Casper the Friendly Ghost entertained kids for decades, but just who is he, and how did he die? One '90s movie may have the answer.
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00:00Casper the Friendly Ghost entertained kids for decades, but just who is he, and how did
00:05he die?
00:06One 90s movie may have the answer.
00:08A friend of red-capped Wendy the Witch and Tiny Devil Little Hot Stuff, Casper has always
00:13been a goody-goody in the face of, if not total evil, then basic naughtiness.
00:18But there's something that's rather creepy about him.
00:20He's the ghost of a dead child.
00:22For his parents in at least one version of his story, that proves to be an all-too-serious,
00:27all-too-real event.
00:29Under all of that cheer and beneath all of that joy, Casper's story is tragic.
00:34He sprang to life as a character in Famous Studios' Noveltoons World in 1945 after being
00:39the subject of an unsold picture book concept.
00:42His shorts initially started at an irregular pace, and they began in earnest in 1950.
00:47Casper is a rare thing in the comic book world, a ghost with no ill intentions who wants to
00:52make friends instead of scaring the pants off the living.
00:55His uncles, the ghostly trio, or Stretch, Fatso, and Stinky, stand in opposition to
00:59Casper's mission.
01:01Most of his comic books and shorts tend to follow the same pattern and find Casper trying
01:05to make friends, only to scare them away.
01:08At the end of each adventure, he manages to make friends with a fellow misfit.
01:11You're my best friend!
01:14This is generally the plot structure that supports Casper through several animated series
01:18and specials, a bunch of comic books, and even a live-action movie franchise.
01:23But only the hit 1995 big-screen version of Casper ever bothered to give his death
01:27a linear backstory.
01:29In the film, the little boy initially doesn't have any memory of how he died.
01:33His new human friend, Cat Harvey, takes him to his mansion's playroom to restore his memory.
01:38That's where he recalls that he died of pneumonia when he was only 12 years old.
01:42He was so happy about the new sled that his father gave him that he spent hours out in
01:46the snow until he got a cold that progressed into something deadly.
01:50He's also given a last name for the first time, McFadden.
01:53I remembered.
01:54I didn't go where I was supposed to go.
01:58I just stayed behind.
02:01That movie was the first time any cause of death has ever been assigned to Casper.
02:05In the Harvey Comics world that gave birth to him, Casper is simply born a ghost from
02:10ghost parents.
02:11Other comics have hinted that he was once a living child, but never given him a definitive
02:15reason for his death.
02:17This sad piece of lore has an even more tragic impact on those who loved Casper during his
02:21lifetime.
02:22In Casper, we learn that his death so unhinges his father that he is declared legally insane.
02:27His father spends his life trying to create the Lazarus Machine, which brings the dead
02:31back to life.
02:33This would be sad enough, but finding the machine soon becomes the central objective
02:37of Katherine Kerrigan-Krinidon and Paul Dibbs-Pletzger, the wannabe heir of Wipstaff Manor and her
02:42attorney, respectively.
02:44They are ultimately scared away from their quarry, with Kerrigan being sent off to the
02:48afterlife instead of being resurrected.
02:50In the end, the machine is used to restore life to Kat's father, James Harvey, who was
02:54killed in a bender with Casper's three uncles.
02:57Since it can only be used once, Casper has offered up his last chance at returning to
03:01the realm of the living.
03:02This is the way it's gotta be.
03:05Ultimately, Kat and James end up coming to grips with the death of Kat's mother, without
03:09either of them having to cross over.