User Reviews

Anyway, that's the message, apparently, in this Terrytoon, and it's carried out pretty well. It's a Hallowe'en cartoon, a long tradition in the movies, and one of the few examples of a movie made for children that will appeal to the adult who keeps a youthful heart -- all too often Terrytoons aimed their movies at children and just repeated the same bits over and over again.

It's a simple enough story: the ghosts and skeletons are having a good time in their -- slightly -- haunted house, when it is sold and in comes a home decorating service, in the person of what looks like the Pig Who Built His House of Bricks. The inhabitants take arms to drive him off and engage in enough variations to make this a good 'un. The whole thing is set up to make you on their side without making you dislike the pig particularly.

Just watched this Terrytoon on Uncle John's Crazy Town site. In this one, a haunted house with ghosts dancing up a storm and having the time of their undead lives has been sold to the consternation of the inhabitants. A worker pig and his dog arrive to redecorate. Spooky goings on galore. While it takes a while for some pretty good gags near the end, there's plenty of atmosphere to soak up until then provided you have some young 'uns who might get easily scared by the littlest thing. Quite a fun bumpy ride throughout. By the way, this Uncle John usually puts almost exclusively cartoons made in the '30s but made an exception here because it was near Halloween and he loved this one enough to include it. So on that note, I recommend Seeing Ghosts.

Terrytoons' output, overall and individual years, is inconsistent but is also very interesting for anybody wanting to see something different from the more famous studios, something that is older and lower in budget. Like all the previous and succeeding years, 1948 was an uneven year for Terrytoons (not unexpected) but actually the rating gap between the best and worst cartoons for the year are not as wide as other years. It was a pretty above average year.

Of the three non-recurring lead character cartoons of 1948, the previous being 'Mystery in the Moonlight', 'Seeing Ghosts' is quite a lot better. 'The Wooden Indian' followed later on in the batch, which was a pretty weak effort, so of the three 'Seeing Ghosts' is the best by default. The premise is a more standard one, but actually the execution here was a lot less strange, had more atmosphere, was funnier and did a lot more with the concept. Is 'Seeing Ghosts' a perfect cartoon or a Halloween classic? No. It is still pretty good though overall and around high middle as far as ranking the 1948 Terrytoons cartoons.

'Seeing Ghosts' is slight on the story front and slightly runs out of steam going into the final two minutes.

Also think that the haunted house inhabitants are more interesting and entertaining than the pig and dog characters, on the whole the dog has too little to do.

But actually there is actually not an awful lot wrong with 'Seeing Ghosts'. Two elements are particularly good. One is the animation, the studio's most improved component. The ambitious, elaborate detail in the backgrounds is on display, the colours are a mix of vibrant and atmospheric and fluidity of drawing and movement has improved such a lot for the studio. The haunted house setting has a real eeriness to it. Even better is the music, it is beautifully and cleverly orchestrated and arranged, is terrific fun to listen to (both jaunty and spooky) and the lively energy is present throughout, doing so well with adding to the action.

Furthermore, the sight gags are plentiful and they are both very amusing and spooky. The cartoon starts off very atmospherically and ends on a hugely entertaining and not too predictable a note. The lively energy is constant and there is an effective creepiness, with the haunted house being like a character itself. The pig isn't a dull character or an annoying one, but the haunted house inhabitants are the scene stealers. Very creepy and lots of fun, also making one feel nostalgic for old horror and animation with a horror vibe.

In conclusion, definitely worth a look and proof that Terrytoons could do cartoons that were standalones and didn't have their regular characters. 7/10.

This is another great "Terrytoon" for Halloween (or any time), which is about a "gaggle" of ghosts scaring a house decorator (a character who looks like Practical Pig from Disney's "Three Little Pigs") and his dog away from their haunted house when they have learned that the property the house is on is now sold and that the decorator has come to fix up the house.

I really thought the animation in this cartoon was great. Though I had noticed after watching other Terrytoons that some of the graphics and animation on the ghosts were from a couple of Gandy Goose and Sourpuss cartoons that were made during World War II. But in those cartoons, they were not great for me. Of course, in this cartoon they are perfect, especially at the beginning.

I am sorry to say that I have nothing else to say about this cartoon other than that the animation is terrifyingly perfect (sorry to repeat "perfect"). So anyway, I thought this was another favorite Terrytoon, and as I said, great for Halloween.