Casper the Friendly Ghost is a fictional character who serves as the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name.

In the cartoon adaptation, Casper is a cute ghost-child with a New York accent who inhabits a haunted house along with a community of adult ghosts who delight in scaring the living.

However, the animals that he meets (a rooster, a mole, a cat, a mouse named Herman, and a group of hens) take one horrified look at him, scream: "A ghost!"

Distraught, Casper attempts suicide (apparently forgetting that he is already dead) by lying down on a railway track before an oncoming train, before he meets two children named Bonnie and Johnny who become his friends.

These three cartoons were initially billed as Noveltoons before Paramount started the official Casper the Friendly Ghost series in 1950, and ran the theatrical releases until summer 1959.

Animation historian Leonard Maltin, in his book Of Mice and Magic, criticized the series for its over-reliance on repetition, saying that Casper was "the most monotonous character to invade cartoonland since Mighty Mouse.

Casper has starred in five television shows:[13] After Harvey bought the rights to Casper and many other Famous properties in 1959 (including Herman and Katnip, Little Audrey, and Baby Huey), they began broadcasting the post-September 1950 theatrical Famous shorts on a television show sponsored by Mattel Toys titled Matty's Funday Funnies on ABC in 1959 which introduced the Barbie doll to the public.

Also featured on the NBC version was a big ghost named Hairy Scary (voiced by John Stephenson).

[14] This show featured other Harvey Comics characters and series including: Little Audrey, Tommy Tortoise and Moe Hare, Baby Huey, Herman and Katnip, Buzzy the Crow, Modern Madcaps, Possum Pearl, Professor Schmatlz, Jeeper and Creeper and others.

[15] A new live-action television series is in the works at Peacock, co-produced between Universal Content Productions and DreamWorks Animation with Wu Kai-yu writing and executive producing.

[16] The Famous Studios version of Casper was one of many characters considered to appear in the 1988 film Who Framed Roger Rabbit.

[17] Numerous Casper cartoons were released on home video by Universal Studios (via MCA Inc.), which also adopted the friendly ghost into a live-action feature film titled Casper in 1995, where he and his wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio, were rendered via computer animation, which initially created the first CGI lead character in a film.

Later that same year, Classic Media was acquired by DreamWorks Animation, which in turn would be acquired by NBCUniversal in 2016, and thus Universal Studios, the producer of the original live-action feature film, now manages the rights to the character and other related characters in addition to regaining the rights to Casper's Haunted Christmas (which Universal itself originally released in late 2000).

Developed by Sound Source Interactive, published by WayForward Technologies and released in 1998 for PC, it is based on the film of the same name and is similar in format to Disney's Activity Center.

Developed by Realtime Associates, published by Sound Source Interactive in the United States and TDK Mediactive in Europe, this game was released in 2000 on PlayStation.

Meanwhile, Wendy the Good Little Witch summons Casper, the only remaining free ghost, and opens the portals to the Spirit Dimensions to help in their only chance to defeat Kibosh.

The Ghostly Trio have kidnapped Wendy the Good Little Witch in an attempt to use her magic to create a potion that would give them the power to rule Ghostland.

Developed by Data Design Interactive for PlayStation 2 and Nikitova Games for the Nintendo DS, it is based on the animated film and TV series of the same name released in 2008 and 2009.

As a result of a lawsuit between Harvey and Columbia Pictures in 1984, a court determined that a lapsed copyright had allowed Fatso, Casper's sidekick, to enter the public domain.

Former Disney researcher Gregory S. Brown later discovered that Harvey had failed to renew other copyrights covering the company's ghosts, including Casper.