Todd Mortenson (also known as Scratch McGee[2]) is the eponymous deuteragonist of The Ghost and Molly McGee. He is a fussing, funny, kind-hearted but short-tempered ghost (later revealed to actually be a wraith) who Molly McGee befriended when she arrives in Brighton.
Appearance[]
Scratch is a light blue ghost. He has green teeth, a large neon blue nose, yellow-green eyes with small black pupils and a purple tongue. He has wrinkles on his forehead, inner cheeks and under his eyes. Scratch's body is translucent and typically appears lumpy but he is able to change in shape and size when he wants to, for example when attempting to scare Molly and her family. His color appears more translucent while he is invisible, meaning he is only visible to the people he chooses. He has been shown to be able to give himself legs and manifest bugs onto his body.
Personality[]
Scratch is a grumpy, pessimistic ghost whose joy comes from spreading misery. When one of his spells backfired, he finds himself forever cursed in Molly's presence. He is described by Molly to be lazy, grumpy, and hungry. Additionally, before the McGee family arrived in Brighton, he was largely a loner and greatly values his privacy, showing tremendous embarrassment and ire whenever Molly cuts into his personal time. Despite being bound to her for all eternity, Scratch remains determined to scare Molly and her family away for good.
Later on in the series, however, he seems to start to warm up to Molly and her family, showing a softer, almost parental stance towards the McGee family, stating he's a "McGee adjacent"[2] and returning their affection.
Regarding him always being hungry, he is indeed a massive glutton that will drastically do anything just to grab himself lots of treats and stuff his stomach full, even it means being underhanded such as stealing. It is revealed in "Festival of Lights" that he has a soft spot for fried foods in general.
While it may not look like it, deep down Scratch is very insecure and self conscious about what others think of him, especially those he cares about. For this reason, he often lies and tells half truths about himself.
In "Not So Honest Abe", he lies to Molly about knowing Abraham Lincoln because he didn't want Molly to find out how he is ¨a loser in the Ghost World¨. It's hinted that he is embarrassed of his unpopularity among other ghosts.
Another example of his insecurities is in "Friend-Off", where he admitted to Libby that he was rude to her because he was afraid that Molly would rather hang out with Libby than with him. This shows that Scratch suffers from some abandonment issues, probably due to his friendless background.
As mentioned later in "weaknesses", Scratch is extremely lazy and works hard to avoid hard work, mainly by doing only the bare minimum of monthly scares only on the day he's supposed to report it (and once he faked his report to avoid admitting he didn't do it for real at all), playing hooky from a S.C.A.R.E. seminar, trying to cheat in a game where the loser does the winner's chores, and using an elaborate dance routine to trick the entire Ghost World population into cleaning a building for him a la Tom Sawyer style. He even says that responsibility "smells terrible" to him, even if it's something that'll lead to disaster if left undone, like accepting the Chairman's position to send the Frightmares away!
Once he begins and finishes the work, however, he admits the job wasn't as bad as he thought, but that doesn't stop him from slipping back into old habits for his own pleasure because, in his own words, he "learns nothing".
In "The End" Scratch's memories were unlocked when he entered the soulless body of Todd Mortenson because they are literally one and the same. When Scratch was a human and alive, he never actually "lived" on account of his fear of death, and thus made a habit of staying in comfort zones (never quit his office job even though it was soul crushing, and passing time eating junk food in front of the TV) and constantly telling a friend "maybe next time" whenever called with an invitation to do something else, namely follow his childhood dream of seeing the world, until he got so numb that nobody noticed he was literally soulless even though his human eyes lost the light. His experience as a wraith, namely thanks to Molly's influence, made him perkier and more willing to take risks upon returning to his body, even if he doesn't seem to remember where the sudden changes in vocabulary and lifestyle choices even came from, especially since (ironically) his human self doesn't even believe in ghosts. Those things aside, however, Todd is still Scratch underneath: crude yet kind, theatrical in his movements when he puts his feelings into his words, and a full out foodie.
Ghost Powers[]
Scratch using his shapeshifting to scare Andrea's movie crew.
