The Friendly Ghost

The Friendly Ghost is a Famous Studios cartoon released on 16 November 1945 as part of its Noveltoons series of animated short movies. It is the first cartoon to feature the character Casper the Friendly Ghost.[1]

The Friendly Ghost
Title card
Directed byIsadore Sparber
Produced byIsadore Sparber
Story byBill Turner
Otto Messmer
Based onCasper the Friendly Ghost
by Joseph Oriolo and Seymour Reit
StarringAlan Shay (Casper)
Mae Questel (Johnny/Bonnie/Johnny and Bonnnie's Mother)
Jackson Beck (Ghost/Landlord)
Narrated byFrank Gallop
Music byWinston Sharples
Animation byNick Tafuri
John Walworth
Tom Golden
Backgrounds byShane Miller
Color processTechnicolor
Production
company
Distributed byParamount Pictures
Release date
November 16, 1945
Running time
9 minutes
LanguageEnglish

Plot

Casper is seen reading the book How to Win Friends, a real book by Dale Carnegie. Every night at midnight his brothers and sisters scare people, except for Casper, who doesn't want to scare people, so he stays home instead. Casper decides that he would rather make friends with the living. While his family is off scaring people, Casper bids his pet cat goodbye and leaves home.

The next morning, he meets a rooster to whom he says hello but the rooster retreats. Casper next meets a mole. At first the mole is happy to befriend him but when he puts on eyeglasses, he sees that Casper is a ghost and jumps back in his hole. Casper later meets a mouse and a cat who resemble Herman and Katnip and who flee into the barn upon seeing him. Casper then sees a flock of chickens who fly away with their hen house and splatter eggs on him.

Casper thinks that he made a mistake leaving home. When he hears a train whistle he decides to kill himself by having the train run over him, apparently forgetting that he is already dead. After the train passes over Casper without harming him, he begins crying. Casper is approached by a boy and a girl named Johnny and Bonnie who want to play with him, which makes Casper very happy.

After a game of ball and jump rope, Bonnie and Johnny introduce Casper to their mother, who screams and tells Casper to leave. Casper picks up his sack and is about to go through the door when a banker opens it. The banker orders Casper to tell the mother he has come for a mortgage payment, but when he realizes that Casper is a ghost, he tears up the mortgage which he tells Casper to keep because he doesn't want to have a haunted house on the market and runs off in fright, so fast that he sets a bridge on fire.

Despondent, Casper decides to go back home to his own family. He is about to leave when the mother picks him up with a smile on her face, accepting him for saving her and the children from being forced to leave. The short concludes with the mother seeing Casper now wearing schoolboy clothes, Bonnie, and Johnny off to school together.

References
  1. Lenburg, Jeff (1999). The Encyclopedia of Animated Cartoons. Checkmark Books. pp. 63–64. ISBN 0-8160-3831-7. Retrieved 6 June 2020.


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