The Friendly Ghost

The Friendly Ghost is a cartoon released by Paramount Pictures on 16 November 1945 under its Noveltoons series of animated shorts. It is the first cartoon to feature Casper the Friendly Ghost.

Plot
Casper is seen reading the book How to Win Friends by Dale Carnegie. Every midnight his brothers and sisters scare people, but as Casper hates to scare people, he stays at home. Casper decides make friends with the living. While his family is off scaring people, Casper bids his pet cat goodbye and runs away from home.

The next morning he meets a rooster to whom he says hello but it retreats. Casper next meets a blind mole. At first the mole is happy to befriend him but when he puts on eyeglasses, he sees that Casper is a ghost and keeps on digging his hole. Casper later meets a mouse and cat who resemble Herman and Katnip who flee into the barn upon seeing him. Casper then sees a flock of chickens who fly away which splatter eggs on him.

Casper thinks that he made a mistake leaving home, but when he hears a train whistle he decides to kill himself by having the train run over him, apparently forgetting that he is already dead. After the train passes over Casper and he blows away like a piece of paper, he begins crying after remembering that he's a ghost. Casper is approached by two children named Bonnie and Johnny who want to play with him which makes Casper very happy.

After a game of ball and jump rope, Bonnie and Johnny introduce Casper to their mother who screams and tells Casper to leave. Casper picks up his sack and is about to go through the door when a banker opens it. The banker orders Casper to tell the mother about her mortgage, but when he realizes that Casper is a ghost, he chokes on his cigar, runs off in fright and cancels the mortgage because he doesn't want to have a haunted house on the market.

Despondent, Casper decides to go home back to his own family. He is about to leave when the mother grabs him with a smile on her face. The short concludes with the mother seeing Casper (now clad in schoolboy garb), Bonnie and Johnny off to school. Casper enjoys the life that he was seeking when he left the other ghosts.