“There are some people who believe in ghosts. And there are some people who don’t. If you are the ‘believe in ghosts’ kind, then this story is about one. And if you are the ‘don’t believe in ghosts’ kind, well, just for fun, this story is about one anyway. His name was Casper, and he was surely the most unusual ghost there ever was or wasn’t, depending on how you feel about it.”
That’s how one of the most famous and genial animated characters was first introduced by a narrator in the 1945 short subject, The Friendly Ghost. As the title suggests, it marked the debut of Casper, the spirited spirit who would scare up popularity without scaring anyone and become beloved by audiences.
As this fall marks the 80th anniversary of Casper’s debut, and with it being the Halloween season, it’s the perfect time to look back at his first cartoon, The Friendly Ghost, how he first floated onto screens, and his not-so-scary afterlife in film, TV, and comics.
The Famous Studios “Noveltoon,” directed by I. Sparber, opens with the narration (from Frank Gallop), after which we are taken into a haunted house, where Casper (Walter Tetley) has fallen asleep reading the book, How to Win Friends.
Every night at midnight, his brothers and sister ghosts all “scamper out” to frighten the neighborhood’s people, springing to life from the white sheets covering the furniture, and flying out, shrieking and booing into the night sky.
But Casper doesn’t go; he doesn’t want to scare anyone, he wants to make friends. He’d rather stay home, even as one of the other ghosts tries to get him to go. Casper watches from the window as the ghosts fly into the night sky.
As the other ghosts descend upon a nearby town, scaring the residents, Casper decides to run away from home, tying a sack to a stick and carrying it over his shoulder.
As he makes his way, he tries to make friends by greeting those he comes in contact with, but he manages only to scare everyone, including a rooster, a mole, a cat, a mouse, and an entire henhouse.
Poor Casper laments, “It’s no use, I’m just a scary old ghost.” So, he lies down on the railroad track to end it all (odd, as he’s a ghost), and when the train passes, it has no effect, and he simply tumbles off the track.
As he sits, crying, a young boy and girl, named Bonnie (Cecil Roy) and Johnny (Mae Questel), come over. They say, “Hello,” and they aren’t afraid of him. In fact, they ask him to play.
The children invite Casper home, but their mother is terrified and throws Casper out. However, at that moment, the bank manager (Jackson Beck) shows up, looking for payment for the mortgage, and when he sees Casper, he decides that since the house is haunted, they can keep the mortgage, and he runs off.
Mom is so grateful, she picks up Casper and brings him back into the house. The final happy ending scene of the short reveals the mother sending Johnny and Bonnie off to school with a happy Casper dressed for school and heading off to the schoolhouse with them.
The character of Casper was created by artists Seymour Reit and Joe Oriolo. As Reit discussed in a 2019 Cartoon Research article by Jim Korkis: “One weekend I wrote a three to four page story I titled ‘Casper the Friendly Ghost.’ The story was mine – every last word. Shortly after, I gave it to Joe Oriolo, who wanted to develop the visuals and perhaps peddle it either to the studio or to a children’s book publisher.
“By that point, Gulliver [at the Fleischer Studio] was finished, the studio was in hock to Paramount Pictures, and many of the 600 artists (including me) started drifting north again, out of jobs. For a little while, I worked at Eisner & Iger, drawing comics pages.
“Then along came Pearl Harbor and WWII. Am proud to say that I went into the army in a camouflage unit; later went to OCS and wound up in Europe on the staff of the Commanding General of the 9th Air Force, Gen. Hoyt Vandenberg.
“In this job (thanks to my art background) I worked on maps, photo presentations, charts, and various graphic reports which went to Eisenhower at SHAEF. (Pretty heady stuff for a sheltered young kid!) I came out of the Air Force after VE Day with a Captaincy and a decoration. Back to the real world!
Promo art published in PARAMOUNT SALES NEWS, September 6th, 1945.
The Friendly Ghost was eventually released by Famous Studios, the successor to Fleischer after Paramount purchased the latter.
Most animated characters evolve from their first appearance, and Casper is no different. In The Friendly Ghost, he is pudgier and even more childlike. As Steve Stanchfield noted in his 2020 Cartoon Research article: “Casper’s personality is pretty simple in this first entry, but (arguably) just as so many of the other cartoons Famous was doing in this period, it’s charming and sweet without being too saccharine. I especially like his design here in the first cartoon—it might be the cutest starring character the studio ever produced. His action and poses are simple and charming throughout in a sort of Little Lulu way.”
