Throughout his long and varied career, James Horner composed more than 100 film scores. He’s perhaps best known for his music to Titanic (for which he won a bevy of awards, including a couple Oscars), but he also brought many, many geek-friendly films to musical life. From Star Trek II and III to Aliens to An American Tail to Avatar, Horner’s style was as all over the map – and as distinctive – as the films he worked on.

Though he was incredibly active right up until his untimely death in 2015, Horner was in his absolute prime during the late 80s and 90s. For example? He scored six major films released in 1995 alone. That was the year he melted hearts with his score to Braveheart, but he also composed Apollo 13, Jade, Jumanji, Balto, and Casper.

And since this is the 25th anniversary of all those films, I’m surprised we haven’t seen more releases like La-La Land Records’ recent Casper release, which includes a remastered version of the original 1995 soundtrack release along with an expanded score that features previously unreleased Horner tracks.

Before we get into this release, though, allow me a brief tangent since I fell down a bit of a Casper rabbit hole with this one.

Casper the Friendly Ghost, the saccharine sweet, mostly sanitized character many of us think of today, is the results of his incarnation in a series of theatrical shorts that began in 1950 (and an impressive number of subsequent Harvey Comics). The famous theme song also dates to the first Harvey Films short (“Casper’s Spree Under the Sea”).

However, Casper’s true origins are much more disturbing than most people realize. The character’s first three theatrical appearances mostly follow the same story pattern and feature many of the same gags. But they are dark.

In “The Friendly Ghost” (1945), Casper is so distraught at being a ghost and not having any friends that he lays down on train tracks and tries to commit suicide by having a steam engine run over his head.

In “There’s Good Boos Tonight” (1948), Casper tries – and fails – to befriend a variety of animals before a small fox becomes his best friend… and Casper names him Ferdie. However, Ferdie is soon shot by a hunter, and Casper is left holding and crying over his friend’s lifeless body. (Not to worry; Ferdie ultimately comes back as a ghost so the two can stay friends forever.)

“A Haunting We Will Go” (1949) follows same pattern. Casper steals a baby duck from its nest, befriends it, names it, watches it get shot by a hunter, and then cries while holding his friend’s limp body. As a bonus, this time, we actually see the baby duck get shot out of the sky. (Fear not, gentle reader: Dudley the duck survives.)

From these unlikely origins grew one of the strangest characters ever to “hit it big.” Because let’s face it: Casper the Friendly Ghost is strange. He’s so strikingly uncool that it’s amazing he’s lasted 75 years in pop culture. No one liked Casper as a kid. No one ached for the next issue of a Casper comic. No one got excited at the potential for a new Casper cartoon.

I mean, when Universal got the rights to the Harvey Comics characters in 2018 (through its acquisition of DreamWorks), did they rush to make a Casper show? Nope. They instead mined the Harvey catalog and produced Harvey Girls Forever! (which began life as Harvey Street Kids) for Netflix. To be fair, Casper did ultimately pop up in that show during its final season, but it was long after the show introduced Little Audrey, Little Dot, Little Lotta, and Richie Rich. Casper was hardly a priority.

So, not to put too fine a point on it, a live-action feature film version of Casper in 1995 was a gamble, to say the least. But when Steven Spielberg executive produces, you’ve got a good chance at success.

Spielberg brought in Sherri Stoner and Deanna Oliver to write the script (both came direct from the stellar Tiny Toon Adventures), and the cast filled out with Cathy Moriarty, Eric Idle, Bill Pullman, and Christina Ricci. On top of that, the film featured cameos by Clint Eastwood, Mel Gibson, Rodney Dangerfield… and Dan Aykroyd in character as Ray Stantz!

All to support little Casper.

And then James Horner came on board to score the film. By the mid 90s, Horner was an established veteran comfortable with kids fare. In addition to his Academy Award-nominated score (and song) for An American Tail, he’d done the scores for Cocoon, The Journey of Natty Gann, The Land Before Time, The Rocketeer, and more.

“Casper Gets His Wish”

His score for Casper would not only establish a world of family-friendly fun and frights, but it also gave voice to a lonely ghost’s deep melancholy. I know, right?

Parts of the score recall similarly dark stories steeped in atmospheric themes (notably Danny Elfman’s score for 1990’s Edward Scissorhands), but Horner’s music for Casper ultimately elevates the film from what would have simply been a hybrid CG/live-action novelty – or just a sequence of sight gags – into something we still remember, and talk about, today.

“No Sign of Ghosts” introduces Casper’s theme

Though the final film would hint at the cheesy – yet classic – Casper theme song from the 50s (written by Winston Sharples), Horner introduces a beautifully haunting new theme for the character. (One of the previously unreleased tracks on La-La Land’s release is Horner’s original composition for “Kids with a Camera,” the track that opens the film, without the cartoon theme.)

“Kids with a Camera”

It’s impossible not to listen to Horner’s music for Casper, a film that examines the untimely death of someone taken far too soon, and not hear a composer’s musical take on his own mortality… especially when Horner himself was taken far too soon.

If you’re a fan of Horner’s work, then Casper is required listening.

La-La Land’s 25th anniversary remastered edition of Casper is a two-disc set that includes the original 1995 soundtrack release (including a swinging version of the classic cartoon theme by Little Richard), along with an expanded score that includes newly released tracks and alternate takes. The release is also limited to 3,000 units, so if you’re a fan, you might not want to delay.