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Danny Phantom

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For the title character of this television series, see Danny Phantom (character).
Danny Phantom
Created byButch Hartman
StarringDavid Kaufman
Colleen O'Shaughnessey
Rob Paulsen
Kath Soucie
Rickey D'Shon Collins
Grey DeLisle
Ron Perlman
Cree Summer
Martin Mull
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes53
Production
Running time22 minutes per episode
Original release
NetworkNickelodeon
ReleaseApril 3, 2004 –
October 9, 2006

Danny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. It is distributed outside the United States by the Canadian animation company Nelvana, the same as The Fairly OddParents (also created by Hartman).[1]

Premise

Production

When Butch Hartman first developed the idea for a new show, it was originally titled "Danny Phantom and the Specter Detectors", and it was supposed to be a show about a young (human) ghost fighter and a team of others who hunted and fought ghosts.[2] However, Hartman later determined it would be cooler if the teen was a ghost, thus changing it just to "Danny Phantom". Among the other ideas that were considered before being rejected was the existence of a telepathic connection between the characters Danny and Samantha.

The designs were helped by veteran character designer Stephen Silver, helping Hartman adding his own touches. All Danny Phantom characters have necks and five digits on each hand. The majority of the stories are usually written by Steve Marmel with input from Mark Banker, Butch Hartman, Marty Isenberg, and Sib Ventress. As with Hartman's show The Fairly OddParents, the music for Danny Phantom was written by Guy Moon.[3] It has also been stated that the theme song was inspired by Queen's 1989 song "The Invisible Man".[4]

Only 53 episodes have been purchased by Nickelodeon. On January 24, 2006, Nickelodeon announced that it has ended support for new episodes of the series. Butch Hartman has said that although no new episodes would be made, the show would still continue to be broadcast "for years to come". Fans of the show express outrage at the cancellation, citing Butch Hartman's admission on his forums that he wished to create more episodes, however his initial public statement on his personal forum that though he is more than ready to make more episodes if the show is picked up again, he is respecting Nickelodeon's wishes and has great respect for the network. Fans wishing to voice opinion on the cancelation can view "Action against cancellation" as seen below.

Plot summary

Danny Phantom centers on the life and adventure of curious, shy, naive 14-year-old Danny Fenton, an unpopular kid attending Casper High, living with eccentric ghost hunting parents, and dealing with an overbearing sister; clearly unsure about his life. Upon pressure of his best friend, Sam, he wandered inside his parent's Ghost Portal, accidentally pressing a button that zapped his entire body, coating his DNA with ectoplasm, transforming him into a half ghost boy.

Panicked over his powers at first, after the defeat of a bipolar Lunch Lady Ghost, Danny now turned to a life of superhero-ism, using his powers to rid his hometown of Amity Park from the various ghosts (either entities/monsters or spirits from the deceased from another dimension)[5] that plague it, teamed with his best friends, techno-geek Tucker Foley and gothic-minded Samantha (Sam) Manson. Aside from a variety of ghosts, he faces other threats of many caliber, including vengeful ghost hunter Valerie Gray, other half ghost/rival Vlad Masters/Plasmius, and even his own parents--being ghost hunter extremists, they view Danny Phantom (and any ghosts) as a menace to society. Throughout it all, Danny slowly realizes his own potential and what his purpose is while his worlds - both the Ghost Zone and Earth - slowly begin to accept him as their defender.

Brief character descriptions

Protagonists

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  • Daniel "Danny" Fenton/Danny Phantom (voiced by David Kaufman): The titular character of the show. Danny is a 14-year-old boy who gained ghost powers from a lab accident. He later chooses to use these powers to fight against malevolent ghosts, which have begun to regularly escape the mysterious Ghost Zone and plague his hometown of Amity Park. He briefly dated a girl named Valerie Gray who likes Danny, but hates his ghostly counterpart, Danny Phantom, whom she is trying to eliminate. He also seems to have confused feelings for Sam Manson.
  • Tucker Foley (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins): A lighthearted African-American teenager obsessed with technology and one of Danny's two best friends along with Sam. When not obsessing over gadgets, he obsesses over girls. Like Brenan, he shares in Danny's secret and often helps battle ghosts back into the Ghost Zone. He generally provides comic relief. Tucker has been noted to have shown feelings for Sam Manson in some episodes.
  • Samantha "Sam" Manson (voiced by Grey DeLisle): Danny's other best friend. Though wealthy, (her great grandfather Izzy made the machine that twirls cellophane around Deli toothpicks) she chooses to hide her family's monetary success for quite some time, in favor of being liked for who she is. A strident individualist, Manson is a practitioner of an overly dramatized fictional form of vegetarianism called Ultra Recyclo-Vegetarianism, a frequent protester for such things as animal rights, and a self-proclaimed Goth who prefers heavy metal music and favors an all-black, Gothic-influenced fashion. Manson also shows feelings for Danny, whom doesn't seem to know his own feelings for her.
  • Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey): Danny's know-it-all (and somewhat overprotective and perhaps overhelpful) older sister; a smart and highly sociable overachiever. Jazz considers her parents' obsession with ghosts as a sign of needing psychological help. She discovers that Danny has ghost powers in the episode "My Brother's Keeper", but she does not reveal her knowledge of it until "The Ultimate Enemy", in favor of waiting until he is ready to talk about it with her.
  • Jack Fenton (voiced by Rob Paulsen): Danny's father. Jack has an obsession with destroying ghosts and expresses hate for them. He is generally incompetent in nature, but when provoked, can be an effective fighter. He spends nearly all of his time in an orange jumpsuit. Jack cares about his family but is oblivious to Danny's powers. He also spends his time inventing gadgets that do not always work.
  • Madeline "Maddie" Fenton (voiced by Kath Soucie): Danny's mother. Also a professional ghost hunter, Maddie is more interested in studying ghosts than simply destroying them. She is much more competent both as a parent and a ghost hunter than Jack.