With lush, cozy backgrounds by scenic designer Shane Miller and animation from such talents as Tom Golden and Nick Tafuri, The Friendly Ghost features innocent personality animation that allows the audience to empathize with Casper, as well as dynamic sequences. One includes the ghosts descending on a small town like bomber jets, as lights in houses spring on in alarm.
After The Friendly Ghost, Casper went on to star in the shorts There’s Good Boos Tonight (1948) and A Haunting We Will Go (1949). Starting in 1950, he became a mainstay at Famous Studios in his own series of cartoons (with a fun theme song written by Jerry Livingston and Mack David).
Casper would star in over fifty cartoons from 1949 to 1959. Many, including artists who worked on the shorts, have joked that the plots of the shorts were somewhat repetitive (Casper, wanting to be friendly, scares most people, until he is finally befriended by someone, who doesn’t seem to notice or care that he’s a ghost). In author Charles Solomon’s book, Enchanted Drawings: The History of Animation, animator Lee Mishkin said, “With the Casper Series, you never knew what picture you were working on, because they were all exactly the same.”
Despite this, Casper was a hit with audiences and went on to have even more success beyond the big screen, becoming the most popular character for Harvey Comics, which purchased the character in 1959, the same year he came to television on the series Matty’s Funday Funnies, and eventually his own show. The comics and small screen opened Casper up to new audiences and generations, helping him to become a pop culture icon.
There was a bit of a Casper resurgence in 1979, when the character headlined the Hanna-Barbera cartoon series, Casper and the Angels, which combined Casper with both the Star Wars and Charlie’s Angels popularity of the time. Hanna-Barbera also produced two prime-time specials, Casper’s Halloween Special and Casper’s First Christmas (in 1979).
Thirty years ago, director Brad Silberling and Steven Spielberg’s Amblin Entertainment brought the Friendly Ghost back to theaters with the big-budget, live-action/animated summer movie, Casper. This was followed by a new TV series in 1996 and another in 2009. Classic Casper can still be seen as part of the MeTV Toons line-up.
Now celebrating his eightieth anniversary, Casper, since his debut in The Friendly Ghost on November 16, 1945, has secured a place in animation history, for people who do and don’t believe in ghosts. The character’s appeal was best summed up by animator Myron Waldman who worked on the original Casper cartoons, and said in author Leonard Maltin’s book, Of Mice and Magic: “The boys at the studio used to kid me when we were doing the Caspers; they’d call them the ‘oooh-aah’ pictures, but I always felt those pictures would last much longer than a picture that was just based on gags, because nobody can remember the gags. When they go to see it again, or talk about it, I think they like a story – kids especially.”
Michael Lyons is a freelance writer, specializing in film, television, and pop culture. He is the author of the book, Drawn to Greatness: Disney’s Animation Renaissance, which chronicles the amazing growth at the Disney animation studio in the 1990s. In addition to Animation Scoop and Cartoon Research, he has contributed to Remind Magazine, Cinefantastique, Animation World Network and Disney Magazine. He also writes a blog, Screen Saver: A Retro Review of TV Shows and Movies of Yesteryear and his interviews with a number of animation legends have been featured in several volumes of the books, Walt’s People. You can visit Michael’s web site Words From Lyons at: 
Since the copyright was never renewed for “The Friendly Ghost”, the short has been in the public domain for many years. It was a common entry in cheap home video compilations of old cartoons, where its opening title would often prompt a groan of “This again?” from me. It’s unfortunate that many of us have become familiar with this cartoon — overly familiar, perhaps — from faded, rubicund, poor quality NTA prints. A restoration might well reveal “The Friendly Ghost” to be one of the most visually stunning of all the Noveltoons — and that’s really saying something.
Casper’s suicide attempt in his debut was not his last. He later tried to drown himself in “Casper’s Spree Under the Sea”, but it turned out that ghosts are able to breathe under water. Who knew? Guest stars in the series have tried to take their own lives as well. In “Spunky Skunky”, the mephitic title character, despondent over his inability to make friends because of his malodorous effluvium, throws himself off a cliff but lands in a conveniently placed can of white paint. When he emerges from the paint can and finds himself as white as Casper, Skunky reasons that he, too, has become a ghost, and therefore has nothing to fear from his new friend.
The 1996 TV series was “The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper”, a spinoff from the 1995 feature film and, if you’ll pardon the expression, a real scream. It had many of the same writers and voice actors as “Animaniacs”, and the same sort of zany humour. The topical ’90s references make it seem somewhat dated today, but those of us who lived through that decade will find plenty of laughs in the show.
Long live Casper! Or wait, do I mean “Long DIE Casper!”? Well, happy birthday, anyway, or deathday, or whatever it is.
