Hot Stuff (2016 film)

Hot Stuff is a 2016 American live-action supernatural fantasy film based on the Harvey Comics character Hot Stuff the Little Devil. It is a spin/off to the 1995 feature film Casper. The film stars G Hannelius, Bruce Willis, Michelle Pfeiffer, Kevin Bacon, Adam Irigoyen, John Goodman, Rene Russo, Dove Cameron, Tyrel Jackson Williams as the titular character, and Reed Alexander.

Summery
2 months after the events of Casper, Amber Whitmire, and her parents spends their Christmas at her aunt and uncle's in San Francisco, where she encounters a hot tempered, mysterious Little Devil named Hot Stuff who must save her from a crime boss.

Plot
Two couples were out on a double date walking out of a night of town, until they were ambushed by six muggers who attempt to steal from them. The four friends were at panic, but a creature appeared out of nowhere, and scared away the thugs. It happens to be a little red demon child, who also scared the couples as well which was unintended.

Later, the thugs were apprehended by the police, as they were sentence to a mental institutions, after proclaiming that they saw a demon, making the officers to believe they are insane. Ben Johnson, a young journalist, is willing to prove that the story of the demon is really true, but he becomes a laughing stock at his job as his fellow co-workers calls his reports trash.

Meanwhile in Friendship, Maine, school was out for the holidays as everyone was getting ready for the big Holiday break. spoiler rich girl: Amber Whitmire was now a loner after her rival Kathleen "Kat" Harvey has taken away her popularity unintentionally, after the Halloween party at Whippstaff. Amber's friend Vic has even grown to like Kat much to Amber's dismay, although Kat doesn't show to be attracted to him as much.

Amber was riding off home with her bike, and as he returned home, she returned home she noticed her father: Dan Whitmire was talking with a bunch of mob men in suits as he is in severe debt, after he spend too much for the family, and is given 48 hours to pay.

After they left, Dan tells his wife: Kate Whitmire, and daughter to get pack up as he plans to moved out of Maine so the mob won't track, go to his brother's home: Victor Whitmire's house in San Franciso. Amber doesn't take it lightly, and is furious to see her father be involved with people like them, which also caused there relationship to be strained.

The next day, they finished packing all things they need rushed into the limo, that was driven by their butler, Wilfred, they rushed there way to the airport. They waited for the next hour or so, and made there way inside. Wilfred is willing to stay behind, as he has his own family to out for, back in Maine, as well as spending the holiday with them. The three sat on the plane for 7 hours, 30 minutes.

Back at the Whitmire residence, the mob broke in only to find them gone, which infuriated there boss: Thomas Jackson, not knowing where they are at. They encountered Wilfred, and threaten the life of his two children to demand where the Whitmire's are which leads Wilfred with no choice but to tell them where they are at. Jackson sent a young man name James to take a flight to San Francisco.

At San Franciso, the Whitmire's caught a taxi made it to Victor's, to where Victor lives with his wife Jane and daughter Jenny. Dan and Victor's relationship is strain, as Victor doesn't like how his brother gave in to crime, to provide money after the passing of there mother. He is furious when he learn that Dan is hiding from the mob, as it might put his own family as at risk, but reluctantly agree to just for Amber and Kate's sake.

Jenny greetfully shows Amber where she will be sleeping as the two formed a bond. Jenny is willing take Amber around town, believing that the mob will never find her from where she is, but there parents informed them to be safe. Jenny took them at a hangout where they meet with Ben who happens to be friends of Jenny as he explained about the demon incident, a few nights ago, but Jenny herself thinks he is going out of his mind, but after Amber's experience with ghosts. She was a little amused and frighten at the same time.

The demon is depicted as a creature who comes, and scare away muggers when someone is in danger. Amber found it bizarre, for a demon creature for sake of others lives, and begins to take Jenny's side.

Later that night, they passed around people's homes that has decorations. They also passed by a cathedral where Amber gazed up and noticed five gargoyles, but one of them looks different from the others as it looks scrawny, and didn't have wings. A screamed occured which caught Amber and Jenny's attention. The gargoyle Amber was percular with magically disappeared.

The next morning, James has finally arrived to began his search.

The family had breakfast, with Ben and Victor refused to coupe words with each other, as they each sat across from the other. Amber signed seeing the travesty of what she can't, but see is her family. Both Amber and Jenny, decided to go back outside, and take a walk around other places, for the holiday.

