Studio: Paramount Cartoon Studios (formerly Famous Studios)
Distributor: Paramount Pictures
Short Synopsis
Detailed plot documentation for this late Casper short has not been found, and the only version gathered for this book is a television print from The Harveytoons Show, so this summary describes what the film shows. It is Casper's birthday, and the little friendly ghost sets out to celebrate. As usual, he wants company. He wanders across the countryside at sunset, peering hopefully into burrows and holes in the ground in search of friends to invite. His search takes him far afield, past a great caged lion stretched out behind iron bars, perhaps at a zoo or a circus, and to the walls of a castle on a hill, overlooking a bright landscape of rounded trees and patchwork fields. As in most Casper stories, the creatures he meets are at first frightened of a ghost. How the birthday finally turns out is not described in any source this book could check.
Why It Matters
- The late Casper films show the softer, rounder style of Paramount's cartoons in the 1950s, with warm sunset colour and gentle, sentimental storytelling built around Casper's longing for friends, the same theme established in The Friendly Ghost (1945).
- Casper was by then Paramount's most successful cartoon star, and in 1959 Paramount sold the rights to Casper and its other characters to Harvey Comics, which later distributed the films on television as Harveytoons. Shorts like this were among the last new Casper cartoons made for cinemas, and they reached most viewers through television reruns.
Notes and Trivia
- Casper first appeared in The Friendly Ghost (1945) and became a regular series star in 1950.
- See also: The Friendly Ghost (1945).