Although he would ultimately become the most famous and popular creation from Famous Studios character library (apart of course from those passed down from the Fleischer Studio); Casper the Friendly Ghost seems to have been originally intended as a one-shot short. The benign spirit would have to wait over two years for a follow-up film, not that there was much worth waiting for.

Although to be fair this isn’t to say there is anything wrong with the character himself, it just that while most studios made their shorts to entertain general audiences (both kids and adults), Famous Studio’s, was a writer of pure children’s entertainment and it shows.

As this is his first short, Casper doesn’t look quite as good here as in some of his later cartoons, he a bit stocky and not as cute as he would become; this can be said of pretty much any classic era character though.

There isn’t a lot in this short, few if any gags, but it is kind of cute and going by the famous shorts I’ve seen it as good as anything else the studio made. It’s not great, not a lot happens, and the whole thing is just a little passé; which it possibly was back when it was originally shown.