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 last name is McFadden, making his "real" name 'Casper McFadden'.

Contents

Nature of Casper's existence

History

Creation and success at Paramount

Harvey Comics, television and films

Actors to play Casper

Other appearances and references

Supporting characters

Comic book titles

See also

External links

Nature of Casper's existence

Given that Casper is depicted as a ghostly little boy, an ongoing issue with the series regards the question of whether or not he is, in fact, a dead child. Early Casper cartoons seemed to suggest this, as they portrayed him "living" beside a gravestone. Specifically, the short ''There's Good Boos To-Night'' featured a fox befriended by Casper coming back from the dead as a ghost.
This rather macabre premise was later abandoned in favor of the idea that ghosts were merely a type of creature, similar to ghouls, goblins, etc. He was thereafter portrayed with feet and shown to have ghostly parents. In the 1960s and 1970s, the stock answer provided by Harvey Comics in response to those wondering how Casper died was that he was a ghost simply because his parents were already ghosts when they were married.^[1]
The 1995 feature film ''Casper'', however, revived the concept that Casper was a deceased human and a portion of the plot dealt with him trying to remember his life and had him rediscovering the circumstance of his own death. The first direct-to-video film to follow the feature, '', showed Casper's early days as a ghost, not showing how he died (although implying he did) and ignoring the story provided in the previous film. All films to follow ''A Spirited Beginning'' avoided the issue altogether.

History

Creation and success at Paramount

Casper was created in the early-1940s by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo, the former devising the idea for the character and the latter providing illustrations. Intended initially as the basis for a children's storybook, there was at first little interest in their idea and when Reit was away on military service during the Second World War, Oriolo sold the rights to the character to Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios animation division, for which he had occasionally worked.
''The Friendly Ghost'', the first Noveltoon to feature Casper, was released by Paramount in 1945. In the cartoon, Casper is a cute, pudgy ghost-child, who prefers making friends with people instead of scaring them. He leaves his home at the local haunted house and goes out to make friends. However, every person or animal he meets takes one horrified look at him and runs off in the other direction. Distraught, Casper unsuccessfully attempts to commit suicide by laying himself down on a railway track before an oncoming train [2] (apparently forgetting that he's already dead) before he meets two little children who become his friends. The children's mother at first rejects Casper, but later welcomes him into the family after he wards off a greedy landlord.
Casper appeared in two subsequent Noveltoons before Paramount started a ''Casper the Friendly Ghost'' series in 1950, and ran the theatrical releases until the summer of 1959. Nearly every entry in the series was the same: Casper leaves the (after)life of a regular ghost, tries to find friends but scares nearly everyone, and finally finds a (cute little) friend, whom he saves from some sort of fate. The cartoon series also boasted a catchy title song which was written by Jerry Livingston and Mack David.

Harvey Comics, television and films

Casper went on to become one of the most famous properties from the Famous Studio. Alfred Harvey, founder and publisher of Harvey Comics began producing ''Casper'' comic books in 1952, and in 1957, purchased the rights to the character outright.
After Harvey bought the rights to Casper and many other Famous properties in 1959 (including Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey, and Baby Huey), they began broadcasting the post-1950 theatrical Famous shorts on a television show sponsored by Mattel Toys titled ''Matty's Funday Funnies'' on ABC in 1959 which introduced the Barbie doll to the public. The other Famous produced Casper cartoons had already been acquired by television distributor U.M.&M. T.V. Corp. in 1956. U.M.&M. retitled just "A Haunting We Will Go", but miscredited "Featuring Casper The Friendly Ghost" as "Featuring Caspers Friendly Ghost".
New cartoons were created for the ''New Casper Cartoon Show'' in 1963, also on ABC. The original Casper cartoons were syndicated under the title ''Harveytoons'' in 1962 and ran continually until 1990. Casper has remained popular in reruns and merchandising, and Hanna-Barbera produced two holiday specials, ''Casper's First Christmas'' (which also starred Yogi Bear, Huckleberry Hound, Snagglepuss, Quick Draw McGraw, Augie Doggie and Doggie Daddy) and ''Casper's Halloween Special'', and also the Saturday morning cartoon series ''Casper and the Angels'' in the autumn of 1979, all on NBC. Also featured on the NBC version was a big ghost named Hairy Scary (voiced by John Stephenson). None of Casper's original co-stars appeared in the show.
In 1995, the friendly ghost was adapted into a live-action feature film entitled ''Casper'', where he and his wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio, were created with computer animation. The film constructed a backstory for Casper and is the only time in the series that the question of his death has been addressed. According to the film, Casper was a twelve-year-old boy living in Whipstaff Manor with his inventor father J. T. McFadden until he died from pneumonia after playing out in the cold until it was past nightfall. Much of the backstory he is given in the film is contradicted by other ''Casper'' media.
In 1995, Fox created a new ''Casper'' series, based on the 1995 feature, that lasted two years. Two live-action direct-to-video follow-ups, '' and ''Casper Meets Wendy'', which introduced Hilary Duff, to the film were later made. They were followed by ''Casper's Haunted Christmas'' (starring Spooky and Poil from the animated spinoff of the first movie), and ''Casper's Scare School'', which were done entirely in CGI with no live-action elements. These films are often referred to as being "sequels" to the 1995 feature despite the fact that they heartily contradict the feature and do not appear to even take place in the same universe.
In ''Casper's Scare School'', Casper's personality remains unchanged, but he had new friends, enemies, etc. Casper was not really the only friendly ghost however. Kibosh (this time without Snivel) also was friendly back when he was a child like Casper. Unlike the previous ''Casper'' films, Casper's uncles appear to care for him and when he goes to scare school, they are not really happy about him leaving. Whipstaff Manor (or a house that resembles it) was in the movie but Dr. Harvey and his daughter Kat were not in it. His voice is noticably deeper than previous versions.

