What could be better than spending the holidays with your favorite cartoon characters? Probably having a social life and a healthy relationship with your family but who has time for that crap, it’s Christmas!
The Christmas special I’ll be looking at today was released in 1979 on the NBC and stars some the most popular characters from Hanna-Barbera’s line-up. Casper’s First Christmas stars Casper the Friendly Ghost, obviously, but also Yogi Bear and Boo Boo, Quick Draw McGraw, Huckleberry Hound, and the often overlooked Snagglepuss. Doggie Daddy and Augie Doggie are also along for the ride but who cares about them, really?
The special’s premise is very simple, Casper and his friend and roommate Hairy Scary live in an abandoned house (what else?) and on this particular Christmas Eve, Casper wants to decorate and wait up for Santa Claus instead of going out with Hairy to find themselves a new home to haunt because theirs is being demolished sometime in the near future.
At the same time, Yogi and company are driving to the lodge were they’ll be spending their Christmas Eve. They take a wrong turn a of course end up at at the dwelling of Casper and Hairy. They decide that this place is as good as any and begin to clean the house and throw up Christmas decorations that they were carrying with them for some unexplained reason.
Casper wants to associate with their new-found house guests but Hairy Scary advises against it. Casper goes against his friend’s warnings and approaches the Yogi and the like anyway. We get Casper’s usual shtick of frightening everyone he meets even though he’s a friendly ghost (har har) until Yogi Bear convinces the others that Casper’s not going to harm them and seems to believe that Casper is just a kid in a costume. Because walking, talking animals are perfectly normal but not ghosts. Even cartoon characters can’t escape prejudice and stereotypes. Its sad really.
We get a brief bit where Hairy Scary goes around destroying the decorations a la the Grinch and realizes the error of his ways when everyone, with the help of a surprise visit from Santa Claus, teach him of the joys of Christmas and they agree to buy the house so that Casper and himself can keep their home.
So the ending’s a bit sappy, that gets a pass because, you know, Christmas and nobody does anything that’s exceptionally memorable or funny. Though the Hanna Barbera humor is still there, in the sense that none of the gags are really that funny but there’s just something about them that makes them worth it, that makes them stand the test of time. The actors are all great providing the voices that they do best and everything flows very well.
The odd thing about this, though, is that Hairy Scary is really the focus of this cartoon, not Casper. Hairy gets the character arc, Hairy gets the plot developments, and Hairy gets the lesson in the end. I suppose Hairy Scary’s First Christmas wouldn’t have made a lot of viewers tune in, but its still a little nitpick I have with this.
Other than that, this is a wholly enjoyable holiday special and is a wonderful treat around this time of year.
Ink and Paint Corner 