Ghost/Wraith Physiology: As a wraith, Scratch formerly possessed a myriad of supernatural powers.
- Flight: He can float off the ground and fly fast enough to nearly keep up with a jet airplane.
- Telekinesis: He can move people and objects without touching them. Upon meeting Molly for the first time, he used this ability to force her to leave his attic.
- Intangibility: He can move through solid objects.
- Ecto-Energy Constructions: He can form items out of ectoplasm, such as a pencil and notepad.
- Invisibility: He can render himself invisible to most others, except to animals and other ghosts.
- Selective Invisibility: He can choose who is able to see him, shown when he interacts with the McGees while invisible to others, and when he reluctantly agrees to reveal himself to Libby.
- Pyrokinesis: He can turn himself into a giant ball of fire as demonstrated in "Lock, Stock, and Peril".
- Spectral Body Manipulation: His body and limbs can be stretched seemingly without limit. Molly exploits this by using his arm to pull him towards her. Also, can turn into fully functioning human legs as he demonstrated in "Howlin' Harriet".
- Shapeshifting: Being made of ectoplasm, he can manipulate his body into any shape he desires. He mainly uses this ability to appear scarier, form extra arms, and can turn into a fully functioning human leg. Also, he has demonstrated this power when he turned into a bat in ”Mazel Tov, Libby!”.
- Size Alteration: Scratch can adjust his size at will. He mainly uses this to remain undetected and enter his dollhouse.
- Accelerated healing: His body is made of a seemingly limitless supply of ectoplasmic goo. This is first seen when he angrily covered Molly and her family in ectoplasm, showing no ill effects afterwards.
- Reconstitution: His body is able pull its self back together again after the body's total destruction. As he demonstrated, in "Friend-Off", when the turnip blender shredded him to bits and he pulled himself together.
- Curse inducement: Through shapeshifting and speaking in a theatrical manner, he is capable of casting a variety of curses on people. He can curse anyone to be haunted by him for an eternity. However, this had the opposite effect on Molly, who saw it as an opportunity to have an eternal best friend. Apparently, he's also capable of doing other curses such as preventing someone from saying certain words until midnight (like when he made it so Molly couldn't say "no" and he couldn't say "yes" just to settle a bet on who'd be better off with this limitation), but it wasn't until after both found out the downside of that particular curse that Scratch realized it is possible to switch the effect of the "Yes/No" curse until it wears off.
- Luck Bestowal: He cursed a penny in "The Lucky Penny" and transferred Molly's good luck into it so that anyone who possessed it would have good luck for the rest of the day, after facing the consequences he reverts the curse.
- Possession/Overshadowing: He can possess and control people and inanimate objects to varying degrees. On Molly's first day at school, he possessed Andrea to convince the other students to accept Molly and Libby and not bully them. Later, he took control of the Lemmings' equipment to help them win the state championship.
- Invulnerability: As he is already dead, he cannot be hurt or killed by conventional means and poisonous substances have no effect on him. On Molly's camping trip in episode “Howlin' Harriet”, he consumed several poison berries with no harmful effects.
- Ghost portal creation: He can create and travel through portals from the ghost world to the human world.
- 4th Wall Awareness: Seen only in musical numbers, Scratch is somewhat aware he is a fictional character. He attempted to personally rewind the online video the show's intro song was being played on, without success, then later asks the audience if his tongue is burned at the end of his number in "Festival of Lights". This is played for a joke and not genuine as this mindset resets only seconds later.
- Teleportation: He can move instantaneously from one location to another in a puff of mist. This is first seen in “First Day Frights” when he puffed to open the door and puffed on stage when Molly tried taking Andrea to the nurse’s office, but didn’t go as planned. Also, he can poof items he wants and poof them away whenever he wants like in episode “Getting the Band(shell) Back Together” when he poofs himself a pair of star shaped sunglasses to make him cool and poof them away.
- Supernatural strength: Despite being a ghost, Scratch is deceptively strong. While helping rebuild the Brighton Bandshell, he was able to lift and carry three concrete blocks and an old man at the same time.
- Transmutation: Seen during his gladiator fight with Libby, Scratch turns a portrait of Molly and himself into a ghostly broadsword. It is unknown if he can do this in real life.