Ben gets distraught by his boss, when Ben tries to explained about the incident when the demon saved a woman from getting mugged by a thief, and is willing to fire him if he doesn't scarp the story. Ben later meant with the girls, and told what had just happen. Jenny encouraged him to give up, and try to find another story, to which reluctently agree to do.

James got off from a bus, to continued his search, as he look he overheared someone mentioned Amber, looked over at the three. He asked if she is Amber Whitmire, yanked out a gun out of desperation when she refused to responded, and demand to know where is her father is.

Just he was about to pulled the trigger, the demon child appeared right in front of them, and melted James gun, and scared him off. Amber and the others were stunned by what they had just witness. Ben was gleefully surprised to realized that he was right, but had a shred of fear not knowing what is this mysterious creature.

Cast

 * G Hannelius as Amber Whitmire, a spoiled rich girl who is now an outsider when her rival Kat Harvey has taken her fame after the Halloween party at Whipstaff Manor. She and her parents spend their Holiday vacation at San Francisco to meet there relatives, but it's mostly out of hiding from a crime boss that demands there money. She end up meeting Hot Stuff whom she became friends, and is the only one who can save her and her family from the crime as they both share a common ground of temperament.
 * Bruce Willis as Dan Whitmire, Amber's workaholic father, who works of a crime boss that demanded there fortune, which lead Dan the idea of having his wife and daughter leave town.
 * Michelle Pfeiffer as Kate Whitmire, Amber's mother.
 * Kevin Bacon as Thomas Jackson, a crime boss who demanded the Whitmire's wealth and serves as one of the two main antagonists of the film.
 * Adam Irigoyen as Ben Johnson, a boy whom Amber meets during her visit in San Francisco, who is also friends with Amber's cousin Jenny. He is willing to prove that there is a demon at the city.
 * John Goodman as Victor Whitmire, Dan's less fortunate brother, and Amber's uncle, who doesn't approve of his brother's wealth endangering them.
 * Rene Russo as Jane Whitmire, Victor's wife and Amber's aunt
 * Dove Cameron as Jenny Whitmire, Victor and Jane's daughter and Amber's cousin whom she bonds with.
 * Tyrel Jackson Williams as Hot Stuff, a demon child who has sold, his soul after committing suicide as a young kid, he spends most of his days regretting it. He seeks on doing good, in order the remove himself from this curse. He seeks his mission on Amber whom she and her family is on the run from a crime lord, plans on protecting her. The two form a friendship as they both share a feeling of loneliness and temperament. He also must defend himself when he is going up against his nemesis, Freezy.
 * Reed Alexander as Freezy, a bright young boy who is Hot Stuff's arch-nemesis and one of the two main antagonists of the film.

Trivia

 * The film is distributed by Universal Pictures and 20th Century Fox.
 * The film is a spin/off of Casper, as the film featured Kat's rival Amber Whitmire's encounter with the Hot Stuff, which plays a similar parallel to Kat's encounter with Casper, in the previous film.
 * The film is rated PG for some scenes that may not be suit able for young kids, and contains some mild language.
 * Like Casper, the film also goes for a darker interpretation of the child friendly nature in the comics especially with the idea of a kid committing suicide.
 * The actors portraying the demons are covered in red paint with fake pointy ears and each have a animatronic devil's tail to give it more movement.
 * It is revealed that Amber's spoiled attitude is caused by loneliness due to her parents having little to no time for her, as it turns out that her father use to serve in the mob.
 * Hot Stuff's look in the film is loosely inspired by the three issue comic book mini series Casper and the Spectrals where he wears a black t-shirt, blue jeans and sneakers as he does in the film instead of his signature diaper, though he remains to keep his trident, and wears a black long overcoat throughout the film.
 * While it being a spin/off of Casper, the only one of the main characters to return is Kat who has a brief cameo at the beginning.
 * Unlike Casper, the titular character does not fall in love with the film's leading female, as he does appear to be asexual in the film, even though in the comics, he has a girlfriend named Fairy Princess Charma, but the relationship between Amber and Hot Stuff is nothing more than a strong friendship, which ultimately comes to an end when his actions caused her a lot of harm.
 * Rather than being a blue demon duplicate of Hot Stuff that produce blue flames to create ice like his comic book counterpart, Freezy is instead a regular human boy who used his metal pads around his wrists to produce ice in order defeat his demonic nemesis.