The Ghostly Trio (known as Fatso, Stretch and Stinkie), are fictional characters in the Casper the Friendly Ghost series. They were created by The Harvey Entertainment Company for the 1956 cartoon "Fright from Wrong". They have also made numerous Harvey Comics appearances, and were featured in Casper and the Ghostly Trio. The Ghostly Trio are Casper's uncles. In most of their appearances, they are shown to, in contrast to Casper, love scaring people and they seem to treat Casper as their own personal slave.
However, in Casper's Scare School, they are uncharacteristically nice to Casper, and they are shown to care for him. In fact, when Casper leaves for Scare School, they spend most of the time he's gone crying. There had previously been a few indications that they cared for Casper, but they were few and far between. Similarly, in The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, when the uncles spend time apart due to a fight, all three of them compete with one another for Casper's attention out of boredom, even going as far as to be unusually nice to him. Other times, each of the Ghostly Trio sucks up to Casper to woo Ms. Banshee, Casper's Scare School teacher.
In the 1995 Casper feature film, they manage to become friends of sorts with Dr. James Harvey (Bill Pullman) and keep a promise they made to him, overcoming their usual hatred of humans. It should also be noted that, in the feature film, Casper and the Ghostly Trio are all related. When they were alive they were blood relatives sharing the last name of "McFadden". This source comes from one of the books based on the film, and a deleted scene that never made it into the "attic" when they discussed Casper's inventor father. It could be possible they could be the brothers of Casper's father, J. T. McFadden, who all died under unknown circumstances.
In the movie Casper Meets Wendy, Casper tells Wendy that there are other ghosts with him, and refers to the trio as his uncles. The trio in "Casper's Haunted Christmas" talk about how Spooky is Casper's cousin and nephew despite Kibosh and Snivel's presence in the film. However, in the movie, Casper: A Spirited Beginning, They are not related, and so this movie has no connection with the 1995 film, other than Casper and the Trio.
Description[]
In Casper's earlier appearances in animated cartoons and comic books by Harvey Comics, the Ghostly Trio, although also brothers, were depicted very differently. Like his later incarnation, Fatso was overweight and gluttonous (although since ghosts were capable of eating food in these stories, this trait was not as odd as it later seemed), but he was the Trio's leader by virtue of being the toughest and (marginally) smartest of the three. His second-in-command, Fusso, was of average height and build, and characterized by exceptional fussiness and attention to detail. The third ghost, Lazo, was the tallest, laziest, and least intelligent of the brothers. Fatso's brashness and quick temper often led him into solo mishaps, as well as to occasionally share Casper's adventures, and the other two were sometimes called "the Ghostly Duo" in his absence.
Although the Trio's exact relationship to Casper was never defined in these earlier stories, the unfailingly polite Casper never addressed any of them as "Uncle", suggesting that they were instead his elder brothers or comrades.
Depending on what's viewed as canon or not, the three ghosts can each be identified as follows:
Stretch[]
Stretch is the lanky leader of the Trio with the "Joisey" accent. Stretch is the most aggressive of the three when it comes to scaring the living, and pulls no punches in his attempts to frighten anyone whether by possession, morphing, or simply appearing in front of someone. Although he acts the harshest towards Casper and his two brothers, he is soon revealed to have somewhat of a soft spot in Casper Meets Wendy and The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, and is perhaps the most sensible one in making important decisions (that is, if they are important enough to care about). Sometimes, he goes astray, however, considering that he and his brothers attempt to kill Dr. Harvey (film Casper). Stretch was also revealed in the cartoon that he had Ghostlexia, or ghost dyslexia, where he would always scare backwards and say "oob" instead of "boo", and, therefore, didn't graduate highgoul, or ghost highschool. In official materials for Casper (1995), Stretch is also depicted wearing Windsor glasses while reading and writing, implying that he still has vision problems, even as a ghost. Due to being mocked and bullied by other ghosts for his disabilities, Stretch often takes out his anger and frustration on Stinkie, Fatso, and Casper. He is voiced by Joe Nipote in the 1995 film, Michael McDonald in Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, Scott McNeil in Casper's Haunted Christmas, Dan Castellaneta in the Casper's Scare School movie, and Matthew Géczy in the Casper's Scare School cartoon, who also voices Stinkie.
Stinkie[]
Stinkie is the "middle child", and often dubbed the Larry Fine of the group. His special talent involves supernatural halitosis and body odor, which he prefers to use as his means of frightening "fleshies" (humans) that dare cross his path. He has a penchant for puns and comedy, and comes off as the more sarcastic jokester of the three, which Stretch tires of more often than not. He is voiced by Joe Alaskey in the 1995 film, Patrick Richwood in Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, Terry Klassen in Casper's Haunted Christmas, John DiMaggio in the Casper's Scare School movie, and Matthew Géczy in the Casper's Scare School cartoon, who also voices Stretch in that version.
