Film Snail

The Canterville Ghost
The Canterville Ghost

6.3

The Canterville Ghost

PG·2023·89m

Summary

An American family moves in to the Canterville Chase, a London mansion that has been haunted by ghost Sir Simon De Canterville for 300 years.

Crew

Director

Kim Burdon

Screenplay

Giles New

Screenplay

Keiron Self

Short Story

Oscar Wilde

Reviews

Geronimo1967

Geronimo1967

October 20, 2023

6

Well there's never going to be a better version of this than Charles Laughton's 1944 iteration, but this is still actually quite a watchable adaptation of Oscar Wilde's short story. It centres around an American family who relocate to creaky and spooky old "Canterville Chase" - a stately pile that is reputedly haunted by a menacing spectre. The "Otis" family have three children and after the odd eerie visitation, they become distinctly unafraid of their haunting buddy - indeed they are soon trying to find some way of helping "Sir Simon" to lift the curse that has trapped him in limbo for some three hundred years and also to reunite him with his long lost love before the Grim Reaper wins the day. The animation is adequate and there are plenty of whimsical goings on - it's just that the story is over-stretched, there's way too much dialogue and I actually find this works better with real people/scenarios. Animation offers too few limitations on the creative ghostliness and so at times this looks a little too much like an episode of "Scooby Do". Maybe daft to write, but it isn't quite real enough for me! Still, it's good that this story is still doing the rounds - it's a fun tale of true love that's stood the test of time well.

Media

Status:

Released

Original Language:

English

Budget:

$10,000,000.00

Revenue:

$2,000,000.00

Keywords

based on novel or book
halloween
family
ghost
halloween costume
eccentric family
animation
cinema