THE CANTERVILLE GHOST

UK, 2023, 89 minutes, Colour.

Voices of: Stephen Fry, Freddie Highmore, Imelda Staunton, Toby Jones, Hugh Laurie, Miranda Hart, Emily Carey, David Harewood, Meera Syal.

Directed by Kim Burden, Robert Chandler.

This is a classic story told here in animation style for the younger generation, a contemporary young generation who enjoys cartoon presentations of popular stories. Despite the fact that Stephen Fry plays the voice of the Ghost and is an executive director, this is not a version for an adult audience. And, while the story requires American characters, the treatment here seems very much geared for an American audience rather than a British audience.

Oscar Wilde published his story in 1887, one of the stories he liked to tell, like The Happy Prince. Checking on information it is reported that there have been 14 versions of the story in film. In more recent decades, two knights of the realm played the Canterville Ghost, John Gielgud and Patrick Stewart. However, the audiences who have seen the 1944 version with Charles Laughton as the Ghost, supported by Margaret O’Brien and Robert Young, will know that it was the best version! Laughton was a marvellous ghost, enjoying both the comedy and the scares.

This time around, there is a marvellous array of British voices in the cast, as mentioned, Stephen Fry is the ghost, Hugh Laurie doing a whole range of voices, Freddie Highmore is the romantic lead, Miranda Hart as the domineering ghost hunter an American on entrepreneur and his family by the haunted castle in England, 1900 – though disturbingly anachronistic concerning electrification and the style of cars that the cast was driving.

Father is ambitious, wanting to bring science and technology from America to England, his wife wanting to move in high social circles. He has two precocious sons who cause mischief all the time, irritatingly for the characters and, perhaps, for the audience except the youngsters who identify with them! There is the daughter who does not want to settle in England, surly and stubborn, befriending the ghost, helping him in his quest. And, there is a nice local lad, from the family hostile to the Ghost, but a nice and simple romance.

This is also quite a raucous version, the Americans loud and bombastic, not believing in ghosts and taking the frequent appearances for granted. The ghost himself has a high old time with various apparitions, attempts at scaring, an elaborate disruption of the family banquet.

This film goes on the list of versions of Oscar Wilde’s story – but not necessarily near the top!