There's Good Boos Tonight
I always grew up with the notion of Casper the Friendly Ghost being a lighthearted but kind of bland cartoon series from the 1950’s. But if you really think about it, the whole idea of the early Casper cartoons is both profound and morbid as well. After all, Casper is the ghost of a dead kid roaming around the cemetery longing and searching for a friend to be by his side...whether the creature is dead or alive. Yes, I am in the camp that believes that Casper is in fact the spirit of a dead child. I do not believe he was a ghost kid born from ghost parents as the studio would like to make people think years later.
I personally think the former idea carries much more weight and gravitas to its character’s situation than the latter interpretation would with its more toned down approach afterward. In hindsight it is pretty odd to see any cartoon series from that period of time have that type of storyline to begin with. “There's Good Boos Tonight” (1948), the second short in the Famous Studios animated series, acknowledges the original idea in such a clear, dark, and heartfelt way that it took me by surprise just how much they emphasized that concept in its early years. The short actually made me tear up in the end.
