How Friendly Is Casper?

Intro. Lyrics to song

"Casper, the friendly ghost

The friendliest ghost you know!

The grownups might look at him with fright,

But the children all love him so.

He always says hello

And he’s really glad to meet ya’

Wherever he may go,

He’s kind to every living creature.

Grownups don’t understand,

Why children love him the most,

But kids all know that he loves them so,

Casper the friendly ghost!"

Source: www.niehs.nih.gov/kids/lyrics/casporig.htm

"The reason I like Casper is because he’s always your friend," notes ten-year-old newcomer Brendon Ryan Barrett, who plays Chris Carson. "He never hurts anybody. He doesn’t scare you And he never really gets mad. He’s the best friend anybody could ever have."

Source: www.foxhome.com/casper2/index_frames.html

It all started with a lovable character. Casper was created in the late 1940s by Joe Oriole. Oriole came up with the idea of a "friendly" ghost and together with Sy Reit wrote a children’s book featuring the character.

They both believed in the concept of an amiable ghost and submitted their unpublished book to Famous Studios, a subsidiary of Paramount Pictures. In 1945, Paramount released the first Casper cartoon, The Friendly Ghost. Though the initial audience response was tepid, Paramount revived Casper for a 1948 cartoon, There’s Good Boos Tonight, and a 1949 cartoon, A Haunting we will go. The ghost segued to his first comic book in 1949, when Jubilee published Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Casper the friendly Ghost Synopsis from ABC website

A friendly ghost who tried to help people rather than scare them, Casper starred in a series of theatrical shorts in the 1940’s. Casper became a mainstay of ABC’s Saturday morning schedule throughout the 1960’s.

Original Broadcast 10/5/63 To 12/27/69

Studio Paramount

Network ABC

Type animated

Characters Casper, Wendy, Lil’ Hot Stuff, Ghostly Trio, Night

Recently Casper, the amiable apparition has haunted the silver screen through the VCR & TV.

Two years and 28 trillion bytes (equal to about 19 million floppy discs) later, Casper not only looks authentic, but has subtle facial expressions and body language. The congenial ghost is not simply lifelike, explained Muren, but can be most accurately described as "the first digital performer ever. Casper talks, he shows emotion, he has the full range of motion you’d expect of a ’real’ ghost. Five shots in, you’ll forget you’re seeing a special effect."

Here’s a brief synopsis:

A sweet, lonely ghost befriends a motherless girl. He models the ultimate in selflessness -- the willingness to give his life (or rather, his return to life) -- for someone he loves. What could be wrong with someone so good?

Quote

"What’s wrong with Casper? Plenty. Casper may be a computer-generated wonder who tugs at heartstrings and draws sell-out crowds, but he’s still a ghost--a supernatural being who is not one of God’s angels. Since the dead have no power to participate in human activities, the Bible leaves no option other than to call him a demon--and there are no good demons."

Source Berit Kjos www.crossroad.to/text/articles/cmtfg97.html

How friendly is Casper? He promises to be our friend. But can we really trust the friendly phantom? What does the Bible have to say about friendly ghosts?

The Beginning Genesis 3

It started in a haunted place. A place where an evil spirit made his habitation. It has taken a most beautiful form. Within the confines of this wooden ancient forbidden place. But the phantom we see here reveals the modus operandi of all ghosts, and specters.

Like in the Casper Movie, advice was given to an inquiring mind. There was the kindred spirit – the understanding, the looking out for the betterment of the “fleshie” – human.

Yet even in this most perfect of all places, the phantom reveals himself. This is the Garden. Eden. Paradise. Perfection. Yet haunted. By the evil one.

Thus we see the start of how the Serpent works – through smoke & mirrors. Facades, shades of truth. Thus God draws the boundary for His OT people to stay away, stay far way from the haunts of even the friendliest of ghosts.

Later in America, at the rebirth of modern Spiritualism in the second quarter of the nineteenth century, people have been fascinated with the idea of contact with the dead. Early experiments were of course relatively low-tech (i.e. through channeling, rapping on tables, or the use of ouija boards). Inventor Thomas Edison predicted however that the spirit world would strive to keep up with the times, and that they might avail themselves of more technological means to make contact with the living in the future.

Question - Who is Casper?

Answer - the soul of a good person who died

In the movie, Kat finds a kindred soul in the lonely spirit Casper, because she also knows how hard it can be to make friends.