This remains arguably the most known Casper cartoon, and why that's the case I have no idea. Of the three Famous Studios Casper cartoons the first being 1945's "The Friendly Ghost", the second being this 1948 entry and the last being 1949's "A Haunting we Will Go", this is easily the weakest. The story is essentially the same as it's predecessor and successor except this time Casper aims to be friends specifically with animals, and the ending is downright depressing for a children's cartoon. Casper wanders looking for friends. After frightening a baby calf and skunk, he is about to give up hope, but he catches the attention of a cute little fox cub (whose parents are apparently nowhere to be found). He names the cub Ferdie, and they become best friends. A fox hunter is on the move however and although Casper tries to save his friend,it's too late and he dies. Casper begins mourning in wretched pain, but the little fox comes back as a ghost, therefore giving Casper an eternal friend. The problem with the story aside from the disturbing conclusion is the story told in getting there. We really don't see any evidence of Casper and Ferdie having a friendship. Even though Ferdie is a wild fox, he just acts like a puppy whining like one, playing fetch and constantly licking Casper in the face. In "A Haunting we Will Go" Casper has more of a personality,and teaches the baby duck who becomes his friend how to swim and fly. Why couldn't he have done the same with Ferdie? Teach him how to look for food, and how to survive especially since Ferdie apparently has no parents. (My guess is they were killed before this cartoon in the same tragic fate their son would be here). And why couldn't Casper teach him more how to act like a real fox? This would have been a more satisfying 8 minute cartoon than an adorable fox/puppy getting killed and returning as a ghost. My guess is the writers did that to prove that there is indeed a happy ending in death, or that they felt Ferdie would die anyway so it would be better for Casper to have a ghostly friend rather than a live one. The animation is glorious and so is the score, but the story is underdeveloped, we barely get a chance to get to know Ferdie and Casper is just plain weak in this story, refusing to scare off the hunter so he won't shoot Ferdie and instead just tells him to not shoot him. At least in the next short he scares off the hunter for doing the same thing to his friend. Ferdie is an adorable character but I wanted to see him grow with Casper more like the baby duck did in the following short and he shouldn't have died. None of Casper's friends die in the following shorts, which tells me the writers got some negative feedback from killing off Ferdie and would never do it again. The ending is likely to disturb any adult or kid who has a heart, there were so many better ways to end it than what they did. Yes this is the weakest of Famous Studios Casper despite beautiful animation, great music and a adorable Casper friend in Ferdie Fox.