that it's not something that I don't think I internalized
Speaker 1: it in this movie specifically as a kid. But I
Speaker 1: also do remember that like can I Keep you A
Speaker 1: line was supposed to be like very romantic and you're
Speaker 1: like pretty pretty scary delivered in any in any form
Speaker 1: of Casper, it doesn't age great. And yeah, just like
Speaker 1: I mean any like if like any movie or most
Speaker 1: movies of this era will shoehorn in love story for
Speaker 1: kids in a way that yeah, like if you're that
Speaker 1: age watching the movie, like, it's just weird. It's not
Speaker 1: necessary and even story wise, it like actively detracts from
Speaker 1: what you would want, like Casper's whole motivation as a
Speaker 1: characters he wants a friend, like not a girl friend
Speaker 1: and like like a human girl to kiss. It's very
Speaker 1: bizarre like and it's and it feels like, yeah, that's
Speaker 1: why I'm sort of like I wonder if that was
Speaker 1: like a a weird studio notes thing, because it feels
Speaker 1: like every character in this movie needs a friend to
Speaker 1: some extent, because you see that in the in the
Speaker 1: dad character, he befriends the uncle's the uncle's befriend him,
Speaker 1: and then they both theoretically become better for having friends.
Speaker 1: They're also making out each other, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know I don't know what's going on there. I guess
Speaker 1: the sequels, Bill Palman was not available to make out
Speaker 1: with ghosts anymore. Um, but it was like, oh, you know,
Speaker 1: through making friends you're able to move forward through life
Speaker 1: and like move past your own grief is like as
Speaker 1: close to like a moral as I could sort of
Speaker 1: get this story. So you would think that like, yeah,
Speaker 1: like Bill Palman doesn't fall in love with anybody. Yeah,
Speaker 1: it's just it just feels very forced and ages poorly,
Speaker 1: and also like didn't really work at the time either.
Speaker 1: I don't like it, right, but I think that no
Speaker 1: one this concept of just like a boy or man
Speaker 1: being creepy and coercive and getting a girl that way
Speaker 1: had already been so normalized. And then like so like
Speaker 1: if I'm watching this as a kid and I'm like, oh, wow,
Speaker 1: I guess that's what romance looks like. And then you're
Speaker 1: just like indoctrinated into this mindset at an early age,
Speaker 1: and then you watch a movie like The Notebook ten
Speaker 1: years later or whatever, and you're like, well, yeah, movies
Speaker 1: like Casper taught me that this is how it is,
Speaker 1: this is how romance goes. So I just like I
Speaker 1: think it's so sinister that I would just kind of
Speaker 1: like want to briefly go through the beats of this
Speaker 1: because we touched on some of them already. But then
Speaker 1: there's that scene that we skipped over in the recap
Speaker 1: that's like especially gross. So Casper sees Cat on that
Speaker 1: like new segment, he instantly falls in love with her.
Speaker 1: Doesn't really make sense. Again, you think he would be
Speaker 1: intrigued by the idea that there's this ghost therapist who
Speaker 1: can like help him crossover and deal with his unfinished business,
Speaker 1: and like that would make more sense in the narrative
Speaker 1: of like what's motivating him. But instead he's like, oh,
Speaker 1: Christina Ricci is a person I've never met, but I
Speaker 1: love her because I saw her on TV. So he
Speaker 1: then manipulates Karagan into hiring Dr Harvey so that Cat
Speaker 1: will come. So again he just like lures Cat there
Speaker 1: for his own selfish reasons. Then there's that scene where
Speaker 1: he keeps telling her that he wants to go to
Speaker 1: the dance with her. She says, no, I already have
Speaker 1: a date. He keeps being very pushy. He's like, well,
Speaker 1: what does he have that I don't have? And he's like,
Speaker 1: if I was alive with you if I was this,
Speaker 1: if I was that. Yeah, she keeps saying like no, no, no,
Speaker 1: I already told you I have a date. Then he
Speaker 1: turns into like Arnold Schwarzenegger as the Terminator. This reminded
Speaker 1: me of Twilight a lot, weirdly, because it's like a
Speaker 1: guy who has been dead for a long time and
Speaker 1: so like they like because you know how like Edward
Speaker 1: calls like, I'm a million years old. I'm you know,
Speaker 1: I'm an old man, and you're a teenager and you're
Speaker 1: my girlfriend. Casper has been dead for a long time.