Fatso[]
Fatso is the obese and least intelligent of the three, and has a constant appetite for food, regardless of the fact that it literally passes through his body. He treats Casper the same as Stretch and Stinkie, but can easily be manipulated due to his lower IQ. In both Casper (1995) and the animated series, Fatso has a penchant for dressing in drag, a love of musical theatre and singing, and often quotes popular songs and films like Pretty Woman (1990), mimicking Julia Roberts in one scene. On another occasion, Dr. Harvey bribes Fatso by offering to buy him food. He is voiced by Brad Garrett in the 1995 film, Jess Harnell in Casper: A Spirited Beginning and Casper Meets Wendy, Graeme Kingston in Casper's Haunted Christmas, Billy West in the Casper's Scare School movie, and Joe Sheridan in the Casper's Scare School cartoon.
Powers and Abilities[]
The Ghostly Trio itself is shown to be a very powerful and experienced group of ghosts, and the trio has vast supernatural powers, such as:
- Intangibility: The ghostly trio can be able to turn intangible, most of time using this power to go through solids.
- Invisibility
- Teleportation
- Flight: Like any other ghost the trio has displayed the ability to fly.
- Possession: Like any ghost the trio can possess people.
- Matter transmutation: When the trio possesses a certain an individual, they can mutate their bodies altering their hosts appearances.
- Shapeshifting
- Other forms of reality warping
Appearances[]
Enemies[]
- Carrigan Crittenden
- Paul "Dibs" Plutzer
- Kibosh
- Snivel
Friends[]
- Casper (sometimes)
- Dr. James Harvey (sometimes)
- Ms. Banshee (love interest)
- Kat Harvey (sometimes)
- Spooky (sometimes)
- Pearl (sometimes)
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- The Ghostly Trio have a deleted scene in Casper, where they sang a musical number, called "Lucky Enough to Be A Ghost". It was too time-consuming to animate however, and was cut.[1] The song was later re-added to The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper in the episode "Fugedaboudit". In the musical number, Fatso confesses his insecurities and doubts to Dr. Harvey, only for Stretch and Stinkie to respond, "fugedaboudit, you're a ghost". Both Stretch and Stinkie also point out to Fatso that, after death, ghosts no longer have to worry about the same problems as "fleshies" do, and call into question Fatso treating his sessions with Dr. Harvey as actual therapy, instead of an opportunity to scare or mess with Dr. Harvey.
- Stinkie bears a striking resemblance to real-life actor Larry Fine, although whether or not this was intentional is unknown.
- While Fatso is the member of the Ghostly Trio who often quotes popular songs and movies in the animated TV show, in Casper (1995), Stretch also occasionally quotes and mimics popular movies, TV shows, and advertisements, such as comparing Dr. Harvey to "Marky Mark" (Mark Wahlberg). Stretch also turns himself into a Nike shoe to kick Casper into the fridge, with Nike shoes and basketball being popular in the early 1990s.
- In the animated TV series, the Ghostly Trio is shown sitting around and watching TV when bored, or taking a break from scaring. The show also notes that the Trio "despise dogs", according to Casper, refusing to let their nephew have one as a pet; are deathly afraid of a few other "scary" supernatural creatures or cryptids, such as Bigfoot; are attracted to pretty female ghosts, such as Ms. Banshee and Marilyn Monroe (d. 1962), but regard other supernatural species, such as gargoyles, as "unattractive"; and have various other quirks. In the 1995 film Casper, the Trio also express attraction to Amelia Harvey, Dr. Harvey's deceased wife and Kat's mother, but Stretch is more respectful about it than Stinkie and Fatso. Despite their initial doubts, the Trio follow through with their deal, going through "paperwork and channels" in the afterlife to reunite Amelia and Dr. Harvey.
- The Ghostly Trio's relationship to Casper's father, J. T. McFadden, in the 1995 film Casper is unknown, but most fan works depict the Trio as J. T.'s brothers, and Casper's biological uncles. On the fan work website Archive of Our Own (AO3), the Trio are designated as "Stretch McFadden", "Stinkie McFadden", and "Fatso McFadden" for their individual character tags. A photograph from a deleted scene featured in Casper: The Movie Storybook also shows the Trio as living humans in dapper Edwardian-style men's clothing - including hats, suits, ties, and mustaches - when they were "fleshies", matching the Edwardian-era designs for Kat's dress and Whipstaff Manor.
- In contrast to Casper (1995), The Spooktacular New Adventures of Casper, produced by the Harvey Entertainment Company, depicts the Ghostly Trio as never having been living humans, and always having existed as ghosts. This is due to a dispute between the Harvey Entertainment Company and Universal Pictures over the depiction of ghosts in the 1995 film, as Harvey Entertainment envisioned ghosts as a separate species to humans. However, in the episode "The Flew", when sick with the ghost flu, Stretch remarks, "I haven't felt this bad since I was alive."