TV DVD Review: "The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper": Volume Two

Rated: Not Rated
Starring: Malachi Pearson, Kath Soucie, and Brad Garrett
Released: April - May 1996 (original TV premieres) / September 9, 2008 (DVD)

Synopsis: The adventures of Casper and the Ghostly Trio continue in this second volume! Watch as Kat's softball team gets some help from a supernatural source, Casper learns to be "cool" from the ghost of James Dean, the Ghostly Trio scare off a tyrannical bank boss, and plenty more!
Based on the hit 1995 film.  Features the voice work of Brad Garrett (Everybody Loves Raymond) and voice legend Dan Castellaneta.

The Good: What this series did well in the first volume, it does continues to excel at here.  The animation is great; the voice work is fabulous; and there are plenty of humorous moments.  Also, this volume features less of the musical numbers that made the previous one inane at times.  All in all, pretty good stuff, except...

The Bad: The silliness is a bit over the top; so much so that I'm glad to be done with the series, because ten episodes of this is enough.  Though I enjoyed it, I don't think I could take another five episodes' worth of this.

Content Concerns:

• Sex: Kissing, flirting; totally innocent romance. 4/5
• Nudity: None. 5/5
• Language: Name-calling. 4/5
• Violence: Comedic, cartoony pratfalls, all of which are played for laughs. 4/5
• Drugs: None. 5/5
• Frightening/Intense Scenes: Some sequences are mildly scary; the Ghostly Trio threatens to kill the humans in their house; the themes of death may be too much for some viewers. 3/5
• Other: "PG"-level crude humor, i.e., burping. 4/5

Conclusion: I missed out on this series when it was originally on television, but, thanks to DVD technology, I've been able to watch it lately.  While cute for what it is, I doubt I'll bother with it ever again; I'm not sure how this show could have gone on for four seasons.  Young people, and those who are young at heart, may enjoy it...but, you'll probably get tired of it after a while.

Score: 3/5