Casper the Friendly Ghost
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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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. According to the 1995 feature film Casper, his last name, when he was alive, was McFadden, making his "real" name Casper McFadden.
History
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Creation and success at Paramount
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, and ran the theatrical releases until the summer of 1959. Nearly every entry in the series was the same: Casper leaves the (after)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.
Harvey Comics, television and films
Casper went on to become one of the most famous properties from the Famous 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 in 1959 (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 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. 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, also on ABC. 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 produced 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, and also the Saturday morning cartoon series Casper and the Angels 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).
In 1995, the friendly ghost was adapted into a live-action feature film entitled Casper, where he and his wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio, were created with computer animation. The film constructed a backstory for Casper 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. Much of the backstory he is given in the film is contradicted by other Casper media.
In 1996, Fox created a new Casper series, based on the 1995 feature, that lasted two years. Two live-action direct-to-video follow-ups, Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, to the film were later made. They were followed by Casper's Haunted Christmas and Casper's Scare School, which were done entirely in CGI with no live-action elements. These films are often referred to as being "sequels" to the 1995 feature despite the fact that they heartily contract the feature and do not appear to even take place in the same universe.
In Casper's Scare School, Casper's personality remains unchanged, but he had new friends, enemies, etc. Casper was not really the only friendly ghost however. Kibosh also was friendly back when he was a child like Casper. Unlike the previous Casper films, Casper's uncles appear
to care for him and when he goes to scare school, they are not really happy about him leaving.Actors to play Casper
Casper was voiced by Malachi Pearson in Casper and The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, by Jeremy Foley in Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, by Brendon Ryan Barrett in Casper's Haunted Christmas and by Devon Werkheiser in Casper's Scare School. Devon Sawa is the only actor to play the character in live-action, portraying him in a sequence from the 1995 film in which Casper was temporarily brought back to life.
Other appearances, trivia and references
In the movie Ghost Dad, with Bill Cosby, the main character's daughter comments that when everyone learns her father is a ghost they will say, "Oh, look; there goes Casper's daughter."
In the movie Kids, one of the lead characters' names is Casper, and he frequently describes himself as the friendly ghost.
NASA named a martian rock after Casper during the Mars Pathfinder's trip to the planet Mars in 1997. In the initial photos, the "Casper Rock" was shown to be completely white.
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.
In the Family Guy movie, Stewie Griffin: The Untold Story, one scene depicts Casper's demise in an act accidentally initiated by Stewie (though Casper claims that he was going to off himself on Tuesday anyway).
On Cheers, Norm Peterson observed that by the end of each episode Casper was surrounded by friends, but by the beginning of the next episode he was once again friendless. Cliff Clavin's response was that Casper was simply quenching his thirst for blood.
The name of the school in the Nickelodeon series Danny Phantom is Casper High.
Casper is allergic to pineapple.
Daniel Johnston, an underground, or outsider musician and artist has a song called "Casper the friendly ghost" [[1]]. Casper is also featured in several of his album covers [[2]].
Casper is parodied in an episode of Robot Chicken in which he has a brother named Jasper "The Douchebag Ghost". Jasper is identical in appearance to Casper, but his personality and mannerisms are the opposite of Casper's. Instead of being friendly toward people, Jasper plays rude jokes on them (Possessing the body of a dead person at their funeral, cursing at people, etc).
The song Ghost Ride by Mistah FAB makes a reference to Casper.
Casper CD-Rom Games were developed and published in many languages in 2006 and 2007 by Compedia [[3]]
Casper was originally going to be named Benjamin after artist's son who died in a car crash
Supporting characters
Spooky the Tuff Little Ghost
Spooky's girlfriend Poil
The Ghostly Trio- including Fatso
Hot Stuff the Little Devil
Casper's horse friend Nightmare (Harvey comics)
Wendy the Good Little Witch
