Danny Phantom

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Danny Phantom
Danny Phantom Show Title Card
Danny Phantom opening sequence
Format Animated television series
Created by Butch Hartman
Starring David Kaufman
Colleen O'Shaughnessey
Rob Paulsen
Kath Soucie
Rickey D'Shon Collins
Grey DeLisle
Ron Perlman
Cree Summer
Martin Mull
Country of origin United States
No. of seasons 3
No. of episodes 53
Production
Running time 22 minutes per episode
Broadcast
Original channel Nickelodeon
Original run April 3, 2004 – August 24, 2007
External links
IMDb profile
TV.com summary

Danny Phantom is an animated children's show created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon, produced by Billionfold Studios. The show is about a teenage half-ghost boy, who frequently saves his town and even the world from ghost attacks. It is distributed outside the United States by the Canadian animation company, Nelvana, the same as The Fairly OddParents (also created by Hartman).

Contents

[edit] Production

When Butch Hartman first developed the idea for a new show, it was originally titled "Danny Phantom and the Spector 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. However, Hartman later determined it would be cooler and better 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 Sam.

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.[1] It has also been stated that the theme song was inspired by Queen's 1989 song "The Invisible Man".[2]

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 expressed 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 willing to make more episodes if the show is picked up again. The series ended with the episode Phantom Planet. The show premiered on Nicktoons Network on June 1, 2007.

[edit] Plot

Danny Phantom centers on the life and adventure of 14-year-old Danny Fenton, an unpopular boy 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 friends, Sam and Tucker, he wandered inside his parent's Ghost Portal, accidentally pressing a button that zapped his entire body, infusing 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 of the deceased from another dimension)[3] that plague it, teamed with his best friends, technophile Tucker Foley and emo-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 {at a point) 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.

[edit] Protagonists

Main article: List of Danny Phantom characters
  • Daniel "Danny" Fenton/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. Aside from ghosts, he deals with ghost hunter Valerie Gray who likes Danny Fenton, but hates his ghostly counterpart, Danny Phantom, whom she is trying to eliminate. He is often clueless about Sam's crush on him, but from time-to-time shows some romantic interest in her.
  • Tucker Foley (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins): A lighthearted African-American teenager obsessed with technology and meat. One of Danny's best friends along with Sam. When not obsessing over gadgets, he obsesses over girls. Like Sam, he shares in Danny's secret and often helps battle ghosts back into the Ghost Zone. He generally provides comic relief.
  • 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, Sam 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 . She displays frequent crushes towards Danny.
  • Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey): Danny's know-it-all (and somewhat overprotective and perhaps overly helpful) 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 blindly goes by the belief that all ghosts are evil, even Danny Phantom. He is generally incompetent in nature, but when provoked, can be an effective fighter. Jack cares about his family but is oblivious to Danny's powers. He also spends his time inventing gadgets that do not always work and is almost never seen without his orange jumpsuit.
  • 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, but like Jack Fenton, she also believes that all ghosts are bad. She is much more competent both as a parent and a ghost hunter than Jack.

[edit] Key Antagonists

Main article: List of Danny Phantom villains and ghosts
  • 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.
  • Valerie Gray (voiced by Grey DeLisle and Cree Summer): A once popular girl whose life was accidentally turned upside-down by Danny's ghostly alter ego, Danny Phantom, and a ghost dog. 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) before donning a different gear later on.

[edit] Episodes

Main article: List of Danny Phantom episodes

[edit] Home Video Releases

  • Nick Picks Vol. 1–7 & Nick Picks Holiday.
  • Danny Phantom el Peor de los enemigos [Danny Phantom: The Worst of the Enemies (In Mexico)]

[edit] 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:

[edit] Main Cast

[edit] Additional Cast

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Moon wrote two versions of the theme song; the original was scrapped, but it can be heard here at Hartman's website.
  2. ^ DPOFPA, "Interview with Butch Hartman", March 30, 2006. [1]
  3. ^ DPOFPA, "Interview with Butch Hartman", March 30, 2006. [2]

[edit] References

v • d • e
Danny Phantom
Episode list • Character list
Main characters
Recurring characters
Universe
Video games
Amusement Rides
v • d • e
Nicktoons
1991-1995
1996-2000
2001-2005
2006-present
Future