Key antagonists

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  • Valerie Gray (voiced by Cree Summer when she first became a regular addition): A once popular kid whose life was accidentally turned upside-down by Danny's ghostly alter ego, Danny Phantom, and a ghost dog known as Cujo. She bears a grudge against him (although has a bit of a crush on Danny Fenton) and has vowed to hunt him down, mostly using equipment given to her by a mysterious benefactor (who turns out to be Vlad Plasmius), but dons a different gear later on.
  • Vladimir "Vlad" Masters/Vlad Plasmius (voiced by Martin Mull): Danny's arch-enemy and a multi-billionaire. An old acquaintance of Jack and Maddie Fenton and one other known human-ghost hybrid like Danny. Vlad's ghost powers were thrust upon him by an accident with a Ghost Zone Portal prototype, which hospitalized him for many years with ecto-acne. He blames Jack and is resentful that his old "friend" married the love of his life, Maddie. Unlike Danny, his ghost powers are considerably more developed, and he has used them for personal gain.

Episodes

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Pop culture references

NOTE: This is a list of cultural references that take place throughout the entire show. Allusions in individual episodes can be found on those episode pages.

  • Several of the stores shown in the series are parodies, such as the clothing store ABYSS being one of GAP and the restaurant Nasty Burger being one of the restaurant in the Nickelodeon movie Good Burger. (Butch Hartman has said that the backstory was supposed to be that the restaurant was originally called "Tasty Burger", but vandals went and replaced the "T" with an "N", though this idea was never used).[6]
  • Danny's hometown of Amity Park is likely named after Amityville, a village on Long Island infamous for the DeFeo murders that inspired the book/movie known as The Amityville Horror.
  • The name of Danny's high school is Casper High, this of course is a reference to Casper the Friendly Ghost. The mascots of Casper High are the Casper High Ravens, a reference to Edgar Allan Poe's poem, The Raven.

Trivia

  • The back of the comic book that young Crash Nebula reads in the "Fairly OddParents" special "Crash Nebula" features a Danny Phantom advertisement.
  • Sam and Tucker would be in all but one episode of this series.
  • Danny is seen playing a video game labeled "Crash Nebula".

Action against cancellation

In January 24, 2006, Butch Hartman announced the decision made by Nickelodeon to cancel the production of Danny Phantom, giving the show 53 episodes in three seasons. The dedicated fans of the program as a result fought to keep the show and produce more episodes. They produced mottos, such as “Save the ghost we love the most!", had dozens of requests signed, and sent hundreds of letters, as well as voice for more merchandise of Danny Phantom, all in an order to convince Nickelodeon that the program is sufficient enough to justify more episodes. In July 2006 a rally was held near Viacom's Offices in New York City to try to save the program. Another rally is planned for 2007. [5]

Despite these protests, the production of Danny Phantom finished in February 2007, with no plans for future episodes.

Home video releases

Video games

There have been two video games released thus far for the show.

Characters from the show (mainly Danny) have also been featured in other Nickelodeon video games. The characters appear in the following Nick games:

Voice cast

Additional cast

Notes

  1. ^ Notice the similarity between Danny Fenton, Cosmo, Chip Skylark and Timmy Turner's hair style.
  2. ^ DPOFPA, "Interview with Butch Hartman", March 30, 2006. [1]
  3. ^ Moon wrote two versions of the theme song; the original was scrapped, but it can be heard here at Hartman's website.
  4. ^ DPOFPA, "Interview with Butch Hartman", March 30, 2006. [2]
  5. ^ DPOFPA, "Interview with Butch Hartman", March 30, 2006. [3]
  6. ^ DPOFPA, "Interview with Butch Hartman", March 30, 2006. [4]
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References

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