Casper The Friendly Ghost (Vintage)

Casper the Friendly Ghost

Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. As his name indicates, he is a ghost, but is quite personable. According to the 1995 feature film Casper, his family name is McFadden, making his “full” name Casper McFadden.

Casper was created in the late 1930′s by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo, with Mr. Reit devising the idea for the character and Mr. Oriolo drawing the illustrations.

The Friendly Ghost, the first Noveltoon to feature Casper, was released by Paramount in 1945 with a few differences from the book. In the cartoon adaptation, Casper is a cute ghost-child with a New York accent, who prefers making friends with people instead of scaring them (Casper used to scare people but got tired of it all). He runs away from home and goes out to make friends. However, the animals he meets (a rooster, a mole, a cat, a mouse resembling Herman and Katnip, and a group of hens) take one horrified look at him and run off in the other direction. Distraught, Casper unsuccessfully attempts to commit suicide by laying himself down on a railway track before an oncoming train (apparently forgetting that he’s already dead) before he meets two little children named Bonnie and Johnny who become his friends. The children’s mother at first is frightened of Casper, but later welcomes him into the family and sends him off with her children to town wearing clothes after he wards off a greedy landlord.

This short had the NTA logo at the beginning and end of the cartoon, it shows Famous Studios at the beginning and end.

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