Movies - Casper the Friendly Ghost

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	Movies - Casper the Friendly Ghost

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 personable.

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 initially 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 (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. The cartoon series also boasted a catchy title song which was written by Jerry Livingston and Mack David.

Casper went on to become one of the most famous properties from the 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 (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 Funday Funnies 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. 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.

Chuck Jones made a cartoon for Warner Bros. with a similar ghost.

Casper was parodied in an episode of The Simpsons. Bart and Lisa were comparing each other's comic unfavourably, when Bart pointed out that Casper bore an uncanny resemblance to Richie Rich. Lisa then mused that perhaps Richie had become disillusioned with wealth, and took his own life.

Family Guy's Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story! also has a flashback scene that depicts Casper demise (from a football accident initiated by Stewie).

Supporting characters

Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost
The Ghostly Trio
Hot Stuff the Little Devil
Casper's horse Nightmare
Wendy the Good Little Witch

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
Casper: A Spirited Beginning
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

[ Visit the complete Wikipedia entry for Casper the Friendly Ghost ]

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