This article is about the Casper the Friendly Ghost, for other uses of the word see Casper (disambiguation).

Casper the Friendly Ghost is the main character of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. As his name indicates, he is a ghost, but is quite friendly.

Casper was created by Joe Oriolo , an employee of Paramount Pictures' Famous Studios animation division. Oriolo had originally intended the character to appear in a children's storybook he was writing, but allowed Famous to adapt the character into a cartoon short.

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 (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. Nearly every entry in the series was the same: Casper leaves the 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.

Casper went on to become one of the most famous properties from the studio. Alfred Harvey, co-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 (including Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey, and Baby Huey), they began broadcasting the theatrical Famous shorts on a television show sponsored by Mattel Toys titled Funday Funnies in 1959 which introduced the Barbie doll to the public. New cartoons were created for the New Casper Cartoon Show in 1963. 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 Productions produced two holiday specials, Casper's First Christmas and Casper's Halloween Special, and also the Saturday morning cartoon series Casper and the Angels in 1979.

In 1995, the friendly ghost was adapted into a live-action feature film entitled Casper. He and his wicked uncles, The Ghostly Trio, were created for the film using computer animation. Casper is inspired by One Hundred and One Dalmatians' Jasper.

Other characters from the Casper world

• The Ghostly Trio
• Hot Stuff the Little Devil
• Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost
• Wendy the Good Little Witch

External links

• Harvey Entertainment
• Don Markstein's Toonopedia