Actors to play Casper

Cecil Roy voiced Casper in the majority of the Famous Studios cartoons. Casper was voiced by Julie McWhirter in the Hanna-Barbara cartoons, by Malachi Pearson in the 1995 movie ''Casper'' and ''The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper'', by Jeremy Foley in ''Casper: A Spirited Beginning'' and ''Casper Meets Wendy'', by Brendon Ryan Barrett in ''Casper's Haunted Christmas'' and by Devon Werkheiser in ''Casper's Scare School''. Devon Sawa is the only actor to play the character in live-action, portraying him in a sequence from the 1995 film in which Casper was temporarily brought back to life.

Other appearances and references

★ In the film ''Ghost Dad'', with Bill Cosby, the main character's daughter comments that when everyone learns her father is a ghost they will say, "Oh, look; there goes Casper's daughter."

★ In the film ''Kids'', one of the lead characters' names is Casper, and he frequently describes himself as the friendly ghost.

★ NASA named a martian rock after Casper during the Mars Pathfinder's trip to the planet Mars in 1997. In the initial photos, the "Casper Rock" was shown to be completely white.

★ Casper was parodied in an episode of ''The Simpsons''. Bart and Lisa were comparing each other's comic unfavorably, when Bart pointed out that Casper bore an uncanny resemblance to Richie Rich and was probably Richie's ghost. When Bart wondered how Richie died, Lisa mused that perhaps he became disillusioned with wealth, and took his own life.

★ In the ''Family Guy'' film, '', one scene depicts Casper's demise in an act accidentally initiated by Stewie (though Casper claims that he was "going to off himself on Tuesday anyway").

★ On ''Cheers'', Norm Peterson observed that by the end of each episode Casper was surrounded by friends, but by the beginning of the next episode he was once again friendless. Cliff Clavin's response was that Casper was simply quenching his thirst for blood.

★ The name of the school in the Nickelodeon series ''Danny Phantom'' is Casper High.

★ Casper is parodied in an episode of ''Robot Chicken'' in which he has a brother named Jasper "The Douchebag Ghost". Jasper is identical in appearance to Casper, but his personality and mannerisms are the opposite of Casper's. Instead of being friendly toward people, Jasper plays rude jokes on them (Possessing the body of a dead person at their funeral, cursing at people, etc).

★ The song "Ghost Ride" by Mistah FAB makes a reference to Casper.

★ Casper CD-ROM games were developed and published in many languages in 2006 and 2007 by Compedia [[3]]

★ An episode of ''SpongeBob Squarepants'' is called ''Squidward the Unfriendly Ghost''.

★ In the ''The Hermit of Black Rock'' episode of ''The Land Before Time'' (based on ''The Land Before Time'' films), Guido refers to Chomper as Chomper the friendly Sharptooth. This is a parody of Casper the Friendly Ghost.

★ Wesley Willis wrote a song entitled "Casper the Homosexual Friendly Ghost".

★ Daniel Johnston wrote a song entitled "Casper the Friendly Ghost" which was included on his 1983 recording ''Yip Jump Music''.

Supporting characters

★ The Ghostly Trio - including Fatso

★ Wendy the Good Little Witch

★ Hot Stuff the Little Devil

★ Nightmare the ghost horse

★ Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost

★ Spooky's girlfriend Poil

★ Gned Gnome

★ Jason "Casper" K.

Comic book titles

★ ''Casper''

★ ''Casper Adventure Digest''

★ ''Casper and...''

★ ''Casper and Friends''

★ ''Casper and Friends Magazine''

★ ''Casper and Nightmare''

★ ''Casper and Spooky''

★ ''Casper and The Ghostly Trio''

★ ''Casper and Spooky''

★ '' Adaptation

★ ''Casper Big Book''

★ ''Casper Digest''

★ ''Casper Digest Stories''

★ ''Casper Digest Winners''

★ ''Casper Enchanted Tales Digest''

★ ''Casper Ghostland''

★ ''Casper Giant Size''

★ ''Casper Halloween Trick or Treat''

★ ''Casper in Space''

★ ''Casper in 3-D''

★ ''Casper Magazine''

★ ''Casper Movie Adaptation''

★ ''Casper's Ghostland''

★ ''Casper's Spaceship''

★ ''Casper Special''

★ ''Casper Strange Ghost Stories''

★ ''Casper, the Friendly Ghost''

★ ''Casper TV Showtime''

★ ''Famous TV Funday Funnies''

★ ''The Friendly Ghost, Casper''

★ ''Harvey Two-Pack''

★ ''Nightmare and Casper''

★ ''Richie Rich and Casper''

★ ''Richie Rich, Casper, and Wendy''

★ ''TV Casper and Company''

See also

★ Richie Rich (comics)

★ The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper

External links

★ Harvey Entertainment

★ Don Markstein's Toonopedia

★ ''There's Good Boos Tonight'' an episode of ''Casper the Friendly Ghost'' from the Internet Archive.

★ Compedia