Danny Phantom

Danny Phantom
Created by	Butch Hartman
Developed by	Steve Marmel
Voices of	David Kaufman Grey DeLisle Rickey D'Shon Collins Colleen O'Shaughnessey Rob Paulsen Kath Soucie Cree Summer Martin Mull
Theme music composer	Guy Moon and Butch Hartman
Opening theme	"Danny Phantom", performed by Deric Battiste and Guy Moon
Ending theme	"Danny Phantom" (instrumental)
Composer(s)	Guy Moon
Country of origin	United States
No. of seasons	3
No. of episodes	53 (list of episodes)
Production
Executive producer(s)	Butch Hartman Steve Marmel (season 1-2) Mark Banker Marty Isenberg (season 1-2) Kevin Sullivan (season 3)
Running time	22 minutes
Production company(s)	Billionfold Inc. Nickelodeon Animation Studios
Distributor	Paramount Television, Nelvana
Release
Original network	Nickelodeon
Picture format	4:3 SDTV
Audio format	Dolby Digital 5.1
Original release	April 3, 2004 (2004-04-03) – August 24, 2007

Danny Phantom is an American animated television series created by Butch Hartman for Nickelodeon. It was produced by Billionfold Studios and distributed by Nelvana, a Canadian animation company and Paramount Television. The series follows a teenage boy who, after an accident with an unpredictable portal between the human world and the supernatural "Ghost Zone", becomes half-ghost and frequently saves his town from ghost attacks, while attempting to keep his ghost half a secret from everyone, except for his best friends and, later, his sister.

The series premiered on April 3, 2004 and ended on August 24, 2007, totaling 53 episodes and three seasons. The first two seasons consists of 20 episodes, whereas the short third season consists of 13 episodes. Danny Phantom has received critical acclaim, with primary praises for its ensemble cast and classic comic book feel and style. The series has spawned its own sets of video game, home video, and music soundtrack releases, as well as toys and various other merchandise.

Premise

Danny Phantom centers on the life and adventures of Danny Fenton, an unpopular but good-natured 14-year-old boy attending Casper High School in the small town of Amity Park. He lives with his eccentric ghost-hunting parents, Maddie and Jack, and his smart yet overbearing 16-year-old sister, Jazz (short for Jasmine). Upon pressure from Sam Manson, one of his best friends, he decides to explore the Ghost Portal that his parents had created in a failed attempt to bridge the real world and the Ghost Zone (the ghostly parallel universe of Earth). Once inside, Danny accidentally presses the "On" button (which his naïve parents failed to do), activating the Portal, which infuses his DNA with ectoplasm, transforming him into a half-ghost boy.^[1]

Danny, who calls himself "Danny Phantom" in ghost form, quickly develops the ability to fly, become invisible, become intangible and his "overshadow" ability, which allows him to possess and control people, after first learning how to switch back and forth between his ghost and human forms. Over time he develops much stronger abilities; such as his Ghost Ray (a concentrated blast of kinetic energy he fires from is hand), his Ghostly Wail (an intensely powerful scream that knocks back anything caught in its path), telekinesis and even cryokinesis. Danny is initially frightened by his new abilities and has little control over them, but he soon learns to use them to protect his town from malevolent ghosts. After the defeat of a Lunch Lady Ghost in the first episode, Danny turns to the life of a superhero, using his powers to rid his hometown from the various ghosts that plague it, who are almost always brought into the world thanks to the sporadic random activation of the Fenton's Ghost Portal.^[2] Danny's two best friends, fun-loving technophile Tucker Foley and wealthy, goth-minded Samantha "Sam" Manson, support Danny and help him with his ghost-fighting.

Danny's ghost form is a polarization of what he looked like when he entered the Ghost Portal. When he goes ghost, his black hair turns white, his blue eyes turn green and the white jumpsuit he was wearing during the accident is now in negative color, with the white areas of the suit becoming black and vice versa, and the black boots he was wearing fused into the suit and turned white. If Sam had not removed the Jack Fenton logo on Danny's jumpsuit before the accident, it would have been a permanent part of Danny's ghost form. In the second season, a ghost grants Sam's inadvertent wish that she and Danny had never met, and, in consequence, Danny loses his ghost powers, as Sam had been the one who had persuaded Danny to investigate the Portal in the first place, which then led to the accident. In the end Sam persuades Danny (now fully human) to regain his powers by reenacting the accident, this time wearing the jumpsuit with her newly designed "DP" logo on the chest, so that it appears when he goes ghost from then on.

