Which Is Witch?

The late-40s to the early/mid-50s Casper the Friendly Ghost cartoons had a higher budget and overall the overall quality was much better. Onwards, the quality did diminish quite significantly though the overall cartoons varied, some decent, many mediocre.

Famous Studios' cartoons are not for all tastes, but my opinion is that their early stuff and some of the early 50s output are good. While they were very formulaic they were always well animated and voiced with some funny parts, some poignancy and decent characters and their regular composer Winston Sharples could always be relied on to write a great and often outstanding score.

Admittedly though, by the mid-50s through to the late-60s Famous Studios' cartoons did get repetitive. While Sharples' music still shone and the voice actors did their best the animation suffered due to lower budgets and tighter deadlines, the humour became more tired and slow in timing than sharp and funny, the stories became increasingly predictable and rehashed and some characters started losing their initial spark, this is particularly true of most of the later Herman and Katnip cartoons.

After 'Boo Moon' (the last great Casper cartoons), many of the Casper cartoons were at best average, compensated by mainly the always outstanding music but hampered by being too twee and repetitive primarily and by the noticeably lower budget.

'Which is Witch', which is neither among the best or worst of the Casper cartoons, is notable for being the cartoon debut of Wendy. Unfortunately this doesn't do her justice, here she is poorly drawn, with few opportunities for her personality to shine and she doesn't even do much. Such a shameful waste.

Can't say much better about the animation either. Much of it lacks vibrancy, the backgrounds have lost their meticulousness and the characters look hastily drawn and the overall drawing scrappy, as a result of lower budgets and tighter deadlines. Not enough of 'Which is Witch' is particularly funny or spooky (though there are some amusing, all from Spooky's sabotaging attempts, and creepily atmospheric moments that could have come more consistently), too much of the dialogue is forgettable (the best and most zesty bits coming from Spooky) and the story is formulaic and lacks lustre.

The music is the best thing about 'Which is Witch'. It is typically merry and whimsical, it's beautifully orchestrated, energetic and adds so much to the mood. The music has always been one of the best assets of the Famous Studios cartoons and it's not an exception here. In fact how it's composed and how it meshes so well with everything going on in the animation, story and action contributes to it being the best thing about the cartoon.

While he is a character that won't click with everybody, Casper does win me over with his friendly nature and kindness. Spooky is an amusing enough trouble-maker character and the two work very well together. Meanwhile it's Hazel who manages to steal the show from all three of them, just by putting Spooky in his place. Am thankful that that was not done by Casper this time, in the previous Casper/Spooky cartoons where he teaches him a lesson it sees a mean side to Casper taken too far and it doesn't suit the character. The voice acting is good.

Overall, not a bad cartoon, but an average and less than "spook"-tacular one. 5/10 Bethany Cox