Caution: spoilers.

tek's rating:
There's Good Boos To-Night (8:44)
IMDb; shortfil.ms; TV Tropes; Wikipedia; YouTube

From 1948. This is the first of three shorts on the DVD that feature Casper the Friendly Ghost. (Though he doesn't look the way I normally think of Casper looking, as my limited knowledge of the character is from later cartoons or comics- which I may not even have actually seen or read, but, you know, at least I've seen pictures.) Anyway, the film is fairly amusing, but it also has some sad bits and some heartwarming bits. Casper has no interest in scaring people, like all the other ghosts; he just wants to make friends. Unfortunately, all the animals he tries to befriend are immediately scared of him and run away. But he finally befriends a fox, whom he names Ferdie. There's a plot twist in the end, which I don't want to spoil, but it's rather macabre.

tek's rating:
The Friendly Ghost (8:49)
IMDb; Wikipedia; YouTube

From 1945. This is the second Casper short on the DVD, which is kind of an odd arrangement, since it's actually the first Casper short ever produced. For most of the film, I didn't like it quite as much as "Good Boos," but it got better as it progressed. It starts with Casper deciding to run away from home (he even has a hobo's bindle). Along the way, he tries to make friends with various animals, all of whom are terrified of him. Eventually he decides to try to kill himself by laying on a train track, which I thought was pretty amusing (and of course the attempt fails, for the obvious reason that he's already dead). After that, a little boy and girl befriend him and he has fun playing with them. Until they take him home and introduce him to their mother, who predictably wants nothing to do with him. But then there's an amusing plot twist (which is much more comical than the one from "Good Boos").

tek's rating:
Boo Moon (7:31)
IMDb; Wikipedia; YouTube

From 1954. Casper is now starting to look more like I expect him to. Anyway, as usual, he's upset about people being afraid of him. Then he sees a man hawking the use of a telescope for 10 cents, to look at the Moon. The man is, predictably, frightened away when Casper wants a look. And looking through the telescope, Casper sees the "man in the moon," who he thinks looks friendly, so he decides to visit him. He flies through space (inexplicably, he seems to pass by plants on the way to the moon). And as he gets closer, the face-like features resolve themselves into craters, leaving Casper disappointed. So he takes a nap, and gets captured by tiny Moon people, who think he's a monster, because he's so huge compared to themselves. (But they have no idea he's a ghost, so it's a bit ironic, I guess.) Anyway, after he's taken back to their kingdom, the tree people (who are even bigger than Casper) attack, and Casper saves the kingdom. So the Moon people finally accept him as a hero, rather than a monster. I found this film probably a bit less amusing than the first two, but it was still decent, mainly because it was weird.

tek's rating: meh
Skulls and Sculls (9:50)
IMDb; YouTube

From 1930. This stars Felix the Cat, and I've always wanted to see some of his short films or whatever, because he's basically all about surrealism. But I'm afraid I didn't much care for this film. It's just about the most simplistic animation I've ever seen, and probably the most random thing I've ever seen. It starts with some random spooky things happening to Felix (though skulls are not particularly involved), and then segues into a totally random sculling race. Certainly the film had some surrealism, but most of it wasn't on a level that I'd call particularly more surreal than any cartoon. And a bit of it was mildly amusing. But mostly I just found the film boring and pointless. (I mean, the only point seems to be making a film with two totally unrelated subjects, in order to make a punnish title.)

tek's rating: meh and a half
Ghost (20:46)
IMDb; TV.com

From 1965. This isn't actually a short film, but an episode of a TV series called Hoppity Hooper, which I don't believe I'd ever heard of before. But it was produced by Jay Ward (no relation), who was responsible for cartoons such as "Rocky & Bullwinkle", "Dudley Do-Right", "Mr. Peabody & Sherman", and so forth. And it has a very similar sensibility to those things. The title character is a frog, though based on this episode, he seems to be a minor character. His uncle, an anthropomorphic fox named Waldo P. Wigglesworth, seems to be the main character. In the episode, he decides to become a medium, with help from Hoppity and a bear named Fillmore. However, the three of them end up meeting a real ghost named Wilbur, and later another ghost named Claire, both of whom Waldo wants to get rid of, because they're annoying. The episode is divided into several different segments. And... I'm not sure what else to say. I found bits of it amusing, and all of it weird. It's not a show I feel the need to see any more episodes of, but I guess I didn't mind seeing this one. (Although I definitely wouldn't have minded never seeing it.)

tek's rating: it sucked
The Ghost and Crystal Mace (25:03)
IMDb

From 1964. Once again we have not a short film, but a TV episode. This is from Space Angel, which I'm not sure if I'd heard of or not. Anyway, it's about the crew of a space ship called the Starduster. The captain is Scott McCloud, and the other two crew members are Crystal Mace and Taurus. The images in the cartoon hardly move at all (it's even less animated than a motion comic). However, in closeups, the characters' lips move, because there are real actors' lips superimposed over the otherwise motionless cartoon images. At first this was super distracting and annoying, to the point I couldn't concentrate on what was actually being said. But I soon got past that. In this episode, the crew is investigating mysterious radio signals that have been jamming space communications. They land the Starduster on a weird planet, and Scott and Taurus go out to investigate. They leave Crystal behind, and then a young ghost named Humphrey boards the ship and takes it for a joyride. Meanwhile, Scott and Taurus are captured by ghosts who think they've kidnapped Humphrey, and all they can do is stall for time, hoping Crystal will somehow bring the ship back. Of course she eventually does, but Humphrey causes her tons of trouble with his childish mischief. You guys... srsly... this is possibly the worst thing I've ever seen in my life. I mean, not quite, because at least it was funny. Sort of. I couldn't help laughing at how horrible it was, but also I kept begging for it to stop. (Yes, I could have stopped it at any time, but I wanted to see how it turned out, for some masochistic reason.) But I definitely don't think I could bear to ever see another episode of this show.

tek's rating:
Spooky Swabs (6:02)
IMDb; Popeye Wiki; Wikipedia; YouTube

From 1957. Popeye and Olive Oyl are stranded at sea on a life raft, when suddenly they spy a ship. It seems pretty obviously an old abandoned ship, but they're somehow surprised to find no one on board. Still, Popeye decides to sail it home. However, there are ghosts on board (who have British accents), and they don't want to return to civilization. So they do everything they can to prevent it. Olive realizes there are ghosts before Popeye does, but once he's been convinced, he very conveniently finds some spinach (which must be a few centuries past its expiration date), and defeats the ghosts. (I have no idea how being strong should have any effect on ghosts, but whatever.) And um... Olive finds a good use for the ghosts, after that. Anyway, it was reasonably amusing, if you're a fan of Popeye cartoons, I guess. (Certainly way better than Space Angel.)

tek's rating: meh
Mummies Boys (3:34)
IMDb; TV.com

From 1965. An episode of the TV series The New Three Stooges. Larry, Curly, and Moe are archaeologists, exploring a pyramid in Egypt. They encounter some mummies that act more like ghosts (phasing through walls and stuff). And that's all I can tell you. I didn't find it amusing... and while I'm not generally a Stooges fan, I can't imagine anyone who is a fan of their live-action movies liking this cartoon short. (I could be wrong, though.)

tek's rating:
House of Magic (7:42)
IMDb; YouTube

From 1937. This short stars three monkeys named Meany, Miny, and Moe. I'm sure I'd never heard of them before. Anyway, the film has no dialogue, since the monkeys don't talk. One night it starts to rain, so they take shelter in a magic shop, and a bunch of strange things happen. That's all I can tell you, but I guess it was reasonably amusing, in a very old school sorta way.