Casper the Friendly Ghost

Casper was created by Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo, the former devising the idea for the character and the latter providing illustrations.[9] Initially intended as the basis for a children's storybook, there was at first little interest in their idea and the book went unpublished.[10] When Reit was away on military service during World War II before the book was released, Oriolo sold the rights to the book to Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios animation division for a total of $175. This one-time payment was all that he received, missing out on a share of the revenue earned from the films, comic books and merchandise to come.[11]

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 inhabits a haunted house along with a community of adult ghosts who delight in scaring the living. Casper, in contrast, is a nonconformist among ghosts: he would prefer to make friends with people. He packs up his belongings and goes out into the world, hoping to find friends. However, the animals that he meets (a rooster, a mole, a cat, a mouse named Herman, and a group of hens) take one horrified look at him, scream: "A ghost!" and run off in the other direction. Distraught, Casper unsuccessfully attempts to commit suicide (apparently forgetting that he is already dead) by lying down on a railway track before an oncoming train, before he meets two children named Bonnie and Johnny who become his friends. The children's mother, apparently widowed and impoverished, at first is frightened of Casper, but later welcomes him into the family after he unintentionally frightens off a greedy landlord, who, unwilling to own a "haunted" house, tears up the mortgage and gives her the house outright. The short ends with the mother kissing Bonnie, Johnny, and Casper as she sends them off to school, with Casper wearing clothing as if he were a living child.

Casper appeared in two more subsequent cartoons, There's Good Boos To-Night and A Haunting We Will Go. There's Good Boos To-Night differs wildly from later Casper cartoons: although the theme of Casper trying to find a friend and failing in these attempts before succeeding also occurs in later cartoons, the tone of this short turns remarkably dark when a hunter and his dogs appear, chasing the little fox cub named Ferdie that Casper has befriended. Although Casper scares the hunter and dogs away, Casper discovers Ferdie dead after a harrowing chase scene. Happily, however, Ferdie returns as a ghost to join his friend Casper in the afterlife.

These were later adapted into Noveltoons before Paramount started a Casper the Friendly Ghost series in 1950, and ran the theatrical releases until summer 1959. Although having much success, the series was later criticized by animation historians and viewers, mainly due to the story of each entry of the series as being largely the same: Casper (now slightly thinner than the pudgy figure that appeared in the earlier cartoons) escapes from the afterlife of a regular ghost because he finds that scaring people can be tiresome year after year, tries to find friends but inadvertently scares almost everyone, and finally finds a (cute little) friend, whom he saves from some sort of fate, leading to his acceptance by those initially scared of him. In 1955, composer Winston Sharples composed an instrumental theme for Casper's cartoons.

Cover of Casper the Friendly Ghost #1 (March 1991)

Casper was first published in comics form in August 1949 by St. John Publications, running for five issues until September 1951. In 1952, Alfred Harvey, founder and publisher of Harvey Comics began producing Casper comic books. Casper first appeared in Harvey Comics Hits #61 (Oct 1952), and then moved to a solo book with Casper the Friendly Ghost #7 (December 1952).[6] In 1959, Harvey purchased the rights to the character outright.

Casper went on to headline a large number of comic book series, as well as appearing in back up stories and guest appearances in other titles. The Casper series inspired three popular spin-offs: Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost, Wendy the Good Little Witch, and The Ghostly Trio. Casper's titles include:

In 2009, a new Casper comic was published, called Casper and the Spectrals by Arden Entertainment. Much like The Man of Steel and Batman: Year One did with their respective characters, it revamped Casper and several other Harvey characters for a new audience. After selling 6,400 copies of the first comic, the last two issues were published in 2010.

Casper has starred in five television shows:[12]

• Matty's Funday Funnies (1959–1961)
• The New Casper Cartoon Show (1963–1970)
• Casper and the Angels (1979–1980)
• The Harveytoons Show (known in the UK as Casper and Friends) (1990–1994)
• The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (1996–1998)
• Casper's Scare School (2009–2012)

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-September 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. TV Corporation in 1956. U.M. & M. retitled just "A Haunting We Will Go", but credited "Featuring Casper The Friendly Ghost" as "Featuring Casper's 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 (initially repackaged as Casper and Company) in 1963 and ran continuously until the mid-90s. Casper has remained popular in reruns and merchandising.

Hanna-Barbera Productions also gave Casper 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 (aka Casper Saves Halloween), and also the Saturday morning cartoon series Casper and the Angels (an animated takeoff on two live-action hit shows Charlie's Angels and CHiPS) 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.