- Duplication: He can create multiple versions of himself. In "Scratch the Surface," he demonstrates this skill when he was singing with Molly about keeping his secret from Libby, creating up to six clones of himself. Also, in "A Very Hungry Ghost", he created four copies of himself when he thought that all the food was for him.
- Absorbency: According to Molly in "Festival of Lights", ghosts don't even go to the bathroom, and yet no matter how much Scratch eats (and he can eat so much that a large stack of latkes seem to be his limit), the food inside of him always manages to disappear sooner or later, leaving him able to return to his usual default size, albeit with a larger "belly" for a while.
- Chairman Enhances-With the Chairman Cloak, Scratch is able to scare off Frightmares and is granted special access to rare curses that he otherwise wouldn't be allowed to use.
- Ghost Manifestation: As the Chairman, Scratch can create ghosts that don't exist, like the ghost shark from the movie in "All Shark No Bite".
- Paranormal Immunity: In "Twin Trouble", Scratch was immune to the effects of the Sobgoblins.
- Technopathy: In "Hooray for Mollywood!", Scratch was able to travel through the power line and take control over the mechanical devices.
Weaknesses[]
- Animals can see him even if he’s invisible and sometimes attack and injure him, as shown in "Mama's Gotta Hustle".
- His ghostly ability to scare humans doesn't work on everyone and Molly is one example.
- Although able to pass through solid objects, he ends up getting electrocuted when he passes through an electric fence and becomes inebriated in the process.
- Scratch tires quickly, seen during his fight with Libby.
- He cannot render others intangible along with himself. He has tried and failed to do this with Molly at least twice.
- In "Friend-Off" it's revealed that Scratch's invisibility doesn't work very well on cameras, as a selfie with him and Libby together shows his otherwise invisible self as a glowing, smiling blur. While this seems to be the case for digital cameras, this problem might also apply to old fashioned film snapshots.
- In so far, despite being smarter then Geoff, Scratch is shown to not be very bright, especially when he's casting curses, as he tends to jump right into casting one without thinking the consequences all the way through, such as binding himself to Molly forever (or until she leaves the house for good) in an effort to get rid of her, or when the "Yes/No" curse kept him from accepting a once-in-an-afterlife promotion from the Ghost Council. He has to see the loophole in the curse to get around it (ex. when he cast the "Yes/No" curse, he specifically worded it "Until Midnight, one of us can only say 'no' and the other can only say 'yes'". Since he didn't use specific names while casting it, but was pointing instead, he was able to switch the effect of the curse around until it wore off), but without a loophole or an escape clause filled out to a tee, he's stuck with it (ex. He has to be wherever Molly is whenever she calls for him unless she leaves the house forever... or is at least forced to leave via eviction).
- His ability to be solid while shapeshifting is limited, so he cannot use his body as a blockade like he thought he could in "Getting the Band(shell) Back Together", though so far only the McGee family took advantage of that very weakness, for (as Scratch himself pointed out) walking through others is "considered very rude in the Ghost World".
- He can be afflicted by ailments and illnesses, such as in "Festival of Lights" when he hurt his tongue for eating too much deep-fried food.
- In "Innocent Until Proven Ghostly", it is revealed that he has a carob allergy despite being dead, which causes him to swell up enough to fill every room in the house and get stuck there until the swelling goes down.
- In "Scaring is Caring", it is revealed that Scratch (and possibly other ghosts) is prone to lose is ability to frighten others when he has too much joy in his system, as the resulting illness makes him adorable against his will as well as mess up a few of his fright-related ghost powers and makes him sneeze/barf rainbows and bubbles. The only cure is for him to be exposed to something he's afraid of, which is apparently the sight of Molly being in life-threatening danger.
- As shown in "Ready, Set, Snow!", Scratch is vulnerable to extreme temperatures.
- He is shown several times to be really lazy and tries different ways to get out of work and responsibility with quite a few attempts backfiring on him in some way.
- Scratch's appetite is shown to get the better of him (tacos in particular), often choosing food over a successful scare.
History
Click here to view the full history of Scratch.