Danny faces threats of many kinds, including vengeful ghost hunter Valerie Gray, who, for a short period of time, becomes his love interest,^[3] an enemy half-ghost Vlad Masters/Plasmius, an old friend of his father's and considered to be Danny's true arch-rival,^[4] and even his own parents who, being ghost hunters, view Danny Phantom (and any ghosts) as a menace to society. In addition, Danny tries to keep his secret safe from his classmates, teachers, and family. Throughout it all, Danny slowly realizes his own potential and his purpose, while his worlds — both the Ghost Zone and Earth — slowly begin to accept him as their defender.^[5]

Characters

• Daniel "Danny" Fenton/"Danny Phantom" (voiced by David Kaufman) is the series' titular protagonist. Danny and his friends are the "unpopular" kids, having "jock" bullies and quaint teachers. A freshman in high school along with his friends, Danny is a clumsy 14-year-old boy who gained ghost powers from a lab accident when he stepped into his parents' ghost portal. 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.^[2] An ongoing arc is his constant struggle to use his powers for the benefit of others rather than abuse it for his own selfishness. Danny can be benevolent and decisive. Since he is half-ghost, Danny's struggles, hardships faced by teenagers in his world, are unusually topped with deadly villains from the ghost zone; but in the end, with the help of his friends, he determinedly acts on the right decision. His love interests include Valerie Gray, Paulina, and Samantha Manson.^[5][6][7]
• Samantha "Sam" Manson (voiced by Grey DeLisle) is Danny's female best friend, and eventually girlfriend at the end of the series, who is also responsible for the accident that gave Danny his powers. Though wealthy, 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"^[2] (often generalized as "not eating anything that had a face"), a frequent protester for such things as animal rights,^[6] and a self-proclaimed goth. In the beginning, she was only Danny's close best friend. But, over time, her feelings for Danny began getting stronger; eventually, she fell in love with him and couldn't bring herself to tell him out of fear of ruining their friendship. Her patience paid off, as Danny had secretly fallen in love with her as well, and they eventually shared their true feelings with each other and became a couple.^[5][8][9]
• Tucker Foley (voiced by Rickey D'Shon Collins) is a lighthearted teenager who is obsessed with technology, getting a girlfriend, and meat. He has been Danny's best friend "since forever". When not obsessing over gadgets, he obsesses over girls.^[10] Like Sam, he shares in Danny's secret and often helps battle ghosts back into the Ghost Zone. He generally provides comic relief.^[11] Tucker's inventions sometimes seem redundant, but ironically, they will work well in the Ghost Zone, or against ghosts. Tucker and Sam frequently handle the pros and cons of aiding Danny, especially when he's "going ghost."^[12]
• Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton (voiced by Colleen O'Shaughnessey) is Danny's somewhat overprotective and perhaps overly helpful older sister; a smart and highly sociable overachiever who also thinks of herself as an adult. Jazz considers her parents' obsession with ghosts a sign of needing psychological help.^[2][13] She eventually learns about Danny's powers,^[14] but chooses not to reveal her knowledge until he is ready to talk about them with her.
• Jack Fenton (voiced by Rob Paulsen) is Danny and Jazz's father and Maddie's husband. Jack expresses an obsession with destroying ghosts, blindly going by the belief that all ghosts are evil and must be destroyed, including Danny Phantom.^[15] He is generally incompetent in nature, but can be an effective fighter when provoked.^[15][16][17] Jack cares about his family but does not know about Danny's powers.^[2][13] He is almost never seen without his orange jumpsuit.
• Maddie Fenton (voiced by Kath Soucie) is Danny and Jazz's mother, and Jack's wife. She is a gifted genius and dedicated hunter of ghosts, though she usually aims to dissect and study them rather than destroy them.^[13] She is an excellent, competent fighter, from whom Danny probably inherited his own talent for combat.^[16][18] Like her husband, she is almost never seen without her blue jumpsuit.

Marketing

DVDs

Danny Phantom first appeared on DVD in the Nick Picks DVD sets, appearing in all five volumes^[19][20][21] and the Christmas special.^[22] Nickelodeon and Amazon.com later struck a deal to produce DVDs of various Nickelodeon shows. Amazon made the discs, cover art and disc art, and released Danny Phantom Season One and Two on Sept 16.^[23]

Despite its claim, each set only contained thirteen episodes each—the first set including the first thirteen episodes; the second set carrying on with the next thirteen. The third Danny Phantom DVD was released on June 9.^[24] This set contains the entirety of Season Three, rather than the previous thirteen episode sets, skipping over the rest of Season Two. Later editions of the first two seasons contained the entire first and second seasons of Danny Phantom and was released in Nov. 2009. Those, and all the other episodes, can be found on iTunes.

Amazon has now discontinued the Create Space DVD releases with the announcement of Shout! Factory releasing their own DVD sets.

