Casper (1995) cost fifty-five million dollars to make and earned two hundred eighty-seven million dollars worldwide. It definitely made a profit.
The show was originally proposed as a sequel to Casper (1995), but due to the film performing below box-office expectations and due to the stars of Casper (1995), Christina Ricci and Bill Pullman, being attached to other projects, the producers abandoned the live-action sequel idea and decided to develop the cartoon instead.
This series was green-lit and went into production before the release of Casper (1995).