Between 1990 and 1994, Casper appeared in The Harveytoons Show which was known as Casper and Friends in the UK.[13] This show featured other Harvey Comics characters and series including: Little Audrey, Tommy Tortoise and Moe Hare, Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Buzzy the Crow, Modern Madcaps, Possum Pearl, Professor Schmatlz, Jeeper and Creeper and others.[13] The show consisted of Famous Studios-produced cartoons from 1950 to 1964 and each episode of the series included three full cartoons and one "ToonTake" segment.[13]

In 1996, Amblin Entertainment and Universal Cartoon Studios created a new Casper series for Fox Kids called The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, based on the 1995 feature, that lasted two years and was never seen on television again after 1998.

In 2009, MoonScoop Group, in association with Classic Media, TF1 and DQ, produced a TV show named Casper's Scare School, based on the film of the same name.

In 2020, Casper appeared in a supporting role in the "Scare Bud" episode of Harvey Girls Forever!, a series based on Harvey Comics characters.[14]

A new live-action television series is in the works at Peacock, co-produced between Universal Content Productions and DreamWorks Animation with Wu Kai-yu writing and executive producing.[15]

The Famous Studios version of Casper was scheduled to appear as a cameo in the deleted scene "Acme's Funeral" from the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.[16]

Numerous Casper cartoons were released on home video by Universal Studios (via MCA Inc.), which also adopted the friendly ghost into a live-action feature film titled Casper in 1995, where he and his wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio, were rendered via computer animation, which initially created the first CGI lead character in a film. The film constructed a back-story for the character 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. Two live-action direct-to-video follow-ups to the film, Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy (which introduced Hilary Duff as fellow Harvey Comics character Wendy the Good Little Witch), were made. They were followed by Casper's Haunted Christmas (starring Spooky and Poil from the comics), and Casper's Scare School, which were done entirely in CGI with no live-action elements.

In 2001, Harvey Entertainment was acquired by Classic Media which, until 2012, licensed the Harvey properties including Casper.[17]

Casper made a cameo in a MetLife commercial along with several other cartoon characters in 2012. Later that same year, Classic Media was acquired by DreamWorks Animation, which in turn would be acquired by NBCUniversal in 2016, and thus Universal Studios, the producer of the original live-action feature film, now manages the rights to the character and other related characters in addition to regaining the rights to Casper's Haunted Christmas (which Universal itself originally released in late 2000). The rights to Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy however are owned by Disney through 20th Century Home Entertainment.

In 2019, Casper made an appearance in a GEICO commercial.[18]

• Alan Shay and radio actress Cecil Roy voiced Casper in the majority of the Famous Studios cartoons.
• Anne Lloyd provided the voice in Golden Records' Casper the Friendly Ghost and The Little Ghost's Dance in 1951.[19]
• June Foray provided the voice for Mattel's Talking Casper the Friendly Ghost Doll in 1961.[20][21]
• Norma MacMillan and Ginny Tyler provided the voice in The New Casper Cartoon Show.
• Julie McWhirter provided the voice in Casper and the Angels, Casper's Halloween Special and Casper's First Christmas.
• Joanna Ruiz provided the voice for a British dub in 1991.[22]
• Christopher Miron Allport voiced Casper in an early 1990s Target commercial.[23][24]
• Malachi Pearson voiced the character in the 1995 film Casper and The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper (1996–1998).
• Devon Sawa is the only actor to ever have played the character in live-action, portraying him in a sequence from the 1995 film in which Casper was temporarily brought back to life.
• April Winchell voiced Casper as a baby in The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper episode "Three Ghosts and a Baby".[25]
• Lani Minella voiced Casper in Casper: The Interactive Adventure.
• Jeremy Foley voiced the character in Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy.
• Siobhan Moore and Paul Tiesler played Casper in Casper: The Musical.[26][27]
• Brendon Ryan Barrett provided the voice in Casper's Haunted Christmas.
• Devon Werkheiser voiced Casper in Casper's Scare School.
• Carolyn Hennesy voiced Casper in Casper: Friends Around the World.
• Oliver Stern voiced Casper in a GEICO commercial in 2019.[28]
• Jack Theodore Kruse played Casper in Casper the Friendly Musical.[29]
• Bobby Moynihan voiced Casper in the fourth season of Harvey Girls Forever!

In 2011, Shout! Factory released a DVD set titled Casper The Friendly Ghost: The Complete Collection 1945-1963 which contains The Friendly Ghost, There's Good Boos To-Night, A Haunting We Will Go, 55 theatrical cartoons, and all 26 episodes of The New Casper Cartoon Show.

• Ghost stories
• Homer the Happy Ghost
• Timmy the Timid Ghost
• List of ghosts

• "Casper the Friendly Ghost". Dreamworks Classics. Archived from the original on April 14, 2014. Retrieved May 24, 2021.
• "Casper the Friendly Ghost". Harvey Entertainment. Archived from the original on May 10, 2006. Retrieved June 11, 2014.
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia
• Casper's Scare School on iTunes