It’s the 30th anniversary of Casper this year, and it’s a movie that I watched a lot as a child, regardless of the season. My younger sister especially loved it, and I remember her longing for a plushie that I’m not sure actually existed. While I could have probably recited Casper word for word as a girl, since I’ve reached adulthood, I’ve only ever seen it during October when I happen to catch it on the cable channels that air it as part of their Halloween programming. Watching it now, I think it still holds up pretty well as a kid’s movie, despite the strangeness that Casper is a very cartoony ghost falling in love with a real human girl. But one opinion that hasn’t changed in the 30 years since this movie came out: Bill Pullman as Dr. James Harvey is an entire snack.
I didn’t know who Devon Sawa was, and I didn’t care, because who would be interested in a stupid gross boy instead of a dreamy man? Not tiny me, that’s for sure. Dr. Harvey wears the hell out of those “slu!ty little glasses” (let us all thank Blakely Thornton and Jonathan Bailey for popularizing that perfectly descriptive phrase) and Mr. Rogers cardigans. I keep hearing about how styles from the 90s are becoming popular again, but so far everything I’ve seen come back into fashion should have remained firmly and deeply in the past. Where are all the men with the floppy hair and casually academic clothes?
In fact, the floppy hair/glasses/baggy cardigan look is so iconic that even when Dr. Harvey dies and comes back as a ghost, his ghost form retains all three features. Casper and his three uncles are all completely white and smooth, so one would assume that would be the standard spectral form in the universe of this story, but it was wise of the filmmakers to know that even for the short time we see James as a ghost before he’s brought back to life, the hot dad aesthetic must be maintained. I went down a bit of a rabbit hole researching the costume designer for Casper, and not only was Rosanna Norton nominated for an Oscar for her work on the 1982 Tron, she was also the costume designer for the horror classic Carrie. The legacy! I still see at least one Bloody Prom Carrie every Halloween. I love that Norton took one look at Bill Pullman and was like, “Yes, I know exactly what to do.” She absolutely did, and we thank her profusely for her service.
Beyond his look, Dr. Harvey is also a good dad… kinda sort of! Like, is it insane that in the throes of an apparent psychotic break he continually drags his daughter Kat (90s girl icon Christina Ricci) around the country in a desperate bid to make contact with his dead wife? Arguably. But we all love a guy who yearns, don’t we? I’ll take a man driven to insanity by a wild search for my untethered spirit over someone with healthy coping mechanisms any day. “If he wanted to, he would” and all that. Being slightly affable but mostly well meaning is a lot better than a whole bunch of other dads out there are doing, and their zany haunted mansion ghost adventure does bring Dr. Harvey and Kat closer together, so it’s fine.
To sum up — it’s Casper‘s 30th anniversary, and there’s no better way to celebrate this ’90s spooky time classic than by watching it to enjoy the best thing about the movie: Bill Pullman as a hot, nerdy dad. Add it to your Halloween watchlist and also have a cry at how unexpectedly beautiful the soundtrack is.
First Featured Image Credit: ©Universal Pictures