The Friendly Ghost may not be the best of the Casper cartoons, there is understandably a not-quite-found its feet yet. However, this still manages to be a good start, and made room for better to follow.The Friendly Ghost is not the best-looking of the series, it's not quite as lush or colourful, the grainy picture quality doesn't help and Casper did look odd and as if his design was still developing (understandable). Overall however, it is still quite good, most of the characters are well drawn and move well, some of the colours are beautiful and the backgrounds are very detailed and have a lot of atmosphere in the early parts of the cartoon. Winston Sharples' music as always is outstanding and often one of the best assets of all the cartoons they feature in. It's beautifully orchestrated, lively, poignant-sounding without being saccharine and in the early parts it's also quite spooky.Dialogue here is sweet and moving (this is not the sort of cartoon that's particularly funny, the man at the end's fright at seeing Casper is wonderfully exaggerated), though Casper feeling sorry for himself doesn't quite avoid being too sentimental. The story, while not particularly innovative, is incredibly cute, with the befriending of the children, has a lot of charm and atmosphere and is quite poignant (if not as heart-wrenching as the cartoon made afterwards). I do agree that the family's acceptance of Casper was too rushed and too quickly introduced. The moral does avoid being laid on too thick or heavy-handed. The characters are engaging, and the voice acting is very solid.All in all, there is better in the Casper the Friendly Ghost series but this is a good start. 7/10 Bethany Cox

Just rewatched this public domain Famous Studios cartoon on YouTube. This is the one that introduced a little ghost named Casper to movie audiences in the last year of World War II. It's message of tolerance to anyone different-whether physically or otherwise-seemed quite relevant to anyone wanting to understand other nationalities and cultures. Well, actually, this was probably just a cute story meant to amuse and maybe scare children a little for a brief six minutes before the main feature but like that tale of Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer, does address in some way how ignorant prejudice is. Anyway, while the syrup seemed to be laid a little thick concerning Casper's sadness and seeing him trying to kill himself by laying on the tracks might not be something you'd want your child to witness, this is still just a harmless tale of how useful one is despite shortcomings you think you have.

This cartoon has historic value in that it is the first "Casper" animated short, so they give a short introduction about the main character. The narrator even gives the viewers the option of believing in ghosts, saying if you do, you'll like the story and if you don't well.....just pretend you do! Who says people weren't "tolerant" in the "old days?"The basic premise is that all the ghosts in the haunted house would go out each night and scare people. However, Casper preferred to stay home and NOT scare people. Hence, the title "the friendly ghost." He would even sit and read a book called, "How To Win Friends."The story is about how he gets disgusted with his fellow ghosts and one night decides to leave his house to go out and try to make friends in the world. He finds that easier said than done as people freak out when they see him!This Technicolor cartoon would look really good with a nice restoration job as has been done with Looney Tunes and Popeye cartoons. The color and artwork in this one is excellent.

This first CASPER cartoon is an engaging little film (though Casper is almost unrecognizable--his design was later "cleaned up" and streamlined as he developed, much like Mickey Mouse and Bugs Bunny) that has much to offer younger children. Issues such as fair play, overcoming peer pressure and being accepted for who you are (not by how you appear) make this a charming bit of animation for children that offers a nice moral education as well.Later on, as Famous Studios would try to understand how to approach Casper as a character, they would often get esoteric (THERE'S GOOD BOOS TONIGHT is an example of how they tried to make Casper a "serious" cartoon, and features actual death). Ultimately, Harveytoons would make Casper into a brain-dead ghost--but here he is a ghost with a soul.