Stretch (ghost)

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For other uses, see Stretching.

Stretch is a fictional character from the Casper the Friendly Ghost series of comic books, (although he and The Ghostly Trio, his brothers, were also known as Fatso, Fusso and Lazo in the comics), cartoon shows, and films.

[edit] General

Stretch is the unofficial leader of the gang The Ghostly Trio, for which he and his brothers Fatso, and Stinkie are known as. He is presumably the eldest of the Trio, and almost always is the one to give orders or make smart remarks involving Casper or his brothers. In the film, Stretch has a "Joisey" loud accent, and a high evil-sounding laugh. This along with his elongated features, matches up equal to his personality, and ways of doing things. Out of the three Ghosts, Stretch is the most aggressively bad tempered one, and is the sort who won't take no for an answer, in a term of wanting something, or something done he almost always gets it, whether by asking or by force, Stretch has the upper hand.

[edit] The Film

In the film, while Casper has secretly hidden Dr. Harvey and his daughter inside his house, Stretch and his brothers return from a day out scaring. It is seen they were at the Horse Races. He finds out about Casper hiding the humans, and quickly uses every scare necessary to try and drive the two out, but unfortunately for him, he fails and is stuck with them both.

He hates 'fleshies', which is what he states humans to be, and really dislikes Harvey's daughter Kat, (whom Casper has a crush on). At first, Stretch dislikes Dr. Harvey, and he and his brothers form up embarrassing plans to try and get rid of him and his daughter. Stretch finds out that Dr. Harvey's wife is dead, and he tells Harvey he knows where he can find her and that he will get her for him. However, he was just playing a prank, and when Harvey goes to greet his so called wife, it turns out to be Fatso dressed up.

Eventually however, he and his brothers grow to like Dr. Harvey and while out drinking at a bar, Stretch sees that Dr. Harvey isn't as dry or as proper as he makes himself out to be. He and the other two concoct a plan to kill Harvey so that he will become a ghost too. However Harvey tells the Trio they are his best friends and he loves them, so the three ghosts change their mind. However Harvey soon falls into an open sewer and dies anyway. When he returns home to his daughter, to Stretch's pleasure he doesn't recognize Kat. But eventually he recognizes her, and again Stretch's plan fails.

Later, when everything is back to normal. We see the good side of Stretch and his brothers; he got rid of Crittendon, so they bring his wife to see him; he and his brothers had planned to crash and ruin Kat's Halloween party before attending the bar with Dr. Harvey, however, two of Kat's class students break into Whipstaff Manor while the party is taking place, and have their own plan to ruin the party (this was driven by Amber's jealousy towards Kat, and also that the Halloween party was also supposed to take place in her home), but the Ghostly Trio scare her and her friend Vic out of Whipstaff, leaving the party guests to think Kat had put on a show for their pleasure, and getting Kat some friends along the way. After that, Stretch and his brothers form a band to play the end credits song 'Casper the Friendly Ghost', with Stretch playing lead with an Electric Guitar.

[edit] Trivia

  • In the third feature film of Casper, Casper Meets Wendy, Stretch falls in love with Wendy's aunt Fanny, a witch, who is also played by actress Cathy Moriarty, who played Carrigan Crittenden in the 1995 feature film.
  • Stretch is voiced by Joe Nipote, who was picked by Steven Spielberg directly for the role of Stretch.
  • In the film, each of the Trio has their names engraved upon the backboard of their beds. Stretch's is the longest bed in the room where the three uncles sleep.
  • In the Playstation game Casper (based upon the film), a glimpse of a photograph of the Trio can be seen, showing what they looked like as humans.
  • Stinkie and Fatso have both brown eyes in the film, while Stretch's eyes can easily be seen as being a light purple color rather than blue.
  • It was Stretch's idea to try and 'kill' Dr. Harvey.
  • In the film, Stretch says "I love the smell of fleshies in the morning", a reminder of the film Apocolypse Now, "I love the smell of napalm in the morning".