The Friendly Ghost

The Friendly Ghost is a cartoon released by Paramount Pictures on 16 November 1945 under its "Noveltoons" series of animated shorts. It is the first cartoon to feature Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Plot

We first see Casper reading a book called "How To Make Friends" by D. H. Lawrence, every night at 12:00 his brothers and sisters scare people, but Casper is too tired and stays at home.

Tired of scaring people all the time Casper decides make friends with the living, but the other ghosts declare that he wouldn't make a friend if he were the last ghost in the world. Casper angrily bids his brothers and sisters (and his pet cat) goodbye, while his family is bored and lonely, Casper will be living the high life.

Casper runs away from home, sack in hand to find the high life, the next morning he meets a rooster but retreats. Casper later meets a mole who is blind, he is about to shake hands with Casper, but fears that Casper might end his life and keeps on digging his hole. Casper feels guilty about the mole and later meets Herman and Katnip who flee into the barn. Casper then sees a group of chickens who fly away which splatter eggs on him.

Casper realizes that he made a mistake about leaving home as well as living in the high life, but when he hears a train whistle he discovers that there are other ways at making friends.

Pretending to be a damsel-in-distress tied to railroad tracks, Casper waits for a friend to come and rescue him. But is run over by the train which blows him down the track he throws a tantrum and later meets two children named Bonnie and Johnny who know all about ghosts and think that Casper is trying to help them with the're problems.

After a game of ball and jump rope, Bonnie and Johnny introduce Casper to there mother but ends up screaming, Casper picks up his sack and is about to go through the door when a banker opens it. The banker orders Casper to tell the mother about her mortgage, he smokes a cigar but chokes on it and runs away.

Casper decides to go home back to his family, where he will always do the same old thing, scaring people, he is about to leave when the mother grabs him with a smile on her face. The short concludes with Casper, Bonnie and Johnny enjoying the high life that Casper was seeking when he left home.