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Casper, the Friendly Ghost
Topic Started: Jan 19 2017, 07:59 PM (453 Views)
Laughing Gravy
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When I was just a little Gravy (we're talkin' roughly aged 4 to 6 or so) I learned to read and honed the craft with Harvey comics featuring Casper and his friends and with the Looney Tunes family of characters, all of whom I also enjoyed on the TV cartoon shows. Over the years, I've heard the Casper cartoons greatly disparaged out there in cartoon-fan-land, and I wasn't really certain why: they seemed harmless enough to me, but then, I'd hardly watched the darn things over the decades. But I did pick up Shout! Factory's three-disc set with all 55 theatrical cartoons (1945-1959) plus the 26 cartoons made for TV in the early '60s. And, having recently gone through all of the theatrical 55, I figgered I'd share my impressions.

Typical Casper cartoon: Casper wants to make friends. He introduces himself to people, who then do odd Tex Avery-like contortions and flee for their lives. Casper makes a small friend, an animal or child, and saves them from a terrible fate, so everyone loves Casper and no one is afraid of him. The end.

Repeat that 55 times and there's your Casper series.

Occasionally, they'd vary the formula: Casper's little animal friend would die and become a ghost and be a true friend for Casper, which is weird beyond words. Casper's parents are shown in one cartoon, and the ghosts come out of graves from time to time, so unlike the comic book or TV Casper, he's a REAL ghost and not a magical figure like a unicorn or faerie.

The first Casper cartoon, The Friendly Ghost, was a one-shot released in 1945; two sequels followed before Casper was granted his own series in 1950. Several of the cartoons have commentary by cartoon experts (such as they are) or by the widow of one of the old Famous Studios artists or writers. And nearly every cartoon has a little kid or animal exclaiming, "GOSH, Casper, you're a TWICKY one."

I haven't watched the made-for-TV cartoons, by the way. I'm glad to see this series end, I tired of Casper long 'bout cartoon 15 or 20. A few cartoon are rather clever, with Casper going to a Hollywood premiere or visiting the Paramount cartoon studios and meeting his fellow animated stars, that sort of thing, but really, there are no REALLY good cartoons in the entire set of 55.

Still...

They seem harmless enough to me.

Read more about Casper.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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Frank Hale
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I'm not exactly clear on what you're looking for on this, Mr. G.

You seem to say that the cartoons are formulaic and dull (I'd add witless and brain-dead), while suggesting that their being "harmless" ameliorates a lot of that.

About all I can offer is that in about 10 years, if not before, you are going to start looking at the calendar and realizing that your remaining viewing time is not infinite.

Yesterday's NYT crossword puzzle referenced a Leon Trotsky quote: "Old age is the most unexpected of all things that can happen to a man".
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Laughing Gravy
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Eh. My bucket list consists of a lot of things, and apparently "wasting 7 minutes prior to watching a science-fiction movie on Saturday afternoons" was one of 'em. Besides, next to the 1950s Popeye cartoons, Casper was a work o' art.
"I'm glad that this question came up, because there are so many ways to answer it that one of them is bound to be right." - Robert Benchley
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CliffClaven
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As a kid, I placed Caspers near the bottom of the list of theatrical cartoons on TV; something to watch if the only alternative was daytime adult fare. Perhaps the lowest tier was Terrytoons with "love story" plots.

The thing was, they felt like they were made for REALLY little kids, and compounded that offense by always including Casper sniffling and suffering ... sentimental girly stuff! It was almost as creepy as Baby Huey, wearing his huge diaper and playfully inflicting unfunny pain on the fox (Strange, tone-deaf violence was a hallmark of the otherwise bland post-Fleischer cartoons, especially with Baby Huey and Herman & Katnip). On revisiting, those elements are still there, except now one might wring adult laughs out of the more WTF moments.

Yes, they were well made -- mostly by the same crew that created the great Fleischer stuff. But a visible sameness finally overwhelmed their output. The same music cues for the same moments; the same story formulas; the same long, dopey double-takes on almost every gag. I can't help but suspect Paramount managers cut budgets and at the same time pushed an agenda of aiming exclusively at kids.
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AndyFish
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Some of the early ones start promisingly enough with a Haunted House and a bunch of ghosts going out to scare people, and then it's cutesyville from there on with a sniffing sad Casper scaring people he only wants to be friends with only to end the 'toon with finally a NEW friend which he would promptly loose by the start of the next cartoon, wash, rinse, repeat.

As a kid I'd often hope that THIS Casper cartoon they were showing would be the one that would focus on the ghosts leaving the Haunted House and going to scare people, and it seemed like it was rarely if ever the case.

I suspect these, like serials, were designed to be viewed in EXTREMELY short appearances-- say one every three months or so.

I did like the one with the SPOOKREME COURT which has Casper on trial for being such a lame ghost.
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Chandu
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When I was attending Matinees as a kid, the Casper cartoons were cute the first coupla times you saw 'em, but after that they were just OK. The rare treat that always got an ovation of yea's, hand clapping and foot stomping was Mighty Mouse!
Not plane, nor bird, nor even frog. It's just little ol' me...
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