On March 22, 2011, it was announced that Shout! Factory had secured the home video rights to the series from Nickelodeon.^[25] They released Season 1 in a 4-disc set on September 13, 2011.^[26] Season 2: Part 1 was released in a 2-disc set on April 3, 2012.^[27] Season 2: Part 2 was released on August 28, 2012.^[28]

Video games

There have been two video games released for the series. Danny Phantom: The Ultimate Enemy (for the Game Boy Advance) was made to promote the then upcoming special "The Ultimate Enemy" with the main gameplay consisting of events from the TV movie. It is a 2D platformer and was released in Sept. 8, 2005.^[31] Danny Phantom: Urban Jungle for both the Game Boy Advance and Nintendo DS was to promote the Danny Phantom episode "Urban Jungle". It is loosely based on the episode and is strictly a shooter game. It was released Sept. 19, 2006.^[32]

Danny and other characters have also been featured in other Nickelodeon video games: Nicktoons MLB, Nicktoons: Summer Camp, Nicktoons Basketball for the PC, and Nicktoons Movin' Eyetoy for the (PlayStation 2). He is a playable character in the kart racer Nicktoons Winners Cup Racing (PC) and the latter Nicktoons Nitro developed by Raw Thrills for the arcade.^[33] Nicktoons: Freeze Frame Frenzy for the (Game Boy Advance), and Nicktoons: Android Invasion (Leapfrog). Danny plays a key role as one of the main heroes in the Nicktoons Unite! series, appearing in all four games and their subsequent handheld counterparts. Danny Phantom has appeared in two mobile games, Nicktoons Mini Golf (USA, www.nick.com) and Danny Phantom: El secuestro de Jazz, available only in Chile. Danny also appeared in the game Nicktoons Battle for Volcano Island for the Nintendo DS and the PlayStation 2. He was one of the 7 playable characters along with Tucker and Sam.

Cast

Main cast

• David Kaufman as Daniel "Danny" Fenton/"Danny Phantom"
• Grey DeLisle as Samantha "Sam" Manson, Star (1st voice), Valerie Gray (1st voice)
• Rickey D'Shon Collins as Tucker Foley
• Colleen O'Shaughnessey as Jasmine "Jazz" Fenton
• Rob Paulsen as Jack Fenton, Nicolai Technus, The Box Ghost
• Kath Soucie as Maddie Fenton, The Lunch Lady Ghost (2nd voice), Box Lunch, Grandma Ida Manson
• Martin Mull as Vladimir "Vlad" Masters/Vlad Plasmius

Additional cast

• June Angela as Principal Ishiyama and Shelly Makamoto
• Will Arnett as the Ghost Writer
• Dee Bradley Baker as Wulf, Observant#1, Prince Aragon, Mikey, Gregor
• William Baldwin as Johnny 13
• María Canals Barrera as Paulina
• Susanne Blakeslee as Dora Mattingly (Dorethea the Dragon Ghost)
• Dave Boat as Vortex
• Kimberly Brooks as Mrs. Foley
• S. Scott Bullock as Dash Baxter, Klemper, Mr. Jeremy Manson, Hotep Ra
• David Carradine as Clockwork
• Brian Cox as Pariah Dark
• Jon Cryer as Freakshow
• Michael Dorn as Fright Knight
• Peri Gilpin as Desiree
• Mark Hamill as Undergrowth
• Patricia Heaton as The Lunch Lady Ghost (in "Mystery Meat")
• Bob Joles as Frostbite
• James Garrett as Nocturn
• Phil LaMarr as Mr. Maurice Foley
• Taylor Lautner as Youngblood
• Peter MacNicol as Sidney Poindexter
• Danny Mann as Amorpho
• Krista Swan as Dani Phantom (in D-Stabilized)
• Phil Morris as Damon Gray, Observant#2
• Laraine Newman as Mrs. Tetslaff, Mrs. Pamela Manson
• Daran Norris as Bullet
• Mathew St. Patrick as Skulker (in "One of a Kind", "Bitter Reunions", and "Prisoners of Love")
• Ron Perlman as Mr. Lancer
• Dat Phan as Kwan (1st voice)
• Chynna Phillips as Kitty
• Kevin Michael Richardson as The Dragon Ghost, Skulker (2nd voice)
• AnnaSophia Robb as Dani Phantom (in "Kindred Spirits")
• Eric Roberts as Dark Danny
• James Sie as Kwan (2nd voice)
• April Stewart as Pandora
• Tara Strong as Ember, Penelope Spectra, Tiffany Snow, Star (2nd voice)
• Cree Summer as Valerie Gray (2nd voice)
• James Arnold Taylor as Walker
• Jim Ward as Bertrand

See also

• List of ghost films

References

External links

Wikiquote has quotations related to: Danny Phantom

• Danny Phantom at the Internet Movie Database
• Danny Phantom at TV.com
• Danny Phantom at the Big Cartoon DataBase
• Danny Phantom on Twitter