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's 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 generally 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.
In the 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 1995 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 or cousins 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.
Contents
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. 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 in that version.
Stinkie
Stinkie is the "middle child" and dubbed the Larry Fine of the group, Stinkie's 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, Fatso 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 the PlayStation video game "Casper", with the debut of the film, was a supposedly legendary baseball player "Babe Ruth" when Casper observed the portrait in the main hall. This has not been credited or included in the universe of the series. 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
- invisibility
- teleportation
- flight
- possession
- matter transmutation
- shapeshifting
- other forms of reality warping
Enemies
- Carrigan Crittenden
- Paul "Dibs" Plutzer
- Kibosh
- Snivel
Friends
- Casper (at times)
- Dr. James Harvey (at times)
- Ms. Banshee (love interest)
- Kat Harvey (at times)
- Spooky (at times)
- Pearl (at times)
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]
- Stinkie bears a striking resemblance to real-life actor Larry Fine, although whether or not this was intentional is unknown.