There actually was a restoration of this short from the camera negative in 2023. It was screened at the Frida cinema in Santa Ana. I’m hoping that this gets a tv airing as part of ME TV Toons.
https://cartoonresearch.com/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/friendly-600.jpg
In the earliest Casper cartoons, he is often shown hanging around a churchyard, sometimes with his own tombstone. The idea of Casper as a dead child is supported in the first few appearances, but afterward he seems to be thought of as always having been a ghost. The comic books make no reference to a previous life. Then, in the Amblin feature film, Casper reverts briefly to his human child form. Leaving room for many intriguing questions to be asked.
Most of the theatrical shorts follow an identical pattern–although once in a while the formula gets mixed up a little, such as when he visits the studio where his own cartoons are made. Unlike many theatrical shorts of the era, the Casper cartoons seem to be aimed primarily at kids–particularly at kids who feel they don’t quite fit in, which is pretty much every kid at one time or another. The formula got another shakeup when Casper debuted on television, as “The New Casper Cartoon Show” featured stories that had originated in the Harvey comic books. These provided Casper with an ongoing cast of supporting characters such as the Ghostly Trio, Spooky, and Wendy (who had only appeared sparingly in the theatricals) plus a mine of rich plots that took Casper beyond loneliness and friend-seeking, in which at times he could be more of a hero.
To this day, I don’t quite understand why as a child I was so fascinated by Casper (and I didn’t think of him as a dead child in those days, only as a ghost). Part of it could have to do with the clever settings, characters, and stories of the TV Casper cartoons. It could have to do with the inventiveness of many (though by no means all) of the comic book stories. Casper is also a very “safe” character because he never means harm to anyone and seeks the greater good for all. But, whatever the case, I wasn’t alone, because Casper enjoyed great popularity via the theatricals, the TV cartoons, the story books and comic books, for many years. He certainly doesn’t look 80–but then, ghosts don’t age!
Apparently, the Harvey Comic staff realized that Casper theatrical cartoons were very repetitive. Hence, why they decided to introduce the new characters and The Enchanted Forest.
Every kid (and adult?) loves an occasional wallow in self-pity. The theatrical shorts really leaned into that, having Casper sniffle and even cry with some frequency (usually with the same music cues). Baby Huey had similar teary moments between the smaller ducklings rejecting him and the fox showing up as pretended friend, played a hair more earnestly than the rest of the cartoon.
You rarely saw this in other studios’ toons, excepting maybe Terrytoons. Characters could be pitiful, and they could feel cold, hungry, or otherwise miserable, but they rarely took time to feel sorry for themselves. That was the audience’s job. And if someone like Daffy Duck did indulge, it took the form of anger and indignation rather than tears.
I suppose that Casper had to have an origin story— as a dead child, because what else could he have been? Ghosts aren’t born as incorporeal beings, with no “side trip” through a human existence before they cross back over into the Great Beyond. This is getting into metaphysical territory, of course, which I don’t care to explore any further.
However, I suggest, based on their rather close resemblance, that Casper is the deceased Richie Rich. Look at the two of them side-by-side, and you’ll see what I mean…
No, I disagree with that theory completely. Besides, they did a crossover comic series with the two characters in the 1970s where the two shared adventures together (although, Richie keeps thinking these were dreams, much to Wendy’s annoyance).
was Seymour reit perhaps mad that hunky and spunky lost to ferdidnad the bull at academy awards so he wanted a similar children’s book to cash in on the popularity?
just an observation
In relating to Paramount and their cartoon division, could anyone be willing to make a animator breakdown of some of their 60’s Noveltoons and Modern Madcaps?
(I’m aware of the general negative opinions towards the 60’s shorts, but I’m probably the only one who actually really likes them. Reason being that, I think Paramount Cartoon Studios have the best animators [e.g. William Brewer Pattengill, Martin Bernard Taras, Isadore Klein, John Gentilella, Nick Tafuri, etc.] and the best background artists [Robert Owen, Robert Little, and Anton Loeb]. I think their work is more better than what Depatie-Freleng would be doing after it’s formation in 1963, the same year that “Good Snooze Tonight”, featuring “Snoozer”, was distributed to theaters. I think that should be the first to have an breakdown and here it the link: https://youtu.be/c5Asm4UduFE?si=oIFjDmfzviMFLrxJ (Basically what I would describe as a “almost restoration”, despite it being an upscale)
Good luck to those who accept this challenge.
I actually had this Casper cartoon, along with a few others on VHS tapes. I will say, it’s every bit as charming as I remember it! I vaguely recall the Hanna Barbera crossovers aside from Casper’s First Christmas, however.