Child's Play: Casper Reappears In New Fox Title

GHOSTS 'N' WITCHES: "Casper Meets Wendy," the second direct-to-video title from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment featuring Casper the Friendly Ghost, flies into stores Sept. 22. The first in the series, "Casper, A Spirited Beginning" (conceived as a sequel to the 1995 theatrical release "Casper"), has shipped more than 5.5 million units worldwide, Fox reports.
Tie-ins with Hershey's, General Mills, and Carl's Jr./Hardee's are among the marketing plans for "Casper Meets Wendy." Consumers can receive a $5 mail-in video rebate by purchasing three of Hershey's candy products and two General Mills "monster" cereals.
The promo will be featured in 5,000 General Mills in-store Halloween displays, 52 million Hershey's free-standing newspaper inserts, and 100,000 Hershey's point-of-purchase displays. A coupon good toward a "Casper Meets Wendy" Halloween Kids Meal at 2,500 Carl's Jr. and Hardee's restaurants will be packed with the video.
Other promotional partners include Sound Source, Brunswick Bikes, GT Publishing, and Valley Forge Banners. Additionally, consumers who purchase "Casper Meets Wendy" as well as "Casper, A Spirited Beginning" are eligible for a $2 mail-in rebate. Details will be found in each "Casper Meets Wendy" tape.
Fox Home Entertainment is also backing a $6 million advertising campaign targeting TV, radio, print, and outdoor displays such as bus panels, plus its World Wide Web site.
Combining live action and computer-animated ghost effects, as did its predecessors, "Casper Meets Wendy" concerns the unorthodox friendship of Casper the ghost and Wendy the witch‹unorthodox because, according to the movie, ghosts and witches are natural enemies. It stars Cathy Moriarty (who was featured in the theatrical "Casper"); Shelley Duvall and Teri Garr as Wendy's aunts, the Witless Witches; and George Hamilton as the wickedly tanned warlock Desmond Spellman.
Also due from Fox in time for Halloween is a trio of "Goosebumps" titles, each $9.98. "Werewolf Skin Parts 1 & 2," "One Day At Horrorland Parts 1 & 2," and "Bride Of The Living Dummy/An Old Story" arrive in stores Sept. 15.
The new "Goosebumps" will be promoted on 10 million General Mills packages. Packed with each cassette are coupons good toward purchase of General Mills' Fruit Roll-Ups, Gushers, String Thing, and Fruit by the Foot snacks. Another tie-in: a sweepstakes with the grand prize of a trip for four to see Feld Entertainment's "Goosebumps Live On Stage."
REINDEER GAMES: Five minutes of original footage have been restored to holiday favorite "Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer," which leads a six-pack of Christmas-themed titles released Sept. 1 by Golden Books Family Entertainment Home Video & Audio. The stop-motion animated program, featuring the voices of Danny and Marlo Thomas, was first broadcast on TV in 1964.
"Frosty The Snowman," "The Little Drummer Boy," "Cricket On The Hearth," "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town," and "Frosty Returns" make up the rest of Golden Books' Holiday Classics Collection. Each is 30 to 50 minutes in length and lists for $12.98.
Cross-promotional partners include M&M/Mars, LCI International, and Hallmark. More than 13 million packages of specially marked M&M/Mars miniature candies will contain a toll-free number printed inside, which consumers can call to guess which Holiday Classics character ate Santa's miniatures.
Four grand prizes of $10,000 shopping sprees will be awarded, along with 250,000 other goodies. A prepaid "Rudolph" phone card from LCI International valued at $2.50 is being included with each copy of "Rudolph." Each "Frosty Returns" will have a specially created Hallmark card.