Relationships[]
Main article: Scratch/Relationships
Sightings[]
Foreign voice actors[]
| Language version | Actors | Notes |
|---|---|---|
 Spanish (Latin America)
|
René Sagastume | |
 Portuguese (Brazil)
|
Junior Nannetti | |
 Czech
|
Ladislav Cigánek | |
 German
|
Gerald Schaale | |
 Danish
|
Mads Knarreborg | |
 Arabic
|
Mahmoud Amer | |
 Spanish (Castilian)
|
Abraham Aguilar | |
 Finnish
|
Antti L. J. Pääkkönen | |
 French
|
Alain Eloy | |
 Hungarian
|
Károly KASSAI | |
 Indonesian
|
Salman Pranata | |
 Hebrew (Israel)
|
Simcha Barbiro | |
 Italian
|
Nanni Baldini | |
 Japanese
|
Soichi ABE (あべ そういち) | |
 Korean
|
LEE Jang-won (이장원) | |
 Malay
|
Ahmad Azizi | |
 Dutch
|
Thomas Cordie | |
 Norwegian
|
Frank Ole Sætrang | |
 Polish
|
Wojciech Paszkowski | |
 Portuguese (Portugal)
|
José Jorge Duarte | |
 Romanian
|
Mike Gheorghiu | |
 Russian
|
Stanislav Strelkov Alexander Voronov |
|
 Swedish
|
Fredde Granberg | |
 Turkish
|
Oğuz Özoğul |
Gallery
Click here to view the gallery.
Trivia[]
- Scratch's favorite Disneyland Attraction is the Sourdough Bread Bakery at DCA.[3]
- While the creators of the show may have chosen the name "Scratch" as it is one of the many names for the devil, the canon origin of his nickname came from an old habit he had of scratching his arms when he felt nervous, which is seen several times in the series. This isn't pointed out until the finale, "The End".
- He seems to retain some of his memories during his time as a wraith after he became human again, as he used Molly's catchphrases and addresses her as "Moll" despite her being a stranger to him at that point. It's possible that overtime he will slowly regain his memories. Or have something happen to trigger his memories like when as a wraith he drank Surly Sid’s strawberry soda and remembered Adia.
- Scratch bears a few similarities to Carl Fredricksen from the Up film.
References[]
- ↑ "Disney's The Ghost and Molly McGee Reveals New Name, Logo, and Cast". Comicbook. Retrieved on September 24, 2020.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 Paul Chang (writer) and Stephen Heneveld (director) (October 9, 2021). "The Greatest Concert Ever". The Ghost and Molly McGee. Season 1. Episode 3B. Disney Channel.
- ↑ "I asked #theghostandmollymcgee co-creators: “What is #MollyMcGee’s favorite #Disneyland attraction?”". YouTube. Retrieved on January 11, 2024.
| v • e — Characters — | |
| Main Characters | Molly McGee • Scratch • Darryl McGee • Pete McGee • Sharon McGee • Libby Stein-Torres |
|---|---|
| Supporting and Recurring characters | Grandma Nin • Andrea Davenport • Geoff • Heidi Hairylegs • Ollie Chen • June Chen • Ruben Chen • Esther Chen • Jeff • Mayor Brunson • Jinx • The Ghost Council • Patty • Bobby M. Daniels |
| Human Characters | Miss Lightfoot • Mrs. Roop • Mr. Bates • Eva Hernandez • Irving the Illusionist • Tammy Myers • Maxwell Davenport • Weird Larry • Candace Green • Adia Williams • Billy McGee • Jilly McGee • Leah Stein-Torres • Matias Torres • Meatball • David Suksai • Emmie Suksai • Principal O'Connor • Robyn • Joanie Pataky • Abigail • Deb • Nashua • Georgie • Kenny Star |
| Ghost Characters | Ezekiel Tugbottom • Sally Tugbuttom • The Chairman • Abraham Lincoln • Howlin' Harriet • Pango • Reggie • Franklin D. Roosevelt • Bouncer Ghost • Bear • Sobgoblins • Scary Sven • Sonia Davis • Frightmares • Lord Doom |