Casper Meets Wendy

Casper Meets Wendy is a direct-to-video and second spin-off to the 1995 film Casper. It was released by 20th Century Fox in 1998. The film is a sequel to Casper: A Spirited Beginning

It was aired on Disney Channel around Halloween night October 27, 2006. As of 2010, the rights to this film were still owned by 20th Century Fox, as this film and Casper were the only Casper films not sold to Classic Media.

Plot
The film opens with the tail end of a Friday night baseball game. With the bases loaded, the home team wins by a narrow margin as the batter hits the ball out of the park. Both the celebration of the home team and fans and the dread of losing for the visiting team are cut short as a mysterious spaceship floats over the park, thus snatching the attention of everybody there: the players, the fans, the hot dog and popcorn vendors, and the announcer! After the ship performs a tune, it dissipates into three floating balls of light. One of them forms into a ghost who initially appears as an alien, but thereafter, is revealed to be Fatso (Jess Harnell), a member of The Ghostly Trio, who releases gas which hits the scoreboard, causing a shower of sparks, also sparking terror. The other two ghosts of the trio, Stinky (Bill Farmer), and Stretch (Jim Ward), join in, causing panic in the park, as everybody scatters. Casper (Jeremy Foley), a shy, friendly ghost (whom all three ghosts are uncles to), arrives, attempting to settle the rattled crowd, but the people are just as scared. The park is eventually empty, as Casper's uncles plan a vacation. Meanwhile, a dark character named Desmond Spellman (George Hamilton) is settled down in his mansion. He is the greatest warlock to ever exist, until the Oracle (Pauly Shore) tells him that in the future Wendy the Good Little Witch (Hilary Duff) will be the greatest witch to ever exist, and so he plots to kill the "little mall rat", with the advised "Mystic Abyss". He creates two warlock enforcers: Jules (Richard Moll), and Vincent (Vincent Schiavelli) with a mix of chemicals in a blender, exposure to thunder and lightning, and a spill over his catwalk balcony. He assigns them to go to Wendy's address (which the oracle printed on Desmonds' fax machine) and bring her to him. They prove what they think is a simple task by firing their hand guns through the wall.

Meanwhile, Wendy is living in the country with her three aunts Geri (Cathy Moriarty), Gabby (Shelley Duvall), and Fanny (Teri Garr). While attempting to befriend the local paper boy, they foil it by slingshotting a green ball of goo at him, thus causing the newspapers to automatically slap him. She is angered, and while trying to prove herself to them, Jules and Vincent arrive with the purpose of abducting her. They begin attacking with their hand guns. She and her aunts narrowly escape Desmond's men as Wendy turns their weapons into water guns and traps them in a cage. On the run from her nemesis, she runs into Casper, who has been violently thrown around by his three uncles. They then become great friends, but of course, in the tale, a ghost's worst enemy is a witch, and vice-versa, so her aunts don't get along with his uncles, and vice-versa. As a part of their plan to convince them to get along, he gets his uncles to haunt a dance, and she convinces her aunts to attend as well. The Ghostly Trio possesses three men at the party and end up flirting with the three witches. Though everything seems to go well, the plan is foiled when their real selves are revealed to Wendy's aunts, who bluffingly threaten them with magic. Later, Wendy tells Casper about Desmond and that she and her aunts can't use powerful magic, begging him not to tell anyone about this. He accidentally tells the Ghostly Trio, prompting them to attack her and her aunts. She feels she has no choice but to fight them and uses a spell to cover them in plaster. This action is picked up by Desmond's magic tracker. The witches are attacked by Jules and Vincent. Before Wendy and her aunts have a chance to escape, Desmond arrives. He tries to cast her into the Mystic Abyss to kill her, but Casper dives in to save her. Her aunts try to fight Desmond but they aren't powerful enough. Before he can throw them in along with Wendy, however, a giant three-eyed monster pops up and frightens him, causing him to fall into the Abyss instead. It turns out to be the Ghostly Trio, who combined together to defeat him. While they hold the Abyss open, Wendy's aunts pull her and Casper out of it. The Oracle proclaims that she is the greatest witch because she did something no other witch ever did: she befriended a ghost (Casper). Finally, she, her aunts, Casper, and his uncles all bid each other goodbye, but he and Wendy reassure each other that they'll be together again soon.

Reception
The film was poorly received. On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a "rotten" rating of 20%.

Cast
Casper Meets Wendy features a number of cast members from previous installments in the Casper film series. Cathy Moriarty, who plays head witch Gerti, played the villainous Miss Carrigan in the 1995 Casper movie. Richard Moll, who portrayed a principal in Casper: A Spirited Beginning, portrays Jules (one of Desmond Spellman's bumbling henchmen). Pauly Shore, who voices King Kibosh's pitiful henchman, Snivel in, A Spirited Beginning, plays the ghostly Oracle. Ben Stein returns for his third appearance in a Casper film, once again as a completely different character than his previous portrayals. Logan Robbins, who played one of the three bullies in A Spirited Beginning, appears as Josh's friend. This was Hilary Duff's first movie she acted in at the age of 11.


 * Cathy Moriarty as Gert, one of Wendy's aunts
 * Shelley Duvall as Gabby, the second of Wendy's aunts
 * Teri Garr as Fanny, the third of Wendy's aunts
 * Hilary Duff - Wendy the Good Little Witch, who is determined to prove to them that she can use magic just as well as they can.
 * George Hamilton as Desmond Spellman, the antagonist of the film.
 * Richard Moll as Jules
 * Blake Foster as Josh Jackman
 * Logan Robbins as Josh's Friend
 * Vincent Schiavelli as Vincent
 * Michael McDonald as Spike (Human Stretch)
 * Travis McKenna as Phil (Human Fatso)
 * Patrick Richwood as Vince (Human Stinky)

Voices

 * Jeremy Foley - Casper the Friendly Ghost
 * Jim Ward - Stretch, one of Casper's uncles
 * Bill Farmer - Stinky, the second of Casper's uncles
 * Jess Harnell - Fatso, the third of Casper's uncles
 * Pauly Shore - The Oracle, a clairvoyant spirit

Awards and nominations
Casper Meets Wendy went on to win the Children’s Programming - Electronic Visual Effects award. The movie also got Hilary Duff nominated for a Young Artist Award.