''Ghost Wanted'' is a 1940 Warner Bros. ''

Merrie Melodies ''Merrie Melodies'' is an American animated series of comedy short films produced by Warner Bros. starting in 1931, during the golden age of American animation, and ending in 1969. Then some new cartoons were produced from the late 1970s to the ...

'' animated short directed by

Chuck Jones Charles Martin Jones (September 21, 1912 – February 22, 2002) was an American animator, director, and painter, best known for his work with Warner Bros. Cartoons on the '' Looney Tunes'' and '' Merrie Melodies'' series of shorts. He wrote, pro ...

. The short was released on August 10, 1940. It features a little ghost (bearing a resemblance to

Casper the Friendly Ghost Casper the Friendly Ghost is the protagonist of the Famous Studios theatrical animated cartoon series of the same name. He is a pleasant, personable and translucent ghost, but often criticized by his three wicked uncles, the Ghostly Trio. The ...

) who is inexperienced at haunting houses and whose "suit/sheets" resemble the typical footy pajamas with the "trap door" that were popular in the era. The little ghost is silent, goes to a haunting job interview and is terrorized by a bigger ghost.

Plot

The short starts out in the little ghost's house as he is reading a book titled ''How To Haunt Houses'' showing various recommended haunting positions that are usually successful for ghosts. He tries out a few of the positions by posing and then reads the Haunt Ads in the ''Saturday Evening Ghost'' (dated Saturday December 13, 1939 - date that was actually a Wednesday). He comes across a haunting job that does not require experience at the address of 1313

Dracula ''Dracula'' is a novel by Bram Stoker, published in 1897. As an epistolary novel, the narrative is related through letters, diary entries, and newspaper articles. It has no single protagonist, but opens with solicitor Jonathan Harker taki ...

Drive that he likes. He changes from his white "suit/sheets" into a new light blue colored "suit" (he also puts on a white hat) and is invisible for the interim between changing "suits". Even though he can pass through closed doors like an ordinary ghost, he prefers opening them while passing through. He arrives at the house at 1313 Dracula Drive, which is on a mountain, and tries out for the house-haunting job, but ends up getting terrorized by a bigger ghost interviewing him for the position. The ghost terrorizes him by yelling Boo!", sending him a Ghostal Telegraph that says "Boo!", and dropping a lit firecracker that resembles an M-80 that the little ghost just barely runs away from. The bigger ghost's plans backfire on him when the fuses of the fireworks he put in his "back pocket" get lit by the lit match he dropped. He is sent flying throughout the house after the little ghost and ultimately into a well somewhere outside the building.Ghost Wanted (1940) - IMDb
/ref> The little ghost flees to his own house.

Other appearances

The animated short was shown on TBS from 1987 to 1992 as a segment of the ''Tom & Jerry Halloween Special''. The young ghost has also made appearances as an enemy in numerous video games. His appearances include ''

The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle ''The Bugs Bunny Crazy Castle'', known in Japan as for the Family Computer Disk System, is a 1989 puzzle video game developed by Kemco for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was also released for the Game Boy in Japan as and in North Americ ...

'' series for NES and

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same t ...

as well as the NES game '' Bugs Bunny's Birthday Blowout''.

Releases

This film is included on ''

The Golden Age of Looney Tunes ''The Golden Age of Looney Tunes'' is a collection of LaserDiscs released by MGM Home Entertainment, MGM/UA Home Video in the 1990s. There were five sets made, featuring a number of discs, and each disc side represented a different theme, being ...

'' (Vol. 4)

LaserDisc The LaserDisc (LD) is a home video format and the first commercial optical disc storage medium, initially licensed, sold and marketed as MCA DiscoVision (also known simply as "DiscoVision") in the United States in 1978. Its diameter typical ...

release.

References

{{reflist 1940 films 1940 animated films Merrie Melodies short films Films scored by Carl Stalling Short films directed by Chuck Jones 1940s American films