Speaker 1: They both suddenly sees the object of their obsession and
Speaker 1: with them out a window, and then that is what
Speaker 1: motivates the female character to fall in love with them. Right, Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's a lot, yeah, a lot of parallels in Twilight.
Speaker 1: He was like, okay, Spider Monkey, let's run around, and
Speaker 1: she was like t he okay. In Casper, he pulls
Speaker 1: her out, the window drops her. Then so many balcony
Speaker 1: falls in this movie, right, Oh my god, he saves her.
Speaker 1: She's still screaming, and then we immediately cut to a
Speaker 1: scene where they're sitting on a lighthouse and she's swooning.
Speaker 1: She's saying, Oh my god, this view is beautiful, and
Speaker 1: then he goes on to like tell her about, oh,
Speaker 1: I can't remember my past and I don't know who
Speaker 1: I was, so like, I feel like he's just like
Speaker 1: using all this emotional manipulation and then also just like
Speaker 1: straight up creepy coercive stuff too. I agree that he's
Speaker 1: using creepy coercive stalk or behavior when it gets to
Speaker 1: like the stuff if he doesn't remember his past. I
Speaker 1: didn't even I didn't clock that as emotional manipulation. I
Speaker 1: just kind of clocked that as like not very good.
Speaker 1: I wouldn't if he hadn't already done all that other stuff.
Speaker 1: But then I feel like that could be and you
Speaker 1: could interpret that is like, well could be interpreted that way,
Speaker 1: like you know, I I have her in my clutches
Speaker 1: and this kind of seals the deal to get her
Speaker 1: to like me and to care about me, which is
Speaker 1: a bummer because again it's like if it had just
Speaker 1: been presented as a friendship and they meet more by chance,
Speaker 1: you could have that exact same scene and it could
Speaker 1: play very very differently. It could work just fine, exactly, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because it's she's what she's like saying, actually, like is
Speaker 1: you know, thoughtful and empathetic and they're like sharing experiences
Speaker 1: about like she has lost a parent and like she's
Speaker 1: talking a little bit about that, and you know that's
Speaker 1: a big part of her character and it's like, just
Speaker 1: let them connect on that level because yeah, like you're
Speaker 1: talking about because all that stuff happens before, it adds
Speaker 1: this like layer of baggage and like weird coercive e
Speaker 1: stuff that doesn't need to be there, and you yeah,
Speaker 1: I feel like that scene could play out. You know,
Speaker 1: they could just be up on the lighthouse together without
Speaker 1: you know, I don't know, like because he's already manipulated
Speaker 1: several people and been super creepy. Yeah. I just I
Speaker 1: was like, I feel like he's just I don't know,
Speaker 1: like he I see what you're saying. Yeah. Um. So
Speaker 1: they have that conversation and then they go back to
Speaker 1: the house. He's like, I don't know, talking her into
Speaker 1: bed or something, but she's like kind of drifting off
Speaker 1: to sleep and he whispers in her ear, can I
Speaker 1: keep you? She is like as pretty asleep by this point,
Speaker 1: and then he kisses her on the cheek when she
Speaker 1: is not conscious. She thinks it's like a draft coming in.
Speaker 1: She's like close the window, but he's like kissing her
Speaker 1: and being like can I keep you? That stuff is yucky? Gross?
Speaker 1: And then at the end when he's a human Devin
Speaker 1: sawwa and you're like why are we doing this? And
Speaker 1: he says can I keep you? Again? And and then
Speaker 1: she's like wait, who is this right? Because she also
Speaker 1: doesn't even know that's Casper at first Devin saw Whata
Speaker 1: just comes up to her and takes her hand and
Speaker 1: like leads her onto the dance floor, and she's like huh.
Speaker 1: And then when he says like can I keep you?
Speaker 1: Is that the moment when she's like wait are you Casper?
Speaker 1: There's something that like she doesn't know. I mean that
Speaker 1: I didn't view as like co worker up. I just
Speaker 1: thought that was weird because it's like she doesn't know
Speaker 1: anyone and at this school really, so it's like if
Speaker 1: she saw a boy she wanted to dance with, like
Speaker 1: probably she wouldn't have known him anyways. And it's like
Speaker 1: not like she's being like dragged out, like she's going
Speaker 1: like she's going, but it's just like another weird writing Boemt.
Speaker 1: We're like, oh, yeah, she has no idea who this is.
Speaker 1: This is she as far as she knows, this is
Speaker 1: just like a boy from her school. I feel like
Speaker 1: you needed me to this party at her house that
Speaker 1: is not her house. I feel else's happen, right. I
Speaker 1: feel like you needed something similar to that moment in
Speaker 1: Beauty and the Beast where Beasts turns into a human
Speaker 1: and Belle is looking at him skeptically and then she
Speaker 1: looks deep into his eyes. She's like, you have the
Speaker 1: same eyes as beast, and then she's like it is
Speaker 1: you and he's like t he. I feel like we
Speaker 1: needed a moment like that right away, right, because otherwise
Speaker 1: you're like, what is? What is? It's hard to put
Speaker 1: yourself in Cat's head for this scene because it's like,
Speaker 1: why is she looking all googly at if she's like
Speaker 1: if she doesn't, right, I like, look, it's not. I
Speaker 1: love that this movie was written by women too. Credited
Speaker 1: writers Sherry Stoner and Diana Oliver, both of whom are
Speaker 1: also actors and have been in really famous cartoons. Diana
Speaker 1: Oliver is in The Brave Little Toaster and wrote on
Speaker 1: Animaniacs and Tiny Tuoned Adventures. Uh. Harry Stoner was the
Speaker 1: voice of Slappy on Animaniacs. And they also wrote a
Speaker 1: movie that I definitely saw in theaters and couldn't tell
Speaker 1: you a single thing that happens in it. My favorite Martian,
Speaker 1: remember that I know of it. They also wrote that
Speaker 1: Sherry Stoner, this is bizarre, speaking of Beauty and the
Speaker 1: beast Um, she was an animation reference model for Ariel
Speaker 1: and Bell. They're just kind of iconic figures. And they
Speaker 1: wrote Casper like, I love it, but it's just a
Speaker 1: lot of things that happened in this movie that make
Speaker 1: no sense truly. Yeah, I mean, it is unusual for
Speaker 1: women to write like major motion pictures in the nineties, right,
Speaker 1: I know. I mean, I think it's a really good thing,
Speaker 1: and I fully I want to believe that a lot
Speaker 1: of the weird romantic stuff is being pushed from a
Speaker 1: studio standpoints studio. Also, I read that J. J. Abrams
Speaker 1: did an uncredited rewrite of the script, so maybe some
Speaker 1: of the weirdness came from his rewrite. We don't know,
Speaker 1: hard to track. Let's blame him, why not, Let's blame J. J.
Speaker 1: Abrams what We could blame him for a lot of things, true.
Speaker 1: We Yeah, So, I mean the thing that sucks about
Speaker 1: that is I really like Kat as a character. Like
Speaker 1: I think that if that relationship with her and Casper
Speaker 1: had been stripped down to a friendship, it would have
Speaker 1: done justice to her character so much her because it's
Speaker 1: like she's she's a Christina Ricci character, and at this point,
Speaker 1: Christina Ricci has already been Wednesday Adams. She's sort of
Speaker 1: like she's going to be in the ghost movies for
Speaker 1: a while, spooky big how you know, Hunted Mansion movies. Yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: And it's like she she's I don't know, like she
Speaker 1: maybe I just have such nostalgia for this character, but
Speaker 1: like she is like grieving her mother, She's struggling to
Speaker 1: fit in at school. She like has a tough relationship
Speaker 1: with her father because she like understandably resents him for
Speaker 1: like dragging her around the country because he won't go
Speaker 1: to therapy. Like all of this, Like there's a lot
Speaker 1: going on, and like she still managed to be like
Speaker 1: very motivated. She's empathetic to the people around her, but
Speaker 1: like not at the sacrifice of her own story. Like
Speaker 1: I do think that there's a lot of cool things
Speaker 1: about that character that like if you had taken out
Speaker 1: the weird predatory relationship stuff that's being pushed on a
Speaker 1: twelve year old. You could have made some space for
Speaker 1: like even more coming of age stuff. Um, that would
Speaker 1: have been cool because I like, I like the coming
Speaker 1: of age stuff that's there, but it's kind of stripped
Speaker 1: down to like she makes a friend, but also he's
Speaker 1: kind of her boyfriend, and like it's like, though she
Speaker 1: should make a friend. I would have loved to see
Speaker 1: her make a friend at school. I would have loved
Speaker 1: to see her have a conversation with her angel mom.
