The two Toy Story movies sort of used this theme.
To clarify ‘usually’ - kids (Another Mother - I think, and possibly some others), animals (several episodes), crazy people (Shock Theater), and angels (It’s a Wonderful Leap) could too.
On Thundercats, only Lion-o could see Jaga. I believe the only exception was ‘Grune the Destroyer.’ And in one comic story from the 80s, Mumm-ra could.
In the comic strip Curtis, apparently only the title character Curtis can see his friend Gunk (who is the only white person in the strip).
The original idea for the janitor on Scrubs was that he would only interact with JD and it would be unclear whether he was a figment of his imagination.
In Rose is Rose only Pasquale can see his guardian angel. In a funny twist, no one but the reader sees Rose turn into Vicki, but characters in other comic strips have interacte with Vicki.
Hmm, are you sure about this? I can’t claim to have done an exhaustive survey of the Curtis strips but it never occured to me that Gunk wasn’t completly real.
Now that I think about it though I can’t remember any specifc strips where Gunk clearly DID interact with other people. And it would actually make the character and the situations he and Curtis are usually in MORE believable.
My reply to the OP: various ex-Jedi in the Star Wars universe seem to be only selectively visible to some individuals.
Also there was that episode in Star Trek:TOS (forget the name) where Kirk was stuck on the other ship and kept fading in and out on the Enterprise, at first only visible to Uhuru.
Only one Jack/Tyler Durden could see the other in Fight Club. Everyone else just saw Ed Norten’s character.
Only Luke Skywalker could see/hear Obi Wan, post lightsabering.
Yoda could, too.
Only a certain few can see a Smurf- they must be invited to their village by a Smurf.
In THE FRIGHTENERS, only [del]Marty McFly[/del] Michael J Fox’s character can see the ghosts.
Yeah, they do tend to be mostly ghosts, don’t they? Aside from HARVEY and Snuffelupagus.
I remember one episode where a retarded man could see him too. There was also an episode where Sam and Al changed places and Sam was the one only seen by Al.
A non-ghost example: Elliot the dragon was only visible to Pete and Lampie in Pete’s Dragon.
I know the two bullies, Derrick and Onion, have interacted with Gunk. So if he’s imaginary they must be too. In which case Curtis’ mental state is really starting to get questionable.
Well, yes and no. Derrick and Onions could apparently see Gunk, but they couldn’t touch him. And when they were given the coat from Gunk in a recent series of strips, it played tricks on them. It was as though Curtis could project his vision of Gunk on Derrick and Onions and no one else. Has anyone else ever interacted with Gunk? Have you noticed all the other things about Gunk that make no sense? Why is he the only white kid in the neighborhood, and where is this Flyspeck Island that he claims to be from? Why are his eyes not on a straight line?
Well, he could only see it when it hopped into view, because of his seat by the wing and his phobia of flying keeping him on the hop for anything odd. IIRC the episode ended with the note that soon everybody would be seeing these things.
In the Dresden Files novels, a character named Lasciel can only be seen by Harry Dresden. She’s not a ghost, and not exactly a figment of his imagination, either.
At a guess, I think you mean ‘Shock Theater.’ Black kid who couldn’t read? And Al taught him the alphabet by rapping? Or are you thinking of a different one?
On Babylon 5, mostly only Morden and Kosh could see the Shadows (very powerful, very ancient aliens) when they were on Babylon 5, but this was mostly because the Shadows had a kind of camoflage they could use when they didn’t wish to be seen. They tended to hang around Morden to be his point-of-contact with the rest of the Shadows, passing information back and forth.
Sheridan managed to spot them for a few seconds by messing with the cameras when he was observing Morden in a prison cell, but decided not to expose them yet because the good guys weren’t ready yet, and a few other characters have managed to deduce that the Shadows were present in one way or another.
Londo, in one scene, visibly seems to notice the high-pitched sounds the Shadows make when communicating, while having a meeting with Morden. In a fourth season scene on Centauri Prime, Londo merely assumes that the Shadows are present because Morden is, and…
Has his guards pepper the room around Morden with automatic weapons fire, killing a Shadow that was standing near Morden.
Drop Dead Fred, who tormented Phoebe Cates in the eponymous film.
Non-Ghosts:
Only Henry Bigg can see the Littles
Cosmo Hill and a few gang kids are the only ones who can see Parasites, a type of creature that sucks energy from the injured and dying.
Nest Freemark and John Ross are the only ones who can see Feeders, creatures that feed on negativity.
Odd Thomas, who does see ghosts as well, is one of few who can see Bodachs, harbringers of death. In fact, the only other person he met who can see them died immediately after they discussed it.
No one else seems to see the demons that plague Emily Rose or the…I’m not sure what you’d call them, bothering people in One Missed Call before they buy it.
One Missed Call [spoiler]There are two ghosts, but I’m not sure that the other things they see watching them are the spirits of anything, so much as the villian’s creations.
3.0?? Many people at IMDB don’t watch the movies they rate, I’m sure of it now.[/spoiler]
Dave was apparently only a figment of Hurley’s imagination. (He’s had mental problems.) Hurley did see Jack’s father once, and in the last episode Claire saw Jack’s dad (who is also Claire’s dad, although neither Jack nor Claire know this.)
Also, Mr. Eko saw his brother.
Lastly, there’s a mysterious man named Jacob, who only reveals himself to select people.
Any child’s imaginary playmate (which, in movies, is always real).