Ghost Wanted

This early Chuck Jones cartoon shows the usual sarcastic edge of Termite Terrace cartoons in this era, between the self-aware humor of Carl Stallings' music and the voice work -- provided by fellow director Tex Avery. However it also clearly shows what in this period is Jones' weakness -- his lead character is a child of sorts, like Sniffles --but there is little in the way of appeal to adults except for the academic one of seeing the early works of one of the great cartoon directors of all time.

Jones would return to his juvenile characters later in his career, bolstered by better scriptwriters and a surer command of the essential psychology of people -- his rarely seen 'Ralphie Phillips' cartoons like FROM A TO ZZZZ can be considered glosses on this work .... but their value will arise out of their understanding, rather than an overwhelming sense of cuteness.

I remember watching this short online once, and I thought it was good; I love these early Chuck Jones shorts. And also, I thought it was a great short for Halloween or anytime.

This spooky short is about a little boy ghost (bearing a resemblance to Casper the Friendly Ghost, only with bangs) who is inexperienced at haunting houses and whose "suit/sheets" resemble the typical footy pyjamas with the "trap door" that were popular in the 1940s. The little mute ghost then goes on a haunting job interview at a haunted house on a high hill and gets terrorized by a bigger ghost, voiced by fellow cartoon director Tex Avery.

Overall, I loved this short. I do not see why no one likes Chuck Jones' early cartoons; I do.

Love animation, it was a big part of my life as a child, particularly Disney, Looney Tunes and Tom and Jerry, and still love it whether it's film, television or cartoons.

'Ghost Wanted' is an early effort for legendary animator/animation director Chuck Jones, and while he went on to much better things later it is still a very well done cartoon. His style would become wittier and more refined later, the pacing later on became livelier and the characters had more interesting personalities. For early on though, he still acquits himself very well, saying that he did better later is not a knock against him but more stating a preference. 'Ghost Wanted' is slight and the little ghost character may be a little too cutesy for some, to me he just about managed to avoid being overly-so.

The atmosphere however has a real spookiness and while there is never anything hilarious the cartoon is fun. The other ghost character is the more interesting one and marvellously voiced by none other than another legendary animation genius Tex Avery.

It is no surprise that the animation is very good, being rich in colour and detail and the character design are 24-carat Jones. Carl Stalling's music is lush and characterful, with clever orchestration and a mastery of not just adding to the action but enhancing it as well (Stalling was a near-unequalled master at this, though Scott Bradley gave him a run for his money).

On the whole, spooky and fun if not one of Jones' best. 8/10 Bethany Cox