Speaker 1: Like it just felt like there are a lot of
Speaker 1: missed opportunities. Um, she's pretty active in the like I mean,
Speaker 1: the whole climax of the movie. Again, I'm just like
Speaker 1: I don't even know if I can get to gender
Speaker 1: on it because it's just such a weird mess. Um.
Speaker 1: But like she's pretty active in that climactic seed. But
Speaker 1: like also everyone's kind of doing their own thing in
Speaker 1: that scene. Like, I just I think Cat is an
Speaker 1: awesome character, and I wish that the main thrust of
Speaker 1: the story wasn't her anding up was sort of a
Speaker 1: ghost boyfriend, although it seems like the second he turns
Speaker 1: back into a ghost that is off the table, so
Speaker 1: you're just like, why did we even do it then? Right,
Speaker 1: like she only wants to kiss him when he's Devin Sawa.
Speaker 1: And also that was you know, a surprise kiss and
Speaker 1: blah blah blah, like all this ship that we've been
Speaker 1: talking about for years. But it's just it sucks that
Speaker 1: the takeaways from her character is she forgives her father's
Speaker 1: bad parenting and she has like a ghost boyfriend, when
Speaker 1: the basis of the character there's like potential for so
Speaker 1: much more. I like that. I wish that she had
Speaker 1: had she'd been given more cool stuff to do. Yes,
Speaker 1: I think there could have been a more meaningful subplot
Speaker 1: and resolution between her and her father. I think there
Speaker 1: could have been a more meaningful subplot about how she's
Speaker 1: experiencing the loss of her mother and you know, like
Speaker 1: how she's dealing with that grief. And again, if she
Speaker 1: had had some closure there, like if her mom angel
Speaker 1: came and talked to her, then it could have also
Speaker 1: passed the snubbed by her mom. So weird, but so
Speaker 1: much real estate, and the movie is taken up by
Speaker 1: this creepy predatory romance between twelve year olds. It's so bizarre.
Speaker 1: I did find there to be traces of the precocious
Speaker 1: twelve year old girl trope with Cat. It's not the
Speaker 1: worst example I've ever seen, but I felt like you
Speaker 1: could make the argument that there are traces, but in
Speaker 1: a way that would you argue in a way that's
Speaker 1: like harmful because it's not even like she's a bookish kid,
Speaker 1: like I think she's just like lonely and right and
Speaker 1: I think has some good lines. I think she is
Speaker 1: well rounded enough and just like a multidimensional enough character
Speaker 1: that other aspects of her character that she doesn't necessarily
Speaker 1: fall into that trompe super squarely. But I don't know,
Speaker 1: Maybe it was just the sad alone. Maybe it was
Speaker 1: just the scene where they're like turning on the power
Speaker 1: in the house when they first get there, and she's like, yeah,
Speaker 1: we need all these twenty volt bulbs or like I don't.
Speaker 1: She says something she knows all about electricity, and I'm
Speaker 1: why do you hate Casper? There? There, It's like definitely, no,
Speaker 1: it's definitely a Quippie script. Like I just through something.
Speaker 1: It's definitely like a quip a Quippi script. But it's
Speaker 1: I think it's like I think it's more just like
Speaker 1: that's how everyone sounds in this movie, and she and
Speaker 1: Casper are the only kids that you really get because
Speaker 1: it's like the bullies are like have these weird quippy
Speaker 1: lines too, and they're like making references that are kind
Speaker 1: of out of pocket given they're like, you know, she's
Speaker 1: like she you know, she knows who Stephen King is.
Speaker 1: But that's just because the script wants to reference the
Speaker 1: fact that they're in Maine, Like, I don't know, she
Speaker 1: definitely is like precocious, but don't I mean, yeah, it's
Speaker 1: not even that's not even always a universally bad trope.
Speaker 1: I think it's just like a trope that exists. Sometimes
Speaker 1: it sucks and is like problematic, but I feel like
Speaker 1: it only for me. It's mainly an issue if it
Speaker 1: implies that a kid is like worldly in a way
Speaker 1: that is permissive for adults to treat them not like
Speaker 1: a kid. But I don't think that that's really what's
Speaker 1: happening here. I think she just is like I agree
Speaker 1: with you, Um, I didn't have much else except for
Speaker 1: it also feels a bit tropy to me, the like
Speaker 1: a man's motivation is his dead wife. I'm like, for sure, Well, yeah,
Speaker 1: I had a little bit about the mom too. I
Speaker 1: think that like that whole thing is like a little
Speaker 1: like do we know what the mom did? No, we
Speaker 1: don't know if she had a job. Her daughter's memories
Speaker 1: are of her cooking breakfast and smelling good and being
Speaker 1: It's not to say like they're like if she didn't
Speaker 1: have a job or like any of that that would
Speaker 1: make her less of a mother. It just is like
Speaker 1: in terms of trope, like she remembers her mom doing
Speaker 1: only very like feminine domestic things. Um, we don't really
Speaker 1: get any background on the mom in a way that
Speaker 1: actually kind of does feel agreed, just like it doesn't
Speaker 1: with Karagan, because Karagan is like straight up a cartoon
Speaker 1: character as his DIBs. But like the mom, we're supposed
Speaker 1: to really be feeling this loss, and the things that
Speaker 1: you know about her are very vague. And I feel
Speaker 1: like that the whole concept of like the angelic mother character,
Speaker 1: You're like, all right, I get like it's just kind
Speaker 1: of in a way that a lot of stuff in
Speaker 1: this movie is kind of like stocky and lazy. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I don't know, like movies and culture in general, Like
Speaker 1: I do think that there is like this obviously like
Speaker 1: nothing but respect for mother's braver than the troops. It's
Speaker 1: it's hard to be like, oh, but I just feel
Speaker 1: like there's a there's this creepy halo given to the
Speaker 1: concept of motherhood in movies that I feel like it
Speaker 1: is also like on the back end of that used
Speaker 1: to demonized childless women or like the best a woman
Speaker 1: can be is if she is a mother. Um. And
Speaker 1: you can kind of see that in And I don't
Speaker 1: know how intentional this was, if at all, but like
Speaker 1: you know, like the dead mom is an angel and
Speaker 1: Karagan is like a childless woman in her thirties and
Speaker 1: she's hell and she's evil and she's a horny murderer
Speaker 1: and blah blah blah when you know. So the mom
Speaker 1: stuff I just thought was it's again it sucks because
Speaker 1: I like the actor who plays the mom. I think
Speaker 1: she's like great, but yeah, if you're going to do
Speaker 1: all that, at least have the mom talk to her
Speaker 1: daughter like what you do wing um. Yeah, So the
Speaker 1: mom stuff kind of pined a little weird for me
Speaker 1: because she just becomes yeah, she's like a fairy godmother too, Casper,
Speaker 1: which is like, okay, but it's just it's just bizarre. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: they felt like there was some ginded stereotypes going on
Speaker 1: with the mom. I feel like if we had maybe
Speaker 1: gotten some flashbacks and maybe this would have been corny.
Speaker 1: But also this is a very corny, campy movie. But
Speaker 1: like some flashbacks between Cat and her mom. You know,
Speaker 1: Bill Pullman can be there too. But if it's like
Speaker 1: Cat reflecting on memories of her mother, and then that
Speaker 1: way we would get to learn about the mom a
Speaker 1: bit more and we could see two female characters interacting
Speaker 1: more in a way that we barely. All you really
Speaker 1: get is Kathy Moriarty grabbing Christina for face, which did
Speaker 1: pass the back to all to do unfortunalitly. Um, if
Speaker 1: you're Kathy Moriorty grabbing a teenager's face, it pass passes.
Speaker 1: And it does pass. What was that line that Eric
Speaker 1: Idle says that you that passes. Oh, he says something like,
Speaker 1: I'm gonna live in a house with purple curtains and
Speaker 1: green carpets, and I'm going to have a little dog
Speaker 1: named Karagan. A bitch just like you passes the Bectel test.
Speaker 1: And also Kathy Moriarty says the Bitch is Back. They
Speaker 1: get to say bitch twice in this movie. That's something
Speaker 1: I miss about children's movies is getting to say bitch
Speaker 1: two times. Kids love that ship. I love it when
Speaker 1: people say bitch, especially when it's Kathy Moriarty talking about herself,
Speaker 1: Like that's a very empowering use of the word. When
Speaker 1: Kathy Moriarty calls herself a bitch, that passes the Bechtel test.
Speaker 1: That definitely does for sure. So yeah, I just I
Speaker 1: think the movie like started to set up some interesting
Speaker 1: themes and storylines, and then they just got forgotten about
Speaker 1: in the interest of showing this predatory romance um where
Speaker 1: Casper is a perverted creep. I also, yeah, and it's
Speaker 1: like and and we've talked about this before, there's not
Speaker 1: a ton of big movies that are about like single dads.
Speaker 1: I think it's always an interesting opportunity to see single dads,
Speaker 1: especially single dad's with daughters where it's like, I get that,
Speaker 1: you know that that's set up in the movie of
Speaker 1: like there's some dissonance he doesn't he still is like
Speaker 1: adjusting to the idea of being a single parent. There's
Speaker 1: plenty of like kids watching that movie I'm sure that
Speaker 1: are like could connect with that experience. But then he
Speaker 1: like is kind of a shitty parent and she just
Speaker 1: accepts it eventually, and so that felt like a missed
Speaker 1: opportunity as well. But again, it's like it's Casper. Um.
Speaker 1: But but every kid in the planet sees a movie
Speaker 1: like this, and I and I do agree that it's like,
Speaker 1: there are only things that would stick with you from
Speaker 1: this movie that you've probably already seen. Unfortunately, in other movies,
Speaker 1: by the time you see Casper, you've probably seen a
Speaker 1: weird child predatory relationship already, You've already seen bad parenting
Speaker 1: from Father's Excused as kind of funny. Um, mom's Mommy
Speaker 1: is angel Like. These are all things that come up
Speaker 1: in movies pretty frequently. Um, dead moms in general, we
Speaker 1: love a dead mom in children's media and nineties movies
Speaker 1: for kids, get her out of there, but then bring
Speaker 1: her back and have her give a plot. Disney doesn't
Speaker 1: do that to the dead moms. I will say the
Speaker 1: funniest part of rewatching this movie was because I very
Speaker 1: clearly remember being touched when when the dad dies and
Speaker 1: then he comes back to life. I just forgot that
Speaker 1: that all happened inside of three minutes what I don't know. Anyways,
Speaker 1: this movie does technically pass the back to test, which is, um,
Speaker 1: we celebrate that, good for them, good for them. Let's
Speaker 1: let's get into our nipple scale. Yes, zero to five
Speaker 1: nipples based on how the movie does when we look
Speaker 1: at it through an intersectional feminist lens, and I would
Speaker 1: say this movie for me only gets like maybe a
Speaker 1: nipple and a half because as much as I do
Speaker 1: like Christina Ricci as Cat and I do think she's
Speaker 1: given a fair amount to do in this story, it
Speaker 1: would have all worked so much better for me if
Speaker 1: it wasn't all overshadowed by her getting stalked and coerced
Speaker 1: by a perverted ghost boy. So I hate that if
Speaker 1: it had just been a friendship between them that happened
Speaker 1: more organically, and if there had been kind of more
Speaker 1: focus on some other either like internal or external struggle
Speaker 1: she was dealing with, like her struggle to make friends
Speaker 1: because her dad moves her around too much, and you
Speaker 1: know she she's dealing with grief from losing her mom,
Speaker 1: And how does that manifest in her choices and behavior,
Speaker 1: and how can that, you know, affect the story just
Speaker 1: things like that that could have been more meaningful and
Speaker 1: interesting to watch, but instead it's like, yeah, let's watch
Speaker 1: like just a series of fat jokes because of a
Speaker 1: character named Fats. So you're fucking kidding me. You have
Speaker 1: to see this little ghost say can I keep you?
Speaker 1: Before surprise kissing and unconscious girl. You have to see
Speaker 1: Bill Pullman watch your mouth and fall off balcony when
Speaker 1: he's supposed to be looking after Oh gosh, there's just
Speaker 1: so many weird choices. The movie makes one and a
Speaker 1: half nipples. I'll give one to Kathy Moriarty's performance as Karagan,
Speaker 1: and I'll give my half nipple to Christina Ricci. And
Speaker 1: that's all, folks, I'm going to give it to I
Speaker 1: am very I like this movie. I totally agree that
Speaker 1: you're saying, building a movie around a predatory relationship between
Speaker 1: twelve year old is always weird. I it's frustrating because
Speaker 1: it's so easily could have and should have just been
Speaker 1: a friendship and the whole movie would have benefited from it,
Speaker 1: and then it would be a movie I would be
Speaker 1: much more comfortable showing to kids now, like if it
Speaker 1: had just been a friendship. And I mean the body
Speaker 1: shaming jokes, the extreme whiteness of the movie, the everything
Speaker 1: about it is so entrenched in not in nineties kids
Speaker 1: movie tropes, and and but I am always gonna love
Speaker 1: this movie. I think it's just high camp. I think
Speaker 1: it's like pretty hilarious. And uh, I just love when
Speaker 1: a movie is um a live action cartoon. I feel
Speaker 1: like you don't really get many of those now. They're
Speaker 1: really fun. I just, yeah, I adore this movie, but
Speaker 1: it is not a progressive movie. I would say I
Speaker 1: love the cat character. I feel like there's a lot
Speaker 1: of missed opportunities with her character. Um, I feel like
Speaker 1: there was a way to include the mom in the
Speaker 1: story that was less dead woman trophy and then Karagan
Speaker 1: is I would say a really underrated movie. Villain Kathy
Speaker 1: Moriarty really brings the heat. I also read that Carrie
Speaker 1: Fisher and Kathleen Turner were in the running for that part.
Speaker 1: Also would have both been great. There's like just absolutely fabulous.
Speaker 1: I mean, yeah, I I love this movie so much,
Speaker 1: but I cannot give it more than two nipples in
Speaker 1: good faith. So I will give it two nipples, and
Speaker 1: I will give one to the wake Up Machine, which
Speaker 1: should have been a roller coaster, and I now it's
Speaker 1: never going to be a roller coaster because kids don't
Speaker 1: watch this damn movie anymore. It's not even streaming anywhere.
Speaker 1: And I will give my other nipple to Cathy Moriarty
Speaker 1: because I'm no fool. And you should listen to Ghost
Speaker 1: Church if you want to hear about an esoteric religion
Speaker 1: that revolves around the idea that the spirits walk among us. Still, um,
Speaker 1: you can listen to it wherever you get your podcast
Speaker 1: will link it in the description of this episode. And uh,
Speaker 1: and that's our episode about Casper. The friendly goes Oh,
Speaker 1: I love The ending shot of the movie is just
Speaker 1: Casper eating eating you. Yeah, he's just barreling towards you
Speaker 1: and then you see his mouth and then he's gobbled
Speaker 1: you up. Not love it, no notes incredible. Also, this
Speaker 1: was directed by the director of a Series of Unfortunate Events,
Speaker 1: which means that he loves creepy old manners and he
Speaker 1: loves weird Cinderella stories with orphans. True, Brad Silverling, what's
Speaker 1: going on? Shout out, Brad silver Ling. Type he's being
Speaker 1: type cast. He's like, like, I love kids in a
Speaker 1: mansion anyways. Um, so Yes. Check out ghost Church. Yes.
Speaker 1: Check out us on Twitter and Instagram at bectel Cast.
Speaker 1: Check out our Matreon at patreon dot com slash becktel Cast,
Speaker 1: where you get to bonus episodes every month, plus the
Speaker 1: entire back catalog of over one bonuses, such as episodes
Speaker 1: like I Frankenstein. Oh yeah, and that's it. That's all
Speaker 1: that's there. Now. We recently did a top gun and
Speaker 1: face off with that's where we cover a lot of
Speaker 1: popular requests and a kind of like loose. This is
Speaker 1: actually kind of we This is like Matreon episode. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we've been goofing around on the main feed lately. It's
Speaker 1: been fun. I feel like we've always been goofing over here.
Speaker 1: Well yeah we've I guess famously, we've been goofing kind
Speaker 1: of the whole time. We're sort of like impractical jokers
Speaker 1: a little bit. I will say. I think it's so
Speaker 1: Their headboards are so funny, and I would love a
Speaker 1: headboard that just as stinky. Absolutely weird. This this movie is.
Speaker 1: I know, I know, I know, but it's one of
Speaker 1: my favorite movies ever. Still, I realized as I was
Speaker 1: watching this, well you can get our we got merch
Speaker 1: as well. T public dot Com, slash v, Bechdel Cast
Speaker 1: and uh Yeah, listen to Ghost Church, listen to the
Speaker 1: Bachtel cast of Brush Your Teeth, and a major access
Speaker 